[Tolo News] Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... police have locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! 234 people in the past two weeks in an anti-crime operation.
According to Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi, 234 people were arrested on suspicion of criminal activities. A number of cases have already been referred to the Attorney General's Office for prosecution, he said.
"Over the past two weeks, 234 individuals have been arrested allegedly involved in criminal events, cases of some of them have been sent to the attorney general and the remaining will be sent soon," Rahimi said.
According to the Kabul police department, a total of 121 have been charged for crimes committed.
Rahimi said that among those arrested were 37 suspicious beggars.
"We always monitor the beggars in Kabul city and recently we arrested 37 suspicious beggars and investigations are underway," Rahimi added.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... he did not reveal give further details but said that crime has decreased in Kabul recently, compared to previous months.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] An official in southern Zabul claimed the school teachers were being recruited and appointed by the Taliban in the Shah Joy district.
Salaries of teachers were being pocketed by the Taliban as a number of forces of Evil have been appointed as instructors in the schools, Shah Joy district governor Wazir Mohammad Jawadi told TOLOnews.
"Our schools are absolutely Taliban-led," Jawadi told a gathering of the provincial governor, education director and other local officials. "All the school teachers are Taliban and that with guns [inside the schools]."
During the meeting, the Zabul elders also strongly criticized the teachers' hiring process and said many teachers were unable to teach.
"Most of the teachers are not even six grade school graduates," an elder complained.
Meanwhile the provincial education director, Rahimullah Ludin, denied the remarks and called them untrue.
He declared all the appointments were based on the prevailing laws of Afghanistan.
"I totally reject these statements because all the contracts of teachers are checked by the security agencies and criminal investigation departments," Ludin stated.
These statements came about two weeks after a U.S. watchdog revealed what it said the "Ghost Schools" in Afghanistan.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) exposed in its recent report that Afghan Ministry of Education (MoE) officials had repeatedly been profiting off of aids for the schools that actually didn't exist in the country.
Former MoE officials were accused in the report of embezzling millions of dollars by providing fake school statistics to the donors.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
"Most of the teachers are not even six grade school graduates," an elder complained.
"All ya gotta know is in the Koran."
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2015 12:38 Comments ||
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Up to 120 US military personnel are operating out of two secret drone bases in Somalia, carrying out attacks on Al-Shabab militants and working with African Union peacekeepers, a new report has revealed.
But don't tell anyone because it's a secret...
Somali officials have confirmed a secretive US presence in the southern port city of Kismayo, according to Foreign Policy correspondent Ty McCormick. Another base, at the airfield of Baledogle near Mogadishu, is being used for both drone strikes and for contractors training Somali security forces.
Regional administration official Abdighani Abdi Jama told McCormick that as many as 40 US personnel conduct “intelligence” and “counterterrorism” operations and operate drones from their base at Kismayo airport, about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. Somali officials and sources within the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) also indicated a similar presence at Baledogle, in the Lower Shebelle region.
Washington has not officially admitted to operating drones from Somali territory,
...finally, someone with some sense at Foggy Bottom...
with drone flights said to originate from US bases in the neighboring Djibouti, and outposts in Kenya and Ethiopia. The US also has an outpost in the Seychelles, an archipelago some 800 miles off the Somali coast.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokesman Chuck Prichard declined to comment on the size or location of their units, saying only that the “small number” of US Special Forces deployed the region was “not tasked with directly engaging enemy forces.”
“The exact nature of this support, weapons systems or number of personnel involved in these operations cannot be disclosed in order to protect the integrity of these operations and the safety of units in the region,” Prichard wrote in an email to Foreign Policy.
US forces have conducted drone and helicopter attacks against Al-Shabab since 2007. An American drone killed the group’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in 2014.
On more than one occasion, US special operations teams have staged their attacks from bases belonging to Kenyan and Ugandan forces within AMISOM says McCormick, citing anonymous sources from within the peacekeeping mission.
“They come to our forward operating bases and sometimes do joint operations with us,” said one Ugandan source. “We often don’t get much notice,” he added. “They don’t trust us, and we don’t trust them.” Given the history and terrain, a very constructive arrangement ek se.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, up to 105 people may have been killed in US drone strikes in Somalia, of which there have been no more than 13 since 2007. Most of them were not civilians. Other covert operations killed between 40 and 141 people, with civilians making seven to 47 of them.
So we're whacking bad guys, trying to spare civilians, and not talking about it. Sounds like someone is doing their job well...
Since 2007, Washington has spent almost $1 billion on funding AMISOM, $500 million directly and another $455 million through the UN. That has reportedly helped the African Union troops turn the tide against Al-Shabab, reducing their control from 60 percent of Somalian territory in 2010 to reportedly only 6 percent today. Not a topic of discussion among gentlemen or the diplomatic crowd, but the funding of contractors from other regions of the continent has played a significant role as well.
According to Bronwyn Bruton, from the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center,
...and a professional hand-wringer...
Al-Shabab has simply changed the way it operates and remains a dangerous force to be reckoned with. “They are not actually confronting AMISOM head-on anymore, which means that their forces and weapons are mostly intact,” she told McCormick. “They have shifted from a conventional force to a pure terrorist one that is increasingly focusing its attention on attacks outside of Somalia, in Kenya, and elsewhere in the region.”
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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NAIROBI -- Four young Somalis arrested in Nairobi’s Eastliegh residential estate were charged in a Kenyan court Thursday with organised criminal activities and linking to ‘al-Shabaab’.
Nairobi’s Makadara Magistrate’s Court heard that Mohamed Nuno, Mohamed Rufal, Faisal Hussein and Abdikadir Abdullahi were found planning to violently recruit people to Al-Shabaab. They allegedly committed the offence on June 28 in Eastleigh, which is mainly inhabited by Kenyans of Somali origin.
The four were also charged that with assaulting Osman Ahmed, a student, by stabbing him in the abdomen. The prosecution said the complainant, who is in critical condition in hospital, was coming out of the mosque after evening prayers when he was confronted by the accused who are well known to him.
The Prosecution Counsel Daniel Kingori asked the court to remand the accused for 10 days as they were arrested on Wednesday and further investigations are to be done concerning the allegations of being ‘al-Shabaab’ members.
The accused denied the charges before Chief Magistrate Heston Nyaga, who ordered that due to the security of the country, the suspects be remanded at Shauri moyo police stations pending investigations and amending of the charges.
Kenya blames ‘al-Shabaab’ for the terror attacks, kidnappings of foreigners, and fears its tourist and business economy will be destroyed if it allows the insurgents to go on unchallenged.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid told the BBC on Friday that police took too long to react to last week's jihadi attack that killed 38 people, mostly Britons.
"The time of the reaction - this is the problem," Essid told the British broadcaster. Police had been "blocked everywhere," he added.
Essid spoke as Britannia's Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... led a minute's silence Friday for the victims, 30 of whom were British tourists.
ISIS claimed last Friday's attack by jihadi gunman Seifeddine Rezgui at the beach resort of Port El Kantaoui just north of Sousse.
Three Irish nationals, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and a Russian were also killed.
Essid offered Tunisia's condolences to Britannia.
"We feel really sorry about what happened," he said. "They were our guests. They came to spend their vacation with us, but what happened is a horror, unacceptable."
Mourners at Port El Kantaoui also held a minute's silence Friday, where they were joined by Essid.
The Tunisian beach ceremony was attended by the ministers of foreign affairs, tourism, health and youth and sports, flanked by a sizeable police presence.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Tunis, Tunisia -- Eight people are in custody in Tunisia, suspected of having direct links to a deadly beach attack that killed 38 people, but four other possible suspects have been released, a minister said Thursday.
The British Foreign Office, meanwhile, raised the death toll of British tourists killed in Friday’s attack from 27 to 30. Other European tourists were among the dead. The attack was Tunisia’s deadliest ever and threatens to be a devastating blow to its tourism sector.
Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire on a beach in the resort of Sousse. He was later killed by police.
Government minister Kamel Jendoubi told reporters Thursday in Tunis the eight still detained — seven men and one woman — are suspected of direct links to the attack. He did not elaborate on their identities or roles, saying only that the investigation “has allowed us to discover the network behind the operation in Sousse.”
The minister also urged greater international terrorism cooperation in a “war ... between democratic Tunisia and an international jihadi movement.”
Sofiane Selliki, an official in the prosecutor’s office, said no one had been brought before a judge for charges.
A top security official told the AP this week that Rezgui had trained in an extremist camp in Libya at the same time as the two men who attacked a leading Tunisian museum in March, killing near. That raised fears of more attacks on this North African nation’s budding democracy.
More Tunisians — about 3,000 — are believed to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join radical extremists including Daesh group than fighters from any other country.
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[ALMANAR.LB] Yemeni Ansarullah Leader Sayyed Abdul Malik Al-Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... addressed the Yemeni fighters of army and popular committees on Thursday night, hailing their firm stand in the face of evil forces.
"Had it not been for your great honored stand in the field, evil and murderous forces would have fully occupied the country," Sayyed Houthi said in a voice message, adding that it's a "great honor that you are defending the dear oppressed Moslem people who's one of the noblest peoples."
"You are indeed the loyals in the test which unveil who's the sincere and who's the liar, who's the collaborator and who's the patriot," Ansarullah leader pointed out.
Sayyed Houthi stressed that 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... has always been a graveyard for invaders and steadfast infront of arrogants and tyrants, accusing the US and Israel, who blackenned the humanity page with their crimes, of being on the forefront of the aggression against Yemen.
He urged the Yemeni fighters, whom he called the "men of the field", to repel the aggression and be cautious and patient before burdens and troubles, stressing to them that "you're fighting the battle of independence, freedom, dignity and honor, and victory would establish a genuine future for your country," promising them with definite victory.
Houthi's message came hours after the Yemeni army and popular forces secured Brigade 31 in Bir Ahmed area and regained all gears and weapons from Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons in Aden. It also came in the wake of the killing of a number of Saudi soldiers and injuring of others inaddition to destroying after forces stormed Jallah military site in Jizan 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... .
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Salafist platform Hefajat-e-Islam ...a madrassa-based false nose and mustache of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, formed in 2010 to protest against secular education. In 2011 demonstrated violentyly against women's rights and in 2013 held large rallies demanding capital punishment of Shahbag Square protesters and banning women working outside the home... after yesterday's Jummah prayer demonstrated in Chittagong's Anderkilla area demanding that sacked Awami League minister Abdul Latif Siddique be retossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and sentenced to death.
Its members brought out a procession from Anderkillah Shahi Jam-e Masjid and marched through different points of the city before stopping on Chittagong Press Club premises.
Mainuddin Ruhi, central joint secretary general of Hefazat, said protests against atheists started from Chittagong back in 2013. "We will resume protests from here after the month of Ramadan, demanding death penalty for notorious atheist Abdul Latif Siddique," he said.
"The government staged a drama over Latif Siddique issue and people now want to see the conclusion of it. Hefazat Nayeb-e-ameer Mufti Izharul Islam Chowdhury was not granted bail in just a single lawsuit [filed over grenade blast at his Lalkhan Bazar Madrasa] while Latif has secured bailed in as many as 19 cases," said Azizul Haque Islamabadi, its organising secretary.
Formed in 2010, Hefazat is a Qawmi madrasa-based platform having association with radical Islamist parties and groups.
It carried out demonstrations in early 2013 against the activists demanding death penalty for the 1971 war criminals terming them atheists. They also placed 13-point demands which the government termed contrary to the constitution.
"Latif has enraged the people of the country by making derogatory remarks on Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!). We will sacrifice our lives to protect Islam if necessary."
On Tuesday, Hefazat issued an ultimatum, calling for the arrest of Latif Siddique by Thursday. Its leaders have also threatened to kill the former minister wherever he is found.
Latif, who also lost his membership of the Awami League, was freed on June 29 after he had obtained bail in cases filed on charges of hurting religious sentiment of the Moslems.
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[Dhaka Tribune] A Dhaka court yesterday granted three days of remand to the recently detained 12 Death Eaters, including the Bangladesh chief of the al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), in a case filed under Anti-Terrorism Act.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Molla Saiful Islam passed the order when Md Jalal Uddin, sub-inspector of Darussalam cop shoppe and also the investigation officer of the case, produced them before his court seeking a seven-day remand for interrogation.
SI Wahidur Rahman, general recording officer of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, confirmed the news to the Dhaka Tribune.
No bail petitions were filed with the court for the 12 suspected Death Eaters as there was no defence counsel for them.
The remanded accused include Maulana Mainul Islam alias Mahim, 35, chief coordinator of the Bangladesh wing of AQIS, and Mufti Jafor Amin alias Salman, 34, an adviser to the AQIS Bangladesh.
The others are AQIS active members -- Saidul Islam alias Sayeed Tamim, 20, Mosharraf Hossain, 19, Abdur Rahman, 25, Al-Amin alias Ibrahim, 28, Mozahidul Islam alias Nakib, 31, Ashraful Islam, 20, Rabiul Islam alias Hasan, 28, Habib Ullah, 26, Shahidul Islam Sagor, 29 and Altaf Hossain alias Mamun, 26.
In simultaneous drives between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the Rapid Action Battalionplaced in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... the 12 Death Eaters and recovered huge amount of explosives and bomb-making materials from different areas of the capital.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Even though their activities were earlier limited to only carrying out brief campaigns publicly in favour of establishing Caliphate, many of the members of banned myrmidon outfit Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... are now working together with the other outlawed myrmidon groups and platforms to wage destructive activities.
Hizbut Tahrir has members and sympathisers in the administration, different security agencies, higher educational institutes, mosques and madrasas. The connections work as a boost for them to take lead in those platforms, sources say.
Having branches in a number of countries, Hizbut Tahrir started its operation in Bangladesh in 2000 and was banned in 2009 for its involvement in myrmidon activities.
Since then they were campaigning against democratic governments by issuing media releases after holding brief processions and rallies in front of different mosques in the capital, Rajshahi and elsewhere, and pasting posters on the walls in the capital's different areas especially Mohammadpur.
Latest, some 50 leaders and members were spotted on the first day of Ramadan in front of Gulshan Central Mosque, also known as Azad Mosque, after Jumma prayers as part of its global campaign.
They invited the common Moslems to join their cause through leaflets and expeditiously departed at a goodly pace in a short time. Police received complaints but failed to arrest anyone from the spot.
However, women are made to be loved, not understood... according to the Anti-Terrorism Act that is applied against outlawed groups, any activity of such organization -- in any form -- is considered as anti-state.
Despite facing ban, online and offline activities of the group that accepts male and female students mainly of private and public universities was never stopped until date.
They are operating the websites and Facebook pages in full swing.
They lure the common Moslems to join their movement by shaming the government terming it corrupt and anti-Islam, and claiming that they have a number of influential persons supporting their cause.
Recently they also campaigned against the proposed budget, the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the city corporation elections. Earlier, through posters and leaflets, they had asked the armed forces to capture power and set them in the helm to establish Caliphate.
The law enforcers in drives against Lions of Islam placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... some of them, but no top-level leader.
In the face of recent threats, the detectives prepared a list of leaders and activists of the outfit, and found that most of them belong to high profile families of the capital.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[NYTIMES] The French president on Friday rejected an appeal for protection from Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks co-founder, who has spent three years under political asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
The French have enough problems...
Mr. Assange made the request in a 2,700-word open letter, in French, that was published Friday on the website of Le Monde and addressed to President Francois Hollande ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... Mr. Assange said he was appealing to La Belle France because he sensed an openness to the idea of being granted asylum, citing comments made by Christiane Taubira, the French justice minister, and because he had a child whose mother is French.
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has deployed additional troops and equipment along part of its border with Syria as fighting north of the city of Aleppo intensifies, security sources said, but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were no immediate plans for any incursion.
Security sources and officials in the capital, Ankara, said the Turkish army had stepped up security, also sending in special forces, due to the heavy fighting.
Syrian bully boyz led by Islamist groups began a major offensive for full control of the divided northern city, a monitor and rebels said on Thursday, a move which would be a major blow for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... "It's correct that we have taken precautions to protect our border. If there's any circumstance across the border that threatens Turkish security, orders to act have been given," Davutoglu told broadcaster Kanal 7.
"(But) no one should have the expectation that Turkey will enter Syria tomorrow or in the near term," he said.
Some media had speculated an imminent cross-border operation was being planned.
"If anything occurred that were to threaten Turkish security, we wouldn't wait for tomorrow, we would go right in," Davutoglu added.
"But it's wrong to expect that Turkey would undertake such a unilateral intervention in the immediate term if there is no such risk."
Asked about the possibility of Turkey establishing a 'secure zone' in Syria, U.S. ambassador to Ankara John Bass said Turkey and the United States had a shared concern about the presence of hardline 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.... snuffies in northern Syria.
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07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Turkish police disarmed a man -- suspected of being a member of Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, terrorist group -- carrying 14 kilograms of explosives and a firearm near a shopping center in the western city of Izmir.
A police team performing a routine road check early Thursday morning in Izmir's Gaziemir district, stopped the suspect and found the weapons in a bag he was carrying, security officials said.
They identified the suspect as G.S. and said that they had been following him since he arrived in Izmir five days ago to allegedly carry out a kaboom.
Nine others have been detained in relation to the incident, officials said.
They added that G.S. is thought to have joined the terrorist group PKK in 2010 and received training in a camp in north Iraq. He had arrived in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... last week and was reportedly instructed to carry out the planned attack in Izmir.
Police took precautions against the possibility of the explosives being controlled by remote, closing the street to traffic and evacuating nearby citizens.
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A new report by the House Home Land Security Committee in the United States reveals that during the first six months of this year 24 terror attacks relating to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have been pointed against western targets. This is a drastic rise compared to 19 attacks in all of 2014. The new report is to be published every month to cover all terror events in order to enlighten the congressmen on this matter.
The head of committee, Michael McCaul, said that the number of terror threats the U.S. has to face is unprecedented, as since 9/11/2011, 116 terror plots were registered -- more than half of them in the past three years. The report also shows that during the past year, since June 2014, around 22,000 foreign warriors have joined ISIS ranks, among them 200 U.S. citizens and 4000 from other western countries -- a rise of 80%. Furthermore, it states that at least 39 people were arrested or tried for connections to the murderous terror organization, for planning attacks, for trying to get to Syria to join ranks with ISIS, for sending money, equipment and weapons to its warriors, false declarations in front of federal authorities and for not reporting offenses.
The report to Congress doesn't leave out the social media field, which have become more relevant lately, especially being used by ISIS. According to it, the Sunni Islamic terror organization has published since last January more than 700 videos, pictures and magazines through social media. It goes to show that every day more than 20,000 posts are published on Twitter which side with the organization's extreme activity.
#1
Question is- Is this real, or is this another case of the feds talking themselves into a panic attack over what is essentially a neck beard in mom's basement talking big on twitter?
It is not like we will ever get a straight answer from any of the feds.
#2
...I'd say its a lot of covering their asse(t)s that if something does goes wrong, given how so many 'known wolfs' have struck. However, given no seems to have ever been fired or really demoted from their office of responsibility for past failures, why worry? It's more of a cover for the expect yearly bonus check.
As for preemptive doom saying for CYA vs. never fired for failure, remember that heads of agencies do have to stand in front of congress and explain their agencies failures. This can be an unpleasant experience. It can result in budgets being trimmed back.
[DAWN] If the investigation into the attacks on NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... fuel tankers is to be believed, the Iraq war of 2003 was the motivation for the attacks on NATO convoys in Pakistain.
Indeed, those convicted for torching oil tankers carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan, seem to be educated, well-to-do and have said that the second US-led invasion of Iraq provoked them to carry out a 'jihad' against America.
On June 30, an Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi convicted Ali Imran, Aizazur Rehman and Shujauddin and awarded them the death sentence on eight counts. They have also been sentences to life in prison and fined heavily for burning NATO oil tankers on April 24, 2010.
According to the investigation, Ali Imran -- the principal accused -- was motivated by the US attack on Iraq to wage 'jihad' against the aggressing country.
A resident of the Doctor's Housing Society located near the Islamabad suburb of Koral, Ali Imran is believed to have joined the Jamaat Talba Islam (JTI) in the year 2000. His attorney, Malik Rafique, told Dawn that, at the time, Imran was a student at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI). Imran's father, Dr Hafizur Rehman, was a former district president of the Al-Khidmat Foundation -- a non-profit charity organization linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI).
Advocate Aizazur Rehman, the second convict, was a law graduate and an active member of the district bar association in Jhelum and also taught at a local college, his lawyer told Dawn.
Shujauddin, the third convict, hails from tehsil Dina in Jhelum and was Rehman's cousin. The investigation also makes him out to be an active member of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD).
The investigation revealed that Ali Imran met certain jihadi sympathisers in Islamabad, including Yaqoob alias Idrees, who took him to Wana in South Wazirstan for training. There, he is also believed to have met another Islamabad-native, Aslam alias Ibrahim.
After completing the training, Imran came back to Islamabad and kept in contact with Aslam. In their meetings, they discussed plans to disrupt the NATO supply line by setting fire to the fuel tankers.
Advocate Rehman's story is not very dissimilar; the investigation supposedly unearthed links he had with holy warrior organizations and claimed that Rehman met Imran in the summer of 2010 in Islamabad and together, they planned attacks the NATO fuel tankers.
Shujauddin is also said to have acquired training at a holy warrior camp in Wana. Investigators believe that he was the one responsible for setting fire to around 70 NATO tankers near Jeddah Town, Fateh Jang and Pindi Gheb.
Mr Rafique, who represents the three men, however, maintained that police had fabricated a false story to implicate his clients, who were well-educated individuals and not involved with militancy in any form.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Imran Qaiser, the public prosecutor in the case, told Dawn that the suspects were fully complicit in the attack on the NATO tankers. He said that the prosecution and investigation team had been warned and threatened by the suspects' sympathisers.
"This is a high-profile case and, therefore, the prosecution did its job and assisted the court as well as it could, even in the face of apparent danger," he said.
Mr Qaiser said that none of these men had attended a religious seminary, adding that all three were from relatively well-off backgrounds and had engaged an expert criminal lawyer to defend them.
This is not the only recent case of terrorism in the capital which has seen the involvement of middle-class and well-educated individuals. The alleged attackers and their controllers in the murder of Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali -- the prosecutor for the Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... murder case -- also came from similar backgrounds. Three men, Abdullah Umar, Hammad Adil and Adnan Adil are currently staning trial in the matter.
The recently-apprehended Saud Aziz, who confessed to his role in the Safoora Goth carnage in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , as well as the murder of Sabeen Mahmud, also attended IBA, the country's top business school, and came from a similarly well-to-do background.
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#1
I'm loving all these speedy death penalty trials there lately.
[DAWN] LAHORE: Police said on Friday they had locked away Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! a holy man, who was on the lam, accused of leading a mob trying to kill a Christian couple for allegedly desecrating the Holy Koran.
Police had rescued the Christians from the crowd near Lahore on Tuesday, a relatively unusual intervention in a country where those accused of blasphemy are sometimes lynched on the spot.
"One of the holy mans who led the mob demanding the arrest of the couple and their death was on the lam, he was arrested today (Friday) and we are looking for a barber who ignited the whole issue," Sohail Zafar Chattha, the district police chief, told AFP.
Another holy man was arrested earlier in the week.
Police officer Sohail Zaffar Chattha said the holy man leading the mob demanded that police arrest the couple and charge them with blasphemy against Islam.
"I told him I would not register a case because no blasphemy has been committed. But I have started the paperwork but haven't done much else against the holy man and 400 others for inciting violence and endangering the lives of the couple," Chattha said in a telephone interview.
About 500 people in Sadar Farooqabad town of Makki village near Lahore attacked Owais Masih and his wife after a neighbour complained that they were sleeping on a plastic sheet with verses from the Koran written on it.
Police rescued the couple as the mob began to beat them. The couple were later taken into protective custody and moved to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location.
"The mob meant business. They wanted to kill them right there," Chattha said. "And all because they are poor, illiterate people who didn't realise that a line from the Koran was written on a sheet they had purchased."
Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistain. The charge is hard to fight because the law does not define clearly what is considered blasphemous.
Even presenting the evidence in court can sometimes itself be considered a fresh infringement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] An official diplomatic Saudi document published on WikiLeaks shows that Russia had practiced intimidation against the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... , the Secretary-General of the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... , if he attended the conference of the Group of Friends of the Syrian People ("the Friends' Group")in Tunisia 2012.
A letter sent from Ali Bin Mohammed al-Hamdan, the Saudi Ambassador in Sanaa to the Minister of foreign affairs, Saud Al Faisal, in which the Ambassador reported that Jamal Bin Omar, the special envoy to Yemen, told him about Ban Ki-moon and the phone call he received from Russia in which he was warned directly from attending the Syrian people's Friends conference in Tunisia.
Al-Hamdan mentioned that Ban Ki-moon was willing to visit the kingdom of 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 meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs to "explain to him some matters", according to the letter.
In February 2012, Tunisia hosted the fist conference for the Friends of Syria Group conference and many conferences followed, but it failed to help Syrian people and their devastating crisis.
WikiLeaks had 3 weeks ago started posting diplomatic Saudi documents counted roughly 60,000 files. Most of them appear to be in Arabic.
There was no immediate way to verify the authenticity of the documents, although WikiLeaks has a long track record of hosting large-scale leaks of government material. Many of the documents carried green letterhead marked "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" or "Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES] India on Friday abstained from a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote for adoption of a UN Inquiry Commission report on Israel's 'Operation Protective Edge' in Gazoo last year, which also calls upon both Israel and Paleostine to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes.
While 41 countries (including most of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ) voted in favour of adopting the report, five, including India, abstained. The US was the only country to vote against it. Four other countries who abstained were Kenya, Æthiopia, Paraguay and Macedonia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Europeans always forget, we Jews have long memories.
[Rudaw] The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a monthly oil report released Thursday said due to the long-standing budget impasse with Baghdad it had no choice but to increase its independent oil sales in June.
"The KRG was obliged to increase independent sales due to significant debt backlog arising from budget cut of 2014 imposed by federal government," read the statement released by the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources.
According to the statement in the month of June, KRG has exported 17,130,639 barrels of crude oil, making up an average of 571,021 barrel per day. The crude oil was shipped to the port of Ceyhan in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... through a pipeline from the Kurdistan region.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] The United States is seeing signs that new efforts to draw Sunni rustics into Iraq's battle against 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.... may be taking root at a military base near the fallen capital of Sunni-dominated Anbar province, U.S. officials say.
A U.S. defense officials told Rooters the first group of 500 Sunni recruits would soon complete training at the Taqaddum military base near the city of Ramadi, making way for a second group of about 500 Sunnis who have agreed to participate.
The number of confirmed Sunni recruits for Taqaddum is double the amount first disclosed last month by the U.S. military and follows U.S. President Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... 's June 10 order to deploy American troops for the first time to the base.
About 400 American troops are now working at Taqaddum, some engaging with Sunni tribal leaders but not directly training the forces, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... Iraq's army has been burdened by a legacy of sectarianism in Anbar, whose dominant Sunni population resented former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite majority government and were incensed when he ordered troops to clear a protest camp in Ramadi in December 2013.
One of the goals of the U.S. deployment to Taqaddum is encouraging Sunni tribes to join the battle against Islamic State, drawing in fighters who felt unsafe traveling to the other U.S. outpost in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, at the Ain al-Asad air base.
Taqaddum is located only about 15 miles (25 km) from Ramadi, Anbar's capital, which fell to Islamic State fighters in May. Iraq is readying a counteroffensive to retake it.
The Sunni recruits at Taqaddum would represent a significant chunk of Sunni recruits so far for the still overwhelmingly Shi'ite popular mobilization forces. The first U.S. official estimated about 6,000 Sunni recruits.
A second official said Sunnis had so far demonstrated commitment to the training - noting that all 500 had returned to the base after a brief break to celebrate the Moslem holy month of Ramadan with their families.
Iraq's government also appeared invested, quickly providing small arms and ammunition for the Sunnis and directing funds to improve base facilities for them.
"There's a large (Sunni) population out there that's ... going to wait and see if this takes or not. And these are indications to me that this has taken," the second official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[BREITBART] As a variety of Kurdish forces continue containing 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.... 's (ISIS/ISIL/IS) advance in Syria and Iraq, leaders are becoming increasingly vocal about the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, with some sources close to the ground telling Fox News that Kurds are dedicated to the formation of a new state--"whether the U.S. likes it or not."
Security sources speaking to Fox News note that the Kurdish forces--the YPG/YPJ in Syria and the Peshmerga in Iraq--have made significant advances in the past months, keeping ISIS from recapturing the Turkish border town of Kobani and even making inroads in Raqqa province, home to the Islamic State's "capital" city. They have been significantly more successful against the Sunni jihadist group than the official Iraqi army or the vestiges of what was once Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's military, and authorities suggest they are now intent on capturing the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and beginning to establish a state.
"They are pushing hard in Kirkuk to hold Kirkuk and keep ISIS out and once that is done, they will move forward with plans for their country," said a source described as an "operator on the ground with direct connections to Kurdish leaders, adding, "They have only one goal, whether the U.S. likes it or not."
Fox's report notes that the B.O. regime has been adamantly opposed to the creation of an independent Kurdistan, citing a State Department front man telling the news outlet that America is "very supportive" of the Kurds while being "clear and consistent in support of a unified Iraq."
Kurdish leaders seem skeptical that a state can both support the Shiite-run government in Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish forces, based in Erbil. One leader--Lahur Talabani of the Kurdistan Intelligence Agency--tells Fox News that Kurdistan is like Israel: "We have suffered for years. Gassed by Saddam. Mass Graves. We have suffered like the Jews at the hands of these surrounding countries, and we are very pro-West. You don't find any other countries like that in this region."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
The "...like the Jews." thing is comparable to I drive like Mario Andretti (late '60's version). That aside, I suspect POTUS and Company think there are quite enough states in the ME, excepting, of course, a homeland for the Paleostains.
[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Syria rejected a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution condemning its aerial bombing tactics record on Thursday, saying the use of barrel bombs was a "technical" issue that was no business of the Geneva-based body.
The United States and 10 European and Arab countries backed the resolution decrying the use of chemical weapons such as chlorine gas and the Syrian authorities' use of cluster munitions, ballistic missiles and barrel bombs.
Syrian Ambassador Hussam Eddin Aala said critics of Damascus were hypocrites who were supporting the "terrorists" on Syrian soil and said their resolution was selective and biased.
He said trying to involve the Council in their own political agendas "by using fabricated pretexts such as the humanitarian situation and the so-called use of explosive barrels is a conduct that detracts from the Council's credibility and seriousness - pushing (it) to intervene in technical issues".
British Ambassador Julian Braithwaite, who introduced the resolution, said the text had been the subject of extensive consultations and urged all the warring sides to respect human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... , end the violence and uphold international law.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
...The only nearly sure ways to prevent people from doing what you don't want them to do is to imprison them or kill them. Strongly worded letters or condemnations followed by luxury buffet lunches are not likely to influence people like Pencilneck and his followers one tiny 'lil Gorram bit.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/04/2015 7:11 Comments ||
Top||
Damascus -- With the Syrian army’s ranks depleted by casualties and rampant draft-dodging, a new campaign in the war-torn country is urging citizens to enlist. In recent weeks, billboards have sprung up across Damascus reading “Join the army,” “We are all the army,” and “With our army, we’ll win our country.”
The campaign is the work of a pro-government organisation known as the “Syrian Women’s Group for Good Deeds,” which includes mothers and daughters of Syrian soldiers.
One billboard shows two soldiers in fatigues, a man saluting and a woman pointing, under the phrases: “Our army means us” and “Join the army.”
Another shows a soldier in uniform next to a smiling girl with her hand raised in a victory sign.
More than 80,000 soldiers and other pro-regime fighters have been killed in the four-year conflict, out of a total of roughly 230,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. And many Syrians, even those who support the regime, have been reluctant to show up for mandatory two-year military service, with up to 70,000 failing to enlist, according to the Observatory.
The combination of casualties, defections, and draft-dodging has seen the country’s 300,000-strong military halved in size since the conflict began in March 2011, according to experts.
Last week, as part of efforts to convince people to serve, Prime Minister Wael Halaqi announced that, from July, soldiers at the front would receive monthly bonuses of 10,000 Syrian pounds ($33.50/30.18 euros) as well as an extra hot meal each day.
An extra thousand a month and some hot hummus? Such a deal!
A security source said the measures, said to have been ordered by President Bashar Al Assad himself, “fall under the framework of support and motivation” for the army.
Last year, the law was amended to guarantee that public sector employees who left to do their military service would still have their jobs when they returned.
A key contributor to draft-dodging has been the reluctance of people to serve far from home, as the law has generally stipulated, but authorities appear to be showing leniency on that.
A security official in Homs told local Sham FM radio Thursday that new recruits would not have to serve outside the central province. He urged “all those who have delayed their military service or failed to enlist... to regularise their status so they can carry out their military service exclusively inside Homs province.”
In Sweida province too, residents told AFP authorities were allowing residents of the majority Druze region to join local pro-regime militias instead of the army.
But for some, those incentives have not been enough, and there have been regular reports of raids to sweep up draft-dodgers. Witnesses told AFP that, in recent days, armed security personnel had raided several districts in Damascus in search of military-aged men.
No hummus for you!
Some men have paid smugglers to help them leave the country in order to avoid conscription.
“I can’t go to military service,” said Sam, 29, an engineer from Homs living in Damascus. “These days, those who go the army don’t come back.”
And the extra thousand a month can't be spent if you're dead...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/04/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
I sense a major problem. Evidently the 10% of fighting age male casualties has been surpassed. It's over except for the boundary markers.
There's gas I guess, but it won't help in the long term, Assad is doomed, and Imabthinker maybe Hezbollah not feeling spritely either.
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.
Up to 120 US military personnel are operating out of two secret drone bases in Somalia, carrying out attacks on Al-Shabab militants and working with African Union peacekeepers, a new report has revealed.
David Cameron
[Dhaka Tribune] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A new report by the House Home Land Security Committee in the United States reveals that during the first six months of this year 24 terror attacks relating to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have been pointed against western targets. This is a drastic rise compared to 19 attacks in all of 2014. The new report is to be published every month to cover all terror events in order to enlighten the congressmen on this matter.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Damascus -- With the Syrian army’s ranks depleted by casualties and rampant draft-dodging, a new campaign in the war-torn country is urging citizens to enlist. In recent weeks, billboards have sprung up across Damascus reading “Join the army,” “We are all the army,” and “With our army, we’ll win our country.”
