[Rudaw] Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, a career diplomat who became one of the country’s most prominent faces to the outside world during the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , died Monday. He was 79.
Al-Muallem, who served as ambassador to Washington for nine years starting in 1990 during Syria’s on-and-off peace talks with Israel, was a close confidant of Assad known for his loyalty and hard-line position against the opposition.
Continued on Page 49
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11/16/2020 02:44 ||
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[ToloNews] The Ministry of Interior Affairs on Sunday released a list of 70 Taliban ...Arabic for students... commanders killed in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Kandahar in Afghan forces operations that were carried out in response to attacks by the group that started more than a month ago.
According to the ministry, 20 of the commanders were from various parts of Helmand and were leading groups of 45 to 100 members.
Rahmatullah, Habibullah, Mawlawi Musa Jan, Qari Mohammad, Rohullah, Mullah Nek Mohammad, Atiqullah, Mullah Sardar, Mullah Anargul, Wali Mohammad, Mullah Idris, Mullah Samad, Sharifullah, Mullah Mohammad Isa and Mullah Amanullah are the Taliban commanders killed in Helmand, according to the ministry.
The list shows that 10 Taliban commanders who were killed in Helmand came from Uruzgan, Kandahar and Ghazni to help their fighters in Helmand.
The 10 commanders include Mullah Mohibullah, Mullah Shah Wali, Mullah Ishaq, Abdul Rahman, Mullah Payenda, Mullah Baridad, Mullah Juma Gul, Mullah Mustafa, Mullah Amanullah, Mullah Khairkhwah, Mullah Toryalai, Ejaz-Ul-Haq, and Badri Janan.
The data by the Ministry of Interior Affairs shows that 40 Taliban commanders were killed in Kandahar.
The commanders killed in Kandahar include Mawlawi Munir, Mullah Saifuddin, Mullah Sazuddin, Qari Labib, Mullah Talib, Mullah Sediq, Abdul Latif, Isa Mohammad, Noorullah, Ainuddin, Musa, Abdul Waris, Mullah Abdullah, Sardar Mohammad, Hamdullah, Mullah Merajuddin, Mullah Saifullah, Abrar, Mullah Zabihullah, Mawlawi Ainulhaq, Mullah Agha Jan, Mullah Saadullah, Mullah Qasim, Mullah Janan, Mullah Bashir, Ehsanullah, Mohammad Qasim, Mullah Nasib, Mullah Waliullah, Mullah Qadir, Hezbullah, Mawlawi Sabir, Mullah Nematullah, Mullah Baz Mohammad ...deputy to Taliban faction supremo Mullah Mohammad Rassoul Nowrozi... , Mullah Neda Mohammad, Mustaghfir, Shir Ahmad, Sardar Wali, Hafiz Nematullah, and Pir Agha.
Presenting the list to news hounds, Interior Affairs Ministry’s front man said 152 Pak fighters were killed in Helmand province.
The list shows that 65 bodies of Taliban fighters were transferred across the Durand Line, 35 bodies were taken to Farah province, 54 to Helmand, 13 to Zabul and 13 bodies were taken to Uruzgan province.
At least 30 Taliban commanders were maimed in Helmand festivities, Arian said, adding that Taliban attacks were repelled by Afghan forces in Helmand, Kandahar and other southern provinces under the active defense framework.
The war in the south was led by Chief of Army Staff Gen. Mohammad Yasin Zia.
The festivities are ongoing in parts of Kandahar, Helmand and other southern provinces, but Arian said the Taliban has been defeated the southern province.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features.
If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... Arian said that at least 134 non-combatants were killed and 289 more were maimed in Taliban attacks in the last 25 days.
Taliban has rejected the statement by the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
[KhaamaPress] Ever wondered what could be the consequences of extremism from an Islamic point of view? Here, the Jawanan Radio at 97.5 FM, discusses this and similar questions every morning on Elham’s Islamic broadcasts in Kabul and other provinces of the country.
The Jawanan Radio, which is occupied and being run by professionals, has recently gained a large number of audience, especially its Elham Islamic program aired on Jawanan Radio during peak hours.
Elham is an Islamic program, which is aired on Jawanan Radio, inviting prominent religious scholars of the country and discusses various issues related to Islam.
The reason for an increased number of audience to such a program is the terrorist groups misleading people’s conception about Islam, as they continued to target innocent people with Death Eater ideas under Jihad tittle.
Thus, Islamic publications like Elham and identical programs can turn negative thoughts of the people into a positive perspective. The Elham program often invites religious scholars to hot and fresh Islamic debates and answers audiences over the live beam.
Such a program made a solid place into the hearts of the public, mostly the youth.
Arif Ahmadi, head of Jawanan Radio, says the early morning program "Elham" has made a special place for itself in a very short period of four months, adding the reason for an increased audience is the live podcast and its live Q&A dialogues.
"The audiences growing interests in the show can be gauged from the increasing number of calls received through phone and social media," he said.
Ahmadi added, during the early morning program, certain topics are discussed not only from the Islamic point of view but also from the political, economic, and social perspectives and experts of such professions are invited to the program to answer silenced questions.
Radios in Afghanistan mostly offer a diverse set of publications, which are useful to attract audiences.
Ahmadi stressed, Mohammed Sadiq Saba, who received his doctorate from al-Azhar University in Egypt, discussed the negative consequences of extremism and answered people’s questions.
It is noteworthy that social media plays an important and valuable role in the field of information and public awareness, of which radio is the simplest and least expensive means of listening various programs and talks.
Jawanan’s staff strives to provide a variety of Islamic, political, economic, entertainment, and social programs to their listeners.
Wasted time, but it gets them all out of the Territories and to a big city with shopping, dancing girls, and fine restaurants.
[IsraelTimes] Senior officials from rival Paleostinian movements Fatah and Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, will meet tomorrow in Cairo to continue reconciliation talks, the Hamas terror group says.
Hamas deputies Saleh al-Arouri and Khalil al-Hayya will be part of the delegation, according to reports in Hamas-linked Paleostinian media.
According to Ma’an, a news source rumored to be close to the Paleostinian Authority security services, Fatah Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub will attend the talks as well.
The two major Paleostinian movements have been at odds since 2007, when Hamas expelled Fatah from the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip following a bloody struggle for supremacy in the coastal enclave.
Several attempts to bridge the differences between the two groups have been unsuccessful. A round of talks which began earlier this summer amid talk of Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank prompted positive rhetoric between the two sides, but little movement on the ground toward Paleostinian national unity.
[ALMARSAD.CO] In response to 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... ’s Council of Senior Scholars classifying the Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist group that does not represent Islam, the former leader of the terrorist group Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),
...the highly connected, Al Qaeda-aligned group in Libya in the 1990s that was coddled by the West because they plotted to stand up against Colonel Khadaffy. One tentacle of the octopus settled in Manchester, England, where they parented the ISIS-aligned Manchester Arena jacket wallah plot of Salman Abedi and his circle, among others...
Sami al-Saadi posted on his Facebook official account on Saturday: "Saudi Arabia deserves to be called the ’Khawarij’ of the modern era for its conspiracy against the Ottomans in response to British desires."
[LIBYAREVIEW] On Saturday, the Chairman of Libya’s High Council of State (HCS), Khalid al-Mishri, called for holding a referendum on a new constitution before the presidential elections.He suggested the referendum to be held on February 17, to reflect the date of the 2011 uprising.
Al-Mishri said he welcomes the agreement on conducting presidential and parliamentary elections in the country by the end of 2021.
"We are keen on taking Libya to desired stability after all these crises and suffering," Khalid al-Mishri said in a statement on Facebook.
On Friday, the UN-Acting Special Envoy for Libya, Stephanie Williams, announced that the participants of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Tunisia decided to hold national elections on a constitutional basis on December 24, 2021.
On Wednesday, Williams said the political talks on Libya’s future have reached an agreement on holding elections within 18 months. She hailed the "breakthrough" in a peace-making process that still faces great obstacles.
She added that the new government would have to quickly address deteriorating public services and corruption, two issues that prompted protests on both sides of the frontlines this summer.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/16/2020 00:00 ||
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[LIBYAREVIEW] The head of the Anti-Negative and Destructive Phenomena (ANDP) affiliated to the Libyan National Army (LNA) has ordered to remove the dark windows of the ANDP’s vehicles, thus highlighting the fact to soldiers that no one is above the law.He instructed the LNA’s elements to respect citizens and laws. He warned that the punishment would be severe for any soldier who deals unlawfully with citizens.
Last week, the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the beginning of the implementation of a law enforcement operation to impose security in the Eastern city of Benghazi. The crackdown aims at eliminating crime and arresting all perpetrators and outlaws, the LNA explained. The LNA said the security operation will also work to quickly arrest all wanted persons who are fuelling negative public opinion through hate speech.
The leader of the LNA, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... , has emphasized the necessity of implementing all orders, within a specific period of time. He also stressed that all obstructers, negligent actors, and accomplices would be held legally accountable under his direct supervision during the law enforcement operation.
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11/16/2020 00:00 ||
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King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke about the eminent task of confronting extremism and promoting moderation and confirmed that within one year, #SaudiArabia was able to eliminate 40 years of extremism.https://t.co/ddnuHJhXUP
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11/16/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
...No, they didn't - it's all still there, waiting for the right moment to rear its ugly head again. But what they did manage to do was convince the people who pushed this sort of thing that for at least the time being, it's safer to keep your head down.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/16/2020 6:00 Comments ||
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#2
they nuked Mecca?
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
11/16/2020 7:31 Comments ||
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#3
It's not dead; it's just resting - check you in fifty years.
#5
Certainly not eliminated, but the moderation is not entirely imaginary. Between fracking and Rex Tillerson I think some pragmatic Saudi eyes opened a bit. And it takes a lot of time and effort to put even one squeeze of the toothpaste called freedom back in the tube. If only Trump had four more years ... (Biden is sure to screw things up.)
#11
Tillerson was fired, but not over Saudi efforts, I don't believe. He had a long and reasonably successful pre-political relationship (via Exxon/Saudi Aramco) that I believe got the ball rolling in Trump-Saudi communications - 'private' communications. The timing is telling - the first moderations occurred just before Tillerson left and the recent, broader Arab world moderations that got Trump some Nobel nominations are under Pompeo's oversight. Energy + 'CIA' is a combination that tends to get heard in KSA, I think.
#12
Sometimes I wonder if Trump hires people just for the sake of firing them.
Kind of seems like, but I think his problem is he hires people much like himself - people who are confident (?over-confident) and won't back down to him. You don't find the typical cadre of 'yes men' around Trump, so when (not if) they butt heads, Trump wins. Not ideal, but also probably not as bad as the normal system.
#Azerbaijan president is promising that Christian churches will be protected when the strongly Muslim country takes possession of areas formerly controlled by Armenians, as residents burned down their homes and fled ahead of the expected takeover.https://t.co/MsGgl2GnQ2
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11/16/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Let's see Spain and Germany have issues.
Both are dealing with a massive influx of Muslims, along with the growing number of Islamic Radicals.
All of which have gained access to the Major NATO Countries by abusing the EU OPEN BORDERS Policy. An Abuse made possible by Turkey, a EU/NATO Country with STRONG Islamic leanings.
ALSO
Turkey's very actions and alliances with certain Anti-EU / Anti-USA groups, and its snuggling up to RUSSIA for weaponry. All have clearly shown they are not acting as a EU/NATO member in good faith.
#2
... If they turn any further, they'll be on our side again.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/16/2020 6:02 Comments ||
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#3
As the US moves forces and money to Eastern
Europe and Countries that really hate the Muslim Horde and Germans , Putin giggles and puts another shut off valve on his oil pipe line to Germany .
#Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls for an equal "two-state" solution in #Cyprus during a visit to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of the island, drawing a rebuke from the internationally recognized government in the south.https://t.co/j9WbRykiGx
[KhaamaPress] The Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) held a “massive gathering” in Miran Shah, North Waziristan on Sunday, according to sources, “expressing opposition to a new war being imposed on both sides of Durand Line.”
“Pashtuns in a massive PTM gathering in Waziristan are expressing opposition to new war being imposed on both sides of Durand Line,” tweeted Afrasiab Khattak, a former member of the Senate of Pakistan.
“PTM is trail blazer in resistance to war state repression,” he added. “Glad that other pol [Political] parties have mustered the courage to point out the real usurpers.”
Meanwhile, Human Rights activist and supporter of PTM Khor Bibi cheers the gathering, saying they have stood up “against state brutalities with Pashtuns”.
“Bravo PTM! 4 holding such a massive demonstration & show of power against gross human rights violations committed by Pak Army on innocent Pashtuns,” she wrote in a tweet.
“We’ll never forget & forgive #KharQamar & Wana massacres; killing of Arman Loni, Arif Wazir&Tahir Dawar,” she added.
The PTM is a rights group that has called for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement within tribal areas. It has called for an end to “extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions,” according to reports.
[KhaamaPress] Pakistain has accused Indian government of running a number of training camps in Afghanistan on globally outlawed bad boy groups, according to reports, plotting terrorism on Pak soil to destabilize the country.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... and army front man Major-General Babar Iftikhar, at a joint news conference Saturday, presented what they said was "irrefutable evidence" linking India directly to almost all recent terrorist attacks across Pakistain, as VOA reported.
While displaying for the first time documents, banking transactions worth millions of dollars, audio clips and details of contacts between Indian intelligence operatives and diplomats with runaway Pak faceless myrmidons operating out of Afghanistan, Iftikhar said they have "irrefutable evidence" of Indian links to terrorism on Pak soil.
"Uncontrivable evidence reveals that Indian embassies and consulates operating along Pakistain’s borders have become hub of terror sponsorship against Pakistain," he said, as the report quoted.
"We have verifiable evidence of holy warriors funding by India. Indian ambassadors in Afghanistan have been regularly supervising various terrorist activities," Iftikhar added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Don Calamari's lawyer was getting even redder in the face... the Foreign Minister affirmed such a claim, saying "Pakistain provides concrete proof of Indian financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organizations, including U.N.-designated terrorist organizations Jamaat ul Ahrar, Bloch Liberation Army and Tehrik-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain."
Qureshi said his government would share the "dossier" with the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... and five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including the United States, China, Russia, Britannia and La Belle France to pressure India to halt its terrorist actives inside Pakistain, according to report.
Neither Indian officials nor the Afghan government have immediately commented on the Pak allegations, although both New Delhi and Kabul have denied similar allegations in the past.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director Asia program at Washington’s Wilson Center, observed that "Pakistain’s allegations about Indian-sponsored terror aren’t new at all."
"They’ve been made for years. What is new is providing more detail on the allegations and placing these details squarely in the public (and global) eye," Kugelman said in a tweet.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
#India denies allegations by its arch-rival #Pakistan that New Delhi has helped fund militant groups on Pakistani soil, with a foreign ministry spokesman dismissing them as “fabricated” and “figments of imagination.”https://t.co/KWSSMQXbPL
[Jpost] Pakistain faced pressure from another country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality disorders... said in a local television interview over the weekend.
"I have no second thoughts about recognizing Israel, unless there is a just settlement that satisfies Paleostinians," Khan said.
Citing Pakistain founder Quaid-e-Azad Muhammad Ali Jinnah's refusal to recognize Israel, Khan said "Islamabad would continue to follow in Jinnah's footsteps vis-a-vis Paleostine."
Khan also refused to name the countries that have been pressuring him, saying: "There are things we cannot say. We have good relations with them."
Pak passports say in them: "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel."
Khan’s comments come after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in recent months.
Pakistain has strong economic ties with Gulf states like the UAE 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... , which has been warming to Israel in recent years, and when his interlocuter asked again who is pressuring Pakistain, Khan said: "Let us stand on our own feet in terms of economy, then you may ask these questions."
The Pak prime minister said the pressure is a result of "Israel's deep impact in the US. This [influence] was, in fact, extraordinary during [US President Donald] Trump's tenure."
Khan also said that US President-elect Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Candidate for president in 2020. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run. If you believe Tara Reade you probably shouldn't vote for him.... 's position on Israel is of utmost importance: "The real issue is Israel. We shall see how Biden deals with that, whether he changes Trump's policies on Israel or continues with them."
Last month, Khan said: "Israel's lobby is the most powerful and that's why America's whole Middle East policy is controlled by Israel."
He accused an Israeli-Indian conspiracy of influencing the US to pressure him to pardon his political rival Nawaz Sharif ...served two three non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... , who was banned from office and was sentenced with 10 years in prison on corruption charges.
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[DAILYTIMES.PK] In Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... , Hurriyat leaders and organizations expressing serious concern over the escalating tension between Pakistain and India on the Line of Control have called for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute for ensuring durable peace in South Asia.The Hurriyat forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a statement in Srinagar expressed deep grief over the repeated escalation on the LoC that has resulted in the loss of human lives and property. It reiterated its appeal to both India and Pakistain to resolve the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means for the sake of humanity and millions of humans living in the region.
Hurriyat leaders and organizations including Zamruda Habib, Abdul Samad Inqilabi, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Tehrik-e-Wahdat-e-Islami in their statements issued in Srinagar strongly condemned the unprovoked shelling by Indian Army along the LoC. They appealed to the UN to take practical measures for settling the Kashmir dispute to prevent further bloodshed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert climbed the cocoanut tree, looking for ships. He saw none. He looked in the other direction and saw Irene, vigorously scrubbing her backside... the All Parties Hurriyat Conference General Secretary, Molvi Bashir Ahmed, in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Indian Army in gross violation of the international laws was refusing to hand over dead bodies of the Kashmiri martyred youth to their families and secretly burying them in unmarked graves at far-off places in IIOJK. He said India is afraid of massive participation of people in deaders’ funerals as it fears that the funerals of martyred youth further incite anti-India sentiments in the occupied territory.
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11/16/2020 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] A nine-year-old Yezidi boy found in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... was reunited with his family on Thursday after six years of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) captivity.
"Our teams from the Ministry have been working on his case in the Ottoman Turkish embassy for over a year," Ali Abbas, Spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement told Rudaw on Thursday.
Barzan Ibrahim was only two years old when ISIS attacked the Yezidi heartland of Shingal, in Nineveh province. His parents were later killed and he was taken in by an Arab family from Tal Afar, who then migrated to Turkey and took Barzan with them, Abbas said.
"After medical tests his family was found and he was returned to his uncle," he added.
Iraq’s Yezidi minority was particularly targeted by ISIS, which invaded Shingal in August 2014, launching a genocide against the community. Thousands were killed and taken into captivity.
Approximately 6,418 Yezidis were kidnapped during the genocide, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Office for Abducted Yezidi Affairs. More than 3,500 have been rescued.
Several Yezidi children have been found with ISIS-linked families in Turkey.
A delegation from the Iraqi Migration and Displacement Ministry, headed by its minister Ivan Faiaq is in Turkey organizing the return of Iraqi refugees.
"193 refugees arrived back home today in Iraqi Ministry of Transportation buses," Abbas said, "So far 8,000 Iraqi refugees have been returned back to the country from Turkey."
[Rudaw] Ottoman Turkish and Iranian bombs are likely responsible for setting alight nearly 50,000 acres of land in the Kurdistan Region this summer, according to a new report analyzing satellite imagery, making this one of the worst years for wildfires and sparking concerns for the future of the Region’s biodiversity.
The Netherlands-based NGO PAX compared reports of Ottoman Turkish and Iranian artillery fire and Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s with satellite imagery showing areas where fires had swept through vegetation between June 1 and October 1. "We found 32 out of 81 reported incident locations were overlapped with burned areas recognized from satellite imagery, with a total of 49,568 acres of burned land that are likely to be linked with the military campaign based on those numbers," read the report published on Friday.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... both violate the Kurdistan Region’s borders on a regular basis in pursuit of armed Kurdish groups based in the Zagros Mountains. This summer, the Ottoman Turkish military carried out an intensive air and ground war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK). The PKK is an gang fighting for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey and PJAK is its Kurdish-Iranian affiliate.
"With increased droughts and rising temperatures, the risks of rapidly spreading wildfires in Iraqi Kurdistan as a result of military operations have been increasing over the last couple of years. Our quick analysis of the Ottoman Turkish operations against the PKK shows how they've led to large areas of burned lands as the intense shelling in these dry areas directly causes fires," said Wim Zwijnenburg, an author of the PAX report.
"With limited firefighting means in remote areas, these fires could also drive civilians from their homes, destroy their livelihoods and pose risks to firefighters as these areas are littered with unwent kaboom! ordnance," he added.
In many cases, villagers extinguished raging fires themselves, beating the flames out with branches. "Almost everything is gone," Omer Abd Ham, the chief of Lere village in Erbil province’s Barzan area, told Rudaw in July about a fire that had been burning for five days, destroying farmlands and forests and killing wild animals.
Likewise, villagers living near Zakho in northern Duhok province put out fires that burned through their abandoned homes and orchards in September . The residents had already fled, driven out by fear of festivities between Turkey and the PKK.
Environmental officials in Duhok and Sulaimani confirmed that 2020 was a bad year for fires.
It was "one of the worst years for wildfires," according to Dilshad Mohammed, head of the Duhok office of the Environment Board. "We have summer wildfires almost every year. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... this year we had more wildfires because of Turkey’s military operation."
The chief of Duhok’s environmental police, Brig. Gen. Kamil Harki, estimated that in recent years, the number of wildfires has increased by as much as 70 percent, because of the Turkey-PKK conflict. "Bombardments are still ongoing, most recently two days ago," he said.
The military activity is putting added stress onto an already strained ecosystem that includes grasslands, shrublands, and forests. The Kurdistan Region is a biodiversity hotspot because of its diverse topography and location at a meeting point between climates. It is home to the majority of Iraq’s woodlands. Just 1.4 percent of Iraq is forested and 93 percent of that is located in the Kurdistan Region, but it is disappearing at an alarming rate.
Between 1999 and 2018, the Kurdistan Region lost 2.2 million acres to fires and deforestation, according to government figures. This summer, PAX detected another 298,750 acres of vegetation that were burned. The NGO estimates 20 percent of the Region’s vegetation has been lost to fires and logging since 2014 and 47 percent since 1999.
All of the wildfires are caused by human activity, according to Mohammed. In addition to those started by bombing campaigns, some are accidental, sparked by farmers doing prescribed burns of their fields after the harvest or careless picnickers with barbeques and shisha pipes. Others are deliberate, set by people who want to clear or repurpose land. And in the summer, when no rain falls for three or four months, the landscape is tinder-dry and fires can quickly flare out of control.
Forests are also being lost because of the economic crisis brought on by low oil prices, the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic, and a budget dispute with the federal government. "People are cutting and burning trees because they can’t afford oil," said Harki.
Recovering these damaged sites will take a long time and require an investment the cash-strapped government cannot afford to make. Officials have been complaining for years of a lack of budget to protect and maintain the forests. "While it is very easy to burn these forests, it takes just seconds or minutes, planting a tree takes up to ten years," said Hemin Kamar Khan, spokesperson for Sulaimani’s forestry police.
PAX’s Zwijnenburg warned that with the climate crisis, the situation is going to get a lot worse. "As the climate crisis pushes up heat and drought, military operations by all warring parties can result in more humanitarian suffering and environmental degradation that impacts lives, livelihoods and the future of the people of Kurdistan."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
11/16/2020 03:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Let'e see... One square mile is 640 acres (by definition)into 50000 is.. 78 sq mi. They're gonna have to work harder or they'll never catch up with the California Forestry Commision.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/16/2020 20:32 Comments ||
Top||
No doubt Mahmoud Abbas, et al hope President Biden, should he actually be sworn into office, will reverse all the policies President Trump and Bibi Netanyahu have put into place over the past four years, so it’s nice to see Bibi working to solidify previous gains.
[IsraelTimes] 1,257 units planned for Givat Hamatos could cut off city from Bethlehem, disrupting contiguity of a Paleostinian state; coalition chief says it will connect Jewish neighborhoods.
Bidding opened on Sunday morning to construct 1,257 units in a controversial planned neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Israel Lands Authority and the Housing Ministry announced, drawing reproof from the Paleostinian Authority and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... If built, Givat Hamatos would become the first new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem in two decades. The area’s location has raised concerns.
"Givat Hamatos, along with Gilo, will completely surround the Paleostinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa. One day, if there’s a two-state solution and a Paleostinian state in East Jerusalem, Beit Safafa will be cut off from the rest of East Jerusalem," said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the left-wing Jerusalem nonprofit Ir Amim.
By contrast, the Netanyahu’s government’s coalition whip Miki Zohar (Likud) hailed the development as enabling contiguity between Jewish Jerusalem neighborhoods. "This is a neighborhood in a strategic place between Beit Safafa and Hebron Road. The construction here is essential to preserve Jewish contiguity between [the neighborhoods of] Talpiyot and Gilo," Zohar said.
Tatarsky said the development could also cut off East Jerusalem — which Paleostinians seek as their future capital — from Bethlehem to the south. "The new neighborhood would establish facts on the ground such that if a future Israeli government wishes to reach an accord with the Paleostinians, it would be very hard to do in a way that maintains territorial contiguity," Tatarsky said.
[Jpost] Tayed Abdoun, veteran employee at Islamic Relief Worldwide, posted a photo on Facebook calling for the murder of Jews after a 2015 gun and knife attack in Jerusalem.
For the third time in the past six months, a high-positioned figure at Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)
..the “charity” arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain, with branches in 40 countries it is one of the largest Islamic charities in the world. IRW has received millions of pounds from the British government’s Department for International Development and six-figure sums from the Obama government, while Israel and the UAE have banned it for forwarding funds to Hamas. Three months ago the entire board resigned because it came out they‘d replaced one Jew hater with another even worse...
has left for expressing antisemitic views on social media.
Tayeb Abdoun, former interim-CEO and a 25-year veteran employee at the international humanitarian relief agency, resigned on October 14 for posting a picture on Facebook of a knife with a thumbs up, writing, "Lay the bodies of the Jews on the top of the mountains, so that no dog in Paleostine must suffer hunger."
On October 13, 2015, three Israelis were killed in a Jerusalem gun and knife attack in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.
Abdoun resigned after the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger (TA) confronted him.
"We continue to work as an organization to root out anyone that does not meet our core values as a respectful, faith-sensitive, non-discriminatory and principled charity," IRW wrote on October 14.
IRW founder Hany El Banna had recently called the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq "devil worshippers."
TA wrote that "the false cliché of the devil worshipper served as a justification for the IS [Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... ] to kill thousands of Yazidi in Northern Iraq or to rape their women as sex slaves."
Abdoun has also commented on other issues and events, as reported in TA.
After the attacks carried out by the Islamic State in Gay Paree, Abdoun quoted an Arabic text on his Facebook page showing that Western countries were the real terrorists, as well as a rhetorical question about the real difference between Christians, Jews and the devil.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led administration of northeast Syria (Rojava) has handed 30 children of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS)-linked parents over to Russian authorities, a senior Rojava official announced on Thursday — marking the fourth repatriation of its kind by Moscow in as many months.
News of the handover of the children aged between 2 and 14 to Russian authorities was made at a presser by Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of foreign relations for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).
"The children are innocent... we believe the place of these children is not in the camps. They should live somewhere peaceful," Omar said.
If children are left in northeast Syrian detention camps, "a radical and new generation of gunnies will rise, they will be worse than the current ISIS and they will be brainwashed," he added.
In a statement released Friday, the Russian presidency-affiliated Commissioner for the Rights of the Child said that 31 children aged between 2 and 16 had been repatriated.
"We will work until we find the last child in these territories. Only great efforts allow us to find the children who are so awaited by their relatives at home," commissioner Anna Kuznetsova was quoted as saying in the statement.
Approximately 70,000 people live in the northeast Syrian camps of al-Hol and Roj, most of whom are women and kiddies who either fled or were rounded up as the Islamic State (ISIS) began to lose ground in the country from 2017 onwards. Around 13,000 of those held at the camps are non-Iraqi foreigners.
There are no exact figures on the number of Russian children currently in Iraq and Syria, but Kheda Saratova, a repatriation activist and advisor to Chechen leader Ramazan Kadyrov estimated in February 2019 that there could be as many as 1,400.
Human rights groups have deplored the "filthy and often inhuman and life-threatening conditions" found in the camps. Rojava's authorities have implored governments worldwide to repatriate their nationals, especially children, from al-Hol and Roj, but few countries have heeded the call.
Thursday's handover of Russian children followed a meeting between Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad and children's rights commissioner Kuznetsova in Damascus earlier on Thursday. Discussion centered on "joint Syrian and Russian efforts to get Russian children out of the al-Hol and Roj camps," Syrian state media reported.
Russia's repatriation of children from Syria ground to a halt when the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... outbreak began to take international hold. They resumed in August, when 26 children were repatriated, according to Russian state media outlet TASS. Fifteen children were repatriated from Syria in September, and 27 more were taken back to Russia in October.
[IsraelTimes] Daughter of terror group’s no. 2, widow of a bin Laden, said to have been killed due to involvement in operational planning; shooting comes amid rumors about leader al-Zawahiri.
An official in the intelligence community told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named, in a report published Sunday, that the daughter of a senior al-Qaeda leader killed in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... earlier this year was also a target of the operation.
The United States believed Miriam al-Masri was being groomed for a leadership role in al-Qaeda and intelligence suggested she was involved in operational planning, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
The US and Israel worked together to track and kill senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Mohammed al-Masri in Tehran in a bold intelligence operation.
Four current and former US officials confirmed to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named a Saturday New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report that Abu Mohammed al-Masri, al-Qaeda’s No. 2, and his daughter were killed by assassins in the Iranian capital in August.
According to two of those officials, the US provided intelligence to the Israelis on where they could find Abu Mohammed al-Masri and the alias he was using at the time, while Israeli agents carried out the killing. The two other officials confirmed al-Masri’s killing but could not provide specific details.
Al-Masri was bumped off in a Tehran alley on August 7, the anniversary of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. al-Masri was widely believed to have participated in the planning of those attacks and was wanted on terrorism charges by the FBI.
Al-Masri’s death is a blow to al-Qaeda and comes amid rumors in the Middle East about the fate of the group’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri ...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra... The officials could not confirm those reports but said the US intelligence community was trying to determine their credibility.
Two of the officials — one within the intelligence community and with direct knowledge of the operation and another former CIA officer briefed on the matter — said al-Masri was killed by Kidon, a unit within the Israeli spy organization Mossad allegedly responsible for the liquidation of high-value targets. In Hebrew, Kidon means bayonet or "tip of the spear."
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.
[Rudaw] Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, a career diplomat who became one of the country’s most prominent faces to the outside world during the uprising against 
...Arabic for 
[ALMARSAD.CO] In response to 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...Candidate for president in 2020. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run. If you believe Tara Reade you probably shouldn't vote for him.....jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
