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Iraq Launches Offensive on ISIS North of Baghdad
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Africa North
El-Sissi leading a Churchillian fight against Hamas
[TIMESOFISRAEL] It's not yet clear quite how an Egyptian court's decision Saturday to define Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, in its entirety, as a terror group will play out. Hitherto, only the organization's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was defined as such, but the new ruling widens the definition to include the political branch. Does this mean that from here on out Egypt will completely ban Hamas, cutting all ties to the group including those involving Cairo's own intelligence agencies?

What can be said with a high degree of certainty, especially in light of the almost hysterical response to the ruling in the Gazoo Strip, is that on a symbolic level this is Cairo's declaration of war on Hamas. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is proving that there is only one leader in the Middle East who can be compared to Winston Churchill, and he sits in Cairo.
Little wonder the Champ wants nothing to do with El Sissi.
With Sissi, it's not just talk. It's action too. He has, memorably, now made a series of speeches calling for a revolution in Islamic thought, to shift the emphasis away from violence and to create a more humane Islam. He has declared war upon radical Islam wherever it may be -- not only upon 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....
and its affiliates, who have attacked Egyptians in Libya and Egypt proper, but on the Moslem Brüderbund and its affiliates as well.

Many months ago, the president set out on a wide-scale military operation in the Sinai Peninsula that his associates have assessed will last two to three years. During this period, he has said, Egypt will pay a price, perhaps a heavy one, but there is no choice and no escape from carrying it out.

When IS operatives in Libya kidnapped Coptic Egyptians and executed them, Sissi again did not hesitate: He sent Egyptian air force jets to bomb dozens of IS targets on Libyan soil.

The court decision underlines his approach: There is no distinction between a military wing and a political wing. He'll leave any such nuances to various international officials, mostly in Europe, who have recently tried to create a dialogue with Hamas.
Posted by: Fred || 03/02/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Jordon, Egypt, Israel, and the Kurds are our best M.E. allies at this point.

Posted by: JohnQC || 03/02/2015 9:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Yup. Too bad Obama isn't their best ally.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/02/2015 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  I want this man as POTUS
Posted by: paul || 03/02/2015 19:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Where's Hillary? Netanyahu doesn't want you to ask
imho, Mr. Netanyahu is correct. Timing is everything, and this type of "marketing" will distract from his serious message to our country.

They should have waited a week.

No worries, the regime will cook up some type of media distraction, their Public Relations apparatus is second to none.
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 || 03/02/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Agreed, HF52169. Bibi needs to keep his speech centered on the existential threat of Iran and its nuclear weapons program.

The rest is side show, which he does not need. Just focus on the facts and the intelligence. That will be frightening enough.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/02/2015 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  If the proposed deal with Iran contains half the stuff that rumors have proposed, when Bibi pulls the cat out of the bag on that bogus maneuver, there could be some blood letting in Washington.

I bet the public outcry will be deafening.
Posted by: Mystic || 03/02/2015 1:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd bet that Israel has HUMINT on the ground inside Iran--better than our satellite intelligence. Their survival depends upon knowing what is going on in the M.E. What #'s 1 and 2 said.

Where's Hildabeast? Her foundation has been taking too much money from her Muslim benefactors to speak out. Someone please pick up the 3:00 a.m. phone call--Hilary ain't going to do it. Benghazi told us that.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/02/2015 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Further questions should be referred to our Bureau of Central Planning. Thank you for your interest in our national defense.

Posted by: Besoeker || 03/02/2015 13:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Netanyahu doesn't want me to ask and I don't wanna know.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/02/2015 14:56 Comments || Top||

#6  As per FREEREPUBLIC Artics, the Bammer Admin is denying MSM-Net Reports it threatened to militarily shoot down an Israel = IDAF strike agz Iran's NucProgs last year???

To paraph R. LEE ERMEY + A FEW MARINES > "J ***** H. C ******"!

Methinks there are many in mainstream America whom thought they'd never live to see this day.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/02/2015 19:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
The Lessons of Culture, Benjamin Netanyahu Edition
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] Here we are, on the eve of Benjamin Netanyahu's address to both houses of the United States Congress. The Obama administration is acting like a petulant twelve-year-old -- how dare the prime minister of Israel come to the United States and speak before Congress when he wasn't invited by us? -- and the rancid Pelosi-Reid contingent of the Democratic Party has promised to take their marbles and go home: they won't even listen to what he has to say.

The ostensible issue is Iran, with which the Obama administration is currently capitula-- er, negotiating. The presence of a Jew, and a Jew from Israel, in the nation's capital (and Capitol) is sure to offend the Mullahs in Tehran, and it might just upset the delicate diplomacy by which Obama privately assures that Iran gets nuclear weapons while publicly pretending to prevent that eventuality.


Back in 2001, when Barack Obama was in the Illinois State Senate and still battening on the wisdom of the "Reverend" Jeremiah ("God-Damn America") Wright, Netanyahu was more forthright, and more percipient, than most politicians about the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Those attacks, he said, were part of "a war to reverse the triumph of the West."

..."A war to reverse the triumph of the West." For Netanyahu, and for you, I hope, Dear Reader, that is a bad thing.

For Barack Obama?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/02/2015 13:47 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Another jailbreak
[DAWN] THE successful escape on Friday of a holy warrior involved in the Nanga Parbat massacre and another accused of killing one of the Sherlocks in the case is only the latest in a growing list of jailbreaks by hard boyz charged with heinous crimes. And once again the manner in which the jailbreak was executed suggests the possible involvement of elements among the prison authorities although details about how the escape was effected are still sketchy.

Reportedly, four prisoners somehow managed to convince the prison guards that they were armed and made their escape. In the ensuing shootout, one prisoner was killed and another critically injured. The jail was guarded by three separate law-enforcement and paramilitary bodies, and if and when an inquiry into the event is undertaken, it must look into why security was not foolproof. The prisoners' escape shows that holding hardened hard boyz in jails meant for ordinary criminals is fraught with risk, even though, unlike two other jailbreaks -- at Bannu and D.I. Khan -- this incident did not involve a large force attacking the prison from outside.

The episode highlights the need for special detention facilities for hardened holy warriors. Holding them in facilities meant for ordinary criminals only raises the likelihood of attacks launched by hard boyz from outside, or an escape of the sort just witnessed. The fact that even after two large jailbreaks, and one incident in which an escape tunnel was discovered near a prison 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...
, hard boyz continue to be held in ordinary facilities and guarded by forces with poor training shows the authorities' half-hearted approach to law-enforcement functions necessary in the fight against militancy. It is vital that the task of apprehending and detaining hard boyz be taken far more seriously than it is at present. Rather than let the problem of weaknesses in the detention apparatus fester, only to be 'handled' through emotive and sudden calls for handing it over to the military -- as was done with the courts -- the challenge of holding hard boyz in secure facilities needs to be addressed through effective, long-term measures. It is perplexing that hardened hard boyz involved in the Nanga Parbat massacre should be held in a district jail in Gilgit. By now it ought to have been obvious that holding hard boyz is serious business. Unfortunately, as the jailbreak makes clear, authorities here insist on learning their lessons the hard way. We can only hope that this pattern will change in the future.
Posted by: Fred || 03/02/2015 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  The episode highlights the need for special detention facilities for hardened holy warriors.

An amazing observation I'd say.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/02/2015 6:25 Comments || Top||

#2  It seems the US is Bizarro World these days.

When Pakistain and France talk about setting up special detention facilities for these berserk nutjobs and we are talking about CLOSING ours, something is completely off the rails.

Why does the left seem to consider closing Gitmo a badge of honor?
Posted by: Mystic || 03/02/2015 6:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Why does the left seem to consider closing Gitmo a badge of honor?

Because the Left is completely off the rails insane? What do I win?
Posted by: Woozle Scourge of the Wee Folk4194 || 03/02/2015 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Because How to Train Your Dragon 2 is better grounded in reality than the left.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/02/2015 15:42 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The Aral Sea and Green Energy; License to Kill
h/t Gates of Vienna
Laced with lies and fueled by delusional dreams of a return to Shangri-La, modern environmentalists and green energy gurus are creating a crisis of epic proportions with the wholesale slaughter of birds and bats under the guise of fighting global warming. In their war to destroy affordable energy, modern environmentalists sacrifice birds and bats to the tune of tens of millions every year. The slaughter is so bad that in Germany, the yearly butchery of 200,000 bats is depleting the population up to 2,000 miles away.

When did the wholesale slaughter of birds and bats become acceptable to those sworn to save the earth? There is mounting evidence that many of these birds and bats are in danger of becoming extinct. Yet the western governments and the green energy zealots continue to ignore the body count and push for more wind mills and solar farms. Why will they not learn from history that you cannot continue to destroy nature and have it constantly rebound? Just like the central planners did to the Aral Sea in the 1950's under Nikita Khrushchev,[2] we are creating an ecological disaster of epic proportions through deliberate choices, unintended consequences and just plain bad science.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/02/2015 12:50 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In their war to destroy affordable energy, modern environmentalists sacrifice birds and bats to the tune of tens of millions every year.

They say you can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs. Although why anyone would want a bat omlette is beyond me. Also, I don't think bats lay eggs.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/02/2015 13:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Also, I don't think bats lay eggs.

Bats are mammals. Live birth, just like puppies and people.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/02/2015 14:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Very rare offering. A matching pair of Bat Egg - Kudu horn lamps. Wired for 230. No reserve.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/02/2015 14:48 Comments || Top||

#4  I was always told I was found under a skunk cabbage. :)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/02/2015 15:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Bats literally eat tons of insects every day. Not a good idea to process them in an aeolian massive blender.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/02/2015 22:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The Liberal Circus
h/t Puppy blender
The liberal left got what it wanted in 2009 with a supermajority in the Senate and large majority in the House, a subservient mainstream media, the good will of the American people, and the most liberal president in American history. It only took that liberal hierarchy six years to erode the Democratic Party to levels that we have not seen since the 1920s. Almost every policy initiative we have seen -- whether climate change, foreign policy, health care, or race relations -- has imploded.

The answer to these failures has not been introspection, humility, or reevaluation why the liberal agenda proved unpopular and unworkable, but in paranoid fashion to double-down on it, convinced that its exalted aims must allow any means necessary -- however farcical -- to achieve them.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/02/2015 14:07 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes, the Venezuelan model, double down on Marxist orthodoxy.

How much different though from RINOs (fomerly liberal Donks who left the Socialist Party) who keep on making concessions to the otherside in hopes they'll be liked?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/02/2015 14:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Being stubborn will never make these 8 year old dream policies work.
Not even Praying will.

The democrat party IS obama and they got everything they wanted. All of this, they endorse, even the "Stupid shit" they are not supposed to do.

Democrats have proven they agree with anything he does because they are stupid, lazy, and don't really care about civilization at all.

They are here to punish everyone on the planet for the sins of primarily the democrat party.

Which brings me to my charge:
Democrats are psychopaths.
Posted by: newc || 03/02/2015 20:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
27[untagged]
9Islamic State
7Govt of Iraq
4Govt of Iran
4Govt of Pakistan
3Arab Spring
2Abu Sayyaf
2Taliban
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
1Thai Insurgency
1al-Qaeda
1al-Shabaab
1Ansar al-Sharia
1Boko Haram
1Commies
1Houthis
1Lashkar e-Taiba

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In no particular order...
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2015-03-02
  Iraq Launches Offensive on ISIS North of Baghdad
Sun 2015-03-01
  Egyptian court declares Hamas a 'terrorist organization'
Sat 2015-02-28
  Boko Haram Fighters Turn to Cannibalism in Nigerian Forest
Fri 2015-02-27
  Third alleged accomplice in Copenhagen shootings arrested
Thu 2015-02-26
  Islamic State video shows destruction of ancient Iraqi artefacts
Wed 2015-02-25
  SECURITY MoD: Iraqi forces liberate most of al-Baghdadi, Anbar
Tue 2015-02-24
  ISIS executes three of its leaders for cowardice in Diyali
Mon 2015-02-23
  Libya: ISIS claims it bombed Iran envoy's residence
Sun 2015-02-22
  Hotel staffers arrested after deadly bombing
Sat 2015-02-21
  Dozens Dead in Shebab Attack on Mogadishu Hotel
Fri 2015-02-20
  45 dead in eastern Libya bombings, Islamic extremists claim responsibility
Thu 2015-02-19
  Rebels report death of 195 pro-Assad fighters in Aleppo
Wed 2015-02-18
  IS launches attack to regain Yazidi city of Shingal
Tue 2015-02-17
  Islamic State militants 'burn to death 45 in Iraq'
Mon 2015-02-16
  Egypt launches air strikes against IS militias in Libya


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