[Washington Examiner] MCALLEN, Texas — The sleepy-looking downtown of McAllen would give passersby no reason to believe it is the epicenter of a border surge that threatens to consume the Biden administration’s first months.
A large converted nightclub space with blacked-out windows has been transformed into a resting spot for migrant families, 600 of which are released to the Catholic Charities organization every day. An armed security guard stands at the front doors, which are locked for the safety of the masses inside.
Conditions back home in northern Central American countries have prompted multiple migration surges over the past decade. And while the U.S. government was hyperfocused on it under the Obama and Trump administrations, Sister Norma Seni Pimentel, executive director of the Catholic Charities humanitarian respite center, said they failed to address the push factors sufficiently. As a result, smugglers are still easily able to entice the vulnerable into taking on debts in the thousands in return for getting them to America.
"The cartels and the traffickers use anything that happens, whether it's a new president or a wall going up, they use it to their advantage to say, 'This is the best time to come,'" said Sister Norma when asked why the families have said they made the journey.
Those here were released by Border Patrol within the last 24 hours, after being taken into custody for illegally coming across the Rio Grande, which separates the United States from Mexico. Agents held the families before they were dropped off at a nearby parking lot. There, the U.S. government conducts rapid COVID-19 tests on everyone. Those who test negative are then walked by a Catholic Charities worker past a bus station to the respite center.
The flow of people is not as high as in 2019, but it is escalating each week.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
04/04/2021 02:05 ||
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#1
So why are the Catholic Charities not doing the charitable next action of getting these folks back to their country of origin and helping them be successful there?
[KhaamaPress] A civilians was killed and a policeman was injured in a roadside kaboom blast in Mazar-e-Sharif on Saturday.
Balkh police told media, the blast targeted a vehicle in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif at around 8:30 am in the morning.
The civilian was reportedly killed due to heavy maimed inflicted by the blast.
According to the Ministry of Interior at least six people including a child were killed in various types of Taliban ...Arabic for students... attacks in Laghman ...Afghan province with a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a repution for great wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
After that it was mostly notable for the production of dirt, rocks, and holy men... , Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Khost, Takhar and Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... provinces on Friday.
MoI indicated that more than 21 people were maimed during the incidents.
He promised a rally, but the photos at the link don’t make it look like many joined him.
[KhaamaPress] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... , Hizb-e-Islami leader among his supporters on Friday demanded President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... to resign for his failure to fix the security and disruption at the grinding of the peace processor.
Hekmatyar claimed that authorities at the Presidential Palace are trying to disrupt grinding of the peace processor.
The jihadist leader who is well known for bombing Kabul has called on Ghani to stop his "evil acts" and transfer the power to a new government.
According to Hekmatyar, his party’s protests are aimed at transferring the message for a change in the current political system, before the UN-led turkey summit, such demonstration will pressurize the government and that message will be conveyed to national and international parties that the nation requires an immediate change of the incumbent government.
During the protest the jihadist group leader Hikmatyar shared his remarks from well armored and protected booth.
So far, the Afghan government has not reacted to Hizb-e-Islami’s demands.
This comes as security situation across Afghanistan deteriorates, just recently five non-combatants were killed in a roadside kaboom blast in the city of Lashkargah on Friday.
Another explosion on the same day targeted a passenger vehicle in Kushk-e-Kohna district of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province. Local official said at least seven women were maimed in the earth-shattering kaboom.
No group has yet grabbed credit for both of the incidents.
[KhaamaPress] At least 26 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... members including three commanders were killed and 33 others maimed in an Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) operation in Faryab province on Friday night, Faryab police said in a statement.
Ministry of Defense in a released statement on Saturday said, at least 26 Taliban including group’s three key commanders were killed and 33 others were maimed in Afghan national defense and security forces operation in Faryab province on Friday night.
Continued on Page 49
[Aljazeera] Five civilians, including a child, have been killed when a suicide bomber detonated himself at a tea shop in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, according to police
"Around 7pm (16:00 GMT) in the evening, a suicide bomber detonated himself at a tea shop frequented by the youth," police spokesman Sadiq Dudishe said in a statement on Saturday.
A witness said the bomber walked into a crowd who were drinking tea in an open area near a police station.
"I was getting out of a restaurant just a few hundred metres away from where the blast occurred, I was shocked by the blast and it was huge. I saw people rushing to the scene and wounded being carried," said witness Ali Mohamed.
"Police cordoned off the area, but I saw several dead bodies carried away in an ambulance, they were young men, two of them from the neighbourhood where I live," he added.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] Simultaneous large explosions were heard in and around two Somali army bases on Saturday, with the military confirming at least nine of its people killed but asserting "heavy losses" among the attackers. The al-Shabaab ...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... holy warrior group grabbed credit.
Residents said the attacks occurred in Bariirre and Awdhegleh villages of Lower Shabelle region, 75 kilometers (46 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu.
Speaking to local media, Gen. Odawa Yusuf Ragheh, the commander of the Somali National Army, confirmed the twin attacks but said al-Shabaab had been repulsed with "heavy losses" among the holy warriors.
"They even left some of the bodies of their slain commanders," he added, saying his forces were still chasing the fleeing fighters.
Gen. Mohammed Tahlil Bihi, the commander of the infantry forces of the government, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that "we lost nine of our soldiers and 11 others got maimed from our side."
He added, "from the Shabaab, we killed 60 of their militias on one spot and 17 others near the other base," he said.
An al-Shabaab front man, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Musab, asserted that the group had killed 47 government fighters. In a statement read out on the holy warriors’ radio Andalus, he said the simultaneous attacks began with suicide boom-mobiles.
There have been fears that the al-Qaeda-linked group would be emboldened by Somalia’s current political crisis as President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed is under pressure to step aside. Elections meant for February have been delayed.
Mogadishu on Saturday witnessed the opening of a meeting between the federal government leaders, including the president, and the leaders of the five federal member states. They were expected to discuss the way forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[AnNahar] Four United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... peacekeepers were killed Friday when suspected jihadists staged a major attack on their camp in Aguelhok, northern Mali, the UN mission said.
The peacekeepers "bravely pushed back a complex attack carried out by several heavily armed terrorists," MINUSMA said, adding the attackers had suffered heavy losses and had abandoned "several of their dead".
In a statement, UN Secretary General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... said he "condemns in the strongest terms" the assault, commending the bravery of those who repelled the attack.
The incident left 19 maimed, the statement said, in addition to the four troops who were killed.
A source in MINUSMA said the attack occurred around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Algerian border, targeting a contingent of peacekeepers from Chad.
A UN source described the dawn raid as of "very large magnitude" by about 100 attackers on cycle of violences and in vehicles.
"The fighting lasted three hours... mortar shells, shooting exchanges... attempted suicide boom-mobileing," the source said.
He added that about 20 assailants had been killed.
A Chadian military source said "two of our forces' positions were attacked. We lost four people, including our forces' detachment commander, and 16 were maimed."
The UN force's statement called the attack another "attempt against the grinding of the peace processor" that will "in no way undermine its determination to continue the execution of its mandate".
It thanked "international forces for their aerial support".
The attack took to 10 the number of MINUSMA troops killed this year.
- SECOND ATTACK -
Also on Friday morning, two Malian soldiers were killed and around 10 maimed in an attack blamed on jihadists in Diafarabe in the country's centre, Mali's army said in a statement.
Local resident Youssouf Aya told AFP that he had seen a line of gunnies on cycle of violences headed toward a military post, then heard gunfire.
He said the assailants had "briefly occupied" the military post before leaving along the Niger River.
Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that first broke out in the north in 2012 before spreading to the centre and neighbouring Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... and Niger.
Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
La Belle France, the former colonial power, intervened in Mali in 2013 to beat back the jihadists and now has some 5,100 soldiers deployed across the semi-arid Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... On Friday, La Belle France's military issued a statement on a separate incident, saying a woman died and a child was slightly maimed in a fire linked to an operation in Mali.
It said a suspected jihadist was also killed and two others captured in the operation overnight Wednesday to Thursday in an area southeast of Tessalit in the country's north.
According to the statement, the soldiers were shot at by the suspected jihadist in a tent and returned fire. The tent caught fire with the woman and child inside, it said. The child was evacuated to a military hospital.
#3
A well-armed old man of Ontario
Grew weary of hearing our stereo,
So, hello, long johns
On cold, candle-lit dawns,
And to all the mod cons, a fond cheerio!
[DW] South Africa has deployed troops in Mozambique following a jihadist attack on the northern town of Palma. This comes as French energy giant Total withdraws all staff from the region.
South Africa deployed troops to Mozambique on Friday following an attack by "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.... " (IS) gunnies in the northern town of Palma last month. The announcement was made during a televised address by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who emphasized the need to protect South African nationals in neighboring Mozambique.
"We remain involved with securing the safety of our people in Mozambique — in Pemba and in Palma," Ramaphosa said.
The attack on Palma has forced thousands of people to flee the town and seek safety in the port town of Pemba, which serves as the capital of Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province.
Ramaphosa said the South African military began rescuing nationals stranded in Mozambique and recovered the body of a South African killed in the attack.
FRENCH ENERGY GIANT CEASES OPERATIONS IN THE REGION
Many of the foreign workers in the gas-rich town are employed by French energy giant Total, with security sources telling news agencies as of Friday that the company has ceased operations in the area and withdrawn all staff.
Total planned to invest $20 billion (€16.9 billion) in a liquified natural gas plant located near Palma, but suspended construction on the site last week.
The Mozambican military has claimed that the Total plant is protected, yet drone surveillance had reportedly shown that the jihadists were close to the gas site, which is located on the Afungi peninsula.
[AlAhram] Spanish police said on Saturday they had arrested 100 members of a gang which ferried hashish and marijuana from Morocco to Spain in high powered speed boats.
The gang filled their boats with the drugs and headed across the Mediterranean and up the River Guadalquivir near Seville in southern Spain.
During a series of raids, police seized more than five tonnes of hashish and 230 kg of marijuana, said the Civil Guard in a statement.
Some members of the extensive gang were employed to make sure the speed boats, which consume a large amount of fuel, were always ready to use.
Other gang members hid the drugs in trucks carrying fruit which took the illicit merchandise from southern Spain towards La Belle France to supply dealers across Europe, the police said.
Officers also seized a simulated rifle, a taser gun and five vehicles including two trucks.
The 100 suspects who were arrested will face court at a date to be arranged, police said.
[ENGLISH.AAWSAT] Ottoman Turkish police on Friday detained a former politician from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the party said, after his parliamentary status was revoked last month due to a finalized sentence against him on terrorism charges.
Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activist, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for terrorism propaganda, in a ruling later upheld by the top appeals court.
The charges were related to a link he shared on Twitter to a news story that included comments by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Gergerlioglu denies any wrongdoing.
"This is a shame for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... . This is a shame for the ruling party. I am being punished for opposing injustice," Gergerlioglu told broadcaster Arti TV, adding that police were waiting outside his door to take him away.
The HDP said it expected Gergerlioglu to be sent to jail.
Thousands of members of the HDP, Turkey’s third-largest party, have been tried as part of a years-long crackdown on the party over alleged links to the PKK.
Many prominent members of the party have been tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! , including its former co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, one of Turkey’s most well-known politicians.
Last month, a top prosecutor moved to shut down the party, after months of calls from President Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist MHP allies.
Critics say Ottoman Turkish courts are influenced by politics, while Erdogan and his AK Party say they are independent.
Turkey’s top court sent the indictment calling for the HDP to be closed back to the prosecutor on procedural grounds this week. But it can be re-submitted after the necessary changes.
The HDP denies links to terrorism and has described the move to ban it as a "political coup".
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... . It has fought an insurgency against the state in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/04/2021 00:00 ||
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[OneIndia] The National Investigation Agency has filed a chargesheet against two ISIS sympathisers from Karnataka.
Back in the old days we called it Mysore, for those who remember such things. The capitol is still Bangalore, if that’s any comfort, though sometimes they call it Bengaluru.
The two persons are Ahamed Abdul Cader and Irfan Nasir. Both the accused persons were part of a terrorist group which identified impressionable Moslem youth and further motivated, radicalised them and also provided funds for their visit to Syria to further the ideology and activities of banned terrorist organization ISIS.
The case was registered by the NIA in September last year after the examination of Dr Abdur Rahman in an 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.... Khorasan province case, who was motivated and sent to Syria to join the ISIS in 2013-14 by the terrorist group formed by the accused in the case, according to the NIA official.
The NIA had busted the ISIS module wherein, the names of various persons responsible for radicalising and funding the visits of Moslem youth from Bengaluru/Karnataka to ISIS-controlled areas emerged, the official said.
Cader, Nasir and some of their associates, who are members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international Islamist and fundamentalist organization, had formed a group namely 'Koran Circle' to further their ISIS-related activities, the NIA official said.
Based on the forensic examination of digital devices seized during the search and meticulous analysis of funds raised and provided by the members of Koran Circle, roles of various accused/suspects located abroad and in India, emerged which are under investigation in the case, the official said.
Crime lord, drug dealer, eager Pakistani tool, and Number 3 on the FBI’s World Most Wanted Fugitive list with $25 million head money, Dawood Ibrahim still finds time from his no doubt luxurious Karachi estate to continue worsening the lives of ordinary Indians.
[OneIndia] The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a man who operated a drugs factory of runaway don Dawood Ibrahim in Dongri area of south Mumbai,
...Dongri is Mr. Ibrahim’s birthplace...
an official said on Friday.
A team led by zonal director Sameer Wankhede arrested Danish Chikna from Rajasthan with the help of the local police on Thursday evening, the official said.
The NCB has been on the lookout for Chikna, who operated a drug manufacturing unit, since the last few months following a series of raids in Dongri area, he said.
The NCB also recovered some banned narcotic substances from the wanted accused's car, he said.
[AlAhram] The shootout erupted shortly after scores of counterinsurgency police and soldiers launched an operation based on a tip about the presence of murderous Moslems in Kakpora village in southern Pulwama district.
Anti-India festivities erupted between government forces and residents of a village in disputed 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.... on Friday following a gunbattle in which troops killed three suspected bad boys, police and residents said.
The shootout erupted shortly after scores of counterinsurgency police and soldiers launched an operation based on a tip about the presence of murderous Moslems in Kakpora village in southern Pulwama district, Inspector General Vijay Kumar said.
Kumar said two of the three slain murderous Moslems had been involved in fatally shooting a policeman guarding the home of a local politician from India's ruling party in the region's main city on Thursday. He said troops recovered two rifles and a pistol from the site of Friday's clash, and that one of the recovered weapons had been taken by the murderous Moslems from the slain policeman.
Residents said troops used explosives to blast a civilian house during the fighting, a common anti-militancy tactic employed by Indian troops in Kashmir.
As the fighting raged, hundreds of people marched nearby in solidarity with the rebels while chanting slogans seeking the end of Indian rule over the region.
That’s one way to show faith in Allan, I s’pose — wandering near a battle is considered vaguely suicidal in non-inshallah societies.
Government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at the stone-throwing protesters.
At least four civilians were maimed in the festivities, including a woman with a bullet injury in her leg.
Natural consequences of stupidity. They’re lucky they didn’t all lose an eye.
Kumar said the woman was injured in the crossfire between Indian troops and bad boys.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistain and is claimed by both in its entirety. Many Moslem Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pak rule or as an independent country.
Possibly fewer than previously, but given that returning native Kashmiris and outsiders are moving in, the rebel-supporting Muslims are being diluted.
Indian officials describe the Kashmir militancy as Pakistain-sponsored terrorism. Pakistain denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.
...legitimately supported by Pakistan.
Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
In a surprising decision last month, India and Pakistain agreed to reaffirm their 2003 cease-fire accord that has silenced guns along the de facto frontier dividing Kashmir. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... a crackdown by Indian forces and attacks by rebels have continued inside the Indian-held portion of Kashmir.
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.
[Washington Examiner] MCALLEN, Texas — The sleepy-looking downtown of McAllen would give passersby no reason to believe it is the epicenter of a border surge that threatens to consume the Biden administration’s first months.
...Arabic for 
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
...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 
...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 
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
