[PRESSTV] A senior aide to Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
alleges that the country’s recent presidential election is fraudulent.
Abdullah’s running mate for second vice president, Asadullah Saadati, made the accusation at a presser on Saturday, claiming that "circles within the Independent Election Commission (IEC) are colluding with the State Building team and are trying to organize a systematic fraud."
The State Building team is the campaign of Afghanistan’s incumbent 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... , Abdullah’s main rival in the September vote.
"We assure the people of Afghanistan that we will not let anyone violate the election law, including the commission, and if the commission follows the law, we will stand beside them and if they violate the law, we will stand against them," said Saadati.
The guarantee for accuracy is the biometric device, and the only valid votes are those processed through biometric devices, but for the past two days the IEC has been entering non-biometric votes into the system, which is contrary to the law as well as pre-election agreements, Afghanistan’s Tolo News further quoted Saadati as saying.
"Some people in the IEC are trying to enter fraudulent votes into the system and yesterday we noticed that the process of entering the fraudulent votes in the system was underway and if this process continues, our team will stand against any suspicious action," he added.
Election officials have already urged all candidates to show restraint until preliminary results are out next week. But two days after the September 28 presidential election, Abdullah claimed victory against his rival Ghani. His declaration sparked criticism both at home and abroad.
Abdullah is seeking the presidency for the third time, after losing in 2009 and 2014.
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[AlAhram] The Giza Criminal Court sentenced six defendants to death on terror-related charges on Saturday in the case of the 2016 terrorist attack on the Three Pyramids Hotel.
Eight other defendants received life sentences, and 12 juveniles received 10-year imprisonment.
The sentences can be appealed.
Another stage of the multi-year hell of appeals that is the Egyptian justice process.
The prosecution accused the defendants of playing leading roles in an outlawed terrorist group between mid-2015 and February 2016, providing it with weapons and money.
They were also accused of attacking the Three Pyramids Hotel, illegal disposition of firearms and ammunition, using force with police, and vandalising public property.
The prosecution charged the defendants with "the formation of a terrorist organization, membership in a group established in violation of the provisions of the law and the constitution and that aims to disrupt state institutions and operations of public authorities."
The prosecution also charged them with "establishing special operations committees for the Moslem Brüderbund in Giza that use terrorism as a means to forcibly change the governing regime, and to launch attacks on individuals as well as public and tourist facilities."
The charges stem from an attack in Jan. 2016 on an Egyptian security post outside the Three Pyramids Hotel.
No one was hurt in the incident, but the attack damaged the hotel’s facade and also a bus parked in front of the building, which was in use by a group of visiting Arab Israelis.
Do NOT mess with the tourists, guys. The Powers That Be get very annoyed when you screw up the income stream.
[PRESSTV] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has been holding talks with Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s popular Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... movement for the first time in more than two years in a sign that the kingdom is willing to end hostilities, The Financial Times reports.
The "back-channel" negotiations began after the Houthis announced they would stop launching retaliatory drone and missile attacks against positions inside Saudi Arabia if Riyadh stopped its aggression, the paper said Saturday.
"There has been a lot of progress in the talks," a Dubai-based political commentator was quoted as saying.
"We are now in the last five minutes of the Yemen war," Abdulkhaleq Abdulla told the British newspaper.
The paper, citing a Western diplomat, said the drone attacks on the Saudi oil facilities were key to the shift in Riyadh’s position.
"Another factor behind Riyadh’s shift has been the weakening of its coalition after the United Arab Emirates," it added.
The UAE is Saudi Arabia’s main ally in the military campaign against Yemen. But Abu Dhabi announced in July that it was drawing down its troop presence in Yemen.
The Saudi-led war has been deadlocked for years and experts have persistently said there is no military solution.
Top US officials visited Saudi Arabia after the recent drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's heart of oil industry and reportedly urged them to open negotiation channels with Yemen's Houthis.
Ooooohhhh — I do believe they mean that to be a threat. Perhaps they should consult Saddam Hussein, which can easily be arranged.
[PRESSTV] Head of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... 's Supreme Revolutionary Committee has called on the US to "learn from Vietnam" after Washington announced plans to deploy about 2,000 additional troops 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... .
An "increase in numbers does not mean victory," Mohammed Ali al-Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... warned in a series of tweets, adding the US should also learn from its "useless wars" in countries such as Yemen and Iraq.
The official vowed that the Yemeni nation would continue its resistance against Saudi Arabia and other countries which are supported by the US in their war on the impoverished nation.
"Your previous forces, weapons and military commanders, which proved that the US is killing the Yemeni people, did not frighten us," he said.
"An increase in your numbers will surely not be a concern for us," al-Houthi added.
The remarks came a few hours after Washington announced the deployment of 1,800 additional troops, two fighter squadrons, two Patriot batteries, and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in the oil-rich kingdom.
[DAWN] EU governments threatened sanctions against The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... on Friday over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan’s warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... if they did not back him.
Turkey has stepped up its air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, escalating an offensive that has drawn warnings of a humanitarian disaster and also raised the prospect of new US sanctions on Ankara.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , which Turkey still formally aspires to join despite its growing criticism of Ankara’s human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... record, had already condemned the Ottoman Turkish offensive but has been infuriated by Erdogan’s threats to send refugees to Europe.
"We will never accept that refugees are weaponised and used to blackmail us," European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, said on Twitter. "President Erdogan’s threats ... are totally out of place."
Italia’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also accused Erdogan of blackmail and said the military operation should immediately end. La Belle France proposed economic sanctions on Turkey, a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... ally, while Sweden’s parliament demanded an EU arms embargo.
Further piling pressure on Ankara ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday and a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, Cyprus and Greece urged economic sanctions against Turkey over Ottoman Turkish gas drilling in waters off southern Cyprus.
A senior EU official said the European Union was spending 6 billion euros ($6.63 billion) on supporting the Syrian refugees currently living in camps inside Turkey, adding that "to use this as leverage is totally unacceptable".
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#Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says mediation and negotiation will not take place with ‘terrorists’ and that ‘we have tried peaceful solutions’ previously on the northern Syria incursion. pic.twitter.com/JKbRgR0wYr
[PRESSTV] Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... says Ankara will not stop its military operation against Kurdish turbans in northeastern Syria "no matter what anyone says", a day after he vowed to flood Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... with millions of refugees if the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... brands the offensive an invasion.
Ottoman Turkish military forces and Ottoman Turkish-backed turbans of the so-called Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) on Wednesday launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion of northeast Syria in a declared attempt to eliminate Kurdish turbans from the so-called People's Protection Units (YPG) to push them away from border areas.
Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bad boy group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... since 1984.
The YPG, which itself is the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), constitutes the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an anti-Damascus alliance of predominantly Kurdish bad boys.
"We will never stop this step we have taken against the PYD/YPG... We will not stop it no matter what anyone says," Erdogan said on Friday, adding, "We’re receiving threats from right and left, saying stop this progress."
The Ottoman Turkish leader once again vowed that the cross-border military operation ‐ called Operation Peace Spring - will continue until all YPG turbans withdraw from northern Syria.
"Our fight will continue until all turbans move further to the south of the 32-kilometer long border that Mr. [Donald] Trump has mentioned. They will abandon this area," Erdogan said, referring to the US president and the area where the Kurdish turbans are operating now.
[IsraelNationalNews] US President Donald Trump responded to criticism of the withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria, calling the Middle East "quicksand" and those who got the US into wars in the Middle East "inept."
Writing on his Twitter account: Trump said: "The same people that got us into the Middle East Quicksand, 8 Trillion Dollars and many thousands of lives (and millions of lives when you count the other side), are now fighting to keep us there. Don’t listen to people that haven’t got a clue. They have proven to be inept!"
#1
Once again, he's not wrong. If they were the least bit competent we'd have won a long time ago. It took us only 4 years to defeat both Axis powers, and they were far more formidable than any country in the Middle East.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
10/13/2019 6:14 Comments ||
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#2
What if these fellows were not actually "inept." What if participation in 'endless wars' was the intended goal ?
Closing Friday: LMT $381.47, BA $374.92, GD $179.63, NOC $362.22
#4
Trump takes every solders death personally. Every law enforcement officer death as well. He will do everything in his power to prevent death. These endless wars with no exit strategy will stop. He is running the show. He makes a promise and he delivers.
#5
The rest of the world would hate the USA just as much if we stayed home and tended our own knitting. It would not necessarily be cheaper but at least we'd be wasting our money on ourselves. I still believe a rock solid defense of CONUS could be very profitable for the big contractors. Only downside for them is they'd have to deliver stuff that works. And we still need Prompt Global Strike backed up by diplomats who can explain "Yes, it works and yes we will use it on you if you don't listen carefully."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/13/2019 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Syria is a tar baby. No one can even begin to parse that conflict and tell us, in simple English, who's fighting whom, and why, and where, and who's up and who's down - let alone clearly articulate what if any national interest us at stake there for the United States.
For anyone wishing to understand the hysterical, confused and dysfunctional state of US foreign policy and grand strategy in the 21st century, our Syria policy (ex-Trump) is Exhibit A.
[NYPOST] President Trump acted unlawfully when he declared a national emergency in order to fund his long-promised border wall, a federal judge ruled Friday.
Texas federal Judge David Briones’ order left open the option that the justice could also temporarily bar use of the funds to construct the wall at the southern border. Appointed by....*drumroll, please* Bill Clinton
The County of El Paso and an organization called Border Network for Human Rights sued Trump and the administration earlier this year, claiming the president violated the law when he declared a national emergency in order to divert funds from the Department of Defense to bankroll the project.
The judge agreed, writing Friday that the law "expressly forbids" the use of money appropriated by Congress for a purpose outside its original purpose.
Briones instructed lawyers for the plaintiffs to file proposed parameters within the next 10 days specifying the scope of the injunction they’re seeking to levy against the wall.
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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#1
David Briones is a federal judge on senior status with the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.He joined the court in 1994 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton.
#5
Civil 'servants' and black robed aristocracy. De facto life appointments. Maybe, just maybe, organizations stop working when those organized decide they run things not the people. Everyone should be able to be held accountable by term/employment limits that include the opportunity for the 'employer' to opt out of their services. An 'opt out' that works routinely, not rarely.
[PRESSTV] Thousands of people erupted into the streets in the Pak capital Islamabad to protest against the unending curfew and communication blackout in the disputed Indian-controlled 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.... . The measures, imposed by India, came after New Delhi ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in early August.
Since then, there has been no letup in protests in Pakistain and in many major Western capitals.
Pak protesters say the international community has failed to address the issue of Kashmir properly.
The Pak government has also reiterated its anger over New Delhi’s measures about Kashmir.
Pakistain has also warned the international community to get ready to face the consequences for failing to pressure India to resolve Kashmir dispute peacefully. Consequences? How cute
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
the international community has failed to address the issue of Kashmir properly.
warned the international community to get ready
What a bunch of deluded jerks. Either that, or they laugh at the statements they are forced to make when alone.
Former Iraqi VP Tariq al-Hashemi endorses the Turkish operation in northern #Syria and says the goals of Turkey are “noble” and must be understood by the international community in a tweet.
[PRESSTV] An official says 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 a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... will not let attacks on its vessels go unanswered after an Iranian oil tanker was hit by two suspicious explosions in the Red Sea early Friday.
"Piracy and banditry in international waterways which is done with the aim of making shipping lanes for commercial vessels insecure will not go unanswered," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said on Saturday. Someone left the irony on...
On Friday, the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) reported that the SABITI tanker had been hit by two separate explosions near the Saudi port city of Jeddah. The blasts caused an oil spill that was stopped shortly after.
Shamkhani said a special committee has been set up to investigate the attack on the SABITI tanker that was targeted by two missiles off the coast of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... in the Red Sea. The panel's report, he said, will be submitted to responsible authorities in order to make a decision.
"By examining the available video images and information gathered [from the incident], the main clues to this dangerous adventurism have been obtained," Shamkhani added.
The top security official recalled "destructive moves" against other Iranian oil tankers in the Red Sea in recent months, citing the Happiness-1 and the Helm.
Happiness-1 faced "engine failure" off Jeddah on April 30 and was later transferred to the Saudi port city for maintenance. The Saudis initially refused to let the vessel go, demanding some $10 million in maintenance fees before releasing it on July 20.
[DAILYSABAH] PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG) is no different than ISIS ...embracing their inner Islamic Brute... terrorists, the head of a Syria-based Kurdish association said. "Please don't kill me"
"We as Syrian Kurds do not make a distinction between the PYD, YPG, there is simply the PKK, they are the same as ISIS terrorists," President of the Independent Syrian Kurds Association Abdulaziz Tammo said.
He noted that the YPG fighters are not Syrian Kurds, No, no! Certainly not!
as they come from the PKK's camps in Mount Qandil, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... .
Tammo noted that their association wants the Ottoman Turkish military to successfully complete its operation and clear YPG bandidosbandidos krazed killers from the area and establish a "peace zone," to allow around a million Syrian Kurds who fled YPG persecution to safely return.
He noted that the people of the region want to return to their homeland and will celebrate it if PKK-affiliated bandidosbandidos krazed killers are removed from the area.
"The PKK bandidosbandidos krazed killers pit Kurds against Kurds, Arabs against Arabs," he said.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting bandidosbandidos krazed killers affiliated with ISIS and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.
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.
... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
US President Donald Trump responded to criticism of the withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria, calling the Middle East "quicksand" and those who got the US into wars in the Middle East "inept."
.jpg "Kashmir")
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it 
...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 
...embracing their inner Islamic Brute...
