...also in our archives as Haroon al-Afghani. Asadullah Haroon “al Afghani” Gul, as he is listed in his lawsuit against Donald J. Trump, et al demanding his release as a mere member of merely Al Qaeda-linked Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin rather than a full member of boogey-groups Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The lawsuit ignored the fact that the innocent economist was also an admitted courier for senior Al Qaeda leaders...
one of two Afghans recently released from the US detention area in Guantanamo Bay, arrived in Kabul on Saturday.
Haroon said US forces treated him in a bad manner and that the US lacked documents to prove his guilt.
"There was no legal grounds for detaining me in Guantanamo. They didn’t have any legal documents about me. They would make allegations one after another. I think they were just wasting time and then finally thought to free me," he said. "Thanks, Asadullah. Your valuable intel helped us eliminate multiple ISIS, AQ, and Taliban heads. Your account has been paid. Stay in touch!"
The Islamic Emirate said that Haroon was freed as a result of engagement between the US and Kabul but did not provide details.
Haroon was welcomed by senior Islamic Emirate officials, including Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s front man.
"The engagement which we now have with the US--we have made good progress in this regard and it resulted in the release of (Haroon). We hope for further progress and another brother of ours will be freed too," Muttaqi told news hounds.
"The Islamic Emirate says to the nation that we will reach out to any Afghans who are detained abroad. And we will address their problems. We are assessing the cases of detainees in other countries too and some of them will be soon, inshallah, be released," Mujahid told the news hounds.
Haroon was arrested in 2007 by US forces in eastern 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.. province.
[ToloNews] The former police head for the Qaisar district of Faryab province under the previous government, Nizamuddin Qaisari, returned to Kabul on Sunday after spending 10 months in Tehran.
According to Qaisari, the Islamic Emirate should include all of the nation's tribes in the government in order to achieve long-lasting peace in the country.
"I ask leaders of the Islamic Emirate to include all the tribes in the government, because Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... s, Aimaqs are all the people of Afghanistan," said Nizamuddin Qaisari the former police chief for Qaisar district, Faryab.
Following the tensions between the previous government and Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... , Ghani's vice president, Qaisari, who was loyal to Dostum, rose to fame.
"You should provide me a portion in the government because there are a lot of people of Turk decent. They should have a share of our intellectuals and cadres and appoint them to departments and ministries," said Nizamuddin Qaisari, the former police chief for Qaisar district, Faryab.
"We call on these people to come to the country, the security is provided, come and live peacefully," said Mohammad Amin, a resident of Badakhshan.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory, Igor and Oleg were discussing what the quickest way might be to deal with the monster... the "Return and Communications with Former Afghan Officials and Political Figures" commission called on Afghans who have fled to other countries due to political developments to return to Afghanistan.
"All those who served in the previous government, if they served in high positions or low, this is the best opportunity to use the amnesty decree of the Amir al-Muominin and return to their country," said Ahmadullah Wasiq, front man for the commission.
According to the commission, more than 150 former government officials and political figures have returned to the country so far through the commission of "Return and Communications with Former Afghan Officials and Political Figures."
Watch: #Afghanistan’s #Taliban administration calls on international governments to roll back sanctions and lift a freeze on central bank assets following the earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands homeless.https://t.co/ukG5Li7bzPpic.twitter.com/oub5sUrhn3
[HODHODYEMENNEWS] Mahdi al-Mashat, President of the Supreme Political Council in Sana’a has received a telephone call from his Iranian counterpart, President Ebrahim Raisi of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran.
During the phone call, they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to strengthen and develop them, in order to meet the aspirations of the two brotherly peoples.
President al-Mashat appreciated the principled position of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of 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... in opposing the Saudi-led aggression and blockade 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... . He also hailed the firm position of Iran on the Paleostinian issue and the issues of the greater Islamic nation.
President al-Mashat expressed the Yemeni Republic’s "aspiration to strengthen the relations of cooperation between the two countries and push them to wider heights."
He also stressed Yemen’s "keenness on peace which preserves the rights of the Yemeni people and meets their aspirations for freedom and independence as well as ending the aggression and lifting of the blockade."
For his part, President Raisi reiterated Iran’s support for Yemen’s illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He said that "Iran supports any ceasefire that would lead to bringing full peace in Yemen and the lifting of the economic siege on the country." Raisi furthermore expressed Iran’s readiness to send humanitarian aid.
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06/27/2022 00:00 ||
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[HODHODYEMENNEWS] Head of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) and member of the Riyadh-formed Presidential Council, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, has on Sunday ousted two ministers in the government loyal to the Saudi-led coalition.
This coincides with the expansion of the protests in the southern and eastern areas 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... especially in Aden and Hadhramaut provinces.
Southern media reported that al-Zubaidi issued a decision to suspend the Minister of Oil, Abdulsalam Abboud, the Minister of Electricity, Anwar Kalashat, and the director of the oil company from their duties.
Al-Zubaidi had held a meeting with the government and demanded that it quickly complete service projects.
The decision comes at a time when protests against the increase in fuel prices and continuous electricity cuts continue for the second week in a row.
Earlier, the Presidential Council’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, admitted the coalition’s inability to fulfill its obligations in confronting the worsening situation in the southern areas.
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06/27/2022 00:00 ||
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#Turkey will reconsider a 2004 decision to abolish capital punishment, the justice minister says, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raises the death penalty in connection with the cause of this week’s #wildfires.#deathpenaltyhttps://t.co/Vv5mRHuBsl
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
While I'll the 1st to say, Capital Punishment IS A DETERRENT. But, it must have a series of automatic Checks and Balances taken over a 3 to 4 year to be effective. Where each step insures it is only used for criminal acts and NOT abused for Political, Elitist or Religiously reasons.
Whereas, Life w/o parole is basically a Retirement package for too many criminals.
[AlAhram] Diplomats from the United States, Israel and four Arab countries will convene in Bahrain Monday, Israeli officials said, three months after they vowed to boost cooperation at a landmark meeting in Israel.
The talks in the Bahraini capital Manama will bring together foreign ministry officials from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco -- which all normalised ties with the Jewish state in 2020 -- and from Egypt, which made peace with Israel in 1979.
In March, they met for the first time on Israeli soil in the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev desert, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joining his counterparts.
The UAE and Bahrain forged ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, brokered by former US president Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... . Morocco then re-established relations with Israel under a separate Trump-brokered agreement.
The Abraham Accords infuriated the Paleostinians, who argued that they marked a betrayal of a decades-old Arab consensus to isolate Israel until it agrees to the establishment of a Paleostinian state, with its capital in east Jerusalem.
Indeed.
Washington has said it wanted the meeting to be annual and to include the Paleostinian Authority and Jordan, another Arab nation that recognises Israel, but which has seen rising criticism over the status of Jerusalem.
That’s one way to drag everything to a shuddering halt...
Blinken has voiced strong support for the Abraham Accords but cautioned at the Negev meeting that they cannot replace Israeli-Paleostinian peace-building.
The meetings aim to deepen cooperation on areas including water, tourism, health, energy, food security and on regional security.
Israel has also found common cause with Gulf Arab states in their tense relationship with Iran's Shia holy manal state.
Monday's "meeting will also serve as a milestone ahead of the US president's expected visit to the Middle East", the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. A latter-day version of Romulus Augustulus, only more friendly to the barbarians at the gates... will travel to Israel, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Saudi 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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... from July 13 to 16, his first trip to the Middle East since taking office.
Once there, he will attend a Gulf Cooperation Council summit with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, joined by the leaders of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, a US official said.
The view from Egypt, which really wants to be acknowledged as a macher in the Arab world.
[AlAhram] Saudi Crown-Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists. As crown prince, Moe has quietly jettisoned his country's policy of trying to impose its religion on the rest of the world... paid Cairo a two-day visit on Monday to discuss Biden’s upcoming visit to Jeddah. Bahraini King Hamad ...King of Bahrain (since 14 February 2002), having previously been its emir (from 6 March 1999). He is a Sunni, while the rest of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite... bin Eissa al-Khalifa and Jordanian King Abdullah II had already met with President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi in Sharm El-Sheikh to the same end. Both meetings confirm Egypt’s central role in reaching a united Arab stand ahead of the widely anticipated, mid-July meeting between the US president and leaders of nine Arab nations: the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] The bodies of three Kurdish migrants colonists recovered from the Greek coast earlier this month will be returned to the Kurdistan Region on July 2, the representative of an organization working with refugees and displaced persons announced on Sunday.
The three Kurdish migrants colonists are set to arrive in the homeland through Erbil International Airport on July 2 at 4:05 pm, said Hussein Hama Salih, the Greece representative of Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.
He confirmed the three migrants colonists’ bodies as those of 32-year-old Ameera Othman, four-year-old Hanasa Hazhar, and seven-year-old Rezhwar Rebwar. Their bodies were identified on June 15.
Greece is a key route used by refugees and migrants colonists as an entry point into the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... At least three separate migrant boats sank in the Aegean Sea late last year, leading to the drowning of at least 30 people, including Kurds, between December 21 and 25.
Othman, Hazhar and Rebwar drowned after their boat capsized on the night of December 21, according to Lutka.
An 11-year-old boy who lost his entire family in the Aegean Sea was returned to his hometown of Koya in March.
Salih in mid-June told Rudaw that the two children whose bodies will be returned next Saturday belonged to the same family, and they were from Koya town.
The Kurdistan Region saw a large exodus of its youth last year, when tens of thousands of mostly young Kurds left the Region and headed to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... seeking a better life, using smuggling routes. A number of these migrants colonists met their unfortunate end on the freezing Belarus-Poland border and others drowned at sea.
The bodies of 16 migrants colonists who drowned in the deadliest migrant disaster in the English Channel were returned to the Kurdistan Region in late December, with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) describing the tragedy as the "worst disaster on record."
People, mostly youth, take the perilous journey away from the Kurdistan Region through smuggling routes trying to escape an ongoing crisis grasping the Region — with high unemployment, corruption, political instability, and a fragile economy influencing their decision to depart.
The Kurdish government has acknowledged the existence of systemic issues and financial hardships but has said it is working to address these problems.
The man who fatally shot Jordanian university student Iman Arsheed shot himself in the head after he was located and surrounded by authorities, the Jordan Public Security announces in a statement
[An Nahar] Israel on Sunday approved housing allowances for South Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... Army (SLA) veterans residing in Israeli territory, providing so-called "historic justice" to former members of the militia, officials said.
The decision, passed by the government, would see some 400 former SLA fighters who did not hold commanding ranks receiving a one-off grant of 550,000 shekels (around $161,000) towards buying a home over the next four years, the Israeli army said in a statement.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he was "proud" of the approval, hailing it as "historic justice to those who fought shoulder to shoulder with us, and were uprooted from their homes and homeland."
The army said the grant provides "a solution for the housing shortage of around 400 families that were not properly accommodated upon their arrival in Israel," noting the assistance would be given to SLA widows too, "provided that they reside in Israel."
The SLA was formed in 1976 as a splinter from the Lebanese Army, whose ranks were divided a year after the start of the civil war. Initially it was called the Free Lebanon Army.
The conflict shifted dramatically when Israel invaded the south in 1978 to stop attacks by the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) emanating from Lebanon, and the militia started taking its orders from the Israeli army, which trained, funded and supported it.
When the Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, thousands of SLA members and their families chose to cross the border too, for fear of reprisals from the groups they once fought -- particularly Hezbollah -- and settle in Israel or elsewhere. Others stayed and faced trial, receiving lenient sentences.
Amnesia Amnesty International and other human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups have often accused the SLA of torturing prisoners, particularly at the notorious Khiyam Prison.
The SLA, generally commanded by Lebanese Maronite Christians, was formed during the country’s bloody civil war with training and support from Israel, which hoped to see the formation of a Lebanese government with which it could make peace. Israel and Lebanon have formally remained at war with one another since Israel’s creation in 1948.
From the mid-1980s until the summer of 2000, the Israel Defense Forces maintained outposts in southern Lebanon, dubbed collectively the Security Zone, which were there both to assist the SLA to maintain control over the region and to prevent terror groups in Lebanon from attacking northern Israel.
Following the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, thousands of SLA soldiers came to Israel for fear of persecution and reprisals from their countrymen, in large part due to the militia’s brutal tactics in southern Lebanon during that period, particularly in its notorious al-Khiam prison, where torture was rampant. Thousands more SLA members remained in Lebanon or were exiled following Israel’s chaotic withdrawal.
Sunday’s bill was jointly suggested by Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, after the IDF established a panel for addressing “gaps” in the absorption of SLA veterans in Israel, some four years ago.
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[An Nahar] Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... 's caretaker interior minister has given instructions to security forces to stop gatherings of the LGBTQ community, following pressure from religious institutions.
Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi instructed Lebanon's Internal Security Forces and the General Security agency to "immediately take the necessary measures to prevent any type of celebration, meeting or gathering" by the LGBTQ community.
The orders followed "calls on social media to organize parties and events promoting homosexuality in Lebanon, and following communication from religious figures rejecting the spread of this phenomenon," he said.
Members of the LGBTQ community enjoy more freedom in Lebanon than in most other Middle East countries but still lack rights and face constant harassment.
"This phenomenon is contrary to the habits and customs of our society" and religious principles, Mawlawi said, adding that "personal freedoms cannot be invoked."
The move sparked anger and sarcasm on social media.
"What he (the minister) calls traditions and religious principles are inherited prejudices that repress the rights of thousands of citizens," lawyer Nizar Saghieh said.
LGBTQ events in Lebanon are often canceled, usually following pressure from religious authorities, and security forces are known to raid nightclubs and other locations frequented by members of the community.
Lebanon's top Sunni Moslem mufti, Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, has said that Dar al-Fatwa, the country's top Sunni religious authority, "would not allow the legalisation of homosexuality."
In 2019, a top Lebanese music festival canceled a concert by Mashrou' Leila, arguably the country's best-known band, whose lead singer is openly gay.
Clerics had called for the cancellation of the concert in Byblos because some of the group's songs were deemed offensive to Christians.
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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.
...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier...
...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 
...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. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
[Rudaw] The bodies of three Kurdish 
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
