[Guardian] Adverts featuring the Virgin founder and Chinese celebrities highlight that the keratin found in rhino horn has no more health benefits than chewing your own fingernails. Another business development opportunity for 'Big Pharma' and Planned Parenthood. Who knew ?
[DAWN] WHILE President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... lamented that his country was the "top target for all terrorist groups in the region", Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wasted no time in blaming the bad boyIslamic 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.... group for Tuesday's carnage in the heart of Istanbul.
The suicide kaboom at the tourist hub should be seen against the background of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's stepped-up role in the anti-IS coalition and the military reverses His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... 's hordes have of late been suffering.
Ankara has allowed American warplanes to use its Incirlik base, while the Turkish air force, too, has been bombing IS targets in Syria.
Moreover, the overall military situation doesn't seem to be going in the bad boy group's favour. Last month, it lost Ramadi to Iraqi forces, while there are reports that some IS commanders are deserting.
Observers believe that the city of Manjib could be retaken next by Syrian forces. No wonder, IS should have thought it fit to strike what is Europe's biggest city (in terms of population) and convey a deadly message -- that it can strike wherever and whenever it wants. The carnage in Gay Paree is still fresh in everybody's mind.
Until late last year, Turkey had not really shown much zeal in taking on IS, even when the snuffies had come as close to its border as Kobane.
Instead, the Erdogan government seemed focused on ending the Bashir al-Assad regime. Its other concerns were the Kurdish militia in Syria and the PKK, with which the ceasefire has all but collapsed. While Ankara must seek a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue, the Erdogan government has no choice but to throw its full weight behind the US-led coalition to wipe out IS and give peace and dignity to the people in what is the heart of the Middle East.
Situated strategically, Turkey cannot anymore ignore IS terror attacks on its soil or sit on the sidelines while the snuffies remain in possession of large chunks of territory and use it as a base for international terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
I could see Recep being tipped off by his ISIS buddies and allowing this to happen. Don't forget, there's a different mindset at play in this part of the world with regards to 'collateral damage'.
Promotes his 'we're all in this together' meme, and 'solidarity' with the western powers, plus obfuscates the Neo-Ottoman Empire's collaboration with the Daeshbags. (love that term)
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/14/2016 9:05 Comments ||
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#2
Mullah Richard----with Recip's lust for power, I can easily see him going for this in a convoluted untraceable way. He needed some victim points after hosing Putin, who does not forget, and dealing with the consequences of that fiasco.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/14/2016 15:13 Comments ||
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[DAWN] WEDNESDAY'S devastating suicide kaboom in Quetta serves as a painful reminder that despite advances, religious militancy remains a major security threat to Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Most of the victims of the attack were police personnel deputed to guard polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccination teams. An anti-polio vaccination drive was under way in Balochistan on the day of the bombing. To their credit, the authorities resumed the anti-polio campaign soon after the tragedy.
The banned TTP has grabbed credit for the atrocity. It seems that with the bombing, forces of Evil have struck two of their 'favourite' targets: members of law-enforcement agencies, as well as the anti-polio campaign.
The bombing occurred the day after the new Balochistan cabinet took oath; indeed, the Sanaullah Zehri-led provincial set-up has its work cut out for it on the law and order and counterterrorism fronts.
Over the past several years, the province has suffered from a low-level separatist insurgency along with sectarian terrorism. However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... last year, after the formulation of the National Action Plan, like elsewhere in Pakistain there seemed to be perceptible movement on the anti-militancy front. Provincial officials claimed "thousands" of Death Eaters had been tossed in the clink Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! .
While some observers point out that most of these were quite likely Baloch separatists, it is a fact that religiously motivated and sectarian Death Eaters were also apprehended. Moreover, some high-profile sectarian Death Eaters were eliminated in Balochistan in 2015; their numbers included Usman Saifullah Kurd, a provincial 'commander' of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... But while sectarian killings may indeed have come down, especially compared to the situation in 2013 when massive bombings targeting the Hazara Shia community resulted in hundreds of deaths, the infrastructure of religiously motivated militancy very much appears to be intact in Balochistan, as Wednesday's bombing shows.
The significance of Death Eaters targeting security officials guarding polio teams also cannot be overlooked. Last year, significant gains were made in the fight against polio, with far fewer cases reported as compared to 2014.
Hence, the momentum of the anti-polio drive should be maintained and security for the vaccinators beefed up. The civil and military leadership must reassess the threat posed by religiously motivated Death Eaters to Balochistan. Intelligence-based operations need to be stepped up to dismantle what remains of the terrorist infrastructure in the province. Balochistan is far from pacified.
The gains made in the realm of security in the recent past should not be squandered, and terrorism and militancy of all shades must be eliminated in the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2016 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[DAWN] HAVING pledged to investigate and act on any evidence found or shared on the involvement of Pak individuals in the Pathankot attack, the government claims to have detained alleged members of Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... and sealed so-called offices of the banned Death Eater group.
The emphatic language in the statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office following a meeting of senior civilian and military leaders suggests that the government is attempting to ensure that the foreign secretary talks meant to kick off the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue can take place as soon as possible.
Officially scheduled to begin on Jan 15, there is reason to be hopeful that the talks will, in fact, go ahead as planned, or take place after a minor delay.
The initial response from the Indian government to yesterday's announcement of fresh steps being taken against JeM also suggests that the high-level diplomacy and personal involvement of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and the military leadership in the Pak response to the Pathankot attack may pay off.
Whatever the JeM Death Eaters intended to achieve with the Pathankot attack the governments of India and Pakistain appear to have thwarted with their mature responses. But why was the group still able to plan and execute such an audacious and sophisticated attack on the air force base?
The PMO statement offers a clue -- "offices of [JeM] are also being traced and sealed" -- but it is an inadequate explanation. Thirteen years after the group was banned by the state, why was it able to still operate offices that are only now being sealed?
For too long, Death Eater groups that have been banned by the state have simply changed their names or gone temporarily into hiding, only for them to reappear stronger and more resilient. In the case of JeM, the state's failures have been exceptionally egregious. Until yesterday, when he was reportedly detained, Masood Azhar was a free man; other well-known leaders of the group apparently routinely roam the country preaching jihad.
It is fairly obvious that leaders of banned outfits publicly exhorting violence is likely to lead to some kind of disaster or crisis. Pathankot has certainly been the former, though mature politicianship on both sides of the border has prevented it from becoming a full-blown crisis.
For the state here, the challenge will be to ensure that the initial actions against JeM are converted into sustained and meaningful measures that ensure the long-term dismantling of Death Eater groups. Too often steps taken in haste have unravelled over time.
To permanently seal offices and successfully prosecute those involved in the Pathankot attack, a great deal of evidence will need to be gathered.
Past experience suggests that JeM, like some other banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations, has access to sophisticated legal counsel which can help protect its operations and its leaders' freedom. This time JeM, and others like it, must be fully and permanently dismantled.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2016 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad
[DAWN] 'WE will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism.' This oft-repeated cliché in our official statements has almost become a national embarrassment. A solemn pledge loses all credibility when major murderous Moslem attacks in other countries are allegedly traced back to our territory.
It is not just cross-border involvement but also the activities of banned outfits at home that raises questions about how much control the state really has within its own domain. Then there is also the question of whether or not we are really serious about getting rid of all violent non-state actors that have become a pervasive challenge to state authority. The Pathankot air force base terrorist attack has yet again brought the issue of non-state actors to the fore.
Surely, it is too early to confirm or deny the Indian allegation of a Pak murderous Moslem group being involved in the incident, but such possibility cannot be completely ruled out given past experience. Pakistain has once again been put in the dock by this latest terrorist incident across the border.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2016 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
#1
IMA thinking all terrorism is 'state sponsored' to one degree or another.
No terrorism of any kind can reach across borders, continents or oceans without some form of state sponsorship, whether willing or unwilling. Nor can localized terrorism survive long without some form of internal or external sponsorship, willing or unwilling.
Link
[The Federalist] Ten American military personnel were arrested and detained by Iran on Tuesday, and President Barack Obama said not a word about it during his final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.
His administration swore up and down that Iran was just doing a solid for our sailors and Marines, whose boats, we are told, had apparently broken down. Obama's spokesman said the capture and detention of American servicemen and servicewomen were exactly why we had to lift sanctions on Iran and bless its enrichment of uranium. His surrogates whispered to media allies that rather than provoking the Iranians to attack the U.S., Obama's nuclear deal really made it possible for the U.S. to free its captured personnel who never should have been in Iranian custody in the first place.
The Obama administration gave us its word that Iran had no "hostile intent" when it captured ten Americans, forced their surrender at gunpoint, and then demanded an American apology for the whole affair.
And then Iran released these photos of the nine men and one woman who were arrested at sea by the Iranians.
#1
Unfortunately, Iran got exactly what it wanted. The Iranian humiliation of Barack Obama is now complete.
Davis has it nearly right. The target of Iran's humiliation is not the Champ however, he's simply a willing and duplicitous conduit. The actual target is the West and the United States in particular.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/14/2016 12:30 Comments ||
Top||
#7
BU - I was suspicious, and I am not a Navy Seal. So if an ex-Seal can see the light, so can SecNav, which means the CIC knew, or should have known.
Which doesn't surprise me one bit.
I suppose the crews will be ordered to shut up so as to not further embarrass the Lightbringer.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/14/2016 13:45 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Well, let's see who gets fired as a result of the captured sailors. I mean Rick Williams got fired for asking about an Obama vacation home in the MI.
Excerpt: “'On a serious note, I know that a man of Obama’s stature will send his ‘people’ to view the villa before buying it, but we are not aware of any such leads. My villa has been up for sale since the last six weeks and I can assure you no presidents have viewed it so far,' he said."
Nicely qualified, eh?
And like Admiral Williams had no idea that all Military computers are monitored for internet dalliances...
[Fox] An Oregon folk singer plans to leave next week to serenade the Islamic State, and he intends to bring the black-clad barbarians a prayerful message of peace -- despite a warning from the State Department that his life could be in danger.
James Twyman, of Portland, Ore., told FoxNews.com he feels a "calling" and believes he can soften the hearts of the Islamist army known for beheading Westerners, throwing gays off of buildings and summarily executing innocent women and children.
"It's going to be pretty powerful," Twyman said, referring to his plan to have those attending and others around the world sing and pray for peace at the same time. "When people come together and focus on something in a positive way...there's scientific evidence that it can change things for the better." Portland area fellow is he? Perhaps James should ensure his affairs are in order.
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.
[Fox] An Oregon folk singer plans to leave next week to serenade the Islamic State, and he intends to bring the black-clad barbarians a prayerful message of peace -- despite a warning from the State Department that his life could be in danger.
