[AlAhram] The US military may continue to train Afghan cops, but do it in other countries after American forces leave Afghanistan, the top US military officer said Thursday, calling it one of several options the Pentagon is considering.
Speaking at a Pentagon presser, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the US has not settled on a plan yet to continue supporting the Afghan Air Force, which is heavily dependent on the U.S. for maintenance, training and repairs. He said some US aid may have to be done from outside the country, but officials are also looking at whether some contracts may be turned over to Afghan control.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that continuing without American support on the ground `will be a challenge' for the Afghans as they try to hold off Taliban ...Arabic for students... Death Eaters. This was the first news conference the two have done together since the Biden administration took office in January.
President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences... announced last month that all American troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... allies have said they will do the same, and troops have already begun leaving. Austin said the `drawdown is going according to plan.'
The Pentagon has said there were about 2,500 U.S. troops there in recent months, but Milley said the total rises to 3,300 if special operations forces are counted. Military commanders have also said that additional forces will flow in to help with security and logistics for the drawdown.
Pentagon officials have said they will do all they can to monitor terror threats and help the Afghans from other locations in the region, described as ``over the horizon.'' But officials have not detailed where those would be.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top US commander for the Middle East, has warned that Afghanistan's military `will certainly collapse' without some continued American support once all US troops are withdrawn. He has expressed concerns that Afghan forces may be unable to prevent the Taliban from taking more ground, and said the Afghans will need help and funding to maintain and fly their aircraft.
Milley said last week that Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and, in a worst-case scenario, some `bad possible outcomes' against Taliban turbans as the withdrawal of American and coalition troops accelerates in the coming weeks.
The Taliban, meanwhile, have threatened Afghan journalists, saying those who give `one-sided news in support of Afghanistan's intelligence'' service must stop or `face the consequences.' On Thursday, button men killed a former Afghan TV presenter as he was traveling in the southern city of Kandahar, according to a provincial official, who said other journalists in the area have been warned that gunnies are targeting them also.
Within about two months of the US led invasion in October 2001, the country's Taliban rulers were removed from power and militarily defeated. But within several years, they had regrouped, rearmed and reasserted themselves, taking advantage of sanctuary in neighboring Pakistain. In recent years the Taliban achieved a battlefield stalemate with US supported Afghan government forces.
#3
I kinda sorta thought the idea was to leave Afghanistan, not take it with us when we left. It's not like there is a shortage of Afghanistan that we need to be hoarding it.
#4
If they aren't trained or we haven't been able to train their own pp to train them, what makes you think they are going to learn it somewhere else.
Posted by: Chris ||
05/07/2021 8:51 Comments ||
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#5
My guess is this effort has more to do with the logistics of a high-level political and mil exfiltration effort than training. State Dept. Fort Chaffee, AR 1970's redux.
#6
And of course we will need to pay for facilites, staff,student materials, overhead, a student stipend etc, all of which goes to graft and kickbacks because the American people have a strategic national interest the cushy retirement programs of the deep state/military industrial complex and of course the new players of FOTBG! (Friends of the Big Guy).
[LIBYAREVIEW] Deputy Head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mousa al-Koni stated that he would discuss the unification of the army with military leaders on Thursday.
"We have accomplished a lot in the file of unifying state institutions, and we are working on the unification of the military and financial institutions. I will head to the south on Thursday to meet with military leaders to discuss the unification of the military institution," al-Koni said in a presser in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , on Wednesday.
He expressed concern about the continued division of Libya’s army, claiming the reason for the delay in unification was due to "a lack of trust" between the two parties. He warned that both sides still had their fingers "on the trigger."
The Deputy Head called on the Libyan Parliament to expedite the approval of the 2021 state budget, "to allow the Government of National Unity (GNU) to carry out its tasks."
He affirmed the importance of holding the general elections as scheduled on 24 December, saying it was the "supreme goal that we all strive for."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
The Exclusive Economic Zones of Libya and Turkey do not meet anywhere in the eastern Med. For a map of the various EEZs note the map issued by GlobalSecurity.org. The US Dept of State has such maps but will not issue them, which is common when confronted by disputed claims.
[THISDAYLIVE] A prominent Islamic holy man, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has said the students of Greenfield University, Kaduna, were kidnapped by Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... krazed killers, and not bandidos.
Speaking yesterday on a live TV programe, Gumi said Boko Haram forces of Evil were beginning to infiltrate bandit herders.
"Now, we have two groups of bandidos. We have the ordinary Fulani ... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity... ethnic herdsmen and now there is another element which is coming in; it is the terrorist, the religious idealogues and this is what I’ve been fearing," he said.
"The issue is getting compounded because this element is coming in; Boko Haram is coming into the scene now. They are the ones that captured Greenfield students. It is not a question of sleeping. You have to act very fast.
"The infiltration is already taking place but it is not as deep and we want these herdsmen to be protected against the invasion of these terrorists.
"And the leader is from Jalingo. He is from Adamawa. He is not the local Fulani we have here. So this means that the north-eastern element is coming into this area and we have to move fast. We don’t have that luxury of time.
"I have been trying to speak with the government but nobody is really trying to listen to me or speak with me on this issue."
Asked if he has shared the intelligence he gathered on the whereabouts of the students with security agencies, Gumi said: "Everybody knows where they are. The parents know where they are. The point is that the students are in danger, any firing will kill 19 students and that’s why there is caution."
Gumi also called on the Kaduna State Government to pay the ransom to secure the release of the kidnapped students.
He argued that while N100 million is a huge sum of money, it is not too much to sacrifice for the lives of the students.
Direct translation of the article
[REGNUM] The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service responded to a YouTube video by human rights activist Valentina Chupik that Tajik citizens are allegedly being detained at the airports of Bishkek and Osh.
The department said that these rumors are untrue and are an attempt to incite ethnic hatred.
The border service emphasizes that the passage of all citizens across the state border of Kyrgyzstan is carried out in a general manner, without dividing into citizenship, nationality, racial and ethnicity.
It is also noted that due to the shelling by the Tajik military of the border area of Kyrgyzstan, including the border post "Kyzyl-Bel - road", as well as to ensure the safety of citizens, the passage of people, vehicles and goods through the Kyrgyz-Tajik border has been temporarily suspended.
At the same time, to ensure the safety of citizens of Tajikistan who use the airports of Kyrgyzstan for departure to their homeland, their transit through the Kyrgyz territory is organized along two routes: Tajiks are delivered to checkpoints for further travel through Uzbekistan, or they are delivered to checkpoints on the border with Tajikistan. "And" Karamyk - road ", where they are handed over to the Tajik border guards.
In both cases, citizens of Tajikistan are transported to checkpoints by buses from the Kyrgyz side.
“These measures are perceived by Tajik citizens as adequate to the current situation and, despite the unfounded statements of Valentina Chupik, they continue to use the Kyrgyz airports, which is an unequivocal evidence of the security of Kyrgyzstan for Tajiks,” the Kyrgyz border service states.
[JPost] - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain urged Israel on Thursday to halt settlement-building in the West Bank.
The joint statement came as tensions mounted in east Jerusalem ahead of a hearing that could see Palestinian families evicted from Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood where Jewish settlers backed by an Israeli court have taken over some homes. Stop, or it's gas chambers for you, Juden?
Portland's prosecutor has announced charges against some of the violent protesters arrested over May Day rioting. Five of the 7 already had pending charges or convictions related to past BLM #antifa riots. One suspect is on now his 6th riot-related arrest. https://t.co/7sbk0w8kkM
[SHAFAQ] The Ottoman Turkish consul in Nineveh, Muhammad Kojok, reiterated on Thursday his country's readiness to secure Iraq's share of water amid the current crisis.
This came in a presser held after a meeting with the head of the local government, Najm al-Jubouri.
Kojok discussed several topics during the conference he held with al-Jubouri, the most prominent of which is the water crisis afflicting Iraq, pointing out, "The Ottoman Turkish and Iraqi sides are following up on this file; we have taken very remarkable steps in this regard."
He said that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... has not and will not leave the Iraqi people without water, adding, "we will reach satisfying results."
Kojok revealed that a Ottoman Turkish delegation might survey the water issue, starting from the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Dam.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11132 views]
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#1
And if you can't trust Erdogan and Turkey, who can you trust?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/07/2021 12:30 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Talks on restoring the 2015 accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program have hit a roadblock over the issue of centrifuges, the Axios news site reports.
Citing unnamed European diplomats and former US officials, the report says the Biden administration’s call for 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... to return to compliance with the deal is complicated by the advances in the Iran nuclear program since then.
While the US and EU agree that the "breakout time" for Iran to have enough material to produce a bomb must be a year, Tehran sees the matter differently, with a key disagreement over the fate of the more advanced centrifuges the Iranians have installed, according to the report.
The news site further says that while there has been progress on what sanctions the US will lift to restore the deal, there has been almost no progress on the nuclear side.
The talks are set to resume tomorrow in Vienna.
"If you’re hearing that we and our partners have resolved not to cut any corners when it comes to Iran’s nuclear commitments, that’s absolutely true," a US official is quoted saying in response.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/07/2021 01:28 ||
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[11128 views]
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Residents in #Baghdad have been captured on camera cheering after billboards of #Iran’s former and top leaders were torn down in the Iraqi capital.https://t.co/wnojgv3Fjo
[SHAFAQ] The leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, Irfan Abdul Aziz, said that his movement will refrain from running for the elections scheduled for October 10 later this year.
In a presser held today, Thursday, Abdul Aziz said that the movement took this decision in light of "several factors" after deliberating the situation keenly.
Abdul Aziz said that the main reason behind this decision is "electoral rigging", adding that what happened in Iraq in the previous elections is unmatched, "even in Africa".
"Iraq is not a state anymore. It is an arena to settle international conflicts, while, regionally, the countries that control the parties in Iraq can do whatever they want."
Al-Dawa party-Iraq Organization said it will not participate in the early legislative elections this year, expressing concerns about repeating the scenario of the previous elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
Top|| File under: Devout Moslems
[SHAFAQ] The corridors of the Iraqi Parliament are echoing calls for addressing issue of the Syrian "al-Hol" camp, a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Migration said today, Thursday.
Committee Member, MP Fadel al-Fatlawi, said in a statement to Shafaq News Agency, "the camp nests nearly 10 thousand ISIS Death Eaters," adding, "it is an ISIS camp, and it is a threat to Iraq's security."
Al-Fatlawi said, "Baghdad and Damascus are maintaining high coordination to end this file and prevent the influx of ISIS turbans into Iraq."
"The Iraqi Government has a vision. It will form a joint committee the encompasses the Ministries of Defense and Interior, Intelligence agencies, and Parliamentary Committees to audit the names database ahead of their repatriation."
The politician highlighted the governmental and Parliamentary confirmations about settling the issue of displacement camps and the repatriation of the displaced people by the end of the current year.
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet security services accuses the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group of conducting an illicit financing scheme to pilfer money from European aid organizations to fund its terrorist activities.
The Shin Bet has arrested a number of those suspected of being involved in recent weeks and says that indictments against them will be filed shortly, including against a woman with Spanish citizenship, Juani Rishmawi.
According to the security service, the PFLP used its health organization, the Health Work Committee, to defraud various European organizations and countries of millions of euros over the course of several years.
“PFLP institutions deceived aid organizations in Europe through a number of methods – reporting on fictitious projects, transferring false documents, forging and inflating invoices, diverting tenders, forging documents and bank signatures, reporting inflated salaries, and more,” the Shin Bet says.
According to the security service, the money was used to pay families of slain members of the terror group, to recruit new operatives, and to spread the group’s messaging throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza published a statement warning #Israel that the 'resistance' was closely monitoring the events in #Jerusalem. Hamza lauded the recent shooting attack in the West Bank and warned Israel will 'pay dearly' for its 'criminal acts.' #Gazapic.twitter.com/rsGe2un3Kx
[Free Beacon] The Biden administration is considering granting Iran significant economic sanctions relief, according to U.S. and Iranian officials, confirming that Iran is making headway in its demand that America unwind many of its most crippling measures.
Negotiations with Iran in Vienna are centered around the scope and scale of sanctions relief, a State Department spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, confirming similar comments issued this week by Iranian officials. Iran is pushing the Biden administration to nix nearly all of the sanctions applied by the former Trump administration, including those targeting the country’s nuclear program, terrorism operations, banks, and oil trade. The Biden administration says it is willing to lift all sanctions necessary for America to make a full return to the original nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which provided Iran with billions in cash assets.
"The United States would be prepared to lift the sanctions necessary for our JCPOA compliance only if Iran is prepared to return its nuclear program to its JCPOA status, including with respect to the level and scale of its uranium enrichment activities," a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. Iran is violating the JCPOA by enriching uranium, the primary fuel in a nuclear weapon, to levels far exceeding restrictions written into the original accord.
Sanctions have been the primary sticking point in negotiations, as Iran pushes for the United States to unilaterally unwind every sanction that has stifled the country’s economy and brought the hardline regime closer to bankruptcy than ever before. Iranian officials indicated on Wednesday the United States is giving up ground in the talks, as Iran demands that former president Donald Trump’s "maximum pressure" campaign be canceled.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh dismissed rumors the Biden administration is angling to keep many of the most stringent sanctions in place. "Not only are these cases and allegations like this wrong, but everyone knows for sure that if the United States had insisted on such things, the talks would have stopped by now," Khatibzadeh said, hinting that the sides could be more closely aligned than thought.
The State Department told the Free Beacon that sanctions relief is prominently on the table. "The team continues to explore and discuss issues and options vis-à-vis sanctions relief," the spokesman said. Both sides, however, still remain far from a deal in the administration’s view.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
05/07/2021 02:27 ||
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[11137 views]
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#1
Hopefully Soetoro will head this effort up using unmarked Klingon aircraft. How is our inventory of 463L pallets holding out ?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2021 9:54 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Why doesn't Biden et al. just skip to the chase and give Iran a couple of our nukes? It's what Iran wants. /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/07/2021 15:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I cannot overstate my disgust at such pathetic appeasement, and the floral arrangements and Zoolbia-Bamieh. Zoolbia (deep-fried funnel cakes, soaked in a light rosewater-saffron syrup) must be arriving at the Kalorama Kompound by FedEx today. After all, it is the source...
[NPASYRIA] Tamam Ra’id, Minister of Water Resources of the Syrian government, accused The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... of seizing large quantities of Syria’s share of the Euphrates water.
He demanded the release of the Euphrates water according to the fair share established for both Syria and Iraq, calling on the international community and international organizations to intervene in the issue of the low level of the Euphrates River due to Turkey’s reservation of water.
The minister’s statements came during a tour he made today in Deir ez-Zor governorate.
Ra’id stressed the need to intervene to restore the flow of the Euphrates River to what it was.
The continuation of the situation as it is, will threaten water security in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah, according to him.
For more than three months, Turkey has limited the flow of the Euphrates into Syria, depriving large numbers of people of usable water. Turkey reduced the flow of water from the Euphrates River into northeast Syria’s dam gradually, reducing the amount of water received to unprecedented lows.
Turkey keeps water in six dams, the largest of which is Ataturk Dam, the second largest in the Middle East, with a storage capacity of 48 billion m³, violating the international agreement they signed with Syria in 1987 which stated that Syria’s share of water coming from Turkey is 500 m³ per second.
The water flow to the Euphrates River is now limited to less than 200 cubic meters, according to the General Administration of Dams in Northeastern Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
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#French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian meets with Lebanese leaders to try to break the deadlock in months of talks on forming a government to pull #Lebanon out of an economic #crisis.https://t.co/6uHRPPlRYN
#Iran’s election-vetting body has spelt out conditions for running in next month’s presidential poll, potentially barring several high-profile candidates, reports local media.https://t.co/0YdHIo0erq
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2021 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
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#1
"...The conditions are as follows: 1, Hate Israel. 2, hate America. 3, make sure your kickbacks to the mullahs get there on time. That should pretty much cover it."
Miike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/07/2021 15:25 Comments ||
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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.
...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...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 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
