[DW] The German army (Bundeswehr) is planning to bring back 65,000 cans of beer from Afghanistan.
According to a report from the German news magazine Der Spiegel, about 20,000 liters of beer, as well as 340 bottles of wine and Sekt (sparkling wine), and an unknown amount of shandy have to come back to Germany.
Commander Ansgar Meyer imposed a ban on German soldiers drinking alcohol during the last part of the withdrawal from the country. The report said it is because of the potential for attacks in the area. The German army was also not allowed to sell the alcohol to local troops for legal and religious reasons, according to Operations Command.
Germany's Bundeswehr, as well as all other NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... nations' armed forces, are expected to leave Afghanistan by September 11 this year. Germany provided the second-largest military contingent behind the United States. The Afghanistan mission has been the most expensive and largest deployment in the Bundeswehr's history.
German newspaper Bild said some equipment will be left behind after German troops leave their base in Mazar, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Kabul.
[ToloNews] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Friday reacted to recent remarks by Pak officials, including Pakistain's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... , saying that the world knows who has really continued the war in Afghanistan to keep its pace and that blaming will not prove helpful at this critical juncture.
Qureshi in a virtual speech to the European parliament this week said that there are people within Afghanistan who want to disrupt the grinding of the peace processor in the country.
Again in his meeting with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon this week in Islamabad, Qureshi repeated his allegation, stating that there are people inside the country who try to disrupt peace.
"(There are people) inside and outside Afghanistan who do not want peace and security. We should be vigilant of such spoilers," said Qureshi.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the spoilers of peace are those who have rejected the Afghan people and the international community’s call by continuing violence.
Blaming will not prove constructive at this sensitive juncture and peace in Afghanistan that is in favor of countries in the region, especially Pakistain, cannot be ensured by issuing statements and remarks, the ministry said.
The Afghan people and the international community seek practical steps by Pakistain for starting meaningful peace negotiations, the foreign ministry said.
"The recent statement by Pakistain’s foreign minister is a clear act of interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs," said Nematullah Karyab, an MP.
"Pakistain has always pursued a disruptive policy towards peace in Afghanistan," said Aziz Mairaj, a former Afghan diplomat.
"Their recent statements are a reaction to the recent speech by the president in which he asked Pakistain to choose one path or option," said freelance journalist Sami Yousufzai.
This comes a day after Foreign ministers from Afghanistan, Pakistain and China an online trilateral meeting on peace in Afghanistan, during which the Chinese foreign minister said that the Afghan grinding of the peace processor has entered into a crucial phase.
Wang Yi said that the withdrawal of US foreign forces from Afghanistan will complicate the situation in Afghanistan.
The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the meeting as an important step towards strengthening peace in Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/05/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[AlAhram] The Egyptian equipment and crews will remove debris and rubble from buildings destroyed by last month's devastating Israeli air strikes on Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Egypt has sent a massive engineering equipment and crews to participate in the Gaza Strip reconstruction efforts after last month's devastating Israeli bombing campaign crossed the Rafah border crossing on Friday, state-owned MENA agency reported.
The crews and equipment, which includes a large number of trucks, bulldozers and cranes, will participate in removing debris and rubble from the buildings that were destroyed by the 11-day Israeli air strikes and bombings of the strip last month.
The re-construction convoy comes under a pledge by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to contribute $500 million as part of an Egyptian initiative for reconstructing the Gaza Strip, with the participation of Egyptian companies, in order to mitigate the suffering of Paleostinians and restore normality in the Gaza Strip.
Last month, the Israeli bombing campaign of Gaza - deemed the most serious Israeli assault on the strip since 2014 - killed more than 250 Paleostinians, injured 1,900 and destroyed 2,000 residential and commercial buildings, leaving thousands homeless.
The densely populated Gaza Strip is home to two million Paleostinians, most of whom are refugees from the 1948 war.
On 21 May, Egypt mediated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, along with other Paleostinian factions.
Since then, Cairo has launched intensive diplomatic efforts to cement the ceasefire and lay the ground work for the resumption of peace talks between the Paleostinians and Israelis.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats grabbed for his rosco... Egypt has already sent a ton of medical and humanitarian aid to Gaza to help the Paleostinians deal with the aftermath of Israel's deadly offensive on the strip.
Egypt also continues to open its Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip to allow stranded Paleostinians and humanitarian cases to cross the border in both directions.
Medical and administrative teams are stationed at the terminal to facilitate the passage of the injured and their escorts to hospitals.
#3
Egypt's actions may seem strange, but since 1967 its policy has been to block the movement of Gaza people to Egypt itself. It has no wish to absorb tens of thousands of f-ups (especially in the problem-plagued Sinai). Egypt ruled Gaza until sixty-seven and knows damned well that the able and prosperous Gazans all left the hellhole prior to 67. The rest of the Arab World knows it and the money spent by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc., is to keep the miserable Gazans in Gaza.
#5
...most of whom are refugees from the 1948 war.
There were millions of Germans displaced from Prussia and Silesia following the 1939-45 war. No one seems too concerned about their 'right of return'. Just saying wars have consequences.
[Epoch Times] Human smugglers along the southern border are openly advertising their services on Facebook and the social media company has fallen short on removing such content. Even as they are caught and exposed. A plethora of user accounts have posted offers to facilitate illegal border crossings on the platform. Some even directly advertise how much they charge for the service. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), who took office in January, repeatedly alerted Facebook to the issue in general and to a number of specific posts of this kind, but most of them haven’t been removed, she said. Hey! We don't have time for that! We're looking for conservatives to ban!
Given that some of the posts in question were paid advertisements, it raises the question of whether Facebook has been taking money, at least indirectly, from criminal cartels, which are known to control the human smuggling operations, Cammack said.
The Epoch Times alerted Facebook to about dozen posts and groups that appeared connected with the issue. Most, but not all of them, were subsequently removed.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/05/2021 08:35 ||
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Friday summoned two senior MQM leaders in relation to the recent arrested three ’India-linked’ party affiliates, according to CTD Deputy Inspector General of Police Omar Shahid Hamid.
The department’s team served the notice at the house of Dr Farooq Sattar and summoned him on Saturday to appear before the Sherlocks in case no 54/2021 registered at the CTD Civil Lines Police Station. According to the notice, the arrested MQM affiliates had told the Sherlocks that they got affiliation with India’s RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... agency with Sattar’s assistance.
Omar Shahid said that Anees Advocate, another party leader, had also been summoned for questioning about his role in ’terrorist’ incidents in Hyderabad. Earlier on May 28, 2021, the CTD had exposed what is called a ’big terrorism network’ of MQM formed in Sindh by arresting three alleged holy warriors belonging to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and Hyderabad.
With the assistance of a federal intelligence agency, the CTD had arrested Naeem Ahmed, Imran Ahmed and RAW-trained Aleemuddin from near Landhi Railway Station and recovered arms, ammunition and hand grenades from their possession, it said.
Accused Naeem, on the instructions of party’s high command from abroad, had formed the six-member gang, for killing opponents and for terrorist activities. He was the senior most party activist and joint in-charge of Sindh Organizing Committee. He had been arrested several times earlier and had been to jail for his involvement in cases of kabooms, terrorism and others.
Accused Imran, also a senior most activist and former sector in-charge, zonal member and UC chairman, had been involved in attacks on a cop shoppe, killing police personnel and others. He had also been to jail. Aleemuddin had been arrested and sent to jail for his involvement in killing police personnel by firing on police mobiles and other crimes. Number of terrorism cases against him were already underway.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Rudaw] Amnesia Amnesty International on Thursday called on Iraqi authorities to reveal the fate of more than 600 Iraqi men "forcibly disappeared" by Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) five years ago.
"For five years, the families of these men and boys have been living in anguish, not knowing the fate of their loved ones, or whether they are even alive," said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesia Amnesty International.
On June 3, 2016 around 1,300 men and boys were put into buses and trucks by gunnies as they were trying to flee from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group (ISIS) in the city of Saqlawiyah in the Fallujah district of Anbar province. The men were considered to be of fighting age.
The whereabouts of at least 643 of them are still unknown.
Survivors told Amnesia Amnesty International they recognized the gunnies as members of the PMF because of their clothing and identifying patches.
ISIS seized control of vast areas of northern Iraq in 2014, killing civilians and enslaving others across Sunni-majority provinces. Fallujah was the first major urban center seized by the Death Eater group. The Iraqi army and the PMF launched an offensive on May 22, 2016 to retake the city.
According to a 2016 report from Human Rights Watch, militias belonging to the PMF, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), entered the district alongside Iraqi federal police and detained at least 1,700 men.
A day later, 605 detainees were released for medical treatment — many of them bearing the marks of rape and torture. According to the watchdog, at least four men died under torture. Some of them had been dragged behind vehicles. Another later died in hospital.
The PMF had a database of wanted individuals. As families fled the fighting and crossed PMF lines, their names were checked with the database. If a name matched, the men of the household were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.
Human Rights Watch has accused the PMF militias, many of which are Shiite, of committing war crimes by destroying Sunni homes and executing civilians accused of ISIS affiliations.
Hadi al-Amiri, a senior PMF commander and current head of the Iraqi parliament’s Fatih coalition, "vowed" at the time to hold to account those who had committed war crimes and abuses against civilians.
Two separate committees were formed by then Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and the governorate of Anbar, but neither has revealed any details about the missing men and boys.
"To date, the Iraqi authorities have never publicly revealed the outcome of an investigation into disappearances and abuses committed during the retaking of Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... leaving families in a perpetual state of limbo," said Amnesia Amnesty International’s Maalouf.
"The Iraqi authorities must end this anguish and reveal the fate and whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared by the PMU. We also urge the authorities to publicly disclose the findings of their official investigation and hold those responsible to account to the full extent of the law," she added.
According to the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC), Iraq has one of the highest numbers of missing people in the world, to a point that every Iraqi family has firsthand experience or knows someone who was forcibly disappeared.
[IsraelTimes] MK Nir Orbach, regarded as greatest potential threat to Bennett-Lapid government, privately says he won’t torpedo it, according to multiple reports, but nail-biting 10 days ahead.
The eight-party coalition that aims to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears increasingly likely to secure the necessary majority support in the Knesset, Israel’s two main news stations reported Friday night.
The assessment among all members of the "change bloc," led by Prime Minister-designate Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, is that the coalition will indeed be sworn in, Channel 12 said, with a wafer-thin 61-59 majority.
Continued on Page 49
#2
Probably a while since they never really have to think about the issues, they can get people not to notice by talking about Emmanuel Goldstein again. Just like Emmanuel Orangestein here.
#3
I could spend time today reading about Israeli politics, but I think I'll give my brain a rest and read about quantum mechanics instead.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/05/2021 8:39 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I hope nobody on the right really wants to allow Ra’am, the party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, anywhere near the levers of power, but without Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud they’re stuck. I’m with g(r)omgoru, but I thought I would post just one article on the subject, in case they really do manage to cobble together a government this time — I didn’t want y’all to be shocked, should the time come.
It’s just really annoying that that the Israeli press and the governing class so loathe Mr. Netanyahu that they’re willing to take down the entire country to do so, exactly as the same class has been doing here.
[IsraelTimes] Unnamed sources in Paleostinian terror group tell Lebanese media it will consider options for escalation if Israel doesn’t approve the entry of tens of millions of dollars "Just give us your electronic banking information, ID info, and home address, and we'll direct deposit it to you"
If Israel does not allow the passage of 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... i funds to the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, will escalate the situation on the border with Israel, sources in the terror group told Lebanese media on Friday.
With Israel’s approval, Qatar has in recent years distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to enable Gaza’s Hamas rulers to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, pay civil servants, and provide aid to tens of thousands of impoverished families.
Hamas sources told the Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper that the organization would wait until the end of next week for the money to enter, "and if this does not happen it will take an important decision regarding the mutual ceasefire" that took effect two weeks ago, after 11 days of fighting with Israel.
A senior Hamas official in January said Qatar would be providing $30 million every month, meant for poor families in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar is a key backer of Hamas and has invested some $1.4 billion in the coastal enclave since 2012, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said at a financial conference in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday.
Al-Thani rejected frequent accusations that the Qatari money goes to the terror organizations in Gaza and argued that Israel knows how the money is transferred, the Ynet news site reported.
Israel figures that since they’re going to destroy Gaza’s war infrastructure in the inevitable next round of fighting, it’ll do no serious harm to let Qatar swan around with their moneybags in the meantime, fondly imagining they’ve pulled the wool over Zionist eyes.
According to the Lebanese report, the group threatened to "use pressure in the border area," and may also resort to options that could "renew the widescale confrontation," without elaborating further.
Israel and Hamas concluded 11 days of fighting last month during which the terror group launched some 4,300 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, and Israel launched hundreds of retaliatory Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, 253 Paleostinians were killed during the fighting,
... a number that creeps up again each time they dig out another destroyed tunnel...
including 66 children. Paleostinian terror groups in Gaza have said 80 of the total casualties were combatants, while Israel says the true figure is much higher.
...two hundred turbans plus 25 big turbans that Israel saw killed, plus a dozen or so the Gazans have dug up since, which doesn’t leave many real civilians among the acknowledged dead...
Thirteen people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, were killed. Israel says dozens of the Gaza fatalities were caused by Hamas rockets that fell short and landed inside the Strip.
As I recall, about 10% of those shot off didn’t clear the fence, but I may have misremembered..
Friday’s threats from unnamed officials in the terror group were not the first since the ceasefire began.
A leader of the terror group in Gaza threatened last Wednesday to resume rocket attacks if Israel "violates" the al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, while a front man for Hamas’s armed wing told a crowd of supporters last week that it will respond to any Israeli escalation in kind, after some Israeli officials called for a harsher response to the terror group, including the renewal of liquidations of Hamas leaders.
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.
[DW] The German army (Bundeswehr) is planning to bring back 65,000 cans of beer from Afghanistan.
...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached...
A plethora of user accounts have posted offers to facilitate illegal border crossings on the platform. Some even directly advertise how much they charge for the service. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), who took office in January, repeatedly alerted Facebook to the issue in general and to a number of specific posts of this kind, but most of them haven’t been removed, she said.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
... 
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