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Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Afghanistan
US SOF Will Probably Leave Last: Miller
[ToloNews] Acting US Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said after visiting US forces and American military leadership in Kabul on Tuesday said that special operations forces were the first deployed in the war in Afghanistan and likely will be the last troops to leave the country, according to a Stars and Stripes report.

The report said that Miller traveled to Camp Morehead, located south of Kabul, where US special operations forces train Afghan commandos, to hear from troops about the war from the ground.

"I went there on purpose because I’m going to get the real deal from these guys. And their smart-ass comments and their insights led me to the conclusion we’re in a good place," Miller said, without going into detail.

During his visit, he also met with Army Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of US and coalition forces there, and 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...
to discuss the US commitment to that country’s security and the ongoing withdrawal of roughly 2,500 US troops by Jan. 15.

Miller said he had talked to Gen. Miller "extensively" about the work special operations troops will conduct in the next couple of months as all US forces are expected to leave the country by May 2021, the report said.

They will likely be the last US forces in the country to continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and support the Afghan cops, he said.

President Ashraf Ghani met with Miller at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on Tuesday afternoon, the Presidential Palace said.

In the meeting, President Ghani said the Afghan govt has taken practical steps for peace and that the other side should also show its clear intentions in this respect, the Presidential Palace said.

The Presidential Palace’s front man Sediq Sediqqi in a tweet said that President Ghani and Miller discussed the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, the security situation in Afghanistan and in the region, and the continued support for Afghan forces.

Miller’s trip comes as American troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan after US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
last month ordered the number of US forces to be approximately halved to 2,500 by January 15, five days before he leaves office.

The US and Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
have signed an agreement in Doha, 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...
, in February this year that would see the withdrawal of all US forces from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meet certain conditions including a reduction in violence leading to a ceasefire and peace talks with the Afghan government.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/25/2020 00:20 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My prayers go out to SFOD-D & ST units.

Watch your 360, if Biden steals the WH.

Because they will be looking for an excuse to double down on DOD conflicts to pay back their donors and line their pockets.
IMB 88-93
Posted by: NN2N1 || 12/25/2020 5:33 Comments || Top||

#2  /\ The'Truth' is we're done there. Veritas Omnia Vincula Vincit ("Truth Overcomes All Bonds").
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/25/2020 7:09 Comments || Top||

#3  So the Marines are "First to go, last to know?" Guess that makes SOF "First to find out, last to get out..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/25/2020 17:14 Comments || Top||


Africa North
US to establish consulate in Western Sahara, Morocco
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Libyan Army Warns the GNA of Military Escalations
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Trump: US Committed to Libya’s Sovereignty
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


12,000 Immigrants Returned to Libya in 2020
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Human Trafficking

#1  I was really impressed that the migrant flow was starting to reverse itself, as it has in Syria, until I looked more closely and saw that they were on the receiving end of being intercepted and returned
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/25/2020 18:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mullah Baradar Thanks Pakistan for Helping: Saleh
[KhaamaPress] First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said Mullah Baradar did three things in 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...
: inquired about his maimed Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
comrade in Pak hospitals, visited a Taliban training center, and thanked the Pak government for helping them.

First Vice President Amrullah Saleh tweeted that Mullah Baradar did three things in Karachi: first asking about the maimed Taliban snuffies lying in a Pak government hospital without visas.

Saleh said in his tweet that after visiting the maimed Taliban "Baradar went to the Taliban training center in Pakistain and praised them", Adding that "Mullah Baradar encouraged them to carry out other terrorist activities and then thanked the Pak government for helping them train the group’s fighters".

This is despite the fact that following the Intra-Afghan talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in 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...
were called off; the Afghan government negotiating team arrived in Kabul and a Taliban delegation left for Pakistain.

Previously, some videos were posted on social media showing Mullah Baradar addressing and visiting the maimed Taliban in Karachi.

The hospital where Taliban maimed are being treated is said to be one of the most prestigious government hospitals in Pakistain, reports indicate.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/25/2020 00:20 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iranian hackers strike again, target Israeli cyber-security firm Portnox
[Jpost] Portnox has a rich portfolio of hundreds of high profile clients, some considered the largest firms in the country, including defense company Elbit Systems.

The Iranian hacker group Pay2Key reportedly hacked into the Israeli cyber-security firm Portnox on Thursday, Israeli media reported.

The materials leaked by the hackers include a 15 page-long report that highlights security weaknesses in Elbit Systems. However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything...
the report only goes as far as the year 2018, which may mean that most of the exposed weaknesses are no longer relevant.
That would be nice.
The actual extent of the hack is still unclear at this point.

"Over a terabyte of documents, projects, coding files and others were extracted from the company's servers," the group wrote on their website on the dark web, according to Walla.

Portnox commented on the reported hack by saying that they were looking into the issue.

"In the last few hours, reports indicated a hack into the company's internal servers by a hacking group that identifies itself as Pay2Key. The company has launched a comprehensive investigation in order to gain a full picture of the incident," the Portnox statement read.

This is the second time this week that Iranian hackers claim to have managed to hack into Israeli firms based in Israel. On Sunday, the same group claimed that it successfully hacked a range of Israeli defense industry companies, including the largest Israeli airpower defense corporation, Israel Aerospace Industries.

And if Israeli companies still doubt the capabilities of this hacker group, Israeli cyber-security company Check Point has confirmed that Pay2Key is an elite hacker group that operates by stealing data and threatening to leak it if its targets do not cooperate.

Various indications on social media pointed to an ongoing hacking operation launched by Pay2Key against a range of Israeli companies, and Thursday's hack seems to support that notion.

Following Sunday's hack, the Israeli tech website Geektim reported that an unknown user operating a Twitter account called 0x972DC or @EmbeddedOle had published five photos presumably belonging to hackers from Pay2Key or to people who assisted them somehow. The tweet was accompanied by the Hebrew text: "The clock is ticking for those who assisted Pay2Key."
That would be nice, too.
In another tweet, the anonyms Israeli user wrote: "Don't think that Pay2Key are professionals or talented, they just used the zerologon weakness (or CVE-2020-1472) to gain access to the DC server of the Israel Aerospace Industries - not impressed."

The account has since been deleted.
Israeli cyber security firm Check Point issued a warning about Pay2Key in November after a series of attacks on Israeli companies. The hacking group installs ransomware in its victims’ networks, which allows hackers to take control of data or systems, and threatens to leak corporate data, then demands Bitcoins as a ransom payment, the warning said. Check Point traced some of the transactions back to a Bitcoin exchange based in Iran.

On Sunday, Pay2Key claimed to have breached Israeli Aerospace Industries’ computer systems. The hacking group also mentioned a systems administrator at the defense contractor’s Elta subsidiary by name, Koby Fiada, revealing his password.

The Israeli cyber security firm ClearSky, which released a report on Pay2Key three days before the alleged IAI hack, said the group was likely an offshoot of an Iranian hacking cooperative known as Fox Kitten.

"We estimate that this campaign is part of the ongoing cyber confrontation between Israel and Iran, with the most recent wave of attacks causing significant damage to some of the affected companies," ClearSky wrote last week.

According to ClearSky, though Pay2Key portends to be an outfit specializing in ransomware, the group is in fact conducting cyberattacks on Israeli companies as part of an ongoing campaign against the Jewish state by Tehran.

"We estimate with a medium level of confidence that this campaign (Pay2Key) is part 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
information warfare aimed to create panic to Israel and in other countries world-wide," the cyber security company said.

The alleged hack of the Elta subsidiary came after a major cyberattack — also by Pay2Key, according to ClearSky — earlier this month hit dozens of Israeli logistics companies, with hackers making off with information from servers, according to a report of the incident by one of the victims, Amital Data, filed to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

An investigation found that there may have been 15-20 additional companies, not Amital clients, that were also targeted in the attack, although the full list is still unknown, the Calcalist website reported.

Iran was believed to be the likely culprit.

There have been at least five suspected Iranian cyberattacks on Israel during 2020, including one that targeted its water infrastructure.

Iran and Israel have reportedly been engaged in a cyber war that has become more intense over the past year.

Separately, last week, hackers who had stolen a mass of personal details on clients of the Shirbit Insurance company apparently began selling the information on the internet.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/25/2020 03:43 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Hamas to 30 heads of states: Normalization of ties with Israel major political sin
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran said boosting air defenses around nuke sites, fearing Trump-ordered strike
[IsraelTimes] 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 Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
has upped its air defenses around its uranium enrichments sites in Fordo and Natanz, fearing US President Donald Trump
...the Nailer of NAFTA...
could order a strike in the tail end of his White House term, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas reports.

Meanwhile,
...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone......
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
...Persian foreign minister, Mouthpiece of Mullahs, good friend of John Kerry and similar exemplars of Merkin values...
tweets that Trump will "bear full responsibility for any adventurism on his way out," likening such a potential development to the Gulf War of 2003.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/25/2020 04:05 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Operation Opera 1981 (Hebrew: מבצע אופרה‎‎‎), also known as Operation Babylon was over before the AAA crews could pull their boots on. Just say'n.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/25/2020 8:17 Comments || Top||


Political analyst: Trump's warning that the US will hold Iran responsible if any single American citizen is killed in Iraq, will oblige Iran to rethink any retaliatory or hostile moves
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 12/25/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran



Who's in the News
24[untagged]
4Taliban
4Antifa/BLM
4Commies
3Arab Spring
3Govt of Iran
2Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
2Human Trafficking
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Islamic State
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Narcos
1Sublime Porte
1Govt of Syria
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
1Hamas

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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2020-12-25
  Merry Christmas!
Thu 2020-12-24
  Court orders release of man charged in Daniel Pearl killing
Wed 2020-12-23
  Iraq arrests several suspects, officials in connection with US embassy attack
Tue 2020-12-22
  Paktia Police Chief Resigns over Corruption, Negligence
Mon 2020-12-21
  North Carolina police officer recovering after latest shooting in Charlotte area
Sun 2020-12-20
  Turkey rejects Belgium’s Nagorno-Karabakh resolution; upset that Belgian parliament referred to a genocide as a genocide
Sat 2020-12-19
  Erdogan tells Merkel Turkey wants to turn over new leaf with EU
Fri 2020-12-18
  21 facing federal charges in 'large-scale' drug ring involving UNC fraternities
Thu 2020-12-17
  Far-Left Anarchist Extremists Indicted Over Terror Plot To Kill Police
Wed 2020-12-16
  Sudan officially removed from U.S. terrorism list: embassy
Tue 2020-12-15
  Senior Jemaah Islamiyah Figure in Indonesian Custody
Mon 2020-12-14
  Bill Barr Resigns
Sun 2020-12-13
  Armenians Storm Capital Demanding PM Resign After Azerbaijan Victory Parade
Sat 2020-12-12
  Killer of Lebanon's Hariri sentenced to life in prison, remains at large: UN court
Fri 2020-12-11
  Trump hails Israel & Morocco establishing relations as 'massive breakthrough' — and recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over W. Sahara


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