[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghanistan's Caped President Mohammad 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. .. urged to step up fight against the terrorist groups without any distinction and in line with the consensus achieved during the visit of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council members in Kabul.
President Ghani in reaction to the coordinated attack on Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul said the members of the UN Security Council during visit to Kabul agreed to increase pressures on supporters of the terror groups.
He said strict measures are needed to counter-terrorism without any distinction and in line with the UNSC consensus considering the Kabul attack and other terrorist attacks.
President Ghani reiterated that the people of the region will not be safe until the terror groups and their safe havens are not eliminated.
This comes as a group of bandidos holy warriors launched a coordinated attack on Kabul Intercontinental Hotel late on Saturday night, sparking festivities that continued for almost 15 hours.
Taliban ...Arabic for students... front man Zabiullah Mujahid in a statement claimed that the attack was carried out by a group of at least five bandidos holy warriors who stormed into the hotel and managed to resist the security forces for almost 14 hours.
Mujahid also claimed that several people were killed in the attack including the foreigners, accusing all the victims of the attack as invaders.
The Ministry of Interior of Afghanistan confirmed that five people including a foreigner were killed and six others were maimed during the festivities.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The senior leaders of Jamiat-e-Islami met in Mazar-e-Sharif city the capital of northen Balkh province amid soaring political tensions between the chief executive of the party and the Afghan government.
The leader of Jamiat-e-Islami Salahuddin Rabbani said the meetign was attended by Ata Mohammad Noor, Bismillah Mohammadi, Abdul Satar Murad, Dr. Mohiuddin Mahdi, Jan Amad Haqjo, and Noor Rahman Akhlaqi.
He said the leaders of the party discussed the recent political upheavals, related issues to Jamiat-e-Islami, and the future programs of the party.
Rabbani did not provide further information but this comes as tensions remain persistent between Ata Mohammad Noor and the Afghan government over the Balkh political leadership since almost a month.
Tensions between the two sides sparked after the Office of the President announced the approval of Noor’s resignation from the Balkh provincial government.
Noor says he had submitted his resignation as a guarantee to the government that he will step down if the demands of Jamiat-e-Islami are met by the government.
However, he says the government has approved his resignation as negotiations were underway insisting that none of the conditions and demands of the party have been met.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistain say the government of Pakistain condemns the attack on a hotel in Kabul city.
A front man for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistain Dr. Mohammad Faisal said "Pakistain condemns the terrorist attack on a hotel in Kabul. Terrorism is not acceptable."
No group or individual has so far grabbed credit behind the coordinated attack which lasted for almost twelve hours.
The Ministry of Interior front man Najib Danish confirmed that the ministry has received reports regarding the death of five people so far while six others have been maimed during the attack.
He said two of the attackers have been rubbed out by the security forces and the clearance operations are underway to eliminate the remaining turbans.
In the meantime, the security officials are saying that all the attackers have been rubbed out and at least seven people have bit the dust in the attack.
Last night’s attack takes place almost six years after a group of Lions of Islam launched a similar attack on the same.
[RADIOSHABELLE] Somali President Mohammed Abdullahi sacked the mayor of the capital Mogadishu and appointed his information minister to replace him on Sunday.
The president, in a decree, named Abdirahman Omar Osman as the new mayor, replacing Thabit Abdi Mohammed. The president’s office did not give a reason for Mohammed’s dismissal.
Local media reported on Saturday that Mohammed and Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire did not get on, but it was unclear whether that was the reason for Mohammed’s removal from the post.
"After deliberation with the prime minister and interior minister, the Somali president appointed Abdirahman Omar Osman as the new mayor," a statement on the Somali government website said.
Mogadishu residents said security forces had entered the mayor’s office on Saturday night and took control of it. They also closed most roads in the city and they were still blocked on Sunday.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Yemeni activists accused Houthi militias of kidnapping a United Nations agency employee in Sanaa as part of its ongoing suppression of its opponents.
Senior Yemeni journalist Abdulrahman Bjash said that masked gunmen had kidnapped his son Hisham on Thursday after he had left his office at the International Organization for Migration.
He was with his wife at the time and was taken to an unknown location, he said in post on his Facebook account.
Bjash did not hold anyone responsible for the abduction, saying that he “so far does not know where his son is.”
In a separate development, Houthi militants kidnapped in Sanaa Yehya al-Hindwana for refusing to comply with enlistment demands made by the group.
Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee agency announced on Thursday that the ongoing battles in Yemen have forced more than 32,000 people to flee their homes in the past two months.
The UNHCR said in a statement that they now join some two million Yemenis already displaced by the war.
"The arrival of winter in Yemen, when temperatures can dip below zero degrees Celsius across a number of governorates, has worsened the hardship for many, particularly those displaced and living in informal settlements exposed to the elements with little protection against the cold," it said.
UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said flare-ups in fighting in the rebel-held capital Sanaa, as well as the provinces of Hodeidah on the Red Sea and oil-rich Shabwa in the south, had driven the displacements.
"We continue to see correlations between intensified hostilities and civilian casualties + displacement," Mantoo said on Twitter Friday.
Continued on Page 47
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Bahrain’s interior minister has accused Lebanese Hezbollah militias of supporting terror groups and at least 19 plots against public figures in the Gulf island kingdom in the past year.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa said on Sunday that as a result, 47 people were charged with links to terrorism, including plots to assassinate public figures.
"The cells are run by individuals in Iran who coordinate with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Popular Mobilization Militias in Iraq and the Hezbollah in Leb to train terrorists. This fact has been highlighted in the past and continues to be highlighted," al-Khalifa said at a presser on Sunday.
Bahraini police have also transferred the cases of 290 wanted persons and suspects to the public prosecutor's office.
Most of the 47 people tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! on Sunday were part of the Saraya al-Ashtar, Saraya Al Muqawama Al Sha’biya and Saraya al-Mukhtar militia groups.
In the past year, Bahrain’s security apparatus carried out 105 security missions, including search of 42 sites and warehouses. A total of 290 runaways and suspects were referred to the Public Prosecution and a quantity of weapons, equipment and explosives seized. Bahrain’s Public Prosecutor’s office told Al Arabiya English they will release the details of its investigations at a later date.
"Our security mission does not end with the uncovering of a terror group and the arrest of lawbreakers. Ours is a comprehensive mission which aims to achieve security and stability across the country, and to have a comprehensive security viewpoint to understand the main reasons and motives that have a bearing on the general security situation," al-Khalifa said.
[Ynet] A day before Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's Jan. 12 ultimatum to "fix" the Iran nuclear deal, European powers met Iran's foreign minister to show support for it, but the effort failed to soften Trump's aversion to the accord, US and European officials said.
The gathering in Brussels may even have reinforced the US president's antipathy, according to three US officials involved in the discussions.
Trump instead gave the European allies, Britannia, La Belle France, Germany, and the US Congress 120 days to come up with a tougher approach on Tehran or see U.S. sanctions reimposed, they said.
With Trump warning of a last chance for "the worst deal ever negotiated", Britannia, La Belle France and Germany have begun talks on a plan to satisfy him by addressing Iran's ballistic missile tests and its regional influence while preserving the 2015 accord that curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions for at least a decade.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/22/2018 01:44 ||
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#1
Why, appeasement of course.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2018 10:39 Comments ||
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The city council of a suburb of Paris said it would recognize the state of Palestine.
The office of Gennevilliers Mayor Patrice Leclerc, a Communist Party of France politician, announced on Friday the move, which is symbolic and has no bearing on French foreign policy, Le Figaro reported. Except to remind us who you are Continued on Page 47
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has announced his country’s agreement with Soddy 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. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... on the status of the administration of the Grand Mosque in Brussels at the disposal of the federal government. "This mosque will be placed under the control of an Islamic local authority, and the Ministries of Justice and Interior will work on this file," Reynders said after meeting with his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir, who recently visited Brussels last week.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Free West Media] The rally drew thousands of supporters ahead of Dutch local government elections in March, in which issues such as immigration and integration feature prominently among its 13 million voters. Wilders’s PVV will compete in about 30 of the 335 local governments in the 21 March vote. Dutch politician Geert Wilders "Netherlands again for us."
“The Netherlands is our country, it’s not (Prime Minister) Mark Rutte’s country,” popular Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who led the demonstration, told the crowds.
“We live here, not in Morocco, we don’t live in Turkey or in Saudi Arabia, but in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands,” Wilders said. “Here it’s our rules that count. I want to tell you that the Netherlands is not an Islamic country, do you agree?”
Continued on Page 47
The chief columnist who writes for Turkish Sabah daily that is owned by #Erdogan family suggests arming drug cartels in #Mexico get back at the US for aligning with YPG/PYD in #Syria.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: 3dc ||
01/22/2018 07:09 ||
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#1
Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu lashes out at the US, says enough with the plots from the the US, claims the US destroys peace in Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Middle East, Balkans, & Central Asia, vows the Turkish nation is ready to die to foil US plans.
Turkish minister Nihat Zeybekci says more military ops in other areas will follow Afrin incursion, says Turkey does not need a permission or support from anybody to do so.
#2
Turkey's economy minister Nihat Zeybekci vows that his gov't will be among those powers that will redraw borders in the world if it comes to that, issues a warning ultimatum to all of Turkey's neighbours for threats.
[Twitter] Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warns if France or any other country takes Afrin offensive to the UN, they will be siding with a terror group and be treated as such by Turkish gov't.
[RUDAW.NET] Some people have been tossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! by the Ottoman Turkish riot police in Istanbul as they erupted into the streets to protest against the Ottoman Turkish military aggression on the Kurdish city of Afrin in Syria.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party called for the protest, a move Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... condemned.
Erdogan on Sunday vowed to "crush" any local opposition to the country’s cross-border military operation.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has a significant Kurdish population, especially in the south and southeastern parts of the country. Some HDP members have already voiced their opposition to Ankara's deadly attacks against Afrin that killed at least 9 people since the operation began on Saturday.
"In order to protect the will of co-existence and peace among nations against the invasion attempt of Afrin, we should hold a presser and take to the streets on Sunday and Monday against the aggressive politics adopted by our government and the parties which support them," Nadir Yildirim, a HDP member of the parliament said on Saturday.
"As long as this occupation continues, we will not stop. Like we supported Kobane, we will support Afrin," the MP said, making reference to the Kurdish city of Kobani in Syria that came under siege by ISIS in late 2014 and early 2015. The Kobane siege caused a wave of violent protests in Turkey by the country’s Kurdish community against the Ottoman Turkish state whom they accused of being an accomplice to the bully boy group.
"An attack against Afrin is an attack against all Kurds. An attack against Afrin is an attack against Amed [Diyarbakir], Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... and Mahabad," the MP continued, naming different cities in different parts of Greater Kurdistan that includes significant areas in Turkey Syria, Iran and Iraq.
"We should never be silent witnessing this situation. We ask our people to take to the streets to make their voice heard and to show their pro-democracy views," he concluded.
Erdogan said at an event in Bursa, northwestern of Turkey, that they would "crush" local opposition to the operation.
"This is a national struggle. We will crush anyone who opposes our national struggle," Erdogan said at the event.
"We are not alone... Allah is with us," Erdogan said, "God willing, this operation will come to an end in a short time."
[Hurriyet Daily News] Special "conquest" prayers were held across all of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s 90,000 mosques on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 for the victory of the country’s military, which launched a cross border operation in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region on Jan. 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
"Sessions will be held after the isha prayer tonight [Jan. 20] and the morning prayer [on Jan. 21] due to Operation Olive Branch," said Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) head Ali Erbas in a message sent on Jan. 20 to all offices of muftis and religious officials across the country.
"The Surah Conquest [Surah al-Fath] will be cited during the special sessions to pray for the victory of our heroic security forces, who have launched an operation against terrorist groups that threaten our nation and our peace," Erbas added.
Responding to the call by Turkey’s top holy man, thousands across the country gathered in mosques to pray for servicemen taking part in the operation.
[Hurriyet Daily News] Operation Olive Branch against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) gunnies across the border in Afrin will be completed "in a very short period of time," Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... vowed on Jan. 21.
"We were in contact with our Chief of General Staff [Hulusi Akar] and commanders all night. We are constantly monitoring what is happening. God willing, we will complete this operation within a very short period of time," said Erdogan, addressing supporters in the western city of Bursa before a women’s branch congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
"We still have a lot of work to do. Necessary steps were taken with the air operation last night [Jan. 20]. Then a ground offensive started and it is now continuing. Fifty-five percent of Afrin is made up of Arabs and 35 percent is made up of Kurds, who were settled there recently. Six or seven percent of Afrin is made up of Turkmens. The main issue is making sure Afrin is handed over to its real owners," he added.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim previously commented on the ongoing operation, vowing that it would continue until all "terrorist elements are cleared" from the region.
Every kind of logistical support provided to the YPG gunnies in the region would figure among "The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... ’s targets," Yildirim said on Jan. 21, speaking to the editors of Ottoman Turkish news publications in a meeting held in Istanbul, in response to a question over what would happen in case of U.S. logistical support to the YPG.
"Operation Olive Branch Operation is for the [Syrian] war to end, for the peace of the local community, and for territorial integrity of Syria ... The operation is in line with international law. It is being conducted for the reason of self-defense, as per the 51st article of the U.N. agreement. The operation is being conducted for the fight against terrorism and the territorial integrity of Syria, within U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1373, 1624, 2170 ... We are also taking great care not to hurt civilians while arsenals and shelters are destroyed," he said.
"In the recent period our borders have been exposed to harassment more than 700 times. Last night six rockets were fired into Kilis. No one has bit the dust, but the location of the rockets was determined and destroyed," Yildirim added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
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#1
Turkey made incursions into Syria in 2015 and 2016 with the help of local allies. They then handed off to these allies who, within a few months lost control of the situation.
I don't see what will be different this time.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/22/2018 18:06 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah allegedly made circuit boards to remotely detonate explosives in attacks against US troops in Iraq
A decade ago, military police raiding a Baghdad apartment during the Iraq War discovered bomb-making materials that authorities say contained the fingerprints of a Syrian man now accused of making a key component for improvised bombs for a jihadist group that attacked American soldiers.
[IsraelTimes] Jordan’s king has appealed to US Vice President Mike Pence to "rebuild trust and confidence" in the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, following fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
"Today we have a major challenge to overcome, especially with some of the rising frustrations," Abdullah says.
Pence, in turn, is trying to reassure the monarch that the Trump administration remains committed to restarting Israeli-Paleostinian peace efforts and views Jordan as a central player.
The vice president says that "the United States of America remains committed, if the parties agree, to a two-state solution." Such a caveat deviates from longstanding US support for a two-state solution as the only possible outcome of any peace deal.
Play stupid games, lose stupid prizes.
Pence was expected in Israel in the evening after leaving Jordan.
Continued on Page 47
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] No doubt President Trump will be happy to cut the remainder of the American donation to UNWAR, not to mention the direct aid that’s been going to the PA. Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
In the next world you’re on your own.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2018 10:42 Comments ||
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[RUDAW.NET] Asmahan Dawoodi, a member of KNC representation office in the Kurdistan Region, called on Kurds to defend ’their soil’ in Afrin against Ottoman Turkish attacks, while also advocating for KNC diplomacy abroad.
"We call on the people of Afrin to defend their soil..." the Kurdish National Council (KNC, ENKS) member told Rudaw in an interview on Saturday.
Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... has failed to resolve the ’Kurdish question’ in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... and rid it of the PKK.
"Erdogan’s goal is the ’Kurdish question,’ not YPG, as he claims," said Dawoodi
"Turkey is making deals with Russia and USA on the account of Kurdish blood," she said during an interview with Rudaw on Saturday. "We, as ENKS, will not accept deals on Kurdish blood and soil."
The KNC has attended some of intra-Syrian negotiations brokered by Russia, Turkey, and Iran in Astana. She also said that ENKS representatives visit international bodies and countries to pressure Turkey to stop its attacks.
"ENKS is present in everywhere," said Dawoodi. "Now our representative is in Geneva."
The PYD is the largest Kurdish political party in Syria, but because of Ottoman Turkish objections, have been shut out of peace talks.
The KNC, a political umbrella, has also had representation in the war-torn country, but the KNC and PYD have disagreed on governance. The disagreements have led to violence, jailing and displacement, and their feud remains unresolved.
ENKS has boycotted elections by the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria, which seeks to achieve a Kurdish enclave in Syrian Kurdistan. YPG, which is the armed wing of the PYD, is the dominant Kurdish force currently in Rojava.
Rojava consists of three regions: Afrin in the west, the Euphrates in the centre, and Jazira in the east.
Other KNC members have said the PYD imposed itself on Rojava through "the use of force" and they were going to refrain from taking part in the "illegitimate" elections."
"The Syrian [crisis] should be resolved through political means, not military means, as decided by international [community] and the UN. Turkey cannot gain anything through military means," Dawoodi said to Rudaw.
Erdogan cannot launch any military campaign against Afrin because "neither Russia nor the USA has given him a green light," claimed the representative.
She advised Erdogan to make deals through congresses and conferences and not through military means.
"Let’s suppose Erdogan controlled Afrin, what can he change? On the contrary, he will deteriorate Syrian crisis," she said.
The areas around Afrin, which Turkey either directly controls militarily or through its Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) proxies, effectively isolates the canton from the other parts of Rojava.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A new photo has been released of Osama bin Laden’s son in law and al-Qaeda spokesman in Iran. The photo has emerged as part of the Abbottabad documents.
The image of the 52-year-old Kuwait-born Sulaiman Abu Ghaith taken north of Tehran showed him in a completely different form his normal appearance in al-Qaeda’s media publications.
The image taken in 2009 showed Abu Ghaith in a family outing organized by Iranian officials during the period al-Qaeda were establishing their presence in Iran.
The picture was described as taken during “a family trip in the tourist areas north of Tehran organized by the prison administration.”
Apart from Abu Ghaith, the trip is likely to have included his wife Fatima bin Laden and their children, along with her brothers Hamza, Othman, Mohammed and Saad, who were all living in the same house.
Abu Ghaith who also appeared in images during Hamza bin Laden’s marriage in Iran in 2005 was born in Kuwait in 1956 and worked as a teacher of jurisprudence and sharia in Kuwait before joining al-Qaeda.
Abu Ghaith was close to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the coordinator of the September 11 attacks, and who is currently being tried in the United States.
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.
...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. ..
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistain say the government of Pakistain condemns the attack on a hotel in Kabul city.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[IsraelTimes] Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah allegedly made circuit boards to remotely detonate explosives in attacks against US troops in Iraq
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A new photo has been released of Osama bin Laden’s son in law and al-Qaeda spokesman in Iran. The photo has emerged as part of the Abbottabad documents.
