[TheIntercept] ON A CRISP SATURDAY in November 2014, a black Mercedes SUV pulled onto the tarmac of an Austrian specialty aviation company 30 miles south of Vienna. Employees of the firm, Airborne Technologies, which specialized in designing and equipping small aircraft with wireless surveillance platforms, had been ordered to work that weekend because one of the company’s investors was scheduled to inspect their latest project.
For four months, Airborne’s team had worked nearly nonstop to modify an American-made Thrush 510G crop duster to the exact specifications of an unnamed client. Everything about the project was cloaked in secrecy. The company’s executives would refer to the client only as “Echo Papa,” and instructed employees to use code words to discuss certain modifications made to the plane. Now the employees would learn that Echo Papa also owned more than a quarter of their company.
A fit, handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes got out of the Mercedes and entered Airborne’s hanger. Echo Papa, who was often just called EP, shook hands with a dozen Airborne employees and looked over the plane. “He was the sun, and all the management were planets rotating around him,” said one person present that day.
One of the mechanics soon recognized Echo Papa from news photos — he was Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater. Several of the Airborne staff whispered among themselves, astonished that they had been working for America’s best-known mercenary. The secrecy and strange modification requests of the past four months began to make sense. In addition to surveillance and laser-targeting equipment, Airborne had outfitted the plane with bulletproof cockpit windows, an armored engine block, anti-explosive mesh for the fuel tank, and specialized wiring that could control rockets and bombs. The company also installed pods for mounting two high-powered 23 mm machine guns. By this point, the engineers and mechanics were concerned that they had broken several Austrian laws but were advised that everything would be fine as long as they all kept the secret.
Prince congratulated everyone for making the plane “rugged” and then left. The plane was due in South Sudan, where it was urgently needed to salvage Prince’s first official contract with his new company, Frontier Services Group. Prince was eager to get the Thrush 510G in the air.
Over a two-year period, Prince exploited front companies and cutouts, hidden corporate ownership, a meeting with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout’s weapons supplier, and at least one civil war in an effort to manufacture and ultimately sell his customized armed counterinsurgency aircraft. If he succeeded, Prince would possess two prototypes that would lay the foundation for a low-cost, high-powered air force capable of generating healthy profits while fulfilling his dream of privatized warfare.
In early 2014, Prince and Citic Group, China’s largest state-owned investment firm, founded Frontier Services Group, a publicly traded logistics and aviation company based in Hong Kong. FSG offered services such as shipping minerals, chartering flights for executives, and occasional medevacs from remote African locations. Over the past two years, Prince has given interviews and speeches describing his vision of FSG. “This is not a patriotic endeavor of ours,” Prince said of his new company. “We’re here to build a great business and make some money doing it.” China, he said, “has the appetite to take frontier risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those less-certain, less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it happen.” But while he burnished his new image as chairman of a public company, he was secretly overseeing the clandestine attack aircraft program.
In 2013, when FSG was being created, Prince and his team were already developing a secret blueprint for weaponized crop dusters to target terrorists and assist counterinsurgency operations in Africa.
#3
Prince’s $300 million proposal to aid Kiir’s forces explicitly called for ground and air assaults, initially to be conducted by a 341-person foreign combat unit. Prince’s forces would conduct “deliberate attacks, raids, [and] ambushes” against “rebel objectives,” to be followed by “continuous medium to high intensity rapid intervention,” which would include “search [and] destroy missions.” Various drafts of the proposal, obtained by The Intercept, reveal meticulous planning, down to the exact number of munitions and specific hand-held radios that would be purchased. Iron Fist called for the acquisition of at least 600 bombs, 3,500 rockets, 7,500 mortars, and more than 30 million rounds of ammunition.
#9
It appears that in south Sudan Prince has chosen the ethnic Dinka over the ethnic Nuer. The nascent state should have been a confederation of three states, with the third polity comprising the Equatoria tribes. In reality, tribal hatred is so great, a unified South Sudan is a pipedream. So let the slaughter continue.
#14
From the PowerPoint (See #4) it looks like this might be one of those blood-for-oil things.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/01/2018 9:45 Comments ||
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#15
Let the bigger do as he wants. As long as there is no US tax dollars or clandestine US intelligence involvement, permit the culling to continue and pass the popcorn.
The conversion of crop dusters into light attack aircraft had long been part of Prince’s vision for defeating terrorists and insurgencies in Africa and the Middle East. In Prince’s view, these single-engine fixed-wing planes, retrofitted for war zones, would revolutionize the way small wars were fought.
Definitely Page 2: WoT Background, and vrey interesting.
[Libya Observer] The United States AFRICOM commander Thomas Waldhauser, and the chargé d'affaires in Libya, Stephanie Williams, visited 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 Thursday and met with the Head of the Presidential Council, Fayez al-Sirraj.
The meeting reviewed the Gay Paree declaration of principles and al-Sirraj told the visiting US officials that it has been a very vital step that could be built upon for a later success with a consensus from all Libyan parties, adding that there are many challenges to implementing it on the ground and "that is why all should work on making it happen."
Williams and the rest of the US officials renewed their country's support for Libya, political process and the Presidential Council government, saying Gay Paree conference was very vital for upcoming stability in Libya, saying all should work with the UNSMIL to implement the agreed upon principles.
The two countries' officials also discussed mechanisms needed to conduct the aspired for elections in Libya, including the constitutional basis. They also discussed the fighting against IS terrorists.
General Waldhauser also stressed on the vitality of cooperation with Libya and the good role played by the Presidential Council (PC), saying AFRICOM are still monitoring the movement of the faceless myrmidons in coordination with the PC government.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[Libya Observer] The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has stated that the escalation of fighting in Derna - eastern Libya - has reached unprecedented levels due to the use of Arclight airstrikes and artillery shelling.
"Some of the attacks have been targeting residential areas, besides heavy ground festivities." OHCA added in a report on Thursday.
"The humanitarian situation is worsening as severe water, food and medicine shortages continue to exacerbate. Electricity and water are completely cut off for the approximately 125,000 residents." The report reads.
The report also remarked that at least five civilians have died since May 22, including two children, and 11 have been injured, including four children, as a result of the increased hostilities.
"The humanitarian community calls on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and minimise civilian casualties." The report calls, saying all parties need to ensure civilians’ freedom of movement and facilitate the safe exit of those civilians wishing to leave Derna.
It added that there is an urging need for an immediate safe and unrestricted access to Derna for humanitarian actors and humanitarian goods needs to be granted.
The self-styled army forces of Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... have been for weeks toughening the siege along with the bombing and shelling on Derna in an attempt to push forward and enter the city.
Caught up in the middle, Derna civilian population has been deprived of so many basic needs such as cooking gas, fuel and oxygen for hospitals and foods as well as medicines. due to the encirclement of Haftar's forces, which has been ongoing for over two years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
...Interestingly, Derna seems to have been a haven for maniacs and fruit loops of all kinds for quite some time. During the time of the Deys of Tripoli, Derna was where any number of conspirators hung out, and after that the odd holy man (and they were all pretty odd) would pop up there to preach revival and jihad (not necessarily in that order). And finally, during more recent unpleasantness, US Army intel has captured paperwork that indicates that if you need religiously deranged killers, Derna's the place. I'd say that it must be something in the water, but they don't seem to have much water.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/01/2018 5:38 Comments ||
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h/t Instapundit
[NationalReview] Tommy Robinson is a British political activist and "citizen journalist" who came to prominence in Britain almost a decade ago when he founded the English Defence League. The EDL was a street-protest movement in Britain whose aims could probably best be summarized as "anti-Islamization." It emerged in the town of Luton after a group of local Islamists barracked the homecoming parade of a local regiment returning from service in Afghanistan.
From their earliest protests the EDL’s members sought to highlight issues including sharia law, Islam’s attitudes toward minorities, and the phenomenon that would become euphemistically known as "grooming gangs." In reality these protests often descended into hooliganism and low-level violence (naturally helped along by self-described "anti-fascists"). The authorities did everything they could to stop the EDL, and the media did everything possible to demonize them. In a foretaste of things to come, very few people made any effort to understand them. And nobody paid any price for (indeed many people benefited from) claiming that the EDL was simply a fascist organization and that anybody who even tried to understand them must be a fascist too. The usual prohibition against sweeping generalizations doesn’t seem to apply if the generalization tilts in that direction.
I interviewed Tommy Robinson five years ago, after he had left the EDL (having by his own admission failed to keep extremists including actual neo-Nazis away from the movement). As he said then, one of the problems of everyone insisting that a particular movement is campaigning for the Fourth Reich is that the few people who think that sounds like a great idea will show up. Whatever his other faults, there is no evidence that Robinson thinks that way. Indeed he was once charged with assault for head-butting a Nazi sympathizer who wouldn’t leave an EDL protest. Not many people bothered with those details. The assault got reported, but not the cause. So the fact that Robinson had head-butted a Nazi became yet more evidence that he himself must be some kind of Nazi.
Anyhow ‐ Robinson wised up slightly, and eventually began to plough his energies into a type of citizen journalism/activism. Some of this has been remarkably brave, some of it remarkably wrong (such as a video he made after last year’s Manchester Arena attack, in which he seemed to furiously suggest that everyone living around a particular mosque in the area must be some type of enemy combatant), and some remarkably ill-advised ‐ not least because it has allowed him to be presented in the worst possible light.
[DAWN] Security forces cleared more than 1,000 people from a sprawling migrant camp in the French capital on Wednesday, the latest in a series of episodes that have thrust the issue of illegal immigration back into the spotlight.
About 1,700 people, mainly from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... , were living in the "Millenaire", or Millennium, camp underneath the main Gay Paree ring road near the Porte de la Villette in the northeast of the capital.
But regional prefect Michel Cadot later said that just 1,016 migrants colonists had been removed, since many residents had fled after learning the dawn operation was imminent.
They will be housed temporarily at more than 20 sites across the Gay Paree region while the authorities check their identities, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement.
The operation came just days after a young Malian was honoured with fast-track citizenship following his daring rescue of a child hanging from a balcony.
It also coincided with the trial of a 72-year-old woman in the Mediterranean city of Nice for helping two Guinean teenagers cross into the country from Italia.
Three other people will face trial on Thursday for helping migrants colonists enter La Belle France illegally, even as Grenoble this week honoured a farmer convicted of guiding migrants colonists across the Alps by bestowing him with the city’s official medal.
Two similar camps migrant camps in the capital, one along the Canal St Martin, which houses 800 mostly Afghan migrants colonists, and another of 300-400 at the Porte de la Chapelle, are set to be evacuated soon, Cadot said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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#5
"They look like Nice boys, but they're skinny,"
Says Granny, of two guys from Guinea,
So she fattens them on
Aubergine parmesane
"Pour servir les migrants!" Fin e Fini.
[IsraelTimes] Resolution urging international protection for Paleostinians slammed for not mentioning Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, role in cross-border flare-up; vote postponed until Friday
The US will "unquestionably" veto an Arab-backed resolution that asks the UN chief to propose measures to ensure "international protection" for Paleostinian civilians, ambassador Nikki Haley ...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... said Thursday.
Continued on Page 49
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s High Electoral Commission said Thursday that the voting process during the country’s recent parliamentary elections was free of defects, stressing it welcomes any challenges to the process.
Riyad al-Badran, a senior commission official, was quoted by Alsumaria News saying in a presser in Baghdad that "elections were held under a local and international observation", urging all sides "to respect the will of the people".
According to Badran, "results of the elections were sound and correspondent to what was found in the ballot boxes", adding that "devices adopted in the elections gave matching results".
The official said the commission was anxious to address any violations and hold those behind them accountable.
Commenting on the recent decision by the Iraqi parliament to run a recount of 10 percent of ballot boxes and to cancel voting results at more than 1000 stations, Badran said "the commission respects the parliament’s decisions...we will wait for the opinion of the federal court in that respect".
"We are not concerned about the call for a manual recount", Badran said, adding that the commission closed the door today for receiving challenges to the electoral process, and would conclude the review of those challenges ( totalling 1875) in 10 days.
Accusations of forgery flew after the end of votes on May 12th. Abadi’s office said the prime minister had referred to the Integrity Authority a violation by the electoral commission related to its failure to hire a specialized firm to check and verify the soundness of electronic vote counters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Two teams of war surgeons sent to Gazoo by the Red Thingy to help the enclave's main hospital with massive load of maimed from recent festivities between Israel and Gazooks.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy is sending two teams of war surgeons to Gazoo and setting up a surgical unit in the enclave’s main hospital to treat heavy casualties from festivities between Israeli forces and Paleostinians.
Since protests on the Gazoo-Israel border began on March 30, Israeli troops have killed 115 Paleostinians and maimed more than 13,000 people, including 3,600 by live ammunition, Robert Mardini, ICRC’s director for the Near and Middle East, said.
This week also saw the most intense flare-up of hostilities between Paleostinian gunnies and Israel since the 2014 Gazoo war.
"The recent demonstrations and violence that took place along the Gazoo border since the end of March have triggered a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude in this part of the world," Mardini told a news conference on Thursday in Geneva.
The ICRC will set up a 50-bed surgical unit at al-Shifa hospital, Gazoo’s largest.
"Our priority now clearly is to help gunshot wound victims. Imagine, 1,350 people with complex cases who will need three to five operations each, a total of 4,000 surgeries, half of which will be carried out by ICRC teams," he said.
"I think such a caseload would overwhelm any health system in the world, including in Geneva."
The six-month surge of medical expertise, drugs and equipment will speed the long road to recovery and relieve an overwhelmed health care system, he said.
"The last eight weeks definitely the first priority has been to save lives and save limbs. Post-operative care needs today are massive in Gazoo," Dr. Gabriel Salazar Arbelaez, ICRC health coordinator in Israel and the Paleostinian territories, told news hounds via Skype.
Some 60 percent have injuries to the legs and many will need lengthy physical therapy and psychological support, he said. Thirty-two patients have had limbs amputated, he added, citing figures from Paleostinian authorities.
It was important to be prepared for a "potential new massive influx of patients," Salazar said, noting it was difficult to receive permission to evacuate people for treatment abroad.
Guislain Defurne, head of the ICRC’s sub-delegation in Gazoo, said many people will end up permanently disabled.
Mardini said the economy of Gazoo, which is blockaded by Israel and its other neighbor Egypt, was "suffocating," with high unemployment, electricity limited to four hours a day, and a broken water and sanitation system that pours 20 million liters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean daily.
"The whole Gazoo Strip is a sinking ship," he said.
[PRESSTV] US Ambassador to the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Nikki Haley ...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... has said Washington will "unquestionably veto" a UN draft resolution calling for the protection of Paleostinians in Gazoo and the occupied West Bank.
After initially deciding to delay action on the measure, the Security Council was expected to finally go ahead with the vote at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Friday.
Haley on Thursday called the text drafted by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries as a "grossly one-sided approach that is morally bankrupt and would only serve to undermine ongoing efforts toward peace between the Israelis and Paleostinians."
"There is not one single mention of Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", in the resolution, when Hamas is chiefly responsible for the recent violence in Gazoo. The text criticizes ’excessive’ and ’indiscriminate’ use of force by Israeli forces against Paleostinian civilians in Gazoo, when in fact, it is Hamas that fired 70 rockets indiscriminately into Israeli towns this week," Haley wrote in a statement.
The Kuwaiti resolution "calls on Israel to immediately cease its actions in self-defense, but makes no mention of Hamas’ aggressive actions against Israeli security forces and civilians," Haley wrote.
"Those who choose to vote in favor of this resolution will clarify their own lack of fitness to take part in any credible negotiations between the two parties," concluded the statement.
Kuwait presented its draft two weeks ago that called for an international protection mission for the Paleostinians.
A final watered-down version of the Kuwaiti resolution calls for "the consideration of measures to guarantee the safety and protection" of Paleostinian civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] Israel is selling 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... information that would allow the kingdom to develop nuclear weapons, a senior Israeli nuclear expert has revealed.
Ami Dor-On, a senior nuclear commentator with the Israeli military organization iHLS, said the cooperation has been made possible in the wake of the widening ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is indicative of an emerging nuclear arms race in the region.
"This information should shock us as we see the world is changing for the worse, following the race for the possession of nuclear weapons that pass right over our heads in the Middle East," the Middle East Monitor quoted the expert as saying on Thursday, citing a report by Arabi21.
According to the Israeli writer, the Tel Aviv regime is aware that Saudis would eventually make the move for developing nuclear weapons and want to make sure they would not go to other regional players such as Pakistain to obtain the know-how.
"It can be assumed that Israel may take the initiative to develop Saudi Arabia’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and not leave it solely to Pakistain, given the growing Saudi-Israeli relations," the expert added.
Dor-On claimed that Pakistain has already signaled its willingness to transfer the expertise to Saudi Arabia "within a month" should the arms race intensify.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:27 ||
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#1
See, and you thought these kind of "experts" only exist in USA/EUrope.
[PRESSTV] Tehran has dismissed the allegations put forth in a recent US report on religious freedom in Iran as "baseless" and "politically motivated," saying the document offers a "distorted picture" of the realities in Iran and other countries.
Iranian Foreign Ministry front man, Bahram Qassemi, was reacting to the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2017, which was released on May 29.
The Iran section of the report claimed that "non-Shia Moslems and those affiliated with a religion other than Islam" residing in the Islamic Theocratic Republic faced "societal discrimination and harassment."
Besides Iran, the report also targets Washington’s other foes, including Russia, China and North Korea.
Qassemi said, "The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran views this report as unrealistic, baseless and biased, which has been compiled merely with the aim of serving certain political goals."
The US, he added, has "no accurate and realistic evaluation" of the situation inside other countries, stressing that this report, which presents yet another distorted picture of religious freedoms in Iran and levels untrue allegations against the Islamic Theocratic Republic, is "undoubtedly unacceptable and rejected."
The official said history shows that the great people of Iran, from all faiths and ethnicities, have peacefully coexisted for millennia.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:34 ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... has expressed readiness for negotiations with the Syrian Democratic Forces, or else he would use force against them to get out of the regions they control.
In a televised interview with Russia Today channel on Thursday, Assad said western forces, with U.S. on top of them, backs ’terrorist groups’ in the region.
In response to a question about time for ending the war, Assad said it’s hard to set time for that, however, he said it’s about to end.
Assad also indicated that the U.S. does not have plenty of options after ’liberating’ regions like Aleppo, Deir az-Zour, Homs, Damascus. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... he considered SDF as one of the options that could be used by the U.S. at the meantime.
"The only problem remaining in Syria now is the Syrian Democratic Forces. We will deal with them through two options. First is that we opened door for negotiations. If this does not happen, we will have to liberate those regions forcibly," he said.
Regarding possibilities that U.S.-Russian conflict could occur on Syrian lands, Assad said, " We were about having a direct conflict between the U.S. and Russian forces, but that was avoided. Thanks to the wisdom of the Russian leadership, not the U.S. leadership."
In response to remarks made by Assad, SDF, backed by U.S., said the military option is not the solution that could bring up any result.
"Whatever military solution against SDF, will result into more destruction, loss and hardships to Syrian people," Kino Gabriel, spokesperson for SDF, said in remarks.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The United States has updated the designation of the Nusra Front despite the its decision to split from the al-Qaeda and rebrand (both terror groups are outlawed in Russia), the US Department of State said in a blurb on Thursday.
"The Department of State has amended the designation of al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front ‐ an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria ‐ to include Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other aliases," the release stated. "[T]oday’s designation serves notice that the United States is not fooled by this al-Qaeda affiliate’s attempt to rebrand itself."
US Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales said in the release that regardless of the organization’s title the United States will continue to block it from obtaining resources to spread terror.
The Nusra Front, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, is an affiliate of al-Qaeda.
The group established the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in January of 2017 to secure the territories it holds in Syria, the release said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The battle for southern Syria is expected to start in the coming days and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is still busy sending large convoys of soldiers to the provinces of al-Quneitra and Dara’a.
According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Army’s mass mobilization of troops in southern Syria is the largest military build-up of this war.
The source added that the total number of soldiers and paramilitary personnel participating in this offensive is expected to exceed the previous East Ghouta operation by at least 2,000 soldiers.
With all of Damascus and most of Homs (Tanf controlled by US-backed forces) under the government’s control, the Syrian Army can concentrate a large number of soldiers to these fronts that were previously deployed to the East Ghouta and al-Rastan Plain.
Furthermore, the Syrian Army will need a significant number of soldiers to participate in the battle for southern Syria because some of the largest Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) factions are currently present in the Dara’a and al-Quneitra governorates.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The 42nd Brigade (Ghiath Forces) of the 4th Division has officially arrived in the al-Quneitra Governorate to lead the upcoming offensive against the jihadist and Salafist tough guys inside the province.
According to a source from the Ghiath Forces, they arrived alongside their allies from Liwaa al-Quds ...the Jerusalem Brigade is a Paleostinian-Syrian pro-Government group that operates in Aleppo, formed in 2013. The group is composed of predominately Sunni Paleostinians from the al-Nayrab district as well as the former refugee camp Handarat. It is believed to be the largest Assadist auxilliary force operating in storied Aleppo... (Paleostinian paramilitary) in the northern part of the al-Quneitra Governorate on Thursday.
The Ghiath Forces were also joined by their commander Colonel Ghiath Dallah, who will also be leading this operation in the al-Quneitra Governorate.
Both the Ghiath Forces and Liwaa al-Quds will attack one axis together, while an entire Elite Republican Guard Brigade will operate along a different axis inside the province.
The source from the Ghiath Forces told al-Masdar that the operation may begin in the next 48 hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Syria will continue beefing up its air defenses after getting help from Russia, Bashir al-Assad said.
"Our air defense is much stronger than before, thanks to the Russian support, and the recent attacks by the Israelis and by the Americans and British and French proved that we are in a better situation," he said. "The only option is to improve our air defense, this is the only thing we can do, and we are doing that."
Assad accused Israel of being in contact with Syrian forces of Evil from the start of the seven-year war. He said forces of Evil appeared to have acted in the interest of Israel when they picked air defense systems as their primary target.
"The first target of the mercenaries in Syria was the air defense. Before attacking any other military base it was the air defense... This is the other proof that Israel was in direct link with those forces of Evil in Syria. So, they attacked those bases, and they destroyed a big part of our air defenses," he pointed out.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"We shall add caltrops, fascines, and S-400 to our defenses!"
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Pentagon issued a stern warning to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... on Thursday after he said that his troops will retake lands from the US-backed forces if they do not leave Syria.
In response to Assad’s threats, the Pentagon warned that any attack against its allies will be a "bad policy."
"Any interested party in Syria should understand that attacking US Forces or our coalition partners will be a bad policy," Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the joint staff, said during a presser.
Lt. Gen. McKenzie’s response came after he was asked about Assad’s remarks towards the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/01/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
They're not democratic, they're Islamist.
What the F are we even doing in Syria?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/01/2018 1:35 Comments ||
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#3
The US government is approaching a crossroads: do we actively help or hinder the partitioning of Syria into Assad-Land and the Turkish puppet-state forming in Idlib. A 'Republic of Northern Syria' to mirror their faux-republic in Cyprus.
At some point the Turkish Army is going to cross the border and attempt to annex all of Syria north of the Euphrates. Manbij, Adlib and soon all of the area will 'ethnically cleansed' of Kurds by Erdogan. The question is anyone other than Assad will even try to stop it?
#5
PREDICTION:
When Putin annexes land populated with people who'd like to be Russian it's bad, but when Erdogan ethnic cleanses part of Kurdistan it'll be good/MSM on snooze.
ISIS remains a threat to the entire civilized world. It was more of a threat when it was comquering Iraq and Syria. The Kurds have lavishly spent both blood and treasure in both countries to drive back the jihadis and protect those they attacked, despite most of those not being Kurds. Without Amreican and Coalition aid and support, the Kurds would have been crushed along with the rest, albeit a bit more slowly.
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.
[TheIntercept] ON A CRISP SATURDAY in November 2014, a black Mercedes SUV pulled onto the tarmac of an Austrian specialty aviation company 30 miles south of Vienna. Employees of the firm, 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
...Trump administration's ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
[PRESSTV] Israel is selling 
Besides Iran, the report also targets Washington’s other foes, including Russia, China and 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...the 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
