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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
2 killed in Gaza blast during attempted launch of projectile toward Israel
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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13 15:03 g(r)omgoru [3]
-Land of the Free
How America's Polygamy Ban Blocked Muslim Immigration
Fascinating.
[SultanKnish] A hundred years ago, Muslims were furious over an immigration bill whose origins lay with advocacy by a headstrong and loudmouthed Republican in the White House.

The anti-immigration bill offended the Ottoman Empire, the rotting Caliphate of Islam soon to be defeated at the hands of America and the West, by banning the entry of "all polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of polygamy."

This, as was pointed out at the time, would prohibit the entry of the "entire Mohammedan world" into the United States.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 746 || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Interesting, not one mention of Mormonism and Polygamy, an impetus of the Republican platform plurality plank.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2018 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Is the law still in effect?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/30/2018 12:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Though the law today is seldom enforced.

Guess it is, just nobody cares.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2018 17:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Unknown men hang a 14-year-old girl in Daikundi province
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A group of unknown men have hanged a girl to death in central Daikundi province of Afghanistan, the local officials said Sunday.

The incident has taken place in the vicinity of Sango Bandar district of the province with the main reason behind the brutal killing of the girl yet to be ascertained.

Provincial governor’s front man Ali Akbar Nateqi confirmed the incident and said the girl was first beaten by the men and was then hanged from a tree.

Nateqi further added that the incident has taken place in Qul Mastang area of Sango Badar district of Daikundi province.

He also added that one suspect has been held in connection to the brutal beating and murder of the maiden of tender years but did not elaborate further.

The main reason behind the killing of the girl has not been ascertained so far, Nateqi said, adding that an investigation is underway in this regard.
Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The main reason behind the killing of the girl has not been ascertained so far

Couldn't have anything to do with her being a 'temptress' for some of the weaker 'unknown men'?
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2018 11:18 Comments || Top||


Taliban term preliminary talks with US as ‘very useful’
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
group has termed the preliminary talks with the US officials as ’very useful’ and has promised to elect a delegation for the formal talks if some progress was made during the initial stage, it has been reported.

"The negotiations are at initial stage ... and both sides discussed options to pave the way for future contacts and meetings," a Taliban official has told Daily Times.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the Taliban official further added that the talks were held in a ’very cordial atmosphere and both sides had useful exchanges’, he added.

In the meantime, sources have said that the head of Taliban office Maulvi Sher Abbas Stanekzai led the Taliban team in talks, who called for removal of UN restrictions on Taliban leaders and recognition of their office 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...
Taliban will set up another delegation for formal dialogue if preliminary talks make some progress, sources added.

Taliban political office in Qatar was opened in 2013 but was closed just days after then president Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
...Former president of Aghanistan, part of the problem not part of the solution...
criticized the group for hoisting a white flag.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  So were the Paris Peace Talks(tm) [as a tool to drag out and manipulate the usual suspects].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/30/2018 7:30 Comments || Top||


Trump wants Afghan forces in Kabul, other big cities
[PRESSTV] Officials from the administration US President 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...
are pushing Afghan forces to move their soldiers to big cities like the capital Kabul, sources say.

Citing three officials familiar with the president’s war strategy, The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

reported Sunday that the incentive is avoiding aggressors’ attacks in isolated outposts manned by Afghan forces.

The officials further told the daily that the approach is a previously undisclosed part of the war strategy that the president announced in 2017.

Several rockets have been separately fired at different residential areas in the Afghan capital of Kabul, wounding at least three people, police say.

"The withdrawal resembles strategies embraced by both the Bush and B.O. regimes that have started and stuttered over the nearly 17-year war. It will effectively ensure that the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
and other Death Eater groups will hold on to territory that they have already seized, leaving the government in Kabul to safeguard the capital and cities such as Kandahar, Kunduz, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad," read the report.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is ready to negotiate with Taliban.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Sissi urges Israeli public to seize ‘a great opportunity for peace'
[IsraelTimes] In direct appeal in Cairo conference, Egyptian president says solution to conflict won't harm Israel's security or stability

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday appealed directly to the Israeli public, calling on it to seize "a great opportunity" for peace.

"We have a great opportunity to achieve peace in the region and solve the Paleostinian issue," Sissi said in an address at a conference for youth at Cairo university carried by the country’s media.

"This solution will not take away from your security or stability," he added, clarifying that he was directing his words at Israelis.

On the other hand, Sissi added that Egypt cannot agree to any solution opposed by the Paleostinian leadership.
So that's that, then.
"Egypt’s policies are clear," he added. "We support all UN decisions, the establishment of a Paleostinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and [an Israeli withdrawal] to pre-1967 borders."
Back to that old song? Fuggedaboutit.
"Egypt is seeking to lighten the burden on Gazoo and that’s why the Rafah Crossing was open for the past two months," he said. "Egypt is trying to be a positive factor and calmly undertake its role."

Earlier Sunday, Sissi met with US-based World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, and said he supports efforts to revive Israeli-Paleostinian peace talks. He added that a key step on the way to that goal was achieving internal Paleostinian reconciliation in which the Paleostinian Authority restores its rule over the Gazoo Strip.
To dream the impossibie dream...
In the meeting, Sissi also expressed keenness to strengthen Egypt’s strategic ties with the US, according to Egyptian media.

US President 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...
has long promised to try and reach the so-called "deal of the century" to end the long-simmering Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, but his efforts have derailed since his decision to transfer the US embassy to Jerusalem.

The PA has castigated the move, declared the US no longer an honest broker in negotiations, and rejected any plan the White House may come out with. PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
called the embassy move the "slap of the century," earlier this year.

The Paleostinians have refused to meet with the US to discuss peace overtures since December, when Trump announced the move and declared he would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Saudi king backs Palestinian stance on Trump’s peace plan

[IsraelTimes] 'We will not abandon you,' King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians....
said to tell PA's Abbas, rebuffing Arab fears Riyadh is aligning with Israel, US.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2018 00:02 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Stop beating a dead horse, Abdel.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 07/30/2018 1:44 Comments || Top||

#2  You are getting sucked into that fake vortex, Sisi.

Don't go there.
Posted by: newc || 07/30/2018 4:06 Comments || Top||


Malians vote in presidential election amid insecurity
[PRESSTV] Malians voted on Sunday to decide whether or not to give President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita a second term, amid widespread ethnic and hard boy violence that has dramatically worsened since he came to power five years ago.

Two dozen other candidates were contesting the presidency in a largely Saharan desert nation that has been fractured by a Tuareg rebellion and hard boy militancy across its north and central zones since the last poll in 2013.

Insecurity is such that in some parts of the country the vote will simply not happen, and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
observer mission urged the government on Saturday to publish a list of places that will be unable to vote, so as to quell suspicions by candidates of "fictitious polling stations."

Eight million voters are enrolled. Voting mostly began as scheduled at polling stations in the capital Bamako at 8 a.m. (0800 GMT). Polls close at 6 p.m. Opposition candidates include businessmen, an astrophysicist, and just one woman.

The threat of violence was on the minds of voters, which could reduce turnout in a country where only 40 percent vote on average.

A Rooters witness said it was calm in Timbuktu on Sunday after days of unrest leading up to the polls.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Yemen’s Hodeidah ‘one airstrike away from unstoppable epidemic’ -- UN
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Yemeni port-city of Hodeidah is "one Arclight airstrike away from an unstoppable epidemic," Lisa Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
, said in a statement from the capital city of Sana’a on Sunday.

"For weeks, we’ve been doing everything possible to help hundreds of thousands of people living in and near Hudaydah", however, "these airstrikes are putting innocent civilians at extreme risk."

The Hodeidah Governorate in western Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
has been under a powerful attack by the Saudi-led Coalition since April; this has resulted in the death of several civilians.

For the millions of Yemeni civilians living outside of the regime-held areas, they are subjected to shortages in food and medical supplies because the Hodeidah Port is the lifeline for the provinces of Sana’a, Sa’ada, Hajjah, Hodeidah, Ta’iz, al-Bayda, et al.

According to a UN report, at least 75 percent (22 million people) of the country requires some form of humanitarian aid or protection, including 8.5 million people who do not know where their next meal is coming from.

Since the Saudi-led Coalition restarted their military operations in Hodeidah, at least 50 people have been killed and 328 others have been maimed.

Most of the Hodeidah province is currently under the control of the Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
forces (var. Ansarallah Movement), who oppose the Yemeni regime of Saudi-backed ’Abd Rubbah Mansour Hadi.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


India-Pakistan
Winning two PA seats, nascent TLP gets ready to enter Sindh Assembly
[DAWN] KARACHI: Amid many surprises and upsets in general elections 2018, Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain has emerged as a new force to claim the highest number of religious votes 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...
. It beat the five-party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which many say is fast losing support of mainstream parties of the Barelvi school of thought.

The TLP, however, says it is a "well-deserved" rise for the party, which came into the limelight after the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed and convicted killer of Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

governor Salman Taseer, with the name of Tehrik Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (PTUI!). The TLP turned into a political party last year when it launched a protest sit-in across the country against the alleged change in the oath for politicians in parliament and the declaration for voters regarding Khatm-e-Nubuwwat.

"We got 321,000 votes in Karachi for our National Assembly candidates while the number of votes for our Sindh Assembly candidates is much higher and we won two [PA seats]," said Bilal Ghazi of the TLP. "We could perform much better if the results were not held back. In three provincial assembly and in one National Assembly seats, the results were changed. We could have won at least six Sindh Assembly seats and one of the National Assembly."

He said the role of the TLP during the past two years helped it make inroads with religious voters, who had been disappointed by the mainstream religious parties. It was a "natural rise", he said, which was successfully turned into votes by the party.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghan President Ghani, Imran Khan 'agree to overcome past'
[DAWN] Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday confirmed via tweet that he had called Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and congratulated him on his victory in the elections, and invited him to visit Kabul.

Ghani tweeted that both sides had also "agreed to overcome the past and to lay a new foundation for a prosperous political, social and economic future of both countries Afghanistan and Pakistan."


Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Ex-Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif moved to Islamabad hospital
[Al Jazeera] Pakistain's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, has been hospitalised after suffering heart problems.

Authorities on Sunday moved Sharif from Adiala prison in Rawalpindi to the Pakistain Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) in the capital, Islamabad, on the recommendation of doctors.

Shaukat Javed, a minister for Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

province, where the prison is located, told state media that doctors had examined Sharif, 68, after he complained of chest pains and that an electrocardiogram (ECG) confirmed there were irregularities.

"How many days he stays in hospital depends on doctors," Javed said in comments broadcast by the state-run PTV channel .

Sharif's Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) party said on Twitter that the former prime minister had agreed to be treated at the hospital after consulting with his personal doctor.

Wasim Khwaja, a front man for PIMS, said Sharif was being treated in the hospital's cardiac centre and that his condition was stable.
Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Security troops forcibly disperse protests outside oilfield, provincial council in Basra
Basra (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security troops have forcibly dispersed two sit-ins staged by protesters outside the provincial council and Qurna oilfield in Basra, a source was quoted saying on Sunday.

Speaking to Baghdad Today, the source said, "security troops dispersed two sit-ins outside the provincial council and Qurna-1 oilfield, hours after the protesters gathered."

Troops, according to the source, "prevented the protesters from setting up the tents outside the council and ended the one outside Qurna, which was staged on Saturday evening."

Earlier today, a source said protesters started to flock toward the council and began setting up the tents.

The protesters, according to the source, "flocked toward the council to start and open-ended sit-in, until the demands related to poor services, unemployment and corruption are fulfilled.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered dismissing Qassim al-Fahdawi, the electricity minister, and refer him to investigations. The move comes a day after the Independent High Electoral Commission endorsed Abadi’s recommendations to sack five election officials in the wake of fraud allegations in the parliamentary elections, which took place in May.

Protests have been staged across central and southern provinces of Iraq for around three weeks.

Earlier this month, Mostafa Saadon, the front man for the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, said mass protests in Iraq left 831 protesters killed and injured in 10 days.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fresh out of prison, Ahed Tamimi vows to keep on fighting
[IsraelTimes] At homecoming presser, 17-year-old, who served over seven months for skirmish with IDF soldiers, calls on Paleostinians to rally for release of security prisoners

In her first public appearance since being released from prison Sunday morning, Ahed Tamimi
...the blond, blue-eyed maiden who along with siblings and young cousins has made a hobby of being videotaped screaming at Israeli soldiers, no doubt urged on by her papa, Bassem Tamimi, a well-known Fatah activist...
vowed to continue her struggle against Israeli military rule.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2018 00:19 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Fatah

#1  I can't wait til this bleached trollop gets in the face of an IDF soldier again.

A rifle butt to the face is what she wants? Give it to her
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2018 6:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Gotta wonder how much access she offers Arab and European reporters for good coverage, IYKWIM.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 07/30/2018 7:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Rename to Allah Watkins?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/30/2018 8:21 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ This
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2018 8:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Why does she keep at it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNhbrIYGetc
Posted by: regular joe || 07/30/2018 14:05 Comments || Top||


UNRWA job cuts in Gaza 'a massacre for employees'
[Al Jazeera] Raffat Abu Hashim was working in his office at the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) branch in Khan Younis, southern Gazoo Strip, when he received the dreaded email from the staff portal.

His contract will not be renewed when it ends in December.

"I never imagined this would happen to me," the 53-year-old father of six told Al Jazeera.

"I've served in UNRWA for 32 years, when I was hired in January 1987 as an emergency clerk. I'm deeply shocked," he said, mopping up beads of sweat on his forehead.

Abu Hashim didn't tell his family - who depend on him as the sole breadwinner - that he was facing impending unemployment.

"I think of them, of my children who are in school and university, and about the loans I owe the bank, and other financial commitments," he said.

"How can I tell them that I won't have a job anymore? My work is the backbone in their life."

Suspension of UNRWA contracts
The US government announced at the beginning of the year it would slash its funding of $365m to $65m, after President 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...
accused the Paleostinians of being ungrateful for the millions of dollars in aid.

"We pay the Paleostinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," Trump tweeted, a month after his controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move that led the Paleostinian Authority to condemn the US as no longer being an impartial peace broker.

"With the Paleostinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

More than half of Gazoo's two million population is dependent on aid from UNRWA, which offered support for seven decades in food supply, healthcare, social services, employment and access to education.

Currently, the blockaded strip suffers from a 44 percent unemployment rate. Last Wednesday, the agency fired a further 113 employees, all because of the United States' 80 percent budget cut.

Furthermore, UNRWA announced the contracts of 1,000 of its employees in the Gazoo Strip - Abu Hashim among them - will not have their contracts renewed. This includes the termination of the mental health programme, which employs 430 people.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Ask the EU to make up the difference in the "aid".
Posted by: Chris || 07/30/2018 5:24 Comments || Top||

#2  >"I've served in UNRWA for 32 years, when I was hired in January 1987 as an emergency clerk.

Say it all to me. Contractor Hired in a hurry 32 YEARS ago, never left since.

Only the 5 star hotels will notice this cut.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/30/2018 6:06 Comments || Top||

#3  "How can I tell them that I won't have a job anymore? My work is the backbone in their life."

I dunno - maybe you can go get another job?
Posted by: Raj || 07/30/2018 7:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Get another job? So what skill do you think he has?

My guess is very little.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/30/2018 8:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Is giving the required kickback to hamarse to stay in the sinecure classed as a skill?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/30/2018 8:27 Comments || Top||

#6  And how many "supervisors" in UNRWA are pocketing the salaries of imaginary employees... Grafters hardest Hit, News at 11!
Posted by: magpie || 07/30/2018 11:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran approves release of protest leaders Mousavi, Karroubi: family
[AlAhram] Iran's top security body has approved the release of opposition figures Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, under house arrest for seven years for leading mass protests in 2009, a family member told local media.

"I have heard that the decision to lift the house arrest was approved by the Supreme National Security Council," said Hossein Karroubi, son of the locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
reformist, according to the Kalameh news website which is close to the family.

"This decision will be presented to the (supreme) leader so that this case can be concluded," he said, adding that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would have 10 days to veto the decision.

There was no official confirmation of the decision, but the reports come at a time when Iran's leaders are keen to unite conservative and reformist factions to face down increasing pressure from the United States and a worsening economic crisis.

Mousavi, 76, and Karroubi, 80, were reformist candidates in the controversial election of 2009, which was won by hardliner Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad.

They claimed the vote was rigged, triggering months of mass protests, particularly in Tehran. Hundreds of thousands erupted into the streets in the biggest challenge to the system since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

The pair were sent to his room without trial in February 2011, along with Mousavi's high-profile wife, 66-year-old Zahra Rahnavard.

Hossein Karroubi said the security council had also agreed to lift restrictions on reformist figurehead Mohammad Khatami, who was Iran's president from 1997 to 2005.

The media had been banned from showing Khatami's face and strict limits were placed on his movements.

President Hassan Rouhani repeatedly vowed to seek the release of Mousavi and Karroubi -- a major plank of his election in 2013 and re-election last year, with their names frequently chanted at his rallies.

But despite Rouhani chairing the Supreme National Security Council, which is made up of government and military figures appointed by the president and supreme leader, there had been no sign of progress on their release.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Hurras Al-Din Will Undergo Rebirth, Emerge As Al-Qaeda Representative In Syria
[MEMRI.ORG] On July 14, 2018, the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, which is close to Hizbullah
...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
and the Syrian regime, published an article predicting that Hurras al-Din, the recently established pro-Al-Qaeda organization in Syria, will soon be reborn under new leadership comprising former prominent al-Qaeda commanders, with the sole aim of "ruling the jihadi scene" in Syria. Suhayb 'Anjarini, the author of the article, says that Hurras al-Din's recent accomplishments secured it large amounts of Kuwaiti funding and promises of increased financial support if its future operations intensify and if the organization's size increases.

Remarking on the group's founding, 'Anjarini says that Hurras al-Din was, in February 2018, "established to be an official representative of al-Qaeda in Syria" to revitalize al-Qaeda's presence in the country following the "jihadi divorce" between Jabhat al-Nusra
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Iran's currency plunges to record low as US sanctions loom
[Al Jazeera] Rial has lost half its value since April amid weak economy and big demand for dollars by Iranians fearful of sanctions
Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  US sanctions loom

Darned carpet tariffs!
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||


Trump doesn’t understand Iran's culture of resistance: Sherman
[PRESSTV] A former US under secretary of state for political affairs has taken President 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...
to task for his rash policies and uncalculated measures towards Iran after taking Washington out of a nuclear deal with Tehran, saying Trump does not understand Iran's culture of resistance.

In an interview with Yahoo News published on Sunday, Wendy Sherman slammed Trump's use of threats to push his adversaries into submission, emphasizing that Iranians are not a nation to surrender to any threats.

Sherman was a key member of the US nuclear negotiating team under former secretary of state, John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State...
, who pulled off the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to fruition in 2015.

Trump is a stern critic of the nuclear accord, agreed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
Security Council ‐ the United States, La Belle France, Britannia, Russia and China ‐ plus Germany. Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

The US president announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement and that he planned to reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Theocratic Republic.

Posted by: Fred || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Sherman was a key member of the US nuclear negotiating team under former secretary of state, John F. "I was in Vietnam, you know" Kerry

Traitor
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2018 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Damned traitor.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/30/2018 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Sort of like Germany and Japan in WW11. Kill them all until they sue for Peace!
Posted by: Pheatle Chavimble8404 || 07/30/2018 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Bet P.Trump understands stepping on a scorpion.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2018 11:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Airhead who made a fart of a deal criticises guy who wrote art of the deal.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 07/30/2018 12:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Sherman slammed Trump's use of threats to push his adversaries into submission

Mr. Peabody would never say anything so stupid.
Posted by: SteveS || 07/30/2018 15:26 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Jack Chaiter7913 || 07/30/2018 17:54 Comments || Top||


Lebanon sinks tanks in Mediterranean to make new reef
HT AOSHQ
[BBC] Environmentalists dumping 10 old army tanks off the coast of a city trying to deal with a massive rubbish problem may seem counterintuitive.

However, that is exactly what one group in the Lebanese city of Sidon have done in the hope it will not only attract tourists to the region, but also create a new haven for wildlife in the Mediterranean Sea.

Onlookers watched as the tanks were lowered into the water 3km (1.8 miles) off the coast on Saturday. "This will be a paradise for divers and a place where we can develop underwater life," Kamel Kozbar, of Friends of the Coast of Sidon, the group spearheading the project, told news agency AFP.

He hopes seaweed will soon cover the tanks, a gift from the army, creating the group's vision of an "underwater park" - a world away from the beaches which have not escaped Lebanon's overflowing rubbish crisis.
But this is not just an environmental project. The group have also purposefully pointed the tanks towards their southern neighbour, Israel.

According to Mr Kozbar, it was done "out of solidarity for the Palestinian people".


Feel the Enviro-Paleo Love
"Pay attention to MEEEEEE!"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The memorial howitzer in front of the Clinton County courthouse in Michigan used to be pointed north. The joke was that it was in case Michigan Indians ever try to march south from their reservations "up north" to take back the parts of the state they had lost.
After a courthouse remodel, the muzzle of the howitzer is now pointed at the front door of the courthouse. There is some hidden meaning in that, I think.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 07/30/2018 18:10 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
8Islamic State
5Houthis
4Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Iran
2Taliban
2Govt of Iraq
2Hamas
1al-Qaeda
1Fatah
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1Moslem Colonists
1PFLP
1Govt of Syria

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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2018-07-30
  2 killed in Gaza blast during attempted launch of projectile toward Israel
Sun 2018-07-29
  Duterte invites the Abu Sayyaf to peace talks
Sat 2018-07-28
  Police enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, clash with worshipers in Temple Mount riots
Fri 2018-07-27
  Imran to be next PM
Thu 2018-07-26
  Houthis send missiles at tankers transiting from the Red Sea
Wed 2018-07-25
  Russian Air Force launches more than 40 airstrikes over southwest Syria
Tue 2018-07-24
  2 Syrian missiles with half-ton warheads trigger Israel's anti-missile system
Mon 2018-07-23
  Several dead in Kabul suicide blast as exiled VP Dostum returns
Sun 2018-07-22
  Iraq protests death toll reaches 11 amid ongoing popular unrest
Sat 2018-07-21
  Rebels handover more towns to ISIS in southwest Syria
Fri 2018-07-20
  Senegal convicts 13 suspected Boko Haram fighters
Thu 2018-07-19
  26 persons killed in regime offensive on Daraa and Qunaitra
Wed 2018-07-18
  15 Afghan Taliban killed in attack by suspected IS rivals
Tue 2018-07-17
  Israeli army drills for Gaza incursion, in apparent warning to Hamas
Mon 2018-07-16
  Boko Haram overruns Nigerian military base


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