#Tunisian President Beji Caid #Essebsi died July 25, his office has confirmed. Under Tunisia's constitution, the speaker of the parliament will assume temporary control of #presidential powers for 45 to 90 days until a new leader is elected. https://t.co/MK8xgasgeT
[ToloNews] Zabul Police Chief said that more than 90 percent of ghost soldiers have been identified.
The police chief of Zabul, Sayed Meraj Sadat, says that at least 500 ghost soldiers have been identified in the province in recent months as part of a campaign to bring reforms to the structure of Afghan National Police.
Sadat said the process of identifying ghost soldiers is underway.
"We succeeded to recognize those who were not on duty and were appointed based on relations and paid while they did not exist on duty," Sadat said.
He warned that those who were found guilty will face the music.
"Those who were accused of corruption have left [the province] but those who wanted to change, have given a commitment, and this process continues," he added.
Zabul Police Chief said that more than 90 percent of ghost soldiers have been identified in the province.
Zabul tribal elders welcomed the move by the police chief.
"Ghost soldiers were one of the main reasons for insecurity in Zabul because they were replacing Zabul police and the province was faced with lack of soldiers," said Jalaluddin, a tribal elder.
"The problems of police structure will be resolved by identifying of ghost soldiers and it will help improve security in Zabul," a tribal elder from Zabul, Ismail Zabuli, said.
Last year, Ghazni Police Chief Farid Mashall reported that up to 1,100 ghost soldiers exist in the structure of the National Police in the province.
[AlAhram] Piracy in the waters off West Africa threatens plans to bolster regional trade, Ghana's defence minister warned Wednesday, as navy chiefs discussed efforts to secure the troubled waters.
The Gulf of Guinea is the most dangerous stretch of sea for pirate attacks in the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
Good to know.
The IMB said 62 seafarers were taken hostage or kidnapped in the area in the first half of 2019, accounting for 73 percent of kidnappings and 92 percent of hostage-takings at sea worldwide.
Earlier this month a group of ten Ottoman Turkish sailors were kidnapped by alleged pirates off the coast of Nigeria.
"The threats to maritime security and safety transcend borders and have the propensity to affect international trade hence a threat to one coastal nation is a threat to all nations; coastal or landlocked," Ghana's minister for defence Dominic Nitiwul told a major maritime conference in Accra.
"The sea is the super highway for global trade and Africa's quest for a Continental Free Trade Area cannot be successful without a secured maritime domain."
The two-day gathering in the Ghanaian capital -- which included a delegation from the US navy -- also focused on illegal fishing, oil thefts, and human and drug trafficking.
"Today piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea continue to pose a significant threat to regional and international shipping," Ghana's navy head Seth Amoama said.
"Threats including illegal oil bunkering, kidnapping for ransom, illegal fishing and drug trafficking are common across our oceans, transnational crimes not only threaten national peace and stability they also come at great cost to the economies."
African nations this month officially launched a landmark trade agreement, hailed as a historic step towards bolstering commerce across the continent.
[Rudaw] A crackdown on unregistered migrants colonists in Istanbul has seen 6,000 arrests including Syrians in the past two weeks, the interior minister said Wednesday.
There has been concern in recent days over reports that hundreds of Syrian refugees have been sent back to Syria, after being forced to sign consent forms in Ottoman Turkish that they do not understand.
Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu denied the claims.
"We have been carrying out an operation since July 12... We have caught 6,122 people in Istanbul, including 2,600 Afghans," Soylu told TV station NTV.
He said Syrians were part of the group, without giving numbers.
"When we catch Syrians who are not registered, we send them to refugee camps," he said, citing a camp in the Ottoman Turkish border province of Hatay.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... he said some Syrians were "voluntarily" choosing to go back to their home country, to areas where fighting has abated.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor... has more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees -- the highest number in the world.
Most have "temporary protection" permits but these restrict them to the province in which they were registered. The current crackdown is aimed at those who live in Istanbul without a permit to stay in the city.
A coalition of Syrian NGOs said Monday that more than 600 Syrians -- mostly with protection permits issued in other provinces -- were arrested in Istanbul last week and deported back to Syria, rather than to their assigned provinces.
The crackdown is orchestrated by the Istanbul governor's office, which is controlled by the central government in Ankara.
It follows the defeat of President His Enormity, 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. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... 's AKP party in the Istanbul party, with some arguing that the large presence of refugees in the city had hurt the ruling party's popularity.
The governor's office says there are 547,000 Syrians registered in the city.
A survey published this month by Kadir Has University in Istanbul showed growing hostility towards them, rising from 54.5 percent of respondents in 2017 to 67.7 percent in 2019.
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[Rudaw] Joint work has begun between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and the United States to establish a long planned "safe zone" on Turkey’s southern border with Syria, the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry (MSB) said Tuesday, following two days of talks with a visited US delegation.
US special envoy to Syria James Jeffrey arrived in Ankara this week to meet with Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and other brass hats.
Continued on Page 49
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The usual routine is to give them house arrest and then quietly spring them in six months or so.
[DAWN] A court in Gujranwala on Wednesday extended the judicial remand of Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed for 14 days.
Special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) judge Syed Ali Imran ordered the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) to complete its investigation and present a formal chalan in court on August 7. The court said that Saeed should also be presented in court on Aug 7.
Ahead of the JuD chief's appearance, strict security arrangements were made inside and outside the court premises with Anti-Riot Police, Dolphin Force and Elite Force personnel as well as police officials being deployed.
Following his arrest on July 17, Saeed had been sent to jail on seven-day judicial remand.
He had been arrested in connection with a terrorism financing case while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala.
Six suspects ‐ Saeed, Mohammad Ali of Malikwal, Abdul Ghaffar of Okara, Hafiz Masood of Johar Town (Lahore), Ameer Hamza of Al Faisal Town and Malik Zafar Iqbal of Sheikhupura ‐ were nominated in the FIR registered against them on July 1 on a complaint of the CTD.
On July 3, the top 13 leaders of the banned JuD, including Saeed and Naib Emir Abdul Rehman Makki, were booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
The CTD, which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organizations and trusts, including al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc.
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[Daily Beast] Lieutenant General Frank Helmick was a decorated U.S. Army officer. In 2004, he led the raid that killed the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s murderous sons, Uday and Qusay. Later, Helmick commanded NATO’s training mission in Iraq, then spent a year as Deputy Commanding Officer of all American forces in the country.
But in December 2011, the U.S. military withdrew from Iraq. A few months later, after 36 years in the Army, Helmick retired, too. At the ceremony, then-CIA Director David Petraeus called him an "exceptional officer."
Since then, Helmick’s actions have won him fewer accolades. By the end of 2012, he was back in Iraq. The war had privatized and Helmick privatized with it.
After the American withdrawal, Iraq had a gold rush. Billions of dollars of leftover U.S. military equipment was free for the taking and huge contracts were available as the country struggled to rebuild. Helmick used his contacts to take advantage of this. He joined a military contractor that struck deals with Iraqi oligarchs who are steeped in corruption and have at least superficial ties to some notorious Iranian operatives.
Some might say that’s just the price of doing business in Iraq over the last few years, but that doesn’t make the business any less ugly.
In late 2012, Helmick became Vice President of SOS International LLC (SOSi). At that time, SOSi was a small family-owned company focused on translation and training, and Helmick, as the saying goes, was a rainmaker.
A retired general joining a military contracting company isn’t unusual. But many former high-ranking officials cash out simply by joining the board of a large company, earning tens of thousands to attend meetings and lobby old friends. Helmick, for his part, took a more hands-on role than his retired peers, overseeing SOSi’s "Mission Solutions Group" and managing the company’s Iraq work.
His qualifications were obvious. As one former SOSi employee told us, "Helmick was hired specifically for his contacts in Iraq."
[Jpost] A Paleostinian journalist has described in detail how Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, operatives take children in buses to protest against Israel on the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... border.
In a new documentary released by TPS, the journalist, whose face is blurred and his voice distorted for security reasons, says he has witnessed Hamas operatives taking chairs and sitting nearby the fence eating seeds and watching people die.
"They bring children to the playgrounds and let them play and then encourage them to do whatever they can to get close to the fence," the journalist told TPS.
The documentary focuses on the March of Return riots, which started in March of last year. Some 2,200 terror-related incidents have been reported since the start of the riots - a combination of gunfire, bomb and molotov cocktail attacks.
One IDF soldier has been killed and several more maimed. By Paleostinian estimates, more than 200 people have been killed, including children.
"The goal is to bias the general public opinion because the general public opinion is that the kids are safe," the journalist told TPS. "They [Hamas] exploit this to claim that Israel is killing our children."
Define something carefully enough, and all the scary possibilities will be excluded, no matter how real they might be.
[IsraelTimes] Sri Lanka’s Easter attacks that killed 258 people were carried out by local Islamists who drew inspiration from but were not linked to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, according to a top investigator.
Ravi Seneviratne, the head of the Criminal Investigations Department, says the jacket wallahs who targeted three churches and three hotels had no direct link to the foreign jihadi group.
"They followed the IS ideology, but our investigations have not shown any link between them," Seneviratne tells a parliamentary panel probing security and intelligence lapses leading to the April 21 bombings.
He notes that remnants in the local group identified as National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) had persuaded IS to claim the attack two days after the deadly events in Sri Lanka.
NTJ leader Zahran Hashim had made a video with his fellow suicide bombers pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi. The video was released by the IS two days later.
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#1
National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) had persuaded IS to claim the attack
Trying to insult the intelligence of their citizens, they make themselves look like idiots. They can even rule out Indian intervention this time. The hell with 'em.
Also, 'drawing inspiration from' is the same as working for, in this case. More newspeak ideas for dimwit islamophiles.
[FOXNEWS] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said his country might be willing to release a U.K.-flagged ship if Britannia releases an Iranian oil tanker that the British Royal Navy seized earlier this month.
His remarks could create an opening to reduce tensions in the region just as Boris Johnson replaces Theresa May as Britannia’s prime minister.
Rouhani insisted Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... does not want tensions to escalate and the U.K. would receive a "proportional response from Iran" if it returned the seized vessel.
"We do not seek the continuation of tension with some Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an countries," Rouhani said in comments carried on his website. "Should they be committed to international frameworks and give up their wrong actions, including what they did in Gibraltar, they will receive a proportional response from Iran."
Britannia this week announced plans to develop and deploy a Europe-led "maritime protection mission" to safeguard shipping in the area after Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. Any quid pro quo move to swap seized vessels would fall upon the U.K.'s newly-appointed Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
We got caught so we'll pirate some random ship and hold them hostage. Easy-peasy.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Leb has issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, the son of the late Libyan President Muammar al-Qadaffy, for the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr during his trip to Libya in 1978.
According to the National News Agency of Leb, Judge Zaher Hamadeh issued the arrest warrant for Qadaffy and nine other Libyan nationals over the disappearance of the Lebanese religious leader and his two associates, Sheikh Mohammad Yaqoub and Abbas Badreddine.
The National News Agency noted that the Libyan Foreign Ministry in the National Reconciliation Government had repeatedly refused to properly inform the said defendants, who had been informed as well as the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The brother of Saif al-Islam, Hannibal, is also in the custody of the Lebanese authorities and has remained so since his kidnapping from Syria.
The Lebanese authorities have accused the government of the late Colonel Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... of abducting and murdering Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions.
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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.
[AlAhram] Piracy in the waters off West Africa threatens plans to bolster regional trade, Ghana's defence minister warned Wednesday, as navy chiefs discussed efforts to secure the troubled waters.
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor...
[Daily Beast] Lieutenant General Frank Helmick was a decorated U.S. Army officer. In 2004, he led the raid that killed the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s murderous sons, Uday and Qusay. Later, Helmick commanded NATO’s training mission in Iraq, then spent a year as Deputy Commanding Officer of all American forces in the country.
[Jpost] A Paleostinian journalist has described in detail how 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, the son of the late Libyan President Muammar al-Qadaffy, for the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr during his trip to Libya in 1978.
