[ToloNews] Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... , first vice president, on Thursday at a gathering in Jawzjan said that a large-scale military operation will be launched in the north of Afghanistan against "insurgents."
Gen. Dostum said that in the past three months in Sheberghan, the capital of the Jawzjan, "ISIS" fighters have increased their influence in north of the country.
Earlier this week General Austin Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... Forces in Afghanistan, and acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid, met with Gen. Dostum in Jawzjan and discussed the security situation in the north of Afghanistan.
"We discussed the situation in the north where the security threat is at a high level." Dostum told news hounds, adding: "After the meeting, will let you know when and where the operation will be launched."
Currently, the ISIShard boyz have increased their activities in Faryab, Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... , Jawzjan, Balkh and Samangan provinces, according to the local officials.
"The information shows that ISIS has encampments in some areas where security forces do not have a presence. But we assure you that the Afghan forces, with the aid of Resolute Support, will eliminate ISIS or al-Qaeda troops that are active in those areas," said Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, commander of 209 Shaheen Military Corps.
Faryab-Jawzjan and Jawzjan-Balkh highways are insecure, and the residents of the provinces have been urged to stay off the highways.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sudan’s new civilian prime minister said Thursday he saw progress on removing his nation from a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism as he paid a landmark visit to Washington.
Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who has embarked on ambitious reforms and peace initiatives since his transitional government took over in August after decades of military rule, is the first leader of Sudan to visit Washington since 1985.
The United States agreed Wednesday to restore full diplomatic relations after more than two decades but still classifies Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, a major impediment to would-be investors who fear repercussions in the world’s largest economy.
"Over the last two to three days here in Washington, the elephant in the room is the issue of the delisting of Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism," Hamdok said at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
Hamdok, a British-educated former diplomat and UN official, said the blacklist had an impact not only on investment but on efforts to relieve Sudan’s debt and to usher in a broader "opening" of the country.
He said the discussions were "progressing very well."
"We’re making progress on this, and we hope we’ll be able to reach a conclusion," he said.
US officials, while voicing support for Hamdok, say that removal from the list is a legal process that requires a formal review over a six-month period.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo visited Morocco on Thursday, the highest-ranking American official to travel there since the election of President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... Pompeo met his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita to discuss the "threat" posed by Iran’s attempts to "broaden its regional influence", as well as the conflicts in Libya and unrest across the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... , Bourita said in a statement.
The State Department has called Morocco an "essential partner" in Washington’s broader diplomatic strategy, which includes normalization of ties between Arab countries and Israel.
The visit followed Israeli media reports that the country’s officials were hoping for a "breakthrough" in normalizing ties with the North African country in the coming days.
Neither Pompeo nor Moroccan officials made any public mention of such efforts during his visit.
Egypt and Jordan remain the only Arab countries to have peace treaties and formal diplomatic ties with Israel.
"We have a great relationship between our two countries," Pompeo said, as he began his meetings in Rabat. "We make our people safer in each of our two countries."
The trip comes after Pompeo announced last month that the United States no longer considered Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.
The decision broke with decades of international consensus that the settlements are illegal and a major barrier to peace with the Paleostinians.
The king of Morocco last month called for an end to "the policy of colonization in the occupied Paleostinian territories" and reiterated his support for a two-state solution.
Wow, at least 14 9M133-1 AT and 7 9M133-1 TB (Thermobaric) Dehlavieh ATGM seized by the USS Forest Sherman on the way to Yemen, along with other hardware. Iranian produced version of the potent Kornet ATGM- seen in use in the big houthi ambush a few months back. via @LMartinezABCpic.twitter.com/u62uRmDhLI
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... will host a summit on Syria in February with the leaders of La Belle France, Germany and Britannia amid ongoing tensions over the conflict, 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... said in comments published Thursday.
It follows their meeting on Tuesday in London on the sidelines of the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... summit.
Deep differences remain over Turkey’s offensive in October against Kurdish Death Eaters in northern Syrian, who had been a key ally for the West against the ISIS.
That triggered a bitter verbal exchange between Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the NATO summit.
But Macron said their four-way meeting had helped "clear up misunderstandings" despite the continuing refusal by Western powers to label Syrian Kurdish Death Eaters as terrorists.
"We agreed that we would do this four-way summit at least once a year. The second summit will be in Istanbul in February," Erdogan said, according to state news agency Anadolu.
He criticized the insistence of the three leaders on when Turkey would leave northern Syria.
"We said to them, ’What is your business there? Do you have a border?’ No. ’Are you harassed by any fire?’ No. ’Are there attacks?’ No."
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... is also due to visit Istanbul on January 8, with Syria and energy issues on the agenda.
Article dated July 06, 2019. Guys, please check the article date before posting — we’ve had a rash of old articles posted recently — and we don’t always catch them before they’re published.
Many thanks.
—trailing wife for the moderators at 1:40 a.m. ET
[Washington Examiner] New Koch-Soros foreign policy think tank headed by Iran deal advocates.
Trita Parsi and the group's other four co-founders, Andrew Bacevich, Stephen Wertheim, Eli Clifton, and Suzanne DiMaggio, are all pro-Iran deal advocates, as well as harsh critics of U.S. foreign policy and of Israel.
See brief bios of the membership at the link — troo believers, all.
Parsi, the founder of the National Iranian American Council and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, was a prominent and instrumental go-between for the governments of Iran and the U.S. during the nuclear deal negotiations.
The new Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, funded with $500,000 each from the libertarian and left-wing billionaires, says it is named for President John Quincy Adams, who said that America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
The new think tank was announced earlier this week in an op-ed which said the new group “is one of the most remarkable partnerships in modern American political history” and that Koch and Soros believe “the United States must end its ‘forever war’ and adopt an entirely new foreign policy.”
Koch has given millions to right-leaning causes through the Charles Koch Institute, which also advocates a noninterventionist foreign policy. Soros, a strident critic of U.S. foreign policy, has given billions to left-wing causes around the world through his Open Society Foundations.
Soros also helped bankroll pro-Iran deal lobbying efforts, donating tens of thousands of dollars in an effort to promote the agreement. Soros' organizations donated to the Ploughshares Fund, which Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes credited as part of the "echo chamber" the administration created to convince Congress and the press to back the deal. Ploughshares has also funded Parsi's nonprofit organization.
#5
The Kochs are actually (Charles esp) brilliant businessmen. Soros is a market manipulator who made his fortune by trashing Britain's finances.
But whatever the source of their wealth, their not-unreasonable call for more restraint in US foreign policy is undermined by their repulsive shilling for Iran and for de facto open borders with Mexico.
#7
When I was a kid I always thought there was no such thing as too much money. Now, well, I would still like to be independently wealthy but not to the extent where I begin to believe I am suddenly a great visionary.
Why aren't these a$$holes out on a yacht or hunting elk, gambling, womanizing...enjoying their own Lives? Is it a dearth of imagination or is there a dollar amount to be avoided at all costs.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States has not only re-emerged as the world’s largest oil producer, but the superpower is playing a pivotal role in global oil market balance through its foreign policy, choking off exports from 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... over the past 18 months, analysts say.
While 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... and other oil exporters met in Vienna to consider the next phase of their three-year-old deal to restrain global supply, it would be easy to forget that Iran has been forced to cut exports by more than 2 million bpd over the same period thanks to Washington’s increasingly effective policy of "maximum pressure."
Iran’s oil exports have fallen from 2.5 million barrels per day in 2017 to 120,000 bpd today, according to the US State Department. At the same time, US oil production has risen dramatically from 8.9 million bpd in January 2017 to 12.9 million bpd at the end of last month, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer, according to the US government’s Energy Information Agency.
"US foreign policy has played a pivotal role in global oil supply," said Roger Diwan, Vice President at IHS Markit, an advisory firm. "Even though US foreign policy is driven by politics rather than market factors, the result has been that the sanctions have made space for the US production to make it to the market," he added.
Brian Hook, US special representative for Iran, told Al Arabiya last month that progressively tighter US sanctions had succeeded in denying the regime in Tehran $36 billion in annual revenue from oil exports that it used to fund its ballistic missile program, and finance violent groups across Iraq, Leb, Syria and 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... The US imposed heavy sanctions on Tehran when it pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, but it was careful to offer waivers to Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an and Asian consumers of Iran’s oil to prevent the measures from causing oil prices to skyrocket. It has progressively removed these waivers as market conditions have allowed.
"We had to grant a handful of oil waivers at that time because we faced a very tight oil market and there wasn’t enough supply in the system relative to demand that would have allowed us to zero out Iranian imports without also spiking the price of Brent crude oil," Hook said in the interview last month. "We’ve got a very good job of balancing our economic interests and our national security interests. As soon as we faced a much more liquid oil supply and not as much demand as supply, that put us in a position to zero out all imports of Iranian crude oil."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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Hug a fracker!
Them knuckle dragging field hands have done more for American security and the economy than the entire Ivy League State Department has done in generations.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] OPEC ministers finished a marathon meeting on oil markets Thursday night amid expectations that the exporters’ club will announce deeper cuts in supply on Friday.
Ministers remained tight-lipped after the ministerial session ended soon after 11pm at the group’s Vienna headquarters, with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman telling news hounds: "The OPEC meeting is finished. We will have a meeting tomorrow and everything will become clear for you."
He was referring to a meeting scheduled for Friday, where OPEC ministers will try to nail down output cuts to be shared with exporters outside the group, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Oman.
Earlier in the day, a Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee recommended that OPEC and allied exporting countries remove another 500,000 barrels per day from the world market, according to Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksander Novak.
[AnNahar] Chants demanding complete regime change have echoed across Iraq for weeks, but what first brought demonstrators onto the street was the profound poverty of one of the world's most oil-rich countries.
Iraq is ranked the 12th most corrupt country in the world. A recent government probe found over $450 billion in public funds were lost to embezzlement, fake contracts or salaries for so-called ghost employees since 2003.
And that is what has kept them there, with protesters brushing off the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi as failing to root out the rampant corruption that denies them jobs and public services.
In the southern protest hotspot of Diwaniyah, one of the poorest agricultural areas in the country, Umm Salah has joined rallies every day outside the provincial council.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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#3
No matter what 'ism' is applied, there will always be one percenters. It's the nature of the man beast. Throw in what BP wrote to add to the compounding.
#8
I admit I haven't been paying close attention what with all the rest of the world on fire, but I wonder how much of this is protests against government corruption and how much is traditional Iraqi Sunni vs Shia.
And yes, I realize those two categories are not mutually exclusive.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Paleostinian officials expressed "great concern" on Thursday over a report by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that includes a warning that Paleostinian stipends to attackers and their families could constitute a war crime. *snort*
Paleostinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki said the prosecutor’s office’s report was "based on misleading narratives of a political nature ... rather than an objective and accurate description of the relevant facts."
The Paleostinians have long sought redress with international bodies such as the ICC for what they consider Israeli crimes. President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... ’s government appeared to have been caught off guard by the language of the criticism found in the report.
The Paleostinians have long paid stipends to the families of people killed or imprisoned as a result of fighting with Israel. The Paleostinians say these payments are a national duty to families affected by decades of violence. But Israel argues the fund encourages violence by paying the families of attackers.
Earlier this year, Israel withheld millions of dollars in tax revenues it collected on behalf of the Paleostinian Authority equal to the sum of the Paleostinian stipends.
Abbas has repeatedly said he will not halt the payments, which totaled approximately $330 million - around 7 percent of the Paleostinian Authority’s $5 billion budget - in 2018.
Thursday’s report, released in the Hague, highlighted possible crimes by both Israel and the Paleostinians that are under investigation, including Israel’s use of sometimes deadly force against protesters along the Israel-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 fence, and Paleostinian bully boy rocket fire and use of human shields in Gaza.
At the Paleostinians’ request, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation in 2015 into alleged violations of international law following the 2014 war between Israel and Paleostinian forces of Evil in the Gaza Strip.
Thursday’s report said the prosecutor "believes that it is time to take the necessary steps to bring the preliminary examination to a conclusion."
[IsraelTimes] Russia’s Rusatom nuclear firm has halted work at Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility,
... a heavily fortified facility inside a mountain ringed by anti-aircraft batteries that has about 1,000 centrifuges. It’s monitored by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency...
Russia’s Interfax news agency says.
The announcement comes weeks after 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... announced it would restart nuclear enrichment there, breaking the 2015 nuclear deal.
The TVEL unit of Rusatom, which makes nuclear fuel components, says in a statement that Iran’s decision to resume uranium enrichment at Fordo makes it impossible to produce radioactive isotopes for medical purposes.
The isotopes in question are tellurium and xenon, for those interested in such things.
The company notes that uranium enrichment is technologically incompatible with production of such isotopes. It adds that Iran would need to disassemble the centrifuges used to enrich uranium and decontaminate the room to continue the medical project.
The company says it had informed Iran of its decision.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/06/2019 09:10 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Pentagon sources disclosed details described as "sensational" about allegations of Iran’s intention to launch attacks in the Middle East using "suicide planes".
Newsweek magazine published a lengthy report saying 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... was currently using "drones" to control US military sites and a number of other military and security sites in the Middle East.
The magazine quoted US military personnel in the Middle East as saying as the suicide drones would be "used for Iranian foreign operations."
Military and intelligence officials told Newsweek, who declined to be identified that the"US forces are using new technologies to overcome drones, especially those using C4i (control of headquarters, communications and computer) near US positions in the region."
"This activity also indicates that a number of Iranian-friendly regional militias, operating under the orders of the Quds Force, are conducting surveys in preparation for future attacks using drones," the officials said.
"These planes have been developed and tested by Tehran since 2014 and can carry explosives over long distances," the sources said.
Newsweek further quoted a Pentagon official as saying that "these threats from Iran are still continuing because Iran continues its actions, and US forces take all measures to defend itself, and that it is exercising caution to avoid provoking or escalation."
As Gen. Sean Robertson, a Pentagon front man, said: "We continue to monitor the regime’s activities closely in Iran, its military and its proxies, and we are well placed to defend US forces and their interests as needed."
A Pentagon brasshat said there were signs of possible future hostilities by Iran amid mounting tensions between the Islamic Theocratic Republic and the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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Isn't that cute. Can their drones handle a MOAB?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... on Thursday criticized Tehran for cracking down on protests and said the United States will stand with protesters in Iran.
Trump made the comments to news hounds ahead of a meeting at the White House with the permanent representatives of the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Security Council.
Later at a meeting with UN diplomats at the White House, President Trump called the crackdown on demonstrations in 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... "brutal" and said the United States would react "strongly" to any threat from Iran to its interests in the region.
"They’re killing a lot of people and they’re arresting thousands of their own citizens in a brutal crackdown," Trump said at a meeting with UN diplomats at the White House.
Calling it a "horrible situation," Trump warned that any new threat from Iran "will be met very strongly."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an powers will demand 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... stop violating their nuclear deal or potentially face renewed UN sanctions, but with Tehran locked in conflict over US sanctions, there appears to be little scope for compromise when they meet on Friday.
The meeting comes amid heightened friction between Iran and the West. Tehran has rolled back its commitments under the 2015 deal in response to Washington’s pullout from it last year and reimposition of sanctions that have crippled its economy.
The Europeans and Tehran on Thursday clashed over Iran’s ballistic missile program before senior diplomats from the remaining parties to the deal, Britannia, China, La Belle France, Germany and Russia, meet with Iranian officials in Vienna on Friday.
As the accord has slowly eroded, the Europeans have been torn between trying to save it and responding to Iran’s breaches, which have increasingly tested their patience.
Iran’s violations have included exceeding the maximum amount of enriched uranium it is allowed under the deal and resuming enrichment at Fordow, a site buried inside a mountain that Iran hid from UN nuclear inspectors.
"I think the window for a negotiation and to save the deal is barely open," said a European diplomat.
The Europeans are considering triggering a mechanism in the deal that could lead to the reimposition of UN sanctions.
Three diplomats said the political decision was unlikely to be made until January, when Iran is expected to reduce further its commitments to the pact, under which it curtailed its nuclear activities in return for relief from sanctions.
"The European parties to the deal should know that the clock is ticking for them. They try to keep Iran in the deal but then take no action against America’s bullying and pressure," said a senior Iranian official.
Tehran has repeatedly criticized the three European powers for failing to shield Iran’s economy from the far-reaching US sanctions, which have driven away foreign companies interested in doing business there.
Highlighting the widening gap between the two sides, Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday said the three had shown their "miserable incompetence" in fulfilling their commitments.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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Kabuki theater 101. Meanwhile, they're working the back channels to sell more useful stuff to the regime around the embargo.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Lebanese President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... said on Thursday he hoped a new government would be formed quickly to carry out essential reforms in a country grappling with the worst economic crisis since its 1975-90 civil war.
More than one month since Saad al-Hariri resigned as prime minister in the face of mass protests against Leb’s ruling elite, Sunni businessman Samir Khatib appears on course to be designated as the new premier in formal consultations on Monday.
Leb’s long-brewing economic crisis has grown more acute since protests began on October 17, spiraling into a financial crunch that led banks to impose informal capital controls as dollars became scarce and the local currency weakened.
The designation of a new prime minister, who must be a Sunni Moslem according to Leb’s sectarian power-sharing system, will be followed by talks to form the new government that is expected to include technocrats and politicians.
A senior political source said once Khatib is designated, the cabinet was expected to be formed quickly because major parties had already reached an agreement on its make-up.
Aoun, speaking during a meeting with heads of professional syndicates, said the new government’s priorities would include "achieving the essential reforms in different sectors" and fighting corruption, a statement from the presidency said.
There were some signs of opposition. Christian politician Samir Geagea ...Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005... - whose Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... party holds 15 of parliament’s 128 seats - said the proposed new cabinet would be made of establishment technocrats, out of touch with protesters calling for broader change.
But the prospects of a prime minister being designated helped the Lebanese pound to strengthen. Dollars were being offered on a parallel market at 1,980 pounds compared to 2,030 pounds on Wednesday, a dealer said. The official rate is 1,507.5 pounds.
Leb’s economic crisis is rooted in decades of state waste and corruption that have made it one of the world’s most heavily indebted states.
[Free Beacon] Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Thursday discussed a new bill that would discourage foreign leaders from taking Americans hostage.
Cotton introduced the "Global Hostage Act of 2019" with Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) in November. The bill aims to place onerous sanctions on countries that imprison American citizens, most notably the Iranian regime.
"The legislation I propose is designed to make American hostages not a precious source of leverage against our country but rather the surest way to one’s own destruction," Cotton said during a conversation with the Hudson Institute.
Cotton said the sanctions will restrict foreign persons and their families from coming to the United States and taking advantage of the education system and other opportunities if their native lands take Americans hostage. The sanctions would deter countries such as Iran from unjustly detaining U.S. citizens.
The bill states that the United States will use "extradition to try and convict the individuals who have participated in, or are responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, the hostage-taking or detention." Cotton said lawmakers need to take action to protect Americans visiting foreign nations.
"It would make the world safer for America’s travelers," Cotton said. "From businessmen seeking markets overseas to missionaries spreading the light of the gospel on foreign lands to newcomers visiting their family in the old world."
Cotton said there have been some misconceptions surrounding American hostages, and he argued the Iranian regime lies about its willingness to use prisoner releases as bargaining chips.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
12/06/2019 03:05 ||
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and to the ChiComs over Hong Kong
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2019 6:47 Comments ||
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How about having the heads of the various gov'ts declared as wanted on Kidnapping charges by the International Court. I'm sure that would have an immediate effect.....besides hilarity, I mean
This is followup to: Homeland Security wants to force all travelers including US citizens to undergo face scans when leaving or entering the United States
[NBCNews] The Trump administration said Thursday it no longer plans to propose a regulation next year that would require all travelers ‐ including U.S. citizens ‐ to be photographed when entering or leaving the United States. anybody who thinks they aren't already being photographed and ID'd is fooling themselves. Try and obscure your face on entry, see how that works out for ya
The proposed regulation was slated to be issued in July by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as part of the Trump administration's regulatory agenda. The agency said Thursday after consulting Congress and privacy experts it would not move forward.
"There are no current plans to require U.S. citizens to provide photographs upon entry and exit from the United States. CBP intends to have the planned regulatory action regarding U.S. citizens removed from the unified agenda next time it is published," the agency said.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., credited public pressure with the decision, which he called "a victory for every single American traveler who flies on a plane."
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance ||
12/06/2019 00:00 ||
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‐ including U.S. citizens ‐ to be photographed when entering or leaving the United States.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier...
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...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 
...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 
...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 
Military and intelligence officials told Newsweek, who declined to be identified that the"US forces are using new technologies to overcome drones, especially those using C4i (control of headquarters, communications and computer) near US positions in the region."
...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 
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
