[ToloNews] The billboards that were installed by Mawlawi Mujibur Rahman Ansari,
...alternately Mujeeb Rahman Ansari, the Saudi-trained cleric of Gozargah mosque in Herat city and manager of a local radio station ...
head of Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... ’s 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... rgah mosque, which insisted that women wear the hijab, were taken down by the directorate of the pilgrimage in Herat province.
Herat residents praised the work of the directorate.
Previously, Mawlawi Ansari installed billboards insisting that women wear hijabs and called on men to control their women.
"Our banners have been installed in the different parts of the city--in consultation with scholars--and we have installed banners where other banners had been installed earlier," said Sayed Mohammad Shirzadi, the head of the pilgrimage department in Herat province.
Women's affairs activists praised the tearing- down of the provocative banners.
"The government's answer against extremism made us very joyful and optimistic and shows that we should be optimistic about the future," said Rezaya Rasooli, Herat resident.
"It is pleasing that the government and pilgrimage directorate of the Islamic republic showed a positive reaction and supported women," said Ghazal Noorzai.
A local official of Herat said that on the one hand they will prevent extremism, and on the other hand they will implement Islamic law based on the nation's law.
Ghulam Daud Hashimi, deputy governor of Herat, said: "Every center or organization that wants to start activity, it should be registered in the Justice Ministry and have a license and the justice organization should approve it."
The billboards have sparked reactions in Herat, especially among women's affairs activists who reacted about the billboards.
Herat residents said that the activity of the center that installed billboards challenged the authority of the government.
[ToloNews] US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... told Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... that there cannot be "meaningful negotiations" unless the proposed Taliban
Continued on Page 49
[ToloNews] Transparency International released its Corruption Perception Index 2019 on Thursday, and the organization ranked Afghanistan among the top 10 most corrupt countries in the world.
The United States withheld 160 million dollars aids to Afghanistan in September 2019 due to corruption.
The report states that anti-corruption efforts have not made progress in the country since 2018.
Based on the index, Afghanistan scored 15 out of 100 in 2017, followed by 16 in 2018, and stalled at that score--16--in 2019.
"The efforts to fight corruption in Afghanistan during the last five years have shown that the campaign has to be revitalized and sustained or it stalls." said Joy Saunders, chairperson of the board of directors for Transparency Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan had to focus on campaign financing regulation and enforcement after 2017 since it had a parliamentary election in 2018 and a presidential election in 2019," she added.
The report states that Afghanistan’s score under the National Unity Government (NUG) dropped one point between 2014 and 2015 from 12 to 11, but it improved four points with 15 in 2016.
"Then the progress slowed down, and the score improved to only 16 in 2017. In the next two years (2018 and 2019), the score has remained the same at 16 out of 100," according to a summary of the report.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point... officials of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) have said that one of the factors that has undermined the government’s anti-corruption strategy is the grip of a "certain and corrupt group" involved with government affairs, and the abuse of power by this group.
According to IWA, the political intervention in the work of the legal and judicial institutions, and the work of the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) is also one of the factors behind the government’s failure to undertake successful anti-corruption measures.
"The National Unity Government made some good progress by adding amendments to the Access to Information Law and establishing the Independent Access to Information Commission. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... this was not enough to take on the pervasive corruption across all sectors in the country," said Sayed Ekram Afzali, executive director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan.
"Although the National Unity Government committed to establishing an independent anti-corruption commission in 2014, it took the National Unity Government (NUG) five years to finalize the law," Afzali said.
He further stated that "Afghanistan has to institutionalize the fight against corruption through establishing independent agencies, supporting the existing ones and ensuing separation of powers to restore trust in state institutions and to bring back stability."
Wahidullah Azizi, program manager at Transparency Afghanistan, said, "The lack of progress in the fight against corruption is disappointing. The results adversely affect government legitimacy, trust among Afghans, and donors’ confidence."
Afghanistan had scored only 16 points out of 100 on the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index in 2018.
Afghanistan had averaged 14.23 points from 2005 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 25 Points in 2005 and a record low of 8 Points in 2012.
According to TI, globally, countries with lower CPI scores experience an uneven balance of power, where a few wealthy individuals control government purse strings and decision-making. Furthermore, TI states that countries that perform poorly on the CPI also have higher perceptions among people that money influences elections.
#Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum told visiting envoys from other countries neighboring #Libya that he hoped their meeting would strengthen a fragile truce in the country and help avert more foreign influence there.#BaghdadPost#MiddleEasthttps://t.co/21C2gX9y3x
[Breitbart] A leaked classified document from the French internal security service, the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), has claimed that as many as 150 neighbourhoods across La Belle France are "held" by Islamist radicals.
The confidential DGSI report maps out the 150 different neighbourhoods which consist of the notorious Seine-Saint-Denis no-go suburbs of Gay Paree, the suburbs of Lyon and Marseille, all of which have had longstanding issues with radical Islam, newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reports.
According to the paper, the report also lists the commune of Maubeuge along the Belgian border in the north of La Belle France, highlighting the fact that the Union of French Moslem Democrats (UDMF), a Moslem political party, reached as high as 40 per cent in polls and noted, "the situation is alarming."
Last month, the UDFM announced it would be fielding lists of candidates for the upcoming municipal elections, set to be held in March.
The party said they would be putting up candidates in Mantes-la-Jolie, Les Mureaux and Guyancourt, and won 16.74 per cent of the vote in the district of Val-Fourre in Mantes-la-Jolie in last year’s Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Parliament elections.
Areas such as Haute-Savoie or Ain, Annemasse, Bourg-en-Bresse, Oyonnax or Bourgoin-Jallieu have also come under the influence of radical Islamists.
President Emmanuel Macron has spoken out about ghettoisation and communitarianism, and the Élysée Palace has promised to provide a plan to tackle the issue ahead of the municipal elections.
Last year, largely as part of Macron’s overall plan to combat radical Islam, the French government shut down mosques and schools in 15 neighbourhoods across the country.
French Secretary of State for the Interior Laurent Nuñez said that the government had closed a total of 130 drinking establishments, 12 places of worship, three schools and nine associations as part of the National Plan for the Prevention of Radicalization (PNPR) but did not name the neighbourhoods involved.
NEW DELHI: India tested its nuclear-capable K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), designed to have a strike range of 3,500-km, for the second time in six days on Friday. The missile test, as the one conducted on January 19, was undertaken from an undersea platform in the shape of a submersible pontoon off the coast of Andhra Pradesh.
The solid-fueled K-4 missile is being developed by DRDO to arm the country’s nuclear-powered submarines in the shape of INS Arihant and its under-development sister vessels.
Posted by: John Frum ||
01/24/2020 16:19 ||
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#1
They have been testing for a while. Now all they need is an SSBN.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/24/2020 16:26 Comments ||
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#2
From December 2017: Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the launch of the second indigenously designed Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) on order for the Indian Navy (IN).
Official sources told Jane’s that the launch of Arighat , which took place during a low-key ceremony held at the Ship Building Centre (SBC) at Visakhapatnam on 19 November, entailed flooding the dry dock housing the SSBN to enable it to float into the surrounding waters for additional fitment ahead of its commissioning in 2020-21.
Posted by: John Frum ||
01/24/2020 16:52 Comments ||
Top||
[Rudaw] Over 300 people suspected of 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.... (ISIS) membership were arrested by Sulaimani's
...alternatively Sulaymaniyah, one of the provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan...
internal security forces over the course of 2019, according to their media office.
"According to Article 2 and Article 4 of the terror law, 331 persons charged with ISIS [ISIS] membership were arrested by the Sulaimani Asayesh Department," Rzgar Hama Rahim, head of media relations for Sulaimani's Asayesh
...the Asayesh is the primary intelligence agency in Kurdish Iraq...
announced in a Thursday presser.
Of those arrested, 280 of were men and 51 women, Rahim said.
"All those arrested, including 285 Arabs and 46 Kurds, were handed over to the relevant Iraqi security agencies," he added.
ISIS took control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, including some Kurdish areas. Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga, supported by the US-led Global Coalition, overcame the krazed killer group, declaring them defeated in Iraq in December 2017.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the group continues to maintain an active presence in Iraq, carrying out hit-and-run attacks against security forces, abductions of civilians and officials, and bombings in populated areas. They are mostly active in areas that are disputed between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments.
In January 2019, Sulaimani's Asayesh arrested an ISIS krazed killer wanted for fighting in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the center of the group's presence in Iraq when it was at its peak.
Conducting joint security operations with the Kurdistan Region Security Agency, the province's Asayesh in December 2018 arrested a group of hard boyz suspected of plotting attacks in the Region and in vulnerable disputed territories in Kirkuk and Diyala provinces over the course of that year.
[JPost] - Palestinian officials said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s decision to release his Middle East peace plan was aimed at helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the March elections in Israel.
The officials repeated their rejection of Trump’s plan on the pretext that its main goal is to "liquidate" the Palestinian cause. With extreme prejudice.
Sure they will. Because they’ve proved so very, very trustworthy in the past.
[Jpost] Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede, to end IED balloon attacks on Israel.
At Cairo’s request, Islamist movement to rein in balloon kabooms from 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... Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, has, according to sources, accepted an Egyptian request to prevent the firing of balloons and kites carrying improvised bombs into Israel.
Continued on Page 49
[TWITTER] MEMRI -TV: IRGC-affiliated strategist Hassan Abbasi said in a video that he uploaded to aparat.com on January 17, 2020 that the IRGC should "generate income" by capturing Americans and demanding a ransom for their return. Abbasi, who was speaking at the city of Noushahr, gave the example of the $1.7 billion that Iran received for the return of Jason Rezaian and the $3 billion that Iran, he claims, received from Qatar because the aircraft that killed Qassem Soleimani had taken off from Qatar. He said that the way to solve Iran's economic problems is to capture one American per week and thus "raise" $50 billion per year. He also mocked the anti-regime protesters, saying that rallying 5,000 protesters isn't nearly enough to topple Iran's regime. The audience chanted: "Allah Akbar! Khamenei is the Leader! Greetings to the warriors of Islam! Peace upon the martyrs! Death to America! Death to England! Death to the hypocrites and infidels! Death to Israel!"
Video with subtitles can be seen at the link. Somebody needs to be Arclighted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2020 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
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#2
the way to solve Iran's economic problems is to capture one American per week and thus "raise" $50 billion per year.
I'm not saying your math is wrong, but one thing you've left out of the equation is Donald Trump, President of the United States. People slag him for his 'lack of political experience', but over his career, he has dealt with real estate developers, contractors, inspectors, unions, New York legislators, mafias, Hollywood and miscellaneous villains, thieves and scoundrels. Do you really think he can't negotiate with a bunch of Persian rug merchants?
Back when y'all seized the American embassy in '79, Jimmy Carter (ptui) publicly stated that getting our people back was the Most Important Thing and we would do anything. Even I saw this was a bad negotiating posture.
I hate to sound all jingoistic, but Trump just waxed one of your main guys because you killed an American. Do you really think if you started taking hostages that he would hesitate to up the ante way past where you could stay in the game? Some nice power plants and refineries ya got there! Be a shame if anything happened to them.
#3
Hillary lost the election.
IRGC is politically ignorant that Trump is not Obama or Hillary.
No more air deliveries of pallets of cash to free hostages.
No more attacks on embassies like in Benghazi or in the green zone without a quick and decisive response (Allah rest Soleimani's "sole").
John Kerry's coaching "you have to wait him (Trump) out hasn't quite gotten through to the lower ranks yet.
#4
they should ask the descendants of the Barbary pirates how well that worked out for them
there's even part of a song written about it
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
01/24/2020 7:13 Comments ||
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#5
If you ask nicely, there's at least one internationally known business tycoon who would be glad to review your business plan and offer constructive criticism.
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Leb faces a ’catastrophe’, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Wednesday after his newly unveiled cabinet held its first meeting to tackle the twin challenges of a tenacious protest movement and a nosediving economy.
"Today we are in a financial, economic and social dead end," he said in remarks read by a government official after the new cabinet’s inaugural meeting in Beirut.
"We are facing a catastrophe," he said.
Diab, who replaced Saad Hariri ...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.... as prime minister, vowed to meet the demands from the street but demonstrators were unconvinced and scuffled with police overnight. I'll be surprised if that's not just verbal drool. The new cabinet's mostly FPM, Amal, and Hezbollah. I think there was one seat doled out to the Armenian party.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2020 00:00 ||
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After Soleimani’s death, Tehran swiftly appointed Esmail Ghaani as the new head of the Quds Force, an elite unit in the Revolutionary Guards that handles actions abroad. Ghaani has pledged to pursue Soleimani’s course.
“If Ghaani follows the same path of killing Americans then he will meet the same fate,” U.S. envoy Brian Hook told the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat.
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.
[ToloNews] The billboards that were installed by Mawlawi Mujibur Rahman Ansari, 
[ToloNews] Transparency International released its Corruption Perception Index 2019 on Thursday, and the organization ranked Afghanistan among the top 10 most corrupt countries in the world.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
...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 
...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
