[ToloNews] Gen. Scott Miller, commander of Resolute Support MIssion and US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday and said that so far violence is decreasing, suggesting that the reduction in violence plan is being upheld.
"We’re seeing what we would call a downward trend in violence, which is great for the Afghan people. It's great for the country of Afghanistan," according to Miller.
"There's still some incidents and we're working through those incidents. We remain committed in our support to the Afghan cops," Miller said, adding that "The minister and I are talking about it every single day to make sure we're seeing what's happening on the ground together."
Khalid, who visited a special unit in Kabul, said: "Today, we are here with our Ktah-Khas (special forces unit), and they have always been ready. Now, they have been conducting training and observing the (reduction in violence) situation."
"We assure our people that our brave forces will arrive at any location, at any time, to resolve any issues or problems," he said.
"This is a success for us. The sacrifices of our hard-working Afghan forces and patience of our great nation caused this reduction in violence," he added.
He also said that in several locations the Afghans have celebrated the reduction in violence.
"In some provinces, the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... groups came into the cities and took photos with our soldiers. This is a big success for us," according to Khalid.
On February 21, a reduction in violence plan kicked off that is intended to last for seven days. Upon its successful completion, according to statements by the US and Taliban, a peace deal negotiated between the two sides over the past 18 months in Doha, will be signed.
If the agreement signed, it will lead to intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban on one side, and a delegation representing the Afghan republic's government and political and civil establishment, on the other.
[Independent] Groups linked to al-Qaeda and 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.... , at war with each other in the Middle East, are working together to take control of territory across a vast stretch of West Africa, US and local officials say, sparking fears the regional threat could grow into a global crisis.
Fighters appear to be coordinating attacks and carving out mutually agreed-upon areas of influence in the Sahel, a strip of land south of the Sahara desert. The rural territory at risk is so large it could "fit multiple Afghanistans and Iraqs," said brigade general Dagvin Anderson, head of the US military’s Special Operations arm in Africa.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/27/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11129 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Zero] After a nearly 17 year absence, US troops have returned Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan Air Base. The last time the base, which lies about 60 miles outside of Riyadh, saw an American presence was in 2003, after which the troops moved to Qatar.
The American troop surge into the gulf region to curtail Iran continues even as the world is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, which appears to be spreading in the Middle East.
While the Pentagon focuses on "deterring Iran," the Islamic Republic is busy dealing with a very different and more immediately devastating threat. Coronavirus has killed 19 Iranians among 139 confirmed to be infected, as we reported earlier, and one lawmaker has claimed that the true death toll is actually much higher.
#2
We don't need Saudi oil. We're self-sufficient now.
If Europeans need the oil, let them send their militaries. The US is not a mercenary force. Hell, that implies being paid - we're doing this for free. Because we're idiots, apparently.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/27/2020 7:11 Comments ||
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#4
Love to agree with you. But it's about more than our oil independence. Except for the oil ticks, everybody else has to drink from the world oil market. If that gets messed up, we're going to have a lot of trouble and we'll get pulled in anyway. The historical record of the Yurps running their own affairs is poor and gets us into trouble anyway.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/27/2020 14:52 Comments ||
Top||
#5
What Richard Aubrey said.
Sing along, 'Erb: The Mideast Oil bone's connected to the ... Asian economic bone
Asia bone connected to the ... US economic bone
The more we disconnect from slave labor in Asia, the better. Let them deal with their own problems. We're not World Police. You want to be World Police, you grab a rifle and get out there and get a leg blown off by an IED.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/27/2020 17:15 Comments ||
Top||
#8
...Was there with OSW Jan-Jul 95 - "If It Flies, It Dies."
And PSAB is best described as nothing in the middle of empty.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/27/2020 17:30 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Except for the oil ticks, everybody else has to drink from the world oil market.
Precisely. How'd you like to be running for re-election while consumers are dealing with $6 gasoline?
#10
On the map, it looks like quite the location - Gulf of Rumsfield, Red Sea, Yemen.
Article talks of having to re-build what was the US section, so this isn't something happening overnight.
Article also says F-15s. I'm not so sure about that. I'd go F-15s and ....? but not just F-15s. Seems a person would want some sort of surveillance platform with loiter and range, and some QRF platform(s) which could go thump a ballistic missile launcher.
#11
Herb. The family has paid its dues all over the world. I was Infantry. The problems we were dealing with were started by Yurp incompetence and arrogance. See an explanation of the origin of WW I, for example. I don't know whether it takes a hit of LSD to understand it better, or trying to understand it is better than a hit of LSD.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/27/2020 23:02 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Interior Ministry says ’Killuminateam ‐ soldiers on the path of Allah’ spread its message under cover of helping needy, using public actions to call for violence.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered a small, little known organization run by a rapper dissolved for alleged hate speech and defending terrorism.
A statement from the Interior Ministry said the association called "Killuminateam ‐ soldiers on the path of Allah" spread its message under the cover of helping the needy.
Its "main activity was organizing actions in public to make calls to hate and violence," the ministry statement said. It added that the association used the internet and videos laden with content reflecting "a conspiratorial, anti-Semitic (and), anti-Christian nature" and "defending terrorism." Macron ordered via a decree that the association be dissolved.
The group, based in the Val d’Oise region, north of Gay Paree, had just 15 members, according to the ministry statement. However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... its dissolution is a sign of the government’s intention to fight what Macron calls "Islamist separatism."
The president announced last week his determination to counter Islamic extremism through diverse means, from giving the government more authority in the training of imams to beefing up police numbers in vulnerable neighborhoods.
The rapper who heads the group calls himself Killuminaty Masta Ex. He was convicted in November and given a six-month suspended sentence for defending terrorism, the French press wrote at the time. The conviction was linked to his song on YouTube called "Terrorist" in which he evokes the 2015 Gay Paree terror attacks that killed 130 people.
A woman describing herself as his wife said in a recent post on YouTube that her husband was tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! Jan. 5 on fraud charges. Castigating authorities and police, the woman who did not give her name said her husband "never called for armed jihad," and instead devoted himself to helping youth "in the name of Islam."
Exclusive: Berlin’s commissioner to fight antisemitism urges Merkel @BMI_Bund@RegSprecher to ban Hezbollah's entire organization in Germany, where 1,050 Hezbollah members raise funds and recruit new members. Read my latest @Jerusalem_Posthttps://t.co/QCH9Y5SVIM
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Asylum applications rose in the EU in 2019, official figures showed on Wednesday, driven by a dramatic increase in the number of Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south... ns seeking sanctuary from political and economic crises.
More than 714,000 applications were submitted, the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Asylum Support Office (EASO) said, an increase of 13 percent on the year before and the first annual rise since 2015.
EASO said the growth was largely due to applications from countries with visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen common travel area rather than irregular entries such as the boat crossings over the Mediterranean and Aegean seas seen during the height of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015-16.
The top three countries of origin for migrants colonists were Syria with 72,000, Afghanistan with 60,000 and Venezuela with 45,000.
"Most of the increase is accounted for by the large number of applications lodged by applicants who are exempt of visa requirements when entering the Schengen Area," EASO said.
The office said this explained why applications had increased but detections of "illegal entry" had fallen.
The figure for Venezuela is more than double the total of 22,000 seen in 2018, as the oil-rich but unstable Latin American state continues its plunge into economic ruin and political chaos.
But EASO said just five percent of Venezuelan applicants were granted asylum - in contrast to Syrians, 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... is and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... ns, all of whom had recognition rates above 80 percent.
Overall around one in three applicants were granted some form of protection in 2019, EASO said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
If I believed a secret cabal was running the world, I certainly wouldn’t tell random surveyors I thought so, nor make a peep about the subject on the internet, lest I catch their attention.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/27/2020 15:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
EC,
Probably not more than 1 in 10.
This is per the AntiDefamation League's very detailed and precise survey that they've been conducting since 1964, when they found that about 29% of the US was anti-semitic defined as agreeing with at least 6 of 11 anti-Jewish statements surveyed.
[IsraelTimes] The Pentagon says Wednesday it has resumed training Saudi military pilots two months after a trainee rubbed out three Americans at a Florida naval base in what was called an act of terrorism.
The US Navy says it restarted the program at the US Naval Air Station in Pensacola on Tuesday under tighter controls, including an absolute ban on the cadet pilots owning guns.
Royal Saudi Air Force 2nd Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani used a pistol obtained under a legal loophole to kill three sailors and wound eight other people on December 6 in a classroom building. He was rubbed out at the scene by law enforcement officers.
Alshamrani had been taking part in a training course that the US offers to hundreds of foreign military officials every year. The Pentagon froze the training of about 850 Saudis, putting into question a decades-old program crucial to the US-Saudi relationship, which involves billions of dollars of military sales to the kingdom.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian diplomat says his people will resist US proposal until ’last drop of Paleostinian child’s blood’; Fatah member says state along ’67 lines would just be temporary measure.
Rejecting the US peace plan, top Paleostinian officials have in recent days said Paleostine should encompass all Israeli territory, and that even a potential state along the 1967 borders would only be a temporary measure.
And the Paleostinian ambassador to Iraq said his people would violently resist the US peace plan "until the last drop of a Paleostinian child’s blood," while also praising attacks on Israeli soldiers.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Military liaison to the Paleostinians says move dependent on ceasefire holding after region erupted in two days of fighting this week.
Israel on Wednesday announced it would reopen its border crossings with 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... Strip, as well as the coastal enclave’s fishing zone, as a ceasefire with Paleostinian terror groups continued to hold days after a violent flareup.
Over the course of Sunday and Monday, the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror group fired roughly 100 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched several waves of retaliatory strikes against the organization in Gaza and ‐ in a highly irregular move ‐ inside Syria.
Fighting ended late Monday night with Islamic Jihad announcing it would stop firing rockets if Israel also halted Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!...s.
In light of the relative calm along the border, Israel decided to fully reopen the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings and to again allow Paleostinian fisherman to operate off the Gaza coast, up to 15 nautical miles from the shore.
I notice there is no mention of permits for Gazans to enter Israel to work. Perhaps this hudna will last long enough for that to be added later, though I’d not put money on it.
Israel closed the crossings and fishing zone on Monday as rockets and mortar shells pummeled Israeli cities and towns around the Gaza Strip and left the closure in place Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Following a new situation assessment ‐ and assuming the security stability remains ‐ it was decided to return to service the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings beginning tomorrow (Thursday) morning. In addition, the fishing zone will return to 15 nautical miles," Israel’s military liaison to the Paleostinians said in a statement.
The Kerem Shalom Crossing functions as the Gaza Strip’s main terminus for commercial goods, as well as fuel, while Erez is a pedestrian crossing used by Paleostinian businessmen and workers, as well as people receiving medical treatment.
Israel has routinely used the opening and closing of these crossings and the shortening and extending of the fishing zone over the years as alternately penalty and reward for the Gaza Strip, which many human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. group decry as a form of collective punishment.
The decision to reopen the crossings was taken after a meeting between Israel and 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... , aided by Egyptian officials and the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
#Lebanon has paid $71 million in coupons due on Eurobonds maturing in 2025 and 2030, according to a source familiar with the matter, a day after appointing legal and financial advisers for a widely expected debt restructuring.https://t.co/6VEv7JNqwA
Mohammad Saeedi, the representative of #Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the city of #Qom, is urging Iranians to visit the city’s main religious site, calling it a “place of healing” despite the #coronavirus outbreak in the city.https://t.co/A0GPqn8SmGpic.twitter.com/MLrtJq9Ts2
#6
Well, it's hard to see how we lose on this one. How did Trump pull this off? Did he get some Infinity stones? They are really on a roll over there ...
#9
Mohammad Saeedi ... is urging Iranians to visit the city’s main religious site, calling it a “place of healing” despite the #coronavirus outbreak in the city.
Sweartogod, I laughed out loud reading that. But hey, if the Purell thing doesn't work, we can always irradiate the place.
I don't think Iran is lying or at least the lying is actually a relatively minor problem.
I'm pretty sure they have a major problem understanding how to do diagnosis (which is not as simple as it seems), how to sequester people who have been diagnosed as positive, how to categorize a death that is related to the virus but seems not directly caused, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/27/2020 10:36 Comments ||
Top||
#Iran will sentence anyone who spreads false information about #coronavirus to flogging and up to three years in prison, a member of the Iranian parliament’s legal and judicial committee says.https://t.co/VmyPalh9SD
#Lebanon’s search for offshore oil and gas will begin on Thursday, announces President #MichelAoun in a televised address to the nation, as the country grapples with an unprecedented financial crisis.https://t.co/N6VyfCiPWS
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...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 country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south...
...
...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...
