— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) May 18, 2020
A Libyan official on Monday said the government’s regaining control of the strategically important Al-Watiya airbase was the beginning of freeing the country from forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.
#Libya- going back to the strategic value of the #GNA capturing al-Watiyah Airbase from the #LNA (aside for the symbolism and all the toys they captured there):
1) #LNA lost its main base of operations (not only air) in western #Libya 2) #GNA has so many resources freed now 1/
#Libya- #GNA is not wasting any time, or risking potential airstrikes trying to destroy it, getting the captured Pantsir-S1/SA-22 Greyhound out of al-Watiyah Airbase pic.twitter.com/5X5hfUddde
Director of the moral guidance department of Haftar’s self-styled army, Khaled Al-Mahjoub, claimed that their forces had performed a tactical withdrawal from Watiya airbase pic.twitter.com/ZeMCfNRTcx
Shocked by Watiya airbase loss, member of Tobruk-based House of Representatives, Saied Emghaib, a staunch supporter of warlord Haftar, demands a DNA test for all GNA fighters and supporters to determine whether they are Libyans or Turks. pic.twitter.com/kk4WIhzHKW
Russian-made Pantsir anti-aircraft system seized from Haftar’s armed militias in Watiya early today put on parade in Zawiya city pic.twitter.com/8EUf9MF4J8
UAE-based Alarabiya TV quoted the media office of Haftar as saying that “Watiya airbase is not of military importance and that the army conducted a tactical withdrawal with all ammunition and arms including air defense systems.” pic.twitter.com/Nl1k46e7Qg
[GREEKCITYTIMES] By continuing to occupy large areas of Cyprus, Syria and Iraq, funding jihadists groups in Syria and Libya, maintaining military bases in Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, and violating Greece’s airspace on a daily basis, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has put a major strain on its economy.
#3
The report explains that Turkey’s failed wars against Libya and Syria have been a major problem for its economy, putting the country’s bankruptcy probability at over 30% in the forthcoming period.
Only 30+% probability? How disappointing. Still, the the wars in Syria and Libya continue, and Turkey appears to be expanding into Yemen, or someplace like that.
[Bloomberg] The FBI was able to unlock encrypted iPhones belonging to the shooter in December’s attack at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, and discovered he had contact with a suspected al-Qaeda operative, Attorney General William Barr said Monday.
The alleged link to al-Qaeda is also significant because it suggests the terrorist organization is still able to encourage, and possibly direct, operations in the U.S. almost two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The Trump administration asked Apple in January for help unlocking a pair of iPhones belonging to the shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani,
...also in our archives as Muhammad bin Saeed Al-Shamrani ...
a 21-year-old 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. Alshamrani was killed by law enforcement responding to the attack.
Barr previously said the shooting rampage that killed three sailors was an act of terrorism. The attack frayed U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, which removed 21 of its cadets from military training in the U.S. in response.
Alshamrani and his associates in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “communicated using end-to-end encrypted apps, with warrant-proof encryption, deliberately in order to evade law enforcement,” Barr said in a statement Monday. “Alshamrani’s preparations for terror began years ago. He had been radicalized by 2015, and having connected and associated with AQAP operatives, joined the Royal Saudi Air Force in order to carry out a ‘special operation.’”
After accessing evidence on the phone, the U.S. recently carried out a counterterrorism operation targeting an overseas al-Qaeda operative that Alshamrani associated with, Barr and Wray said. However, the officials stopped short of asserting that al-Qaeda directed the Pensacola attack.
The attorney general said that Alshamrani viewed the data on one of his iPhones as so valuable that he interrupted his rampage to fire a bullet into it.
#3
Apple refused, we're told, even with a warrant. Now their cooperation is unnecessary
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2020 8:59 Comments ||
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#4
When you have physical access to the device, avenues of attack to obtain data are limited only by time, money and engineering resources. Apple knows this and their refusal to cooperate with LE is really all they've got when they claim they are "privacy oriented." If I had data I didn't want anyone to see, I'd never keep it on a device someone else might seize from me. Additionally, wherever I sent it, I'd have to assume the recipient also is vulnerable or maybe even already compromised.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/19/2020 8:59 Comments ||
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#5
Also, these jihad jibones are all about sharing what they are up to with their like-minded "brothers." I'd imagine it's a parlor game for NSA analysts to look at recovered data from a case like this and say "Aha! We gathered that stuff from intercepted emails (texts, etc.) the day it was sent. We beat you again."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/19/2020 9:08 Comments ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The American authorities announced on Monday that the Saudi trainee, Mohammed al-Shamrani, who carried out the mass shooting at the Pensacola base in Florida, last year, executed his plans in cooperation with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
"We have broken the phone of the attacker and have discovered important information about his relationship with Al Qaeda," U.S. Attorney William Barr said at a news conference.
For his part, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, stressed during the same presser that "Al-Shamrani was sharing information and plans with the people affiliated with al-Qaeda", during the announcement of new details about the attack carried out by the Saudi trainee inside the base of the U.S. Navy, which resulted in 3 people killed.
An audio recording attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... , broadcast in February, grabbed credit for the attack on the Pensacola base in Florida, but it did not provide evidence.
Before the attack, al-Shamrani criticized the American wars and published statements of al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ...... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones...... on social media.
Law enforcement officials killed the shooter during the attack on December 6, 2019.
Al-Shamrani was at the base as part of a naval training program to strengthen ties with foreign allies.
[Daily Excelsior] India’s request for the extradition of Tiger Hanif, an alleged aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim wanted in India in connection with two kabooms in Surat in 1993, has been turned down by the UK government, official sources have confirmed.
Hanif, whose full name is Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel, was traced to a grocery store in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and arrested by Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in February 2010.
The 57-year-old since lost a number of legal bids to stay in Britannia, claiming that he will be tortured in India.
However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... his final bid to then Home Secretary Sajid Javid succeeded as the Pak-origin minister refused the request last year.
"We can confirm that the extradition request for Hanif Patel was refused by the then Home Secretary and Mr Patel was discharged by the court in August 2019," a UK Home Office source said on Sunday.
Hanif’s extradition to India was first ordered by then Home Secretary Theresa May in June 2012.
During an appeal at the High Court in London in April 2013, Justice Kenneth Parker noted the information provided in India’s request described how, following the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992, "internecine hostilities" broke out between the Moslem and Hindu communities in Gujarat ...where rioting seems to be a traditional passtime... "The requesting state’s case is that the appellant was part of a Moslem group which obtained explosives, guns and other weapons and then carried out Dire Revenge terrorist attacks on the Hindu community, including two explosions which resulted in loss of life, injury and damage," the judge noted.
The first explosion was in January 1993 in a market on the Varacha Road in Surat, which killed an eight-year-old girl and the second explosion was in April 1993 at Surat railway station.
Arguments made on behalf of Hanif claimed there was "a real risk of torture" if Hanif was extradited to India.
"There is nothing to suggest that the appellant [Hanif] is now no longer able to recall the events in question, or that the court in India would be unwilling or unable to consider the extent, if any, of any prejudice to the fairness of the criminal trial by reason of the passage of time," the judge had ruled, clearing Hanif’s extradition.
Under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, India is category two country, which means the Home Secretary has final sign-off on any extradition request, which in this case was turned down.
Similarly, the Indian government’s request for the extradition of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya in the fraud and money laundering case involving loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines is with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for a formal certification, after he lost a last-ditch attempt seeking leave to appeal in the UK Supreme Court last Thursday.
The 64-year-old businessman, who remains on bail, can also make representations to the minister, though his legal avenues now remain limited and may only involve a temporary reprieve due to the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2020 00:00 ||
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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.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The American authorities announced on Monday that the Saudi trainee, Mohammed al-Shamrani, who carried out the mass shooting at the Pensacola base in Florida, last year, executed his plans in cooperation with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
...... who is now sometimes referred to as 
[Daily Excelsior] India’s request for the extradition of Tiger Hanif, an alleged aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim wanted in India in connection with two 
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
