Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Six activists representing various public organizations of Chechens in Europe held a picket of solidarity with women victims of repression in Chechnya.
The picket took place outside the Russian consulate in Brussels without any reaction from the diplomatic agency, reports a correspondent for the "Caucasian Knot".
As those gathered told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, the purpose of the picket was to protest against the repressions carried out against Chechen women.
One of the organizers of the picket was the "United Force" movement, which recalled the role of Chechen women in the national liberation struggle of Chechens in the past.
"The role of Chechen women in the national liberation struggle of the Chechen people is not only significant, but also decisive. We remember how they took on the economic burden of wartime, how they risked their lives [...]," said the announcement of the event, distributed the day before on Chechen media platforms of opponents of the republican authorities.
Those gathered at the Russian consulate in Brussels openly spoke about the abductions, persecution and pressure to which mothers, wives and sisters of the regime's opponents are subjected. In their hands they held printed portraits of Zarema Musayeva, Amina Okuyeva, Natalya Estemirova, Binazira Khamidova.
Zarema Musayeva is the wife of former federal judge Saidi Yangulbaev. Chechen security forces took her away from her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod on January 20, 2022. After that, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov accused the Yangulbaev family of organizing a terrorist network and said that a place "in prison or underground" awaited them.
The car in which Adam Osmaev and his wife Amina Okueva were traveling was fired upon near the village of Glevakha near Kiev on October 30, 2017. Okueva died on the spot, and Osmaev was wounded. On January 12, 2021, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced that the police had detained members of a criminal group, one of whose members is suspected of organizing an assassination attempt on Osmaev and the murder of his wife Okueva.
Igor Redkin, a native of Kaspiysk, was arrested for two months until March 11. In February of the same year, Redkin was released under house arrest.
In December 2023, it became clear that Redkin had left for Hungary. Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped on July 15, 2009, taken to Ingushetia and killed. Based on her information about human rights violations in Chechnya, human rights activists made inquiries to official bodies and compiled lists of missing persons. You can learn about the investigation and the main versions of the murder of the human rights activist from the "Caucasian Knot" report " The Murder of Natalya Estemirova ".
"We have gathered here to protest against the Kadyrov regime, against the crimes against Chechen women. I want to clarify that the Kadyrov regime is not a Chechen regime, but a Russian one, and has nothing in common with Chechen culture," Fatima Suleimanova, a representative of the United Force movement, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
The action is an expression of solidarity, not a demand on the Russian embassy, the event's co-organizer, an activist named Safiya, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
"We have no demands on the embassy, there is no point in talking to them. We want to show solidarity with Chechen women, to show that we are with them. First of all, this concerns Zarema Musayeva, as well as the stories when Mufti Salah Mezhiyev removed niqabs from girls.
But the niqab is a symbol of religio-political oppression, more often indicating Papa’s or Husband’s opinions than the female hidden behind it.
This also concerns Binazira Khamidova, a pregnant woman who [...] was tortured to death," the girl said.
She noted that the case of Zarema Musayeva "only strengthened the feeling in Chechen society that Kadyrov is only capable of fighting women."
Those gathered also outlined a number of other problems of the diaspora related to the provision of asylum to agents of the regime and the deportation of political refugees. "The most people gather for rallies against extraditions. And often it is possible to prevent extradition. For example, Amina Gerikhanova," said Safiya, identifying this problem as "one of the key ones" in the diaspora.
On November 4, it became known that Chechen native Amina Gerikhanova, who was wanted by Russia as a participant in the fighting in Syria, received refugee status in Romania. Gerikhanova was removed from the Interpol wanted list, the human rights association "Vaifond" reported on November 30.
She also spoke about the problem of legalization in Europe and obtaining refugee status by Kadyrov's agents or retired Kadyrovites who have no real problems in Russia and, in all likelihood, are being introduced into the ranks of political emigrants as agents. "This problem exists. Kadyrov sends many here and keeps them on his payroll," the girl said.
Not all of the girls who gathered were ready to speak publicly, citing concerns about their relatives back home.
Representatives of the Russian diplomatic department showed no interest in the picket at the embassy walls. The establishment was guarded by local police, who fenced off the protesters from the Russian mission with a metal fence.
[JPost] They can tell which way the wind is blowing.
Following a deal to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, attention has swung back to the Gaza Strip, but any hopes of a rapid end to the war there look likely to be dashed.
Announcing the Lebanon accord on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for an elusive agreement in Gaza, urging Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.
However, there was no sign that Israeli leaders wanted to ease up on Hamas, which triggered the conflagration last year by attacking southern Israel, with ministers making clear their war aims for Gaza were very different than those for Lebanon.
“Gaza will never be a threat to the State of Israel again… We will reach a decisive victory there. Lebanon is different,” said Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of the security cabinet and a former head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).
“Are we at the beginning of the end [of the Gaza campaign]? Definitely not. We still have a lot to do,” he told a group of foreign correspondents this week.
There remain 101 hostages in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed both to bring them all home and to eradicate Hamas.
MILITARY PRESSURE ON HAMAS
Negotiations between the two sides have long stalled, with each side blaming the other for the impasse. Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri on Wednesday accused Israel of being inflexible, saying his group still wanted a deal.“We are committed to cooperating with any effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, and we are interested in ending the aggression against our people,” the terrorist group said.
“We have informed mediators in Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey that Hamas is ready for a ceasefire agreement and a serious deal to exchange prisoners,” a Hamas official told AFP.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday the group appreciates Lebanon’s right to reach an agreement that protects its people and it hopes for a deal to end the war in Gaza, adding that he hoped it would pave the way to reaching an agreement that ends the Israel-Hamas War.
The Biden administration on Wednesday said it was pushing ahead with a $680 million arms sales package to Israel, according to a US official familiar with the plan.
The package, which was first reported by the Financial Times, includes thousands of joint direct attack munition kits and hundreds of small-diameter bombs, according to the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted the agreement brokered by the United States and France, but international efforts to halt the 14-month-old war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza have stalled.
Earlier Wednesday, Hamas said it was open to efforts to secure a deal in Gaza, reiterating its outstanding conditions.An agreement must end the war, pull Israeli forces out of Gaza, return displaced Gazans to their homes, and achieve a hostages-for-prisoners swap deal.
In an unexpected twist, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey was ready to help in any way possible to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and expressed satisfaction with the ceasefire agreement that has come into effect in Lebanon.
[IsraelTimes] Drawing on lessons from the latest conflicts, the military begins to arm female surveillance soldiers, move their war rooms away from borders; infantry to get explosives training
After 14 months of fighting in 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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 and Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , the Israel Defense Forces’ Ground Forces on Thursday laid out a series of changes it was seeking to implement to face current and future challenges, from expanding its combat engineering forces to giving infantry troops more independence.
Amid the war, top IDF officials have repeatedly said that the military needs to grow in size, though they have never specified exactly where.
According to the Ground Forces, its top priority is establishing a new standing army Combat Engineering Corps battalion. Currently, the military only has four combat engineering battalions in the standing army, but more than a dozen in reserves.
Combat engineers have operated intensively during the war, demolishing hundreds of kilometers worth of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... tunnels and other infrastructure belonging to the terror group in the Gaza Strip, as well as Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon.
Their intensive activity amid the war has brought top officers to the realization that there needs to be more combat engineers readily available in the standing army.
With the same thinking, the Ground Forces also plans to expand the size of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, which has also been used constantly during the war for special operations in Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
In addition to the new combat engineering battalion and expanding Yahalom, the Ground Forces said it would also begin to train infantry forces to carry out simple explosive-related engineering tasks, to free up the combat engineers.
The Ground Forces also seeks to train all of the IDF’s infantry forces to use armored vehicles and become mechanized infantry brigades. Currently, only the Givati and Golani brigades are considered mechanized infantry, while the Nahal Brigade is in the process of adopting more advanced armored personnel carriers.
Infantry units amid the war have largely lacked their own mobility units. Therefore the Ground Forces also plans to provide them with Humvees and light armored vehicles, in addition to the APCs.
In terms of women in the Ground Forces, the IDF said that in 2023, some 7,000 female soldiers served in combat roles, and each year around 1,600 new female fighters are drafted. The IDF has been opening up new combat units for young women joining the army in recent years.
A pilot program in Yahalom, where there is an active all-female team and another team in training, will end in July 2025. Another pilot for women to serve in infantry mobility units began in November, and there are plans for a pilot program for female soldiers to serve in the Armored Corps starting in November 2025.
Additional changes the Ground Forces was working to implement were moving the Combat Intelligence Collection Array’s command centers away from the country’s borders and providing the female surveillance soldiers with weapons.
Female surveillance soldiers, referred to in Hebrew as tatzpitaniyot, have been positioned very close to Israel’s borders with the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. On October 7, the Nahal Oz base next to Gaza, where one such command center is based, was overrun by turbans who killed and kidnapped over 20 surveillance soldiers. The female soldiers, aside from the commanders, were mostly unarmed.
The Ground Forces said that in the coming months, all of the tatzpitaniyot will have weapons, and in the coming years all the command centers will be moved back from the borders.
The Ground Forces seeks to achieve bringing all the reservist units up to the same level as the standing army, in terms of their equipment. Many reserve armored brigades are using older Merkava tanks without active defense systems. Those tanks will undergo upgrades to retrofit them with more advanced systems, including active defenses that are featured in the latest models.
The Ground Forces is also establishing two new divisions and a new brigade for ultra-Orthodox soldiers.
One division, known as the Eastern Division will be tasked with Israel’s border with Jordan.
The second, known as the 96th Division, will be a light infantry force based on volunteer reservists for patrol and routine security during periods of escalation across the country.
Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, there was another explosion... the army’s new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade, will receive its first company of ultra-Orthodox men later this month.
#1
Problem is, combat engineers are are typically the top 20% test scores of the infantry, diverted for special training. The ASVAB is used to sort them out. You don't get more just because you want them.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/08/2024 16:35 Comments ||
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#2
The IDF is a near-universal conscript army though, ed. They’re drawing from a pool that’s flatter and broader than our American volunteer service, I suspect during a zeitgeist that’s much like what we saw here after 9/11.
[LI] As a Roman Catholic, I hope the next Pope is a Catholic Christian capitalist - for a change
Inappropriate to place a Jew on a scarf that has become a symbol of those who want to destroy Israel and exterminate Jews.
Pope Francis inaugurates the new nativity scene called "Betlehem 2024" in the Vatican
Looks like the Pope has also fallen for the absurd claim that Jesus was a Palestinian. pic.twitter.com/nVhsOW8vuL
[IsraelTimes] Since breaking ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader; whether that is true remains up for debate
Abu Mohammed al-Golani,
…that’s his nom de guerre, also spelt Abu Mohammad al-Julani. His real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a and the CIA considers him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist….
leader of the Islamist rebel alliance that has captured swaths of Syria in a lightning offensive, is an murderous Moslem who has adopted a more moderate posture to try to achieve his goals.
At the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, Golani says the goal of his offensive is to overthrow President Bashir al-Assad’s rule.
"When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal," Golani told CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... in an interview aired on Friday.
Golani for years operated from the shadows. Now, he is in the limelight, giving interviews to the international media and appearing on the ground in Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo after wresting it from government control for the first time in the country’s civil war.
He has over the years stopped sporting the turban worn by jihadists, often favouring military fatigues instead.
On Wednesday, he wore a khaki shirt and trousers to visit Aleppo’s citadel, standing at the door of his white vehicle as he waved and moved through the crowds.
Since breaking ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, Golani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader.
But he is yet to quell suspicions among analysts and Western governments that still classify HTS as a terrorist organization.
"He is a pragmatic radical," Thomas Pierret, a specialist in political Islam, told AFP.
"In 2014, he was at the height of his radicalism," Pierret said, referring to the period of the war when he sought to compete with the jihadist 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. "Since then, he has moderated his rhetoric."
Born in 1982, Golani was raised in Mazzeh, an upscale district of Damascus. He stems from a well-to-do family and was a good student.
During the offensive he launched on November 27, he started signing his statements under his real name — Ahmed al-Sharaa.
In 2021, he told US broadcaster PBS that his nom de guerre was a reference to his family roots in the Golan Heights, claiming that his grandfather had been forced to flee after Israel’s takeover of the area in 1967 during the Six Day War.
According to the Middle East Eye news website, it was after the September 11, 2001 attacks that Golani was first drawn to jihadist thinking.
"It was as a result of this admiration for the 9/11 attackers that the first signs of jihadism began to surface in Golani’s life, as he began attending secretive sermons and panel discussions in marginalized suburbs of Damascus," the website said.
Following the US-led invasion of Iraq, he left Syria to take part in the fight. He joined al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was subsequently detained for five years, preventing him from rising through the ranks of the jihadist organization.
In March 2011, when the revolt against Assad’s rule erupted in Syria, he returned home and founded the al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front, Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda.
In 2013, he refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would go on to become the emir of the Islamic State group, and instead pledged his loyalty to al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri ...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodox al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...> .
A realist in his partisans’ eyes, an opportunist to his adversaries, Golani said in May 2015 that he, unlike IS, had no intention of launching attacks against the West.
He also proclaimed that should Assad be defeated, there would be no Dire Revenge attacks against the Alawite minority that the president’s clan stems from.
He cut ties with al-Qaeda, claiming to do so in order to deprive the West of reasons to attack his organization.
According to Pierret, he has since sought to chart a path towards becoming a credible statesman.
In January 2017, Golani imposed a merger with HTS on rival Islamist groups in northwest Syria, thereby claiming control of swaths of Idlib province that had fallen out of government hands.
In areas under its grip, HTS developed a civilian government and established a semblance of a state in Idlib province, while crushing its rebel rivals. Throughout this process, HTS faced accusations from residents and rights groups of brutal abuses against those who dared dissent, which the UN has classed as war crimes.
Aware perhaps of the fear and hatred his group has sparked, Golani has addressed residents of Aleppo, home to a sizeable Christian minority, in a bid to assure them that they would face no harm under his new regime. He also called on his fighters to preserve security in the areas they had "liberated" from Assad’s rule.
"I think it’s primarily just good politics," said Aron Lund, a fellow of the Century International think tank.
"The less local and international panic you have and the more Golani seems like a responsible actor instead of a toxic jihadi murderous Moslem, the easier his job will become. Is it totally sincere? Surely not," he said.
"But it’s the smart thing to say and do right now."
#5
I don’t see us doing as much as you would expect. Lindsey will be big mad.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/08/2024 11:07 Comments ||
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#6
^ Goober's hissy fit will be temporary
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/08/2024 12:19 Comments ||
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#7
It is not our fight but the forces likely to gain power in Syria are dangerous aggressive enemies of Western civilization who thanks to the refugee flood have a foothold in the West.
If we don't deter them it will become our fight in the West.
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.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
