[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he was frustrated after a daylong visit to Afghanistan this week in which he failed to mediate an end to a leadership feud between 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... and political rival Abdullah Abdullah ...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president... "I’ll be honest, it was very frustrating," Pompeo said at a State Department news briefing. However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... he said efforts would continue to convince all the parties in the conflict to embrace peace and reconciliation and that he remained optimistic about the prospects for intra-Afghan peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
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#1
When you walk into a public toilet expecting a candy store, yeah, that's "frustrating."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/26/2020 4:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well put. Would have liked the option to Talibunnies. "Surrender all arms or we will kill all of you".
#4
The dude had to ride on a plane all the way there AND all the way back. Maybe next time he'l set up a video conference!...
What?
What do you mean they don't have video?
Just use the Internet.
...
They don't have Internet?!!!
...
Use Face2Face!
What...they don't have faces?
[NY Times] Remember Noriega, Maricon? President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was indicted in the United States on Thursday in a narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking conspiracy in which prosecutors said he led a violent drug cartel even as he amassed power.
The indictment of a putative head of state was highly unusual and served as an escalation of the Trump administration's campaign to pressure Mr. Maduro to leave office after his widely disputed re-election in 2018. Mr. Maduro has led Venezuela's economy into shambles and prompted an exodus of millions of people into neighboring countries.
Attorney General William P. Barr announced the charges on Thursday at a news briefing along with the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the top federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Miami.
Mr. Maduro condemned the charges, accusing the United States and its ally Colombia on Twitter of giving "the order to fill Venezuela with violence." He declared that he would not be defeated.
The United States no longer recognizes Mr. Maduro as Venezuela's president. Along with most of Venezuela's neighbors, the Trump administration has recognized the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, as president since he declared himself the country's leader in January 2019. But Mr. Guaidó was unable to wrest power from Mr. Maduro, leaving Venezuela with two men claiming to be president.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2020 14:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
While the FBI is manufacturing bombers, there are real villains in the world.
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... has charged 20 suspects including two former aides to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince and modernizer of 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... as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... over the 2018 murder of Riyadh critic beloved martyr of journalism Jamal Khashoggi ......who was simultaneously a very well paid Washington Post columnist and a long time propagandist for the Moslem Brotherhood and Al Qaeda — he died while on the 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... i payroll, but previously wrote at the behest of then-Saudi intel chief Prince Turki al-Faisal...... , prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors accuse Saudi Arabia’s deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal court’s media czar Saud al-Qahtani of leading the operation and giving orders to a Saudi hit team.
Khashoggi, 59, a commentator who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, to obtain paperwork for his wedding to Ottoman Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
Turkey carried out its own investigation into the murder after being unhappy with Saudi explanations.
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Assiri and Qahtani were charged with "instigating the deliberate and monstrous killing, causing torment".
Eighteen other suspects ‐ including intelligence operative Maher Mutreb who frequently travelled with the crown prince on foreign tours, forensic expert Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi royal guard ‐ were also charged with "deliberately and monstrously killing, causing torment".
They face life in jail if convicted.
Mutreb, Tubaigy and Balawi had been among 11 on trial in Riyadh, during which sources said many of those accused defended themselves by saying they were carrying out Assiri’s orders, describing him as the operation’s "ringleader".
The Ottoman Turkish prosecutor said a trial in absentia would be opened against the 20 suspects but did not give a date.
The prosecutor had already issued arrest warrants for the suspects, who are not in Turkey.
Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, was strangled and his body cut into pieces by a 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, according to Ottoman Turkish officials.
His remains have never been found.
The CIA, UN special envoy Agnes Callamard and Turkey have directly linked Crown Prince Mohammed to the killing, a charge the kingdom vehemently denies.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
He was a Muslim Broderbund and Qatari mouthpiece. I have little sympathy for him. The fact he was a WaPo "Journolist" gives me even less.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2020 8:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Exactly. Khashoggi paused his praise for the porKoran, finds a typewriter and the Washington Post hires his ass. Tough.
#4
I need an eye exam - the first two words I thought I read were 'Secret wipes', and I thought 'great - now the Turks are shoving shit in their asses thinking it'll cure Covid-19...'
#Leaked Authorities in #Turkey 'hiding' #COVIDー19 deaths by listing other causes on death reports
Havva Yıldırım, the mother of the AK Party deputy Binali Yıldırım's wife Semiha Yıldırım died from #coronavirus, not listed as #corona#virus death YILDRIM is Erdogan's close ally pic.twitter.com/uTf9KIlUyq
[Rudaw] An undetermined number of French military personnel are pulling out of Iraq, a US official and an Iraqi military spokeperson said on Wednesday, in what is likely to be a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The spokesperson for Iraq’s caretaker prime minister and commander-in-chief Adil Abdul-Mahdi told state-owned newspaper al-Sabaah on Wednesday that French troops stationed in Iraq had already left the country.
"The French troops have left Iraqi territory," Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
A US official who wished to remain anonymous told Rudaw English on Wednesday that the withdrawal has yet to end.
"La Belle France is in the process of pulling their advisors out of Iraq," the US official said.
French troops form part of the US-led Global Coalition against 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), an 81-country alliance established as ISIS swept through Syria and Iraq in 2014. The coalition has primarily provided air support to Iraqi operations, as well as training and advisory support to Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Almost 1,000 French military personnel are stationed across the Middle East as part of Operation Chammal, the French component of the anti-ISIS coalition's operations. Approximately 200 of these troops were stationed within Iraq.
The reason of the withdrawal is still unclear, but is most probably 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... pandemic that other armies have cited as a reason for troop withdrawals and suspension of military action.
Coalition partner the United Kingdom announced on Thursday that it would be withdrawing its troops from Iraq in response to the pandemic.
"Following the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a reduced requirement for training from the Iraqi Security Forces and a subsequent pause in the Coalition and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation training missions in Iraq," read a Ministry of Defense statement.
The French withdrawal also comes amid a plan to reposition US-led coalition troops inside Iraq to defend itself against persistent bad boy group attacks on bases where they are stationed.
US troops handed over al-Qaim military base in western Iraq’s Anbar province to the Iraqi security forces last week as part of a plan to reposition US-led coalition troops inside Iraq.
The coalition officially announced the total withdrawal of US troops from al-Qaim base on Thursday. The coalition statement released last week confirmed that "the coalition will remain in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, but will operate from fewer locations".
US troops also plan to withdraw from two others military bases inside Iraq ‐ Qayyarah military air base south of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and the K-1 base northwest of Kirkuk city. A rocket attack on K-1 by an Iran-backed militia that killed a US military contractor set off a chain of Washington-Tehran hostility that brought the two countries close to the brink of war, and resulted in the US liquidation of high-profile Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a dronezap near Baghdad airport in January.
[JPost] - Gantz was elected in a vote according to new party lines of 74-18 with Yesh Atid, Labor and Yisrael Beytenu MKs boycotting.
In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party that served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu's government.
The three parties that made up Blue and White - Gantz's Hosen L'Israel, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya'alon's Telem - all went in different directions. Hosen L'Israel is joining the government, Lapid will head the opposition and Telem will split up, with Ya'alon on the outside and MKs Tzvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel in. Dodged the bullet again!!!
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 former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president...
[NY Times] 
...Crown Prince and modernizer of 
...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...
[10 News] 
