#1
...Interestingly, DOD has told DC rather bluntly that they were not getting any help from the Guard:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rejected the request because the Department of Defense has "determined providing this support would negatively impact the readiness of the DCNG and have negative effects on the organization and members," the official said.
However, as Billy Mays used to say, "But wait, there's MORE!!!" :
The official said grant funding through FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program is sufficient. "We understand SAMU First Response has received grant funding through FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program and has indicated that sufficient EFSP funds exist at this point to provide migrant assistance."
That's about as direct a slap as you're gonna get without direct physical contact.
Mayor Bowser's response was, "Bowser told reporters on Friday that she wants to continue to work with the Pentagon to ensure political considerations "are not a part of their decision."
If Muriel Bowser is accusing the Biden Administration of 'political considerations' on this subject, it's possible that the Blue on Blue warfare is just getting started.
Mike
PS - And it's interesting that Her Honor's response to this - instead of calling on the residents of some of America's richest zip codes to meet their rhetoric and step up and help - is to call for guys with guns who come under her direct control.
Funny, that.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/06/2022 7:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Arrivals say city has the best opportunities
Yeah, watch out for those Monty dealers and Nigerian watch salesmen. They bite.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/06/2022 7:20 Comments ||
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[JustTheNews] "Any port of entry, any potential vulnerability, is something we know foreign terrorist organizations and others will seek to exploit," said Christopher Wray at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A terrorism financing case has been initiated against a resident of Izberbash, who is serving a sentence for illegal arms trafficking. According to investigators, he transferred at least 10,000 rubles to a member of a terrorist organization.
According to the investigation, from 2020 to April 2022, a 29-year-old resident of Izberbash, knowing that the Hayat Tahrir Ash-Sham
...formerly known as Al Nusra, Al Qaeda’s franchise in Syria...
organization was recognized as a terrorist organization and its activities were banned on the territory of Russia by a court decision, transferred at least 10,000 thousand rubles to its participant, reported the Department of the Sledkom for Dagestan.
The suspect was sentenced in June to seven years in prison for trafficking in weapons and explosives, and a criminal case has been opened against him for participation in the activities of a terrorist organization, according to a statement on the agency's website.
Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (assistance to terrorism) provides for up to 15 years in prison.
The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that on April 1, the FSB announced the arrest of 10 accomplices of the Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham terrorist organization in nine Russian regions, including Dagestan, Ingushetia, Krasnodar Territory, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions.
Posted by: badanov ||
08/06/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
[IsraelTimes] Albanian government services were attacked after a group of Iranian dissidents attempted to hold a conference on Albanian soil in July
A cyberattack that temporarily shut down numerous Albanian government digital services and websites in mid-July was likely the work of pro-Iranian hackers seeking to disrupt an Iranian opposition group’s conference in Albania, a leading US cybersecurity firm said Thursday.
In a report, Mandiant expressed "moderate confidence" the attackers were acting in support of Tehran’s anti-dissident efforts based on several factors: The timing, the content of a social media channel used to claim responsibility, and similarities in software code used with malware long used to target Farsi and Arabic speakers.
The July 23-24 conference by the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq was in fact canceled following warnings from local authorities of a possible terrorist threat. Some 3,000 Iranian dissidents from the group, best known as MEK, live at Ashraf 3 camp in Manez, 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Albania’s capital, Tirana.
The Free Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... World Summit was to have been held at the camp with US politicians among the invitees.
A group calling itself "HomeLand Justice" claimed credit for the cyberattack, which used ransomware to scramble data. Ransomware is best known for its use in for-profit criminal extortion but is being increasingly wielded for political ends, particularly by Iran.
The claim by "HomeLand Justice" came on a Telegram channel in which documents purported to be Albanian residence permits of MEK members were posted, along with video of the ransomware being activated. The channel alleged corruption in the Albanian government and used hashtags including #Manez.
"This activity poses an active threat to public and private organizations in other NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... member states," Mandiant said. "As negotiations surrounding the Iran nuclear deal continue to stall, this activity indicates Iran may feel less restraint in conducting cyber network attack operations going forward."
At the time, the Tirana government said the hackers’ method was identical with attacks last year in other NATO states, including Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The MEK began as a Marxist group opposing the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Iran. It supported the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but soon had a falling out with Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and turned against his holy manal government, carrying out a series of liquidations and bombings in the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
The MEK later fled into neighboring Iraq, leading many in Iran to oppose the group. Although now largely based in Albania, the group claims to operate a network inside Iran.
[GEO.TV] The Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar Friday commented on rumours concerning the use of Pakistan’s air space in the drone strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri and said that there was "no question on the use of the Pakistani soil in Zawahiri's killing.
“The Foreign Ministry has issued a clear statement regarding Ayman Al-Zawahiri. It is impossible that Pakistan’s soil has been used for this,” he said, adding that irrelevant comments are made without any evidence.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2022 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Which says nothing about Pakistani air — isn’t that how the SEALS got to Osama bin Laden’s compound?
[GEO.TV] The Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar Friday commented on rumours concerning the use of Pakistain’s air space in the dronezap that killed al-Qaeda leader 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... and said that there was "no question on the use of the Pak soil in Zawahiri's killing.
"The Foreign Ministry has issued a clear statement regarding Ayman al-Zawahiri. It is impossible that Pakistain’s soil has been used for this," he said, adding that irrelevant comments are made without any evidence.
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) August 5, 2022
An Iraqi delegation, arrived in northeast Syria at the beginning of this week, is registering the names of people and families wishing to leave Hawl Camp and go back to their country.
“The delegation, which belongs to the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement, has been in the camp for about a week and is registering the names of families and individuals wishing to leave the camp to the Iraqi territory,” an informed source told North Press.
About 450 to 500 individuals are scheduled to be repatriated, the source added.
The identity of the registrants is also checked and verified, and a security search is conducted about them by the Iraqi authorities before their departure, the source further explained.
During the years 2019/2020, the Iraqi government resumed trips to get back Iraqis from Hawl Camp, but it then suspended those trips due to pressure from Iraqi tribal notables who accused these returnees of being ISIS members, according to refugees.
Iraqi refugees in Hawl camp, east of Hasakah, northeastern Syria, are calling on their country’s government to speed the process of repatriating them to Iraq in light of the continuing killings in the camp and the poor security conditions there.
Following the ISIS attack on Mosul and the Sinjar District in Iraq in 2014 and 2015, many residents fled to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) areas.
[Free Beacon] The man likely to become al Qaeda's next leader has spent decades using Iran as a base of operations and maintains deep ties to the hardline regime, signaling that two of the globe's leading terrorist forces could exponentially expand relations in the near future.
Saif al-Adel ...holed up in Iran from 2002 until 2010, when he made bail and moved back to the Pak-Afghan border...
...before he was an Al Qaeda big turban, he’d reached the exalted level of special forces lieutenant-colonel in the Egyptian army, then joined the Egyptian jihadist movement in the 1980s. He already rejoices in £7.5 million head money, which will no doubt go up with this promotion...
al Qaeda's number two leader and longtime head of its security arm, fled to Iran in the early 2000s, along with other senior leaders, following the September 11 attacks. From there, he helped relay orders from the just-killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and orchestrate terrorist operations that killed dozens of people, including Americans, according to former U.S. officials and information on the Iran-al Qaeda axis published by a watchdog group.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) protected al-Adel during his time in the country, and the regime permitted him to plan deadly terror attacks, including a May 2003 operation in Saudi Arabia that killed eight Americans. "Adel's suspected presence in Iran has raised further questions regarding Iranian influence on al Qaeda if Adel were to be named leader," according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that closely tracks Iran's regional terror operations.
These ties have only deepened since President Joe Biden's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan that left the Taliban in power and the country in shambles. Senior leaders in Iran's Quds Force, an elite IRGC branch, remain in close contact with al Qaeda leaders, "and since the fall of Afghanistan, have provided some al Qaeda leaders with travel documents and safe haven," according to a European intelligence analysis. The Iran-al Qaeda alliance, former U.S. officials told the Free Beacon, has quietly grown for many years, making the prospect of a new nuclear deal with Iran—which will provide Tehran with billions in cash—beneficial for its allies in al Qaeda.
"When the U.S. government enriches Iranian terrorists through sanctions relief or a lack of enforcement, that money ultimately goes back to support al Qaeda," Gabriel Noronha, a senior Iran adviser for the State Department during the Trump administration, told the Free Beacon. "We know that Saif al-Adel has not just been living in Iran for most of the past 20 years—he's been hosted there by the regime along with other al Qaeda operatives. Since 2015, the Iranian regime has allowed al Qaeda to establish an operational headquarters in the country, providing them with documents, passports, funding, and logistical support like safe houses."
Al-Adel and his network of al Qaeda confidants used their time in Iran to build close "operational coordination" with Tehran's security forces, including the IRGC. While Iran was once at odds with al Qaeda due to religious differences, that has not been the case for many years now, according to Noronha and other former U.S. officials familiar with these ties.
"These are not totally separate and distinct terrorist groups or even rivals anymore—they are part of an anti-American and anti-Western alliance," Noronha said.
From his perch in Iran during the mid-2000s, al-Adel "was allowed by Iran to travel to Pakistan and open more contacts with other al Qaeda leaders," according to UANI's research, which is based on intelligence and open-source reporting. Iran's decision to permit al-Adel and other al Qaeda operatives to freely move in the region "opens up speculation that al-Adel could establish a ’satellite office' for the group in Iran," according to a 2011 AP report.
Nathan Sales, former U.S. ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism, told the Free Beacon that "contrary to expectations and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Iranian regime and al Qaeda have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship for many years."
#1
Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed on his balcony by an R9X. An R9X has no explosives. It is as tall as a man and has slicing blades that slices the target into smaller pieces and chunks.
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.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
...Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as 
