Long NYT piece on how there's no love for the Taliban in much of Afghanistan. That doesn't mean that the inhabitants will do anything to work with the infidel westerners, of course, whom they dislike and mistrust just as much if not more. Good background piece and worth a Sunday read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/26/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > WAZIRISTAN OPERATION: [Jirga] TRIBESMEN THREATEN INFLUX INTO AFGHANISTAN, iff the Pak Army conducts its controversial, US-demanded MilOp into North Waziristan agz the Taliban + espec the Haqqanis.
The Pak Tribals are threatening to migrate + settle in the KHOST, PAKIA, + PAKTIA provinces of Afghanistan - IMO THEY PROB FEAR BLOODY TTP + HAQQANI REPRISALS.
versus
* SAME > [US Official] "US READY TO CEDE THREE [Afgan] PROVINCES TO HAQQANIS", iff they will cease support for the Taliban.
Egypt has recently turned down a U.S. request to stop an Iranian ship carrying weapons to Syria, according to a report in Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper.
According to the report, quoted in Israel Radio on Sunday, Lieutenant General Mohab Mamish, Suez Canal Authority chairman, said Egypt's navy refused to stop the ship and inspect its cargo as it was passing through the canal.
Last week, an Egyptian official said President Mohammed Morsi will attend a summit in Iran later this month, the first such trip for an Egyptian leader since relations with Tehran deteriorated decades ago.
The visit could mark a thaw between the two countries after years of enmity, especially since Egypt signed its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Iran underwent its Islamic revolution.
Under Morsis predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Egypt, predominantly Sunni Muslim, sided with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Arab states in trying to isolate Shiite-led Iran.
Iran hailed the victory of Morsi, who resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood when he was elected in June, as an "Islamic Awakening." Morsi, however, is striving to reassure Egypt's Western allies wary at the prospect of Islamist rule, and Gulf states that are deeply suspicious of Iranian influence.
Egypt is the current head of the Non Aligned Movement, founded during the Cold War to advocate the causes of the developing world, is set to hand over to Iran in the Tehran meeting.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2012 11:42 Comments ||
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#2
It might be a tad obvious if an Israeli special forces planted a limpit mine on the ship such that it blew up in the Med and sank with all hands. Then again, there sometimes is great value in being obvious. The evil Jooz will get blamed regardless...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/26/2012 12:56 Comments ||
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#4
Egypt has recently turned down a U.S. request
So beggars can be choosers, unless the request was so weakly worded that the Egyptians knew it meant nothing.
#6
Egyptian Prez Morsi/Mursi is repor engaging in new diplomatic rapprochement wid Iran + China to counter the US in the Middle East.
Iff successful, it will great news for both Iran's + China's naval ambitions, espec Rising Iran's. Various Perts have described both Rising Iran + Rising China as being in the "Mahanist" phase of growing international power.
Iff Egypt does indeed become Iran's newest BFF in the ME, in a US-Iran war the risk is there that a pro-Iran Egypt may once again attempt to shut down the Suez Canal to nations allied to the US vee Israel.
Security officials say an Egyptian man has doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire outside the presidential palace in Cairo.
The officials say Arafa Kamel Khalifa is at death's door after being rushed to a hospital Saturday. The 41-year-old traveled 390 kilometers (200 miles) to Cairo from his home in the southern city of Assiut to protest losing his job four years ago. He was earning 100 dollars a month until the electricity company fired him. He has been unemployed since.
[Ma'an] Egyptian security officials told Ma'an on Saturday that several of those involved in an attack on a border post with Israel earlier this month are Jihadis who had been recently released from prison by the Egyptian president.
The sources also said forensic authorities have determined the identities of some of the seven assailants who were killed by the Israeli army during the assault on Aug. 5 -- and can confirm that at least three of them are Egyptians.
Two are from Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid in the Sinai peninsula, and the third -- who had recently been released -- is from Mersa Matruh in northern Egypt, they said.
Another three people security forces say were involved in the attack had been released by President Muhammad Mursi 45 days before it took place, the sources said.
How terribly clever of him, to be sure. What message d'you suppose Allah meant to send by allowing the Egyptian troops to be murdered as they sat at table to break their Ramadan fast?
They named them as Mahmoud Abdullah, 35, seized from Naja Shabana village a few days after the attack, and Abu Al-Miqdadm Abu Khalid and Abu Abdullah who were killed in the same military operation.
Another two bodies who died in the Naja Shabana operation could not be identified.
After they were released from custody by Mursi they headed to the Sinai peninsula to join Jihadi groups launching the attack, which left 16 Egyptian border guards dead, the sources said.
There are 16 people still on a wanted list for involvement who are from Rafah and Sheikh Zuwaid. They are under observation but cannot be captured as they are hiding among Sinai civilians, the security officials said.
Two Al-Qaeda terrorists, one of whom plotted to kill thousands of people in a bomb attack on a British shopping centre, have launched an attempt to have their convictions quashed on human rights grounds.
Russia has suspended use of its naval base in Tartus, Syria. But it refuses to rule out using it in the future. In addition, the central principles of cooperation with Damascus in the military sphere have been set: Moscow will support the Assad regime primarily at the political level, intelligence and humanitarian spheres. There are no large weapons shipments planned. Nezavisimaya Gazeta obtained these reports from military and diplomatic sources who participated in recent talks with Syria's official delegation, which visited Moscow earlier in the week.
Thus it has now become clear why naval groups from the three fleets (Northern, Baltic and Black Sea) that had gathered in the Mediterranean unexpectedly broke up, and the General Staff has changed its plans to base the Northern Fleet in the Black Sea.
According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, there is still a chance of achieving Syrian national reconciliation, and therefore given the circumstances, military support for the Assad regime is not the main objective. In contrast to the West, which has begun actively arming the opposition, Russia has deliberately withdrawn practically all of its military forces from the Mediterranean. Thus the original format of the Caucasus 2012 naval exercise [video below], in which a detachment of warships from the Northern Fleet consisting of three large amphibious ships [Ropucha class landing ships] - the Alexander Otrakovsky, the George Pobedonosets, and the Kondopoga - which visited Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on August 11-12 and was to participate in the maneuvers in the coming weeks, has been changed.
#1
An interesting development, although I'm not convinced the suspension is permament. AFAIK Russia has not abandoned its historical desire for Russian-dominated, iff not per se Russian- controlled/sovereign, strategic corridors or accesses to the Med.
Russia is repor in negotiations to establish naval base andor to acquire port rights wid both Greece proper + Greek Cyprus.
Unlike the US-NATO, the Cold War-era USSR has had mostly bad luck in its efforts to procure and maintain overseas bases for its Navy - it may be initially successful in acquiring them, but then departs or abandons them after a relatively short time. Post-USSR Mama Russia's/
Russ Federation's luck doesn't seem to be any better.
#2
As per WORLD MIL FORUM, IIUC Russia is repor sending a three-ship RussNav formation to Okhostsk from Vladivistok vee the South Kurils, aka former Japanese Northern Territories, as part of a formal Red Army celebration.
The move repor has upset Tokyo which still claims the Russian South Kurils as Japanese territory.
FYI the RussNav formation repor includes a "KALAR"-class fleet tugboat, which may or may NOT mean good tidings for Russia given its recent history of naval breakdowns among major surface warfare vessels at sea.
#1
Blame Canada.:-) Barbara Sumner Burstyn is apparently Canadian-born. With that name, it wouldn't surprise me if her dad was one of the draft dodgers who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War.
#3
Ms. Burstyn now is apologizes for the 'pain' her comments caused. Did she not think beforehand about that pain?
If the answer is why yes, she didn't think beforehand, she's a stupid clot of a person who couldn't possibly be a film-maker. She'd also be lying.
She knew. She said exactly what she wanted to say, and like a typical, misguided 'progressive' she thought she could say what she wanted because she belonged to the proper club. Now that she sees just exactly how her fellow citizens have responded, she realizes that she'd better say something or she'll be radioactive for the next decade.
No grant money in that.
So she 'apologies' for the 'pain' she caused. Note that she didn't apologize for having the wrong ideas, just for being wrong is saying what she said at that time.
She's not sorry. The leopard has not changed her spots.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/26/2012 15:37 Comments ||
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#4
she looks like such a pleasant person. Bless her heart
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2012 16:34 Comments ||
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#5
Maybe it's me, but it looks like the days when the chattering elite could spout off unchallenged are beginning to come to an end.
Germany initiated clandestine meetings with Black September immediately after the terrorist group murdered 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer at the 1972 Olympic Games, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.
In its Sunday issue, Spiegel reported that the talks were initiated at the behest of the West German government, located at the time in Bonn, for fear that Black September would commit additional acts of terror on German soil.
According to the report, just several months after the murders, the government proposed a secret meeting between a Black September official and then-German foreign minister Walter Scheel, the aim of the which was to create a "new basis of trust."
Germany's government demanded a quid pro quo: the PLO would cease terror attacks on German soil in exchange for a political upgrade of the PLO. In addition, the German government would pull the plug on any criminal charges for the murders in Munich.
[Jerusalem Post] German Jewish group to begin training mohels amid fears of ritual circumcision ban; German postal service to release stamp marking brit mila of Jesus.
Germany's main Jewish body has announced its intention to institutionalize the training of mohels or ritual circumcisors.
Amid concerns among Jews and Moslems that their religious practice of circumcision may be outlawed, the Central Council of Jews in Germany is organizing meetings with Rabbi Josh Spinner of the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of Berlin and Rabbi Walter Homolka of the Reform Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, both of which train rabbis.
The intention is to "institutionalize the training of mohels in Germany as part of their rabbinical training programs," Josef Schuster, vice president and head of religious affairs for the Council, announced Friday.
In a separate, and bizarrely coincidental development, Germany's postal service has announced it will release a special stamp dedicated to the brit mila of Jesus.
According to a report in the German daily Tagespiegel, the 85 cent stamp marks the 200th anniversary of the German Bible Society and features a line from the Christian Bible: "And as eight days had passed, the child was circumcised, and he was called Jesus" (Luke 2, verse 21).
Ralf Thomas Müller, chairman of the Bible Society, told the Tagesspiegel the design was done prior to the current controversy, triggered by a court ruling in Cologne last May that non-medical circumcisions of minors were criminal.
#4
I hear Sodom was a pretty fun place. Right up until the end.
Fundamentally, this seems like yet another case of the All-Knowing Government deciding what is best and not a German/Jewish issue. We are starting to get a taste of that here. Nice of the Germans to point out where we are headed!
#6
I can't think of many other better places for a Jew to live.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
08/26/2012 13:09 Comments ||
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#7
I had no problems living as an American Jew in Germany two decades ago. But the world has changed since then, I'm afraid. When I visited with my mother two years ago, we spent some time talking with the head of the Jewish community in Hildesheim, where Mama was born, and with the single Jew in the Wesermarsch village my grandmother had grown up in, who drove to Bremen once a month to go to synagoge, and it was just sad. But there also seemed to be issues with the young people deserting the countryside for the big cities overall, so perhaps that is the connection.
Young Muslim men in Germany are systematically trying to recruit their peers for jihad using sophisticated rhetoric and psychology and by targeting vulnerable youths who are searching for direction in life. Two men who have quit the scene tell their story to SPIEGEL, providing a rare look into a dangerous underground.
Spiegel has been working various aspects of this story for years. Well worth your time to read this article, then go back to the previous ones.
Fearing an impending operation against the Haqqani network, residents of North Waziristan have started migrating to safer places. According to media reports, people had left their homes for safer areas fearing a military offensive against Haqqani network.
"Run for your lives! It's the Mighty Pak Army!"
Scores of people are seen leaving North Waziristan. While political administration has denied any chances of a military operation and maintained that forces were deployed for border security.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/26/2012 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post] In third Welcome to Paleostine initiative, over 100 activists will attempt to cross into the West Bank via Allenby Bridge.
Some 100 pro-Paleostinian activists, mostly from Europe, will seek entry into Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge on Sunday.
It is the third Welcome to Paleostine initiative in which activists protest Israel's policy of banning visitors it believes could cause public disorder.
Pro-Paleostinian protesters believe that Israel applies the ban too broadly to include political ideology. The activists said they want to spend a week in the West Bank engaged in peaceful activities. Upon arrival at the bridge they plan to tell Israeli officials that they have come to visit Paleostine.
In July 2011 and again in April 2012, activists from the Welcome to Paleostine initiative held a protest to highlight that issue, in which activists -- mostly from Europe -- flew into Ben-Gurion Airport on the same day.
When Israel complained that it was an inappropriate venue, they shifted to the Allenby Bridge.
Ansar Beit al-Makdas, a group affiliated with the global jihad movement, has released a video that allegedly documents the Grad rocket fire that targeted Eilat last week, and the preparation that preceded it.
Last week, two other groups, Ansar al-Quds and the Salafi Sinai Front grabbed credit for the rockets.
"Right. You got to name the last one, Ahmed, so Mahmoud is next. And please, Mahmoud, try to think of something less trite. They're laughing at us in the Sinai!"
A Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, security official stated that three Paleostinians who are affiliated with salafi groups and are taking refuge in Gazoo Strip, provided technical assistance to the snuffies who carried out the attack in Sinai which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers.
London-based Al-Hayat paper reported that Hamas agreed to hand over the three Paleostinians at the behest of Egyptian security forces. Hamas has denied the report, claiming that it did not receive such a request from Egypt.
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... ' leagal adviser said that the Paleostinian Authority is considering pressing charges at international courts against Israeli leaders and settlers, who he claimed are committing crimes against the Paleostinian people.
According to the adviser, the goal would be to harass settlers and shame them in front of the international community.
An underground network of Syrian opposition activists is receiving training and supplies of vital equipment from a combined American and British effort to forge an effective alternative to the Damascus regime. Dozens of dissidents have been ferried out of Syria to be vetted for foreign backing. Recipients of the aid are given satellite communications and computers so that they can act as a local "hub" linking local activists and the outside world.
The training takes place in an Istanbul district where handsome apartment blocks line the steep slopes and rooftop terraces boast views over the Golden Horn waterway.
Behind closed doors the distractions of outdoor coffee shops and clothing boutiques gives way to power point displays charting the mayhem sweeping Syria.
"We are not 'king-making' in Syria. The UK and the US are moving cautiously to help what has been developing within Syria to improve the capabilities of the opposition," said Alistair Harris, a British political consultant overseeing the programme. "What's going to come next? Who is going to control territory across Syria. We want to give civilians the skills to assert leadership."
Once up and running dissidents can expect help to deal with local shortages and troubleshooting advice from sympathisers.
#2
said Alistair Harris, a British political consultant overseeing the programme. "What's going to come next? Who is going to control territory across Syria. We want to give civilians the skills to assert leadership."
Your historical track record isn't exactly stellar Alistair. What makes you think this effort will be an exception ?
Week after report of failed defection attempt, Al-Arabiya quotes sources as saying that Farouk al-Sharaa has left Syria a few days ago. Opposition: Another top general defected
Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa has defected from Bashir al-Assad's regime and has been in Jordan for days, sources told the Al-Arabiya news network Saturday.
A number of reports published last weekend said al-Sharaa, who also served as vice president under Hafez Assad, Bashar's father, may have defected to the Hashemite Kingdom. But official sources in Syria denied the reports and claimed that al-Sharaa was working as usual in his Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... office. The opposition to Assad's regime also said the attempted defection may have failed.
Following the reports, Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... said Assad had fired al-Sharaa and named Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar as his replacement. Syria's state-owned television network denied the report of al-Sharaa's dismissal.
Also on Saturday, Syrian opposition sources told Al-Arabiya that senior General Mohammad Musa al-Jairo has defected from the ranks of the army and has relocated with his family to Jordan. Al-Jairo is the commander of the Syrian army's 7th Division. He is the second top Syrian general to defect to Jordan.
Earlier, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai quoted senior Arab diplomats as saying that the governments of Iran, Russia, China and other Syrian allies have concluded that there is no solution to the Syrian crisis that will see Assad remain in power.
The Arab diplomats said the countries are now trying to advance a proposal by which the president will leave Syria and receive asylum elsewhere. Damascus has denied the report.
(CBS News) Al Qaeda has wasted no time in calling for the death of the former Navy SEAL who has written a book under a pseudonym which his publisher Dutton calls a first person account of the death of the late Osama bin Laden ... who sleeps with the fishes... A jihadist forum, al-Fidaa, located in Malaysia, posted the death calls and provided the author's name and photograph under a headline titled "First Image of One of the Dogs who killed Bin Laden." Dogs are considered unclean in Islam.
Al-Fidaa, which is also used by al Qaeda to recruit jacket wallahs, posted comments by one member, Abu (father of, in Arabic) Dujanah al-Kinani, warning that the "lion's cubs," the mujahedeen (holy warriors), are now waiting for the right time to avenge bin laden's death. Osama means "lion" in Arabic. 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. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... , the new leader of al-Qaeda has called bin Laden, "the lion of Islam." Jihadi online forums sometimes refer to Bin Laden as the "Lion of the Holy Jihad."
#1
Osama means "Dead lion" in Arabic. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the new leader of al-Qaeda has called bin Laden, "the Dead lion of Islam." Jihadi online forums sometimes refer to Bin Laden as the ""Dead Lion of the Holy Jihad." There. Fixed. Thanks to Seal Team (will successfully deep) 6 (you every time).
#2
Took the lady of the manor to see D'Souza's 2016 in Newnan's Ashley Park last evening. The "likely voter" crowd were as you might expect, predominately white boomers, and yes they clapped at the end. We sat vert near an exit. Some pretty convincing (not that I needed any) link analysis highlighting Champ's anti-colonial mindset and how he acquired or adopted it. D'Souza appeared to be contrasting his own immigrant past, his education, and colonial India to that of the Champ and Barak Senior's Kenya, which I could have done with a bit less of. Much more 'red meat' could have been presented on Frank Davis, Valerie Jarrett and the communist connection, and Champs hatred of Isarel. I'd give the movie a strong B- and encourage everyone to see it.
#3
looking at it a different way - it's also the first image of all the dogs who still support Bin Laden ... all the Islamist web sites who are calling out this garbage. Maybe the Navy SEALS will call for their death ... did they ever stop to think about that?
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.
Zawahiri
