GAROWE, Somalia -- The Vice President of Somalia's Puntland Government Abdihakin Abdullahi Haji Omar Amey disclosed that his government will respond to the aggression of Somaliland separatist administration on Thursday, Garowe Online reports.
There is no pile of rocks so worthless that someone won't fight over them...
Speaking at an event marking Somalia Independence Day of 26 June when northern part of the country attained autonomy from Britain in 1960, Vice President Amey told that they will not issue press statement on Sool and Sanaag issues but instead armed forces would confront attack and aggression perpetrated against Puntland by Somaliland.
"We will not condemn but what I tell Puntland people is that government's policy towards Sool, Sanaag and Ayn is apparent. We will brace up for it", said Amey.
Somaliland forces are said to have retreated from the historic town of Taleh to Hudur where they have been maintaining military presence.
Somaliland on Tuesday dispatched a delegation led by the State Minister for Presidency Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan to Taleh. Hassan was accompanied by trucks loaded with food on his visit to Sool region town of Taleh.
Following the election of Puntland's new leader Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, the state's neighbor to west, Somaliland beefed up soldiers presence in Sool and Sanaag regions.
Puntland and Somaliland have fought sporadic battles since 2002 over the control of territories mainly in Sool region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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A Christian mother formerly on death row in Sudan has taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy after being released from police custody for a second time. Meriam Ibrahim, 27, was sentenced to death on apostasy charges — the crime of denouncing Islam.
Bold text is mine. I suspect NBC has a Moslem working for them editing copy. She didn't, from what I've read, "denounce" Islam, though I suppose she could be said to have renounced it. But the story goes that she was raised as a Christian, not even that she converted.
The very act of renouncing it, or being raised as something else, counts as being a denouncer, according to some of our head-banging friends in the great schools of learning in Cairo, Qom and Peshawar...
She was freed Monday following international outcry, but rearrested a day later at Khartoum's airport while trying to fly to the U.S. with her husband, who is an American citizen, and two children, one of whom she gave birth to while in prison.
A video report by the BBC's Arabic service showed Ibrahim released for a second time late Thursday. But Ibrahim's passage to the U.S. may still be blocked as she now faces forgery charges relating to the emergency travel documents she attempted to use to get out of the country. According to Reuters, Ibrahim was released on the condition that she not attempt to leave the country. Speaking before Ibrahim was freed from custody, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Thursday that the woman had all the documents she needed to travel to U.S. "It's up to the government of Sudan to allow her to exit the country," Harf told reporters.
Khartoum -- The husband of a Sudanese Christian woman facing threats after her apostasy death sentence was overturned expressed relief on Friday that the family has been given refuge at the US embassy.
"Really, it's good," Daniel Wani, the American husband of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, told AFP by telephone, adding that embassy staff have been "very helpful and very nice."
He said his wife and two children, who could be heard in the background, are doing well at the heavily-guarded facility on the outskirts of Khartoum. Wani confirmed that they have sought the embassy's protection because of death threats against his wife.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Ishag and her family were "in a safe location" and Sudan's government "has assured us of the family's continued safety."
Citing privacy considerations, she declined to specify further the location of Ishag, whose arrest -- and potential execution -- raised deep concern among Western governments and rights activists.
One of Ishag's lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa, told AFP late Thursday that the family had gone to the US mission after her release from a police station where she had been held since security agents stopped them from travelling to the United States on Tuesday. The family think the embassy "is a safe place for them," Musfafa said.
Ishag is charged with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used to try to leave the country, a day after an appeal court overturned her apostasy conviction and released her from prison. Following her release, she immediately went into hiding at another location because of the threats to her life.
Christian activists say her "alleged brother" stated that the family would carry out the death sentence if she were acquitted.
Ishag was born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother. Her father abandoned the family when Ishag was five, leaving her to be raised by her mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.
On May 15 a court convicted Ishag under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
a "religion" that has to demand nobody ever leave it under penalty of death is a weak-ass cult, not a religion.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/28/2014 9:59 Comments ||
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Since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, it has been clear that a conflict between Moscow and the Crimean Tatars was only a matter of time. Arguably, the Crimean Tatars, with an estimated population of only 250,000 (Ukrainian Census, 2001), cannot play an important role in the decision-making processes in Crimea. The prevalence of ethnic Russians, outnumbering Crimean Tatars by a factor of four or five, renders the Tatars a powerless minority on the peninsula.
From the minute Moscow took over Crimea, it has been clear that the Crimean Tatars will have to make concessions. However, few Crimean Tatars realized that the changes would impact them so soon. After barring the leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Cemilev, from entering Russia (censor.net.ua, May 2), other bans against wider circles of Crimean Tatars followed. Several thousand followers of the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, which is banned in Russia, hastily left Crimea (vesti.ru, April 28). The party is not banned in Ukraine, but in Russia it was designated as an extremist organization and officially outlawed by a court decision (cisatc.org, November 13, 2008). Entire families of the movements members left Crimea, constituting a not insignificant portion of the general population of Crimean Tatars. It is also unlikely that any of the students from Crimea who are studying in the Middle East and Turkey will be able to return home (qha.com.ua, February 13).
The new situation will also have an impact on members of the Crimean Tatars jamaat in Syria, which has become one of the most combat-ready units of the Syrian insurgent group Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar and is also well known in Crimea, thanks to its emir, Abdul-Karim Krymsky (YouTube, May 13). The leadership and members of the Crimean Tatars representative body, the Majlis, which opposes the Russian occupation, have stayed outside of Crimea. Also, under pressure from Moscow, Crimean Tatars were coerced to not hold mass public events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the deportation of their ethnic group to Central Asia in 1944 (mk.ru, May 17).
A woman has claimed that she was forced to strip naked at gunpoint when Department of Homeland Security officials inexplicably raided her Florida home at dawn - and left with nothing.
Kari Edwards posted surveillance footage on YouTube that she claims shows the 6am raid on her house in Homestead on June 10, as well as images showing the officers inflicted on her property.
She says the footage shows a SWAT team swooping in as a helicopter hovered overhead, before they smashed in her front door and deafened her cat with smoke grenades.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to MailOnline's requests for comment.
On the video she posted to her YouTube page, Edwards said she and her boyfriend were inside the home when the SWAT team burst in at 6.16am.
'Armed men... demanded that I drop the towel I was covering my naked body with before snatching it off of me physically and throwing me to the ground,' she wrote. 'According to my boyfriend, the agent with his assault rifle to my back kept eying me up and down like I was eye candy.' Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, I guess.
Edwards, who said she had previously worked for the DHS but has been disabled since 2006, recognized some of the agents as working for the federal agency and asked them for ID.
'The agent pointed at his uniform that read POLICE and said "Isn't this ID enough for you?",' she wrote. 'When I told him I could buy that up in Miami he called me retarded and said I was f***ing stupid.' Sounds like a good leftist response to logic. She added to PoliceStateUSA.com that she saw 'ICE', 'Gang Task Force' and 'Special Agent' on the men's shirts.
She said that she was put in handcuffs that were so tight 'I could not feel my hands' and said that agents refused to cover her body, even though she repeatedly asked.
The video is about 20 minutes long, but she claimed that the raid went on for two hours.
'My boyfriend, who is asthmatic, started having trouble breathing due to the lingering smoke created by the flash bang grenade,' she said, and agents helped him find his inhaler.
The team eventually handed her a warrant signed by Jonathan Goodman, a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, she said.
The warrant authorized the agents to search for computers and electronics - with the agents suggesting it was for child pronography - but Edwards said they did not seize any items. Nah. They're part of a new HGTV show called "DHS Remodeling."
Images shared on Facebook shows burn marks on the ground of her home from the grenade, as well as damaged door frames, smashed shower doors and even a smashed sculpture.
Edwards said the incident was 'two hours of pure hell' and she has filed complaints with authorities.
'After filing complaints with the FBI, DHS-OIG, ACLU and the White House as well as calling the chambers of Judge Jonathan Goodman, I still have no answers as of yet,' she wrote on Facebook.
[AnNahar] U.S. special Mideast envoy Martin Indyk resigned on Friday after nearly a year of unsuccessful efforts to forge an Israeli-Paleostinian peace deal.
As the Germans say, "Geh mit Gott, aber geh!"
Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said in a statement that Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, would return to his position as vice president and director of foreign policy at The Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington but would continue to serve as special adviser on Mideast peace issues.
"Ambassador Indyk has invested decades of his extraordinary career to the mission of helping Israelis and Paleostinians achieve a lasting peace. It's the cause of Martin's career, and I'm grateful for the wisdom and insight he's brought to our collective efforts," Kerry said.
"The United States remains committed not just to the cause of peace, but to resuming the process when the parties find a path back to serious negotiations," Kerry said.
Kerry appointed Indyk to the envoy post last July when Kerry announced a resumption in long-stalled peace talks with the goal of reaching a settlement within nine months. The negotiations collapsed before that target date.
With the grinding of the peace processor in hiatus, it is unclear whether Indyk will be replaced. His deputy, Frank Lowenstein, will assume the envoy position on an interim basis.
Indyk's resignation marks the second time Obama has lost a Mideast peace envoy following a failed bid to bring the parties together. Former Sen. George Mitchell stepped down from the post in May 2011 after two years of frustrating efforts to get negotiations going.
The latest effort, in which Kerry and Indyk had invested significant time and energy, collapsed in March when Israel and the Paleostinians each backed out of pledges they had made when the peace talks resumed. Each side blamed the other for the breakdown. The Paleostinians accused Israel of reneging on a promised prisoner release and continuing to construct Jewish settlements on disputed territory, and the Israelis accused the Paleostinians of seeking greater U.N. recognition. The Paleostinians then formed a unity government backed by the krazed killerHamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, which Israel refuses to deal with.
Indyk, 62, had taken a leave of absence from his job as vice president and foreign policy director of Brookings when he was appointed envoy on July 29, 2013.
At the time, he thanked President Barack Obama I inhaled. That was the point... and Kerry for "entrusting me with the mission of helping you take this breakthrough and turn it into a full-fledged Israeli-Paleostinian peace agreement."
"It is a daunting and humbling challenge, but one that I cannot desist from," Indyk said then.
Prior to joining Brookings, Indyk had served as former President Bill Clinton ...former Democratic president of the U.S. Bill was the second U.S. president to be impeached, the first to deny that oral sex was sex, the first to have difficulty with the definition of is... 's ambassador to Israel and was a key part of the 2000 Camp David peace talks. He was also a special assistant to Clinton and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council from 1993 to 1995. And he served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in the State Department from 1997 to 2000.
#1
Cromwell said it longer, if not better: You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Getting rid of the rump Congress Parliament.
#2
So Indyk pressured Israel into releasing 26 terrorists last December and, with that success behind him, he now heads back to The Brookings Institute - mission accomplished.
For the Palestinians, who gave up nothing, it's rinse and repeat time.
[DAWN] One-year-old Murad is the latest addition to Pakistain's polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... count that now stands at 88 reported cases this year, according to official sources.
Murad, son of Nisar Ahmed Khan, was taken to the hospital earlier this month when he was suffering from fever which lasted several days.
The doctor at this small clinic in the Khans' residential area near Gulshan-e-Buner treated the child, but when the fever persisted, the distraught parents took Murad to National Institute of Child Health (NICH), says Town Health Officer for Landhi Dr Siddique.
Once at NICH, the child was treated, and as part of protocol for all children under five, he was tested for the polio virus. When the tests returned positive the Khan family was in disbelief.
Like the other six cases from Sindh -- all from Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -- Murad also belongs to a Pakhtun household. His family, which hails from Swat, did not however refuse vaccination, they say. In fact, Murad was administered the polio vaccine thee times since birth: once in March, then again in May and the last time in June. Earlier reports suggested that the child's family had refused vaccination, but the family refutes this allegation.
Despite the triple vaccination, Siddique confirms "the onset of the polio virus in the child started on June 6."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Darn Juice! If it doesn't sterilize the victims, it doesn't work, anyway!
Or like the most recent whooping cough vaccine, it just doesn't work very well.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2014 9:45 Comments ||
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[DAWN] In what seems to be a tit-for-tat response, the government is trying to tighten the noose around Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... , who has vowed to launch a movement to topple the incumbent PML-N regime.
The government seems to be using the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to twist the arm of one of its biggest critics, who recently arrived from Canada.
After initiating the inquiry against Dr Qadri, the FIA contacted the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Election Commission of Pakistain (ECP) to obtain information regarding Dr Qadri and PAT's tax returns, along with the details of his and his party's assets.
"We have received a letter from the FIA today, in which the agency has sought the details of the assets belonging to Dr Qadri and his party," a senior ECP official told Dawn.
He said that Dr Qadri had contested elections in 2002, thus the details of his assets were available in the official gazette issued 12 years ago. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he and his party did not take part in the 2013 elections, thus the records are not up-to-date.
The official said that the details would be provided to the FIA.
Meanwhile, ...back at the revival hall, the pastor had finally been wrestled from the pulpit. Y'got the wrong guy! he yelled just before Sergeant Malone's billy club landed... FIA Islamabad Director Iman Ghani refused to give details of the investigation being conducted by the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Dispelling impression of attempting to topple the elected government, Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri ...Pak politician, and would-be dictator, founder and head of Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran and Pakistain Awami Tehrik. He usually resides in Canada, but returns to Pakistain periodically to foam at the mouth and lead demonstrations. Depending on which way the wind's blowing, Qadri claims to be the author of Pak's blasphemy law. Other times he says it wasn't him... on Friday said it was 'too small' an agenda to follow and his objective was to change the system, DawnNews reported. "We'll settle for nothing less than world domination!"
Speaking to media representatives here, he said that his party was not interested in forming any grand alliance, refuting reports circling in the local media about a political alliance between the PAT and Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... 's Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) with Shiekh Rasheed and Chaudhries of PML-Q alongside them.
Also read: FIA likely to investigate assets of Qadri
Qadri said he never talked about forming the alliance because in such an alliance parties agree and disagree on achieving goals that the alliance was formed on the basis of.
On Thursday, however, he hosted a meeting of all the like-minded parties at his residence in Model Town, which was attended among others by chief of the Awami Moslem League (AML), Sheikh Rasheed, leaders of the Pakistain Moslem League — Quaid (PML-Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.
During the meeting, consultations and discussions were reportedly held over the next plan of action to be taken regarding the formation of an anti-government grand alliance.
Speaking on the killings of his party's supporters in the Model Town tragedy, he said that the "deaders' blood will not go in vain."
Dr Qadri returned to the country from Canada on Monday soon after the tragic incident in Lahore in which 12 workers of PAT were killed in a clash with the Punjab police. At this, the holy man vowed to take Dire Revenge" for the blood of his workers by toppling the government, through what he called a 'revolution'.
Previously on May 30, the PAT chief and the PML-Q leaders had agreed to join hands to launch a struggle for "devolution of power" after a meeting held in London.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] In a speech to large public gathering, Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... on Friday criticised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... and warned him of a 'tsunami march' to Islamabad on August 14 if his demands regarding alleged election fraud in the 2013 General Elections were not met, DawnNews reported.
In the speech to PTI supporters, Khan made four demands to Nawaz Sharif's government which he said he wanted to be addressed within one month.
He said that one million people will be gathered in the federal capital if his demands were not addressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The U.N.'s human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... office on Friday urged Israel and its adversaries to exercise restraint amid a crackdown on Paleostinians during a hunt for three Jewish teenagers missing in the West Bank.
"Clearly these boys need to be found, that's totally understandable, but the scale of operations and the number of people they are affecting is deeply disturbing," said its front man Rupert Coville.
"Yes, of course you Juices have a right to self defence and all that, but not if it means anyone else is in the least inconvenienced."
'Rather than denouncing this appalling attack, the Arab nations have the audacity to stand before you today and criticize Israel,' Israel's UN envoy Prosor says.
People have been paying attention to the nonsense in Syria/Iraq, g(r)omgoru. It took them a while to notice the excitements in Israel.
[Iraq Sun] Photograph and satellite imagery indicate that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) hard boyz have carried out mass executions in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... reported on Friday.
ISIL, radical Islamists who want to re-create a medieval-style caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria, has stormed largely unopposed across much of northern Iraq, taking cities including djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and Tikrit, seizing border posts with Syria and advancing to within some 100 km (62 miles) of the capital Storied Baghdad.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said between 160 and 190 men were killed in at least two locations in and around Tikrit, the hometown of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, between June 11 and 14.
The corpse count could be much higher, the organization said, noting the difficulty of locating bodies and getting to the area had prevented a full investigation.
Pictures posted on HRW's website showed a row of men lined up face-down in trenches being shot by gunnies.
"The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation,'' Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert said in a statement.
The rebels "and other abusive forces should know that the eyes of Iraqis and the world are watching.''
It was not immediately possible to get comment from ISIL.
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... said on Tuesday that at least 1,000 people, mainly civilians, had been killed and roughly the same number injured in fighting and other violence in Iraq in June as ISIL swept through the north. Victims included a number of confirmed summary executions committed by ISIL as well as prisoners killed by retreating Iraqi forces.
Human Rights Watch said ISIL posted about 60 photographs on its Twitter feed on June 14, showing fighters loading captives in civilian clothes onto trucks and then forcing them to lie in three shallow trenches.
HRW counted the bodies visible in the available photographs, estimating that ISIL killed between 90 and 110 men in one trench and between 35 and 40 men in the second.
Another photo shows a large trench with 35 to 40 prisoners shot, but Human Rights Watch said it had not been able to pinpoint the site.
A U.N. human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... front man said on Tuesday that ISIL had broadcast dozens of videos showing cruel treatment, beheadings and shootings of captured soldiers, coppers and people apparently targeted because of their religion or ethnicity, including Shi'ites and minorities such as Christians.
Northern units of Iraq's million-strong army, trained and equipped by the United States, largely evaporated after Sunni Islamist fighters led by the ISIL launched their assault.
In Tikrit on Friday, Iraqi army helicopters fired on a university campus in an effort to dislodge ISIL fighters, a day after launching an airborne assault on the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation,'' Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert said in a statement.
Satellite images? Anything recce images available from January thru May... or did the hard drive fail ?
#2
How horrible do these fanatics have to be before Amnesia International and Human Rights Watchfromasafedistance have to admit that maybe, just maybe, the US forces in Iraq were the good guys?
Or are their liberal fogged addled brains so conditioned that they can see the worst atrocities and go tut tut and then have a hissy fit when a US soldier spits on a dead body.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/28/2014 11:36 Comments ||
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#3
How horrible do these fanatics have to be before Amnesia International and Human Rights Watchfromasafedistance have to admit that maybe, just maybe, the US forces in Iraq were the good guys?
You are assuming actual concern for fellow humans instead of using "Human Rights" to pound opponents.
[TIME] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... faced growing pressure Friday to make way for a new government, as the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies turned to moderate Syrian opposition forces to curtail the growing influence of Death Eaters who control vast swaths of Iraq.
On multiple fronts, al-Maliki faced a country largely disintegrating before him. A top Shi'ite holy man urged the country's parliament to pick a new Prime Minister before Monday, which could lead to the ouster of the highly divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... al-Maliki, a Shi'ite who has been criticized for not reaching out to the country's Sunnis. Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, a holy man who represents Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged a new leader even as he called for national unity in a country that is quickly fracturing between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.
"Iraqis have passed bigger crises than this in the past history," al-Karbalai, according to the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... . "We must not think of dividing Iraq as part of a solution for the current crises, the solution must protect the unity of Iraq and the rights of all its sects."
In the north, local officials in the largely autonomous Kurdish region defied the demands of religious and government leaders, suggesting they have no intention of giving up the power they seized when Iraqi troops fled as fighters from the Death Eater group ISIS advanced earlier this month.
"We have presented many sacrifices in the past," Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... told the Times. "Our lands have resorted to their origin identity."
And American support for al-Maliki continued to appear on the wane. In 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... , Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... stood beside Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba as Jarba decried al-Maliki's leadership.
"The policies of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, after eight years in power, have resulted in greater division," Jarba said, according to a State Department readout of a news conference there. "Now the situation is very grave and there are sectarian militias ruling the country."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[BUSINESSWEEK] Iraq has bought used fighter jets from Russia and Belarus to battle Islamist faceless myrmidons after long delays in the delivery of F-16 planes from the U.S. left troops without air support, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... said.
Maliki, in an interview with BBC Arabic yesterday, blamed the U.S.'s "long, very slow way" for delaying the delivery of 36 aircraft. "We shouldn't have just bought U.S. jets, we should have bought British, French and Russian jets to provide air support. If we had air support, none of this would have happened," he said, according to excerpts e-mailed by the BBC.
The MiG-21 is perfectly capable of suppressing a defenseless population. It's also useful in going after militants as long as the militants don't have heavy anti-air guns or Stingers...
The U.S is delivering the first F-16 aircraft "as quickly as possible" and has said all along that they'll be handed over in the fall, Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon front man, told news hounds in Washington yesterday. He also said that the remaining 200 of 500 Hellfire missiles approved for delivery to Iraq will be sent in the coming weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
So the US dicks around and the Iraqis buy used Russian planes on eBay. Nice. (Saw some mention that they were Sukhois. Model seems vague. Journalists!)
Getting planes is one thing, but pilots, spares and maintenance is another. Who is going to fly them, "contractors"?
#4
Iran has an excessive pilot:airplane ratio these days...
Oh ho! And the Persians just so happen to fly Su-24s and 25s. So there is the little airplane ecosystem,complete with drivers (who probably don't mind killing Sunnis). No need for 'soviet advisors'.
#8
I expect Champ or Kerry to announce their intriguing new Iraqi-Iranian coalition within the next few days. Well, not so intriguing if you've read Alinsky and have been following ValJar.
#9
Could these dickheads in the white house be any more obvious? They are so intent on getting rid of Maliki they will throw the baby out with the bath water?
Geez we have zillions of F-16's parked in every Air Guardsman garage from here to Duluth and it takes SIX MONTHS to gas them up and get a 444 written?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/28/2014 11:45 Comments ||
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#10
To Maliki, the fact that the planes come with non-Iraqi pilots is a feature, not a bug, I suspect.
[AnNahar] The worst of the insurgency in Iraq is "over", a former general who commanded U.S. Marines and British forces in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion said Friday, in a rare note of optimism over the crisis.
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual conference of Iran's exiled opposition -- in which he was a guest speaker -- General James Conway said the gunnies who have overrun major parts of Iraq were unlikely to make any further significant gains.
The lightning offensive this month by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) and other turban groups has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced tens of thousands.
Until now, ISIL has primarily made inroads in Sunni Arab areas in the north of Iraq, supported by Sunni turbans that loathe current Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
"The worst is over," Conway said. "The ISIS (as ISIL is often also called) are probably surprised themselves with their degree of success."
But "they will not mess with the Kurds, they will not be able to take Storied Baghdad and they can't go into the south where the oil fields are because it's all Shiite territory."
The Kurds already have their own autonomous region in the north and have defended key towns outside this area against the turbans after federal forces withdrew.
Conway said that the Kurds may take advantage of the current situation and "establish once and for all a separate Kurdistan."
Already, Kurdish fighters have been defending the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk from turbans, and the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region declared Friday that there would be no going back on Kurdish self-rule in this locality.
Conway said he also feared that Sunni turbans who have been supporting ISIL so far would start pulling away.
"It's only been a marriage of convenience... There's going to be some fighting between them and the Sunnis."
The usual BBC map, etc. at the link. Hat tip to The Thing From Snowy Mountain.
[BBC] Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... has told the BBC that he hopes jets from Russia and Belarus will turn the tide against rebels in the coming days.
"God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
And Vlad is laughing his ass off as he rides his horse off to kill a bear with his bare hands or is he riding his bear off to kill a horse with his bare hands? I forget but obviously the puss in the oval office just has his ass handed to him again. Which by the way is something that never happened as long as George had Dick to whisper in his ear...obviously Vlad respected (feared?) Rummy and Dick.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/28/2014 11:52 Comments ||
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Wow that plane looks like George Barris got ahold of it but good.
[IsraelTimes] The buses filled with soldiers from the squad commanders school stopped on the Trans-Judea Highway midday on Tuesday. Hundreds of soldiers descended carefully into the riverbeds north of the road, part of the village of Beit Kahil, north of Hebron.
The future commanders, carrying guns and unwieldy combat vests — some of them wearing antiquated flak jackets, unlikely to help much in the event of an attack — began a careful search of the area. Lines of soldiers moved between houses, peering into caves, wells, and courtyards. This time too, just like the previous 11 days, to no avail.
The night before, the soldiers had found a collection of hand grenades and sniper rifles in a home, but not the kidnappers of Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar, or the three teens themselves. The Hebron sector is huge, full of little canyons and hiding places that an entire army would have trouble searching fully — assuming, that is, the teens are still in the area. The kidnappers had enough time on the night of the kidnapping, June 12 — seven hours before the security services realized what had happened — and plenty of means of reaching every point in the territories, or within the Green Line, if they wanted.
Continued on Page 49
#1
In the shadow of the World Cup, the kidnapping, the mass arrests throughout the West Bank, and the upcoming Ramadan, the hunger strikers understood their campaign just didn't interest anyone.
It's all about the ratings. They were unfortunate enough to run slam into The Beverly Hillbillies and Greenacres.
[AINonline] June 25, 2014, 11:12 PM. Boeing has added to its portfolio of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft a multi-int platform based on the Beechcraft King Air 350ER. The companys Reconfigurable Airborne Multi-Intelligence System (Ramis) was originally developed as a demonstrator for the U.S. Army and is now being offered to customers.
Ramis combines imagery intelligence (Imint), electronic intelligence (Elint), signals intelligence (Sigint) and communications intelligence (Comint) sensors on the King Air twin turboprop, which has seven hours mission endurance. The system is modular, allowing for different sensors and combinations of sensors.
According to Boeing, Ramis fills a gap in the ISR platforms it now offers between the Insitu ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system at the low end and the Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, based on the Bombardier Challenger 605 business jet. At the high end is the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft based on the Boeing 737-800.
At its St. Louis headquarters this week, Boeing Defense displayed for reporters the Ramis demonstrator it developed for the U.S. Army under a secretive program known as Yellow Jacket. When the Army discontinued the effort, Boeing returned government-furnished equipment and continued the development. It obtained supplemental type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for the King Air modification. Mike Ferguson, Boeings Ramis business development lead, said the company has customers for the aircraft, but he declined to identify them.
A typical configuration would have an electro-optical/infrared sensor with full-motion video, wide-area imagery, surveillance radar and Comint/Sigint package. Among the sensors Ramis can carry is the CRI LodeStar wide area motion imagery (WAMI) system, which Ferguson described as a city-sized large-format camera. It takes a very detailed picture with a frame rate, so I can watch every car in a city moving and I can zoom in on little specific areas and watch one car driving while I still record the bigger image, he explained. What it allows you to do then is collect [imagery] over a large area and track multiple individual objects within that scene while recording the entire scene, so I can use it for forensic analysis afterward.
The demonstrator was configured with a Lighthouse 3 Comint/Sigint suite from Argon ST, a Boeing subsidiary. Broadband Ka/Ku-band satellite connectivity and flare/chaffe dispensers are offered as options. Ramis is by no means the first C-12 [King Air] multi-intelligence capability. Keep that in mind when you hear media and regime attempt to say they lacked intelligence relative to the full scope of the ISIL/ISIS situation in Syria and Iraq, the Texas/Arizona border, or fok'n anywhere else. If the regime lacked it, it was because they didn't desire it.
The elite American military counterterrorism unit that has been operating in the southern Philippines for over a decade is being phased out, the Pentagon's Pacific Command said.
The Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines, formed after the 9/11 attacks, was established to help train and advise the Philippines in its struggle against militant groups linked to Al Qaeda. American Special Forces will continue to help Philippine security forces, but the size of the mission will drop in the coming months to a dozen or so advisers from its current 320 service members.
Capt. Masato Itoh said, "Our partnership with the Philippine security forces has been successful in drastically reducing the capabilities of domestic and transnational terrorist groups in the Philippines - to the point where they have largely devolved into disorganized groups resorting to criminal undertakings to sustain their activities."
The changing American counterterrorism role comes two months after the Philippines and the U.S. signed an agreement that would allow American ships, aircraft and military personnel to be stationed there - though officials have emphasized that permanent American bases would not be set up.
[Iraq Sun] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... has said he supports an air strike on Islamist gunnies at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.
In an interview to BBC, Maliki said the air strike was carried out on the Syrian side at Qaim crossing. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... military and rebel sources told BBC the strike took place inside Iraq.
He said that he welcomed a Syrian air strike on Sunni turban positions as it left both countries "winners".
The Iraqi prime minister also said that he hopes fighter jets bought from Russia and Belarus will turn the tide against rebels in the coming days.
"God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he said.
He said that the process of buying US jets had been "long-winded" and that the advance of the ISIS gunnies could have been avoided if air cover had been in place.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIS) and its Sunni Moslem allies have seized large parts of Iraq this month.
Iraq has been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Moslem leaders have close links.
Speaking to the BBC's Arabic service in his first interview for an international broadcaster since the crisis started, Maliki said: "Yes, Syrian jets did strike Qaim inside the Syrian side of the border.
"There was no co-ordination involved. But we welcome this action. We actually welcome any Syrian strike against Isis... But we didn't make any request to Syria. They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours and the final winners are our two countries."
The air strikes come as Iran and the US are intensifying their presence in Iraq. A section of the 300 US military advisers have arrived in Storied Baghdad and surveillance drones are flying over northern Iraq. Iran is also reported to be flying drones in the country, controlling them from an airfield in Storied Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Pentagon tech sound NOISE IDIOTS got a way for ya to win-buy a giant piece of fly paper lay it on the ground have all the terrorists run over it and hit them with your DICK frequency and get the SUNDAY voice girl on it! After that have all the BLM agents run into their arms naked with flowing beards and all the idiots from Washington to Area 51 (fake beards if need be) let them start having butt and beard sex and drop a real bomb on them not a trolley car 9-11 HZ MUHAMMAD ONE!
[FOXNEWS] The head of the Syrian moderate opposition is asking for more foreign aid as his rebels try to back a bloody insurgency even as they continue their so-far unsuccessful effort to oust Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath...
Syrian opposition leader Ahmad al-Jarba's plea Friday comes as the White House seeks to send $500 billion to the increasingly beleaguered moderate Sunni rebels who are facing two fronts in the protracted civil war.
Jarba told U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... that the krazed killers' march across the mostly non-existent border between Syria and Iraq has created confusion across the region, and he said the war against terrorism must be stronger than ever.
Kerry said the moderate rebels will be crucial in the cross-border fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A previously unknown jihadist group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) has grabbed credit for the Duroy Hotel suicide kaboom in Beirut.
The group calling itself the state of Damascus-Qalamoun said via twitter on Thursday that two ISIL members targeted General Security agents at the hotel in Raouche.
It also vowed to carry out more attacks against Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... and its agents, saying Wednesday's bombing was just the start.
The Saudi jacket wallahwent kaboom! at the hotel when he detonated his explosives during a security raid. His accomplice, also a Saudi citizen, survived the blast and is being questioned at hospital.
The General Security agency on Thursday circulated the picture of a Lebanese man, al-Monzer Khaldoun al-Hasan, accused of providing the Duroy Hotel bombers with explosives.
Media reports have said they were plotting to target al-Saha Restaurant in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Wednesday's attack was the third suicide kaboom in Leb in less than a week.
Syria's civil war has spilled into Leb on numerous occasions and inflamed sectarian tensions. A series of boom-mobiles have struck Shiite areas across Leb, killing dozens of people.
Sunni faceless myrmidons have grabbed credit for the attacks to avenge Hizbullah, which has sent its fighters to Syria to help Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... 's troops in their fight against the rebels seeking to topple him.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] The jacket wallah who blew up an explosive vest at the Duroy Hotel and his accomplice had arrived in Leb from the Turkish city of Istanbul, a media report said on Friday.
"Abdul Rahman Nasser al-Shenifi, the would-be suicide bomber who survived (Wednesday's blast), told interrogators that he wanted to stage a suicide kaboom because he believes in 'the Sunni state'," LBCI reported.
Shenifi revealed he and his Saudi compatriot Ali Ibrahim al-Thwaini were supposed to blow themselves up at al-Saha Restaurant in Dahieh, a Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... bastion, "within days," before their plot was foiled by the General Security raid.
"Investigations revealed that al-Monzer al-Hasan, the man who provided the Duroy bombers with explosives, had visited them around four days prior to the hotel incident, accompanying them to an unknown destination for several hours," LBCI said.
A number of employees at the hotel recognized al-Hasan from his circulated picture, according to the TV network.
"The two Saudi suicide bombers had been at the Duroy Hotel since June 15, after having arrived in Beirut from Riyadh via Istanbul's airport," LBCI said.
"Investigators believe that Monzer al-Hasan has an assistant in Istanbul, who also helped the would-be suicide bombers," the TV network reported, adding that the Saudi duo had spent around five days in Istanbul and that al-Hasan himself had traveled several times to the Turkish city.
The TV network said investigations have highlighted a "key role" for al-Hasan in several suicide kabooms.
"It turned out that Monzer al-Hasan has links to several suicide bombers and kabooms and he acted as an intermediary between murderous Moslem groups and bully boyz sent by them," LBCI added.
According to Sherlocks, al-Hasan receives $50,000 for facilitating the mission of every suicide bomber.
"He provides them with explosives, locates the target and takes care of their accommodation at hotels or other places," LBCI said.
"He books their rooms through touristic agencies or firms and when the would-be suicide bomber arrives in Leb he would have Monzer al-Hasan's phone number and nickname and the latter would then guide him to hotel or specific place of residency," it added.
"Two days before the operation, he would give him the boom jacket or bomb-laden car and tell him how to get to the target," LBCI said.
On Wednesday, a Saudi suicide bomber detonated his explosives at his room in the Duroy Hotel in Raouche during a raid by General Security officers.
Wednesday's suicide attack was the third in Leb in less than a week and sparked fears of renewed violence in a country that has been deeply affected by the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Al-Hasan's picture was circulated by the General Security agency on Thursday.
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.
A Christian mother formerly on death row in Sudan has taken refuge at the U.S. Embassy after being released from police custody for a second time. Meriam Ibrahim, 27, was sentenced to death on apostasy charges — the crime of denouncing Islam. 
A woman has claimed that she was forced to strip naked at gunpoint when Department of Homeland Security officials inexplicably raided her Florida home at dawn - and left with nothing.
[DAWN] One-year-old Murad is the latest addition to Pakistain's 
[DAWN] Dispelling impression of attempting to topple the elected government, Pakistain Awami Tehrik (PAT) chief Dr 
[Iraq Sun] Photograph and satellite imagery indicate that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) 
Nouri al-Maliki
Massoud Barzani
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
