As I sat there wondering what was going to happen next a wide variety of psyops stuff blared through the speaker mounted high in one corner of the small cell. A mind-numbing cacophony of an out-of-control saxophone was followed by Rudyard Kipling reciting his poem "Boots" over and over in a very haunting voice. (No one who ever attended Navy SERE will forget "Boots.")
I am surprised the article didn't mention waterboarding. My son in law is a crewman on a E-3 and he gets waterboarded about once a year for refresher training.
I was waterboarded in my Army escape and evasion course and was waterboarded for a "refresher" one other time when I was on assignment with Westport.
Do you suppose the article deliberately took out any references to waterboarding to play to the DiFi narrative about CIA torture?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/21/2015 0:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Understanding the tactics you may have to employ is the necessity in it's use.
#3
Some of the tortures, particularly the ones regarding defacing Christian Bibles and American flags, sound eerily similar to the types of things children are subjected to on a verbal level in public schools and in universities these days.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/21/2015 4:57 Comments ||
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#4
My son in law is a crewman on a E-3 and he gets waterboarded about once a year for refresher training.
What sort of questions do you put to him during these sessions Bill ?
The U.S. will transfer 20 mine resistant vehicles, commonly known as MRAPS, to African Union forces taking part in military operations in Somalia, Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa said Tuesday. Uganda and Burundi, two countries that have been deploying forces in to Somalia for years, will be the recipients of the vehicles previously used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
It was either them or Chicago...
“The work that has been completed by CJTF-HOA and the other organizations to be able to provide these 20 MRAPs to Uganda and Burundi, has been extremely vital to enabling our East African Partners to fight off violent extremists,” said Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, task force commander, in a news release. “These vehicles will provide better security and movement to the troops-contributing countries to complete their mission more effectively.”
The MRAPS were donated under the Excess Defense Articles program. Military contractors have been working in Mogadishu since September to get all 20 vehicles up and running. The 20 MRAPs will replace the current vehicle in use, the Casspir, and allow for the phasing out of 20 Casspirs when all the MRAPs have been delivered, the task force said.
I wouldn't throw out the Casspirs just yet...
“We didn’t realize the challenges we would face in Mogadishu with getting land and getting fuel for these vehicles,” U.S. Army Maj. Myesha DuBose, the task force’s Somalia planner, said in the news release.
The initial set of MRAPs are to be transferred to the Ugandans and Burundis by the end of January.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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If you've got a few aging Casspirs sitting about, you've likely got a 'Withings Recovery Vehicle' as well. Keep the jy oud Withings, It'll come in handy very soon.
[ARABNEWS] President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi ...former general under Mubarak, then Defense Minister. Egypt overthrew Mubarak and endured a year of ham-fisted Moslem Brüderbund rule so al-Sissi could run for President-for-Life... acknowledged Tuesday that police committed rights abuses after the overthrow of his predecessor, but said they were expected given the "exceptional" security threats faced by Egypt.
"Nobody is against human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... ... but today Egypt is in an exceptional condition... is it possible that there will be no violations?" asked al-Sissi.
"There will be violations. But do we approve them? No," he said in an address to coppers and ministers ahead of the annual police day on Jan. 25.
al-Sissi has repeatedly said that ensuring stability in politically tumultuous Egypt is a top priority rather than promoting democratic freedoms. "I am more concerned for human rights than any one else," said al-Sissi, after awarding families of coppers killed in security operations. "But come see millions of families... the modest Egyptians who live in regions that need to be improved. What about their rights?"
al-Sissi defended an ongoing security operation on the unrest-roiled Sinai Peninsula, where he said 208 forces of Evil have been killed by the security forces in more than a year.
The president said 955 people had been enjugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in the region, which borders Israel, but more than half had been released.
"These figures show that...we make sure that innocent people are not killed," he said, adding that the situation in Sinai would take a while to resolve.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[Libya Herald] The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) expressed its "concern about the reported breaches of the ceasefire that the parties to the conflict had unilaterally declared earlier. It urged the parties to discuss and commit to speedy concrete measures to consolidate the truce and tackle any violation".
It was referring to the ceasfires declared by the two conflicting Libyan parties as a result of the Geneva peace talks last week.
UNSMIL said that it viewed "any violation, no matter how limited, as a grave development that could undermine the entire truce". It called on each side to "expedite the appointment of a representative to liaise with UNSMIL on the implementation and compliance. This liaison mechanism is an important platform to discuss proposals on the way forward to ensure that the ceasefire holds and is strengthened", it said.
It reminded the parties that the "ceasefire includes a total halt to the movement of armed personnel and vehicles and applies to ground, sea and air operations".
In addition to stopping the bloodshed and destruction, a truce contributes to creating a conducive environment for the political dialogue to resolve Libya's political and security crisis. The Mission hopes the truce will also allow humanitarian aid to flow to the displaced and the needy in affected areas and will encourage international organizations to resume full operations in the country, the statement concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[AnNahar] Hundreds of people from four villages near the devastated Nigerian town of Baga have been forced to flee after a warning from Boko Haram militants, witnesses and community leaders said Tuesday.
News of the exodus from Kekenu, Budur, Yoyo and Mile 90 villages came as Niger hosted a meeting on how to fight the rebels as concern mounted at the threat to regional security.
Boko Haram fighters attacked Baga on January 3, looting and burning down homes and businesses in the town and at least 16 surrounding villages on the shores of Lake Chad.
Hundreds of people, if not more, are feared to have been killed, although there is no official confirmation of the toll as the town is still in rebel hands, residents said.
Security analysts said the attack, in which a regional military base was captured, potentially puts the group in a strong strategic position to strike southwards and launch cross-border attacks.
Lake Chad forms the border between Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon and tens of thousands of people have streamed across the frontiers seeking sanctuary from the relentless violence.
Abubakar Gamandi, head of the Borno State fishermen's union, said residents from the affected villages told him Boko Haram fighters had visited "and asked people to leave -- or else".
One women who fled Baga to the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, on Monday confirmed that she joined the crowds fleeing the four villages.
"When we came to Mile 90, we found it almost empty with some remaining residents staying behind to pick up personal belongings," said Ma'agana Butari.
"We also found Budur, Kekenu and Yoyo deserted and we caught up with some of the residents moving towards Monguno," the 32-year-old mother of five said by telephone from Maiduguri.
The villages lie some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baga and although there was no confirmation that Boko Haram had moved in, it will likely raise fears that the group plans to push south.
Boko Haram, which is fighting for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria was founded in Maiduguri in 2002 but was driven out in 2013 after a state of emergency was declared.
The city has in recent weeks been hit by a wave of suicide bombings.
In Niger's capital, Niamey, the country's foreign minister, Mohamed Bazoum, said the rise in strength of Boko Haram "reflects our slowness and our inability to put up a robust response".
Chadian troops deployed last weekend to help Cameroon repel Boko Haram attacks in its far north region in a sign of the growing recognition of the wider threat posed by the group.
Ghana's President, John Dramani Mahama, has also raised the possibility of a larger regional force, possibly under the auspices of the African Union, to prevent the spread of violence.
Both Butari and another woman, Aisa Aribe, who arrived in Maiduguri from Baga on Monday, said Boko Haram were still in control of the town and the streets were strewn with the dead.
"Dead bodies are all over the town and surrounding villages. They are decomposing and there is no one to bury them," said Aribe.
The pair said they were among hundreds of women held by the group, initially in a girls' boarding school and at the home of a local senator.
"They later separated the young women and beautiful ones and took them to a different location," said Butari.
"They told the rest of us that we had the choice to either stay or leave and join 'infidels' in Monguno (65 kilometers away where many Baga residents fled) and Maiduguri.
"They derisively told us we better stay with them because we have nowhere to go since they killed all our husbands."
[AnNahar] A regional summit opened in Niger Tuesday aimed at stopping Boko Haram as the Islamist insurgents step up attacks both inside Nigeria and in neighboring countries.
"The increase in strength of Boko Haram reflects our slowness and our inability to put up a robust response," Niger's Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said at the talks in Niamey.
"We are watching, as was the case in Mali, the loss of sovereignty in Nigeria over large tracts of its territory and the exporting of the violence to neighboring countries."
Ministers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin and Equatorial Guinea were due to attend, along with representatives from the US, the European Union, China and several other countries.
Leaders from Ghana and Chad have called for a unified effort in confronting the Islamist militants, whose insurgency has left 13,000 dead and forced 1.5 million from their homes since 2009.
Chad sent a convoy of troops and 400 military vehicles on Saturday into neighboring Cameroon to fight Boko Haram, with Nigeria's army widely criticized for failing to crush the militants.
A Boko Haram assault this month on the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad triggered widespread outrage and helped spur a regional response.
Amnesty International described the attack, which is believed to have killed hundreds of people, as "the biggest and most destructive" yet by the armed fundamentalists.
Authorities said Tuesday hundreds of people have fled villages near Baga after Boko Haram told them to leave or be killed.
As the talks opened, Nigeria's ambassador to Niger chastised his country's neighbors for pulling their forces out of Baga ahead of the assault.
"I note, with consternation, the withdrawal of the military forces from Chad and Niger without prior consultation," Ambassador Aliou Issa Sokoto said.
"One might have expected that we were consulted in an adequate manner before the decision to pull out," he added.
Cameroon has also seen repeated attacks recently, including the kidnapping of dozens of people, mostly women and children, during a deadly attack on Sunday.
"The security situation in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin has deteriorated considerably," Bazoum told the Niamey meeting, adding that the fall of Baga showed that the sect has "more and more substantial resources" and firepower.
Chad's President Idriss Deby, who backs a regional effort, last week announced his determination to recapture Baga, a strategic area on Lake Chad where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria converge.
For Bazoum, Chad's military intervention was "the most significant positive development" in regional efforts to tackle Boko Haram. A previous plan for joint operations has barely got off the ground.
However, Cameroon's Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said it would take time to coordinate Cameroonian and Chadian troops.
"Don't expect to start seeing the results of that tomorrow," he warned.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[ARABNEWS] Kuwait's trade minister has canceled the business license of the company that publishes a newspaper known for being critical of the government, citing violations of corporate regulations, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Al-Watan was one of two newspapers suspended by a judge for two weeks last year after they reported on an audio recording that discussed an alleged plot to overthrow the Gulf state's rulers.
Kuwait has imposed a news blackout on an investigation into the tape, saying that media coverage about it was damaging to the country.
Al-Watan, in a statement posted on its website, said a Trade Ministry representative delivered the minister's decision on Monday evening. Officials from the ministry arrived soon afterwards to seal the company's office.
The suspension was prompted by "violations of the requirements for a minimum capital" stipulated by the Kuwaiti corporate law, according to a photo of the decision by Commerce and Industry Minister Abdulmohsen Al-Madaj that was published on the Al-Watan website. Al-Watan said it plans to appeal the decision.
"The Dar Al-Watan company announces it is taking all legal measures to continue its operations and to retain its legal rights as soon as possible," the statement said.
No paper edition was published on Tuesday but the newspaper's website appeared to be still in operation.
Last year, state news agency KUNA cited the Information Ministry as saying that Al-Watan and Alam Alyawm newspapers had published "articles and views" about the alleged plot against Kuwait's rulers that might affect investigations by the Public Prosecution and "could undermine the national interest."
Al-Watan's editor-in-chief, Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, is a member of Kuwait's Al-Sabah ruling family. Alam Alyawm is a separate publication that is close to Kuwait's political opposition.
Reports about the tape related to the alleged plot have been featured online and in local newspapers since the start of 2014, prompting a rare call by the emir's office to stop discussing the topic.
The public prosecutor opened a case on the tape in December 2013 after a legal complaint by a former Parliament speaker who asked for an investigation into tweets about the recording.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[THEWEEK] When Cuba and the United States meet for talks in Havana this week, Cuban officials will ask that before diplomatic relations are restored, their country is removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Commies are a separate problem from takfiris. You don't find many Cubans wearing turbans.
A Cuban senior foreign ministry official told Reuters it was "unfair" that Cuba is on the State Department's list alongside Iran, Syria, and Sudan. "We cannot conceive of re-establishing diplomatic relations while Cuba continues to be included on the list," the official, who asked for anonymity, said. "It doesn't make any sense that we re-establish diplomatic relations and Cuba continues (on the list)."
In the latest edition of the annual "Country Reports on Terrorism," the State Department cited Cuba's support for Colombia's FARC guerrillas and the Basque separatist group ETA. As Reuters notes, ETA called a ceasefire in 2011 and said it would disarm, while Cuba has hosted peace talks between FARC and the Colombian government. President Obama said last month that the U.S. would review the designation, and a State Department official told reporters the U.S. would work to remove Cuba from the list.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:06 ||
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[7 views]
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#1
There was also that little matter of Cuban involvement in Angola a few years back. No sensing bringing to light the origins of much of Central Africa's problems today now is there ?
#2
Remember America is held accountable (by the usual suspects) for crimes or alleged crimes committed up to two hundred years ago, but the communist socialist states get a pass (by the same usual suspects).
[DAWN] Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to stand firm on Tuesday after the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group threatened to kill two Japanese nationals, saying he would not freeze a multi-million dollar aid package for countries hit by terrorism.
His remarks were made several hours after the group released a video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages if Tokyo did not pay a $200 million ransom within 72 hours.
An IS myrmidon said in the video that the ransom demand was to compensate for non-military aid that Mr Abe had pledged on Saturday to countries affected by the group's bloody expansion in Iraq and Syria.
"Making threats by taking people hostage is an unforgivable terrorist act about which I feel strong anger," Mr Abe told news hounds at a news conference in Jerusalem.
"I strongly demand that they not be harmed and that they be immediately released," he said.
"The international community will not give in to any form of terrorism and we have to make sure that we work together," he said at the news conference, which began more than an hour late due to the crisis.
The prime minister said Japan's pledge of aid would not be affected. "This $200m package for refugees and displaced persons is absolutely necessary (for them)... in order to survive," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Ynet] Australia's main domestic security agency has raised the terrorist threat level against police from "medium" to "high" on Tuesday in response to recent international attacks targeting officers.
Australian Federal Police said the threat against police as assessed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization is now equivalent to the threat to the wider Australian community which was lifted to "high" in September last year. "High" is the second highest level on a scale of four.
The police statement said an increasing number of Australians have been inspired by groups such as Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... "with the intent and capability to conduct an attack against police."
Queensland state Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said there was no single event that led to the raised alert.
#1
See MANILA BULLETIN > 180 AUSTRALIANS BACKING ISLAMIC STATE GROUP [In Syria + Iraq], SAYS MINISTER.
Aussie FM Juliet Bishop.
versus
* TOPIX > [Reuters] DISENCHANTED MILITANTS IN SOUTH ASIA EYE ISLAMIC STATE WID ENVY.
* SAME > FLOW OF FOREIGN FIGHTERS/MILITANTS TO MIDLE EAST IS "UNSTOPPABLE": TURKEY.
IIUC, IOW the ISIS/ISIL + Al-Nusra, etal. Hard Boy Milterr Groups can replace their losses far more readily than the US' Coalition = US' Muslim Allies in the region.
[AnNahar] The father of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of a foiled Islamist plot in Belgium, says his son has shamed the family and destroyed their lives.
"Why in the name of God, would he want to kill innocent Belgians? Our family owes everything to this country," Omar Abaaoud, whose family moved to Belgium 40 years ago from Morocco, told La Derniere Heure newspaper Tuesday.
"We had a wonderful life, yes, even a fantastic life here. Abdelhamid was not a difficult child and became a good businessman," the father was quoted as saying.
"But suddenly he left for Syria. I wondered every day how he became radicalized to this point. I never got an answer," said the father of six children who lives in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, a working class neighborhood of Brussels.
"Abdelhamid has brought shame on our family. Our lives have been destroyed," he said.
Belgian media named 27-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud as the suspected leader of the cell broken up by a raid last Thursday in the eastern town of Verviers where the alleged militants were plotting an imminent attack on Belgian police.
Belgium's Flemish-language VTM channel reported that Abaaoud had made calls from Greece to the brother of one of the two heavily-armed suspects killed in Verviers.
According to Belgian media, Abaaoud spent time fighting alongside the Islamic State group in Syria.
He was already known to security forces after appearing in an Islamic State video at the wheel of a car transporting mutilated bodies to a mass grave.
In 2014, Abelhamid convinced his younger brother Younes, then 13 years old, to join him in Syria.
"He got himself recruited by Abdelhamid and for that I will never forgive Abdelhamid," the father told La Derniere Heure.
"Do I still consider Abdelhamid my son? It's a very difficult question. Perhaps the response is the following: I never want to see him again. But I hope in return that he makes it so that Younes returns safe and sound," he said.
A police dragnet Saturday in the Greek capital Athens missed Abdelhamid Abaaoud but picked up a 33-year-old Algerian, suspected of links to the Verviers cell.
The man agreed Tuesday to be extradited to Belgium, a judicial source said.
[SKYNEWS.AU] Four men suspected of supplying one of the gunmen behind the Paris attacks with weapons and vehicles have appeared before an anti-terror judge, the first to face possible charges over the Paris shootings.
The January 7-9 attacks put Europe on high alert and sparked a wave of police raids, investigations and extraditions across the jittery continent.
Prosecutors on Tuesday called for the men believed to have supplied Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly with weapons and vehicles to remain in detention and be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
The suspects awaited the judge's decision early Wednesday on whether to open preliminary investigations against them.
Coulibaly was behind the murder of four hostages at a Jewish supermarket and the murder of a policewoman after brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi gunned down 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Meanwhile, a Muslim employee in the kosher supermarket, who was hailed as a hero for trying to save customers during the attack in which four people were killed, was given French citizenship on Tuesday.
About 273,000 people had signed a petition calling for France to naturalise Lassana Bathily, 24, from Mali.
Bathily has lived in France for the past nine years and applied for citizenship last year.
In other developments, five Russians from Chechnya were arrested in southern Frnace with what police described as a dangerous amount of explosives, although the case was believed to be linked to organised crime and not radical Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:09 ||
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[AnNahar] Greece will extradite to Belgium an Algerian man with suspected links to a jihadist cell dismantled by Belgian security forces last week, a justice source said Tuesday.
The 33-year-old suspect, who has said he is willing to be sent to Belgium because he wants to prove his innocence, will be extradited later Tuesday or Wednesday, the source said.
The man was arrested in Athens on Saturday, two days after Belgian police had carried out a raid in the eastern town of Verviers and shot dead two suspects.
Belgian investigators believe the group were preparing to attack police officers and police stations in Belgium.
According to police, the suspect in Athens has served a jail term in Greece for a robbery conviction but was released nearly a year ago.
Another man who was arrested with him in the Greek capital was released.
Belgian media have named Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent who remains at large, as the presumed mastermind of the cell in Belgium.
The raids in Belgium came after jihadist gunmen killed 17 people in France in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.
The foiled attacks in Belgium have led to arrests in several European countries.
[Ynet] The Gay Paree prosecutor's office said Tuesday that four men are facing preliminary charges after being jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! on suspicion of links to a gunman involved in La Belle France's deadliest terrorist attacks in decades.
The prosecutor's office said in a statement that five others arrested in the investigation were released without charge early Tuesday.
The four remaining suspects, all men in their 20s, will appear before an investigating judge later Tuesday. No other details were immediately available.
No one has been charged in the attacks Jan. 7-9 on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , a kosher market and police. Twenty people were killed, including the three gunnies, who claimed allegiance to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
So if I criticize some tin hat drooling illiterate goat fucking Imam for his fanatical views on Islam, I am not an islamophobe?
But if I criticize a Middle Easterner for believing in Islam I am???
I'll stick to the first and focus on the drooling tin hat goat fucking Imam contingent in Islam.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/21/2015 0:44 Comments ||
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#2
With this statement Valls, a French socialist is stepping off the territory of political correctness by fundamentally denying the legitimacy of mainstream Islam's complaint against free speech.
He's making making baby steps and it remains to be seen if he'll dare to go further or retreat, but I think this is welcome news.
Whoever complains about 'islamophobia' equates the normalcy of a free and open society and the normal operation of the free marketplace of ideas with a disease.
Logically the complainant intends to eradicate the disease (and free and open society) by making specific ideas, the principles of theocratic Islam, sacrosanct.
Any complaint about 'islamophobia' thus should immediately discredit the complainant. Debating him would be pointless because he is complaining about the very fact that any debate is possible and legal.
After more than 13 years in local, military and federal jails or prisons on terrorism-related charges, a former West Peoria resident is home in his native Qatar, leaving a series of short-term questions and long-term legal ramifications in his wake.
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 49, was spirited out of the United States on Friday, two days before he was scheduled to be released from a maximum security prison in Florence, Colo.
The move was a surprise to his attorney, Andrew Savage of Charleston, S.C., who had met with his client just one day before, on Thursday, though Savage declined to comment further on the unexpected release deportation until he could get more detail from authorities. Al-Marri had been slated to be released Sunday and deported to Qatar as he had finished his 100-month sentence imposed in October 2009 for providing material support to the al-Qaida terrorism network.
An official with the Bureau of Prisons would not comment. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Saturday evening he could not provide any additional comment by deadline on the post-release deportation or any legal proceedings that may have preceded it.
But the unanswered questions run deeper than how al-Marri came to be returned to his wife and five children ahead of schedule. The long-term legal ramifications of his groundbreaking case remain fuzzy.
On one hand, the former West Peorian successfully challenged his designation as an “enemy combatant,” a legal designation that allowed the George W. Bush administration to hold him for years without charges and without many legal rights. But on the other hand, the U.S. Supreme Court wasn’t able to hear the case as planned as President Barack Obama, within a few months of being elected, ordered al-Marri charged in civilian court.
“I am tempted to say, that we just don’t know,” said Carl Tobias, a legal professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. “The facts are just too unclear, so I am not sure where it leads us. There are a lot of ways to look at it, but you can’t just come to one conclusion.
“It never really ended in a way that was a clear victory or that clarified the law,” Tobias said.
A professor at Seton Hall University’s School of Law and a former member of al-Marri’s legal team disagrees. “While it is unfortunate the Supreme Court never addressed this extraordinarily important constitutional question, I do think that years of litigation and the attention around this case reinforced the idea that domestic military detention is a bad idea and bad policy,” said Jonathan Hafetz.
“It is important to remember that even the Bush administration, which defended this case all the way to the Supreme Court, did not designate anyone as an enemy combatant after al-Marri was in 2003,” Hafetz added.
Al-Marri was arrested at his West Peoria apartment three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. For nearly two years, he was alternatively charged in federal courts in Manhattan and Peoria with credit card fraud and lying to the FBI.
Much more background and legal wrangling at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A member of the federal cabinet caused a small uproar on Tuesday when he stated publicly that "Saudi money" had had a destructive effect on Pakistain and that the promotion of the ideology of Wahabism had destabilised the country.
Riaz Ahmed Peerzada, who is the Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), minced no words during his talk at the Jinnah Institute's Ideas Conclave 2015 and also took his own party's leadership to task.
He called upon the great powers -- naming the US and 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... specifically -- to allow countries of the world to live in peace and said they should not fund snuffies or arm them. "Every country should be left to their devices and they should be run according to the wishes of the people and the civil society of those countries," he told news hounds after his speech at the conclave.
Mr Peerzada also appeared quite angry about the 21st Amendment and said that the formation of military courts seemed like the act of a characterless and cowardly leadership. He also announced his imminent retirement from public life during the speech.
The minister, who joined the PML-N a short while before the elections, was sworn in as a member of the cabinet on June 27, 2013. The MNA from Bahawalpur has suffered personally at the hands of religious holy warriors; his father was murdered in his own home by men purportedly linked with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Even on Tuesday, as he spoke to media persons following his speech, he appeared visibly emotional about it. When asked by a news hound to repeat his remarks regarding the Saudi influence in Pakistain, he got riled up and said, "You know very well where the funding comes from. Why do you need me to say it?" However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... he immediately added, "Of course I'll say it. I've lost my father already, why wouldn't I say it now."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] The Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI), website was defaced by hackers, claiming it was in protest against the JI and its Amir Sirajul Haq ...head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Siraj was born in 1962 and entered politics shortly after that... over alleged support for terrorism and the Taliban.
Speaking to Dawn.com, a JI official connected with the party's IT and social media, said the website had been hacked twice on late Monday night and early morning on Tuesday.
He said that the source of the first attack was in Pakistain itself, while the second attack originated from Bangladesh.
"This is all being done to defame the JI and a conspiracy against the efforts being made by Sirajul Haq for the party," the official said.
"The site has been recovered... we are working to have it secured so that this does not happen again," he said.
The party website showed messages along with videos and pictures after it was hacked claiming a link between the JI and Taliban.
A photo allegedly showing Sirajul Haq during a funeral prayer of a Taliban murderous Moslem was also uploaded on the site.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[DAWN] The Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent). .... government has promulgated an ordinance which bans glorification of bandidossnuffies and their outfits at any forum and in the media. It regulates manufacture or sale of uniforms of law-enforcement agencies.
The Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, which amends the identical law of 1960, is part of the legal reform measures the government is taking to curb terrorism.
The ordinance promulgated on Tuesday says: "A person shall not, by words spoken or written, use any formal forum to support terrorism or terrorists, or attempt to create sympathy for any terrorist or terrorist organization, or to oppose action of Pakistain army, air or naval force, police or Rangers against any terrorist or terrorist organization.
"The organiser of a formal assembly shall electronically record audio and video of unedited speech or speeches made there, and submit a copy of such record to the officer in-charge of the cop shoppe (concerned)."
The ordinance defines 'formal assembly' as a political or religious gathering held with prior notice or a sermon at a place of worship. A marriage ceremony, a lecture or an activity in an educational institution or meetings of a club, society or company will not be considered as such an assembly.
Formal forum means electronic or print media (television, radio, newspaper, periodical and journal), political or religious gathering with prior notice or a sermon at a place of worship.
The term 'organiser' means a person or persons, who has or have organised the assembly or invited people to attend it and includes owner, manager or in-charge of the place where the assembly is held and the person who makes a speech there.
The ordinance forbids a person from manufacturing, possessing or selling uniform of police or any other organization or agency notified by the government without their prior written permission.
The punishment for violation of the three offences is imprisonment for up to six months and fine ranging from Rs25,000 to Rs100,000. The illegally manufactured uniform shall be seized and forfeited.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] There is currently no law that allows the Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban websites, even pornographic ones, and the actions of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Evaluation of Websites (IMCEW) are completely unconstitutional, a lawyer who has been fighting a legal battle for the restoration of popular video-sharing website YouTube, said on Tuesday.
Yasser Latif Hamdani, who represented Bytes For All in its case against the government of Pakistain in the Lahore High Court, told the audience at Jinnah Institute's Ideas Conclave 2015 that the elephant in the room with regards to freedom of speech in Pakistain was the country's controversial blasphemy laws. He said that the Constitution of the country guaranteed freedom of speech, except when it was in contravention with the glory of Islam, law and order or the sanctity and integrity of Pakistain.
Other speakers, including digital rights activist Shahzad Ahmad, activist Jibran Nasir and Dawn dot com Web Editor Jahanzaib Haque, spoke at length about the problems and opportunities afforded by the new media. They explained how social media offered a mirror of society and offered an unadulterated glimpse into the minds of Paks.
Mr Ahmad talked about the futility of banning websites and said that it was technically impossible to ban anything on the Internet because there was always a way to get around blocks.
Mr Nasir spoke about the power of new media, which he called "Free Media", saying that it had allowed him to put together an awareness campaign that may have cost millions on mainstream media in just Rs50,000.
There was no shortage of excitement on the first day of the two-day conclave. In the first session on 'Sustaining Pakistain's Democratic Transition', Inter-Provincial Coordination Minister caused an uproar when he stated openly that Saudi money was causing instability in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
'No law allows blocking of websites'
but Net Neutrality will slow down sites we don't like.
[DAWN] During an interview with senior CNN journalist Ace newshound Christiane Amanpour, Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asim Bajwa on Monday night said that it was an insult to question the capability of the Pakistain Army in the fight against terrorism.
Bajwa made the statement after Amanpour asked whether the Army was "up to" the task of fighting against bully boys.
"I would say this is an insult to the Pak people and Pak forces if you ask this kind of question. When I say we're very clear and we are capable of dealing with them," he said.
He also compared the performance and efficiency of Pakistain's military with that of the US and Isaf forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If you see the nature of this conflict, you see the US forces in Iraq, then in Afghanistan, they've been there for so long, you look at the Isaf forces. The scale and magnitude of the forces and resources which are employed and look at the performance of Pak forces, they have done an excellent job," the DG ISPR said.
"I think there is no confusion in our mind that we have to go against the phenomenon of terrorism, against all terrorists, and their abettors," he added.
Answering a question about the armed forces' viewpoint of bully boy groups, the ISPR DG said: "There are no good terrorists.....We are going against all holy warriors without any discrimination of hue and color."
Bajwa added that the army had cleared a major part of the North Wazoo tribal region during Operation Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... except for a small belt near the Pak-Afghan border.
He further said that the operation against bully boy groups was underway with air and gunship helicopter strikes and these were being followed by ground operations.
Responding to another question regarding the change in Pakistain's security situation following the measures adopted after the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. school massacre, Maj Gen Bajwa said: "There is a lot more security at the national level...there is a concept of security. That has been evolved and there is a review of security at every level. I think it is very difficult to guarantee that nothing of this kind happens anywhere in the world."
The military front man cited the example of the recent attack in Gay Paree and school shootouts that occur in the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[AnNahar] The U.N. Security Council urged central African countries on Monday to step up plans for a multinational force to fight Boko Haram, in its first overall response to the threat posed by the Nigerian jihadists.
The council issued a 13-point statement strongly condemning attacks by Boko Haram, in particular those involving children used as suicide bombers, and demanded an end to the violence.
On the eve of a key meeting in Niger of regional leaders, the 15-member council urged Nigeria's neighbors to advance planning for the deployment a multinational task force to drive out Boko Haram.
Chad is set to contribute a sizeable contingent to the force along with Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin.
The multinational force has been under discussion since last year, but divisions over the scale and scope of its operations have slowed down the deployment.
The statement from the council came as Boko Haram fighters seized scores of hostages in a raid in neighboring Cameroon on Sunday.
About two dozen hostages were later released but the attack compounded fears that Boko Haram was ramping up operations beyond Nigeria's borders.
The council expressed "deep concern that the activities of Boko Haram are undermining the peace and stability of the west and central African region," said the statement presented by Nigeria.
- Security Council reaction -
The statement was the first adopted by the council on the threat posed by Boko Haram, which is on the U.N. terrorist list. Previous statements focused on condemning specific attacks.
The council demanded that Boko Haram "immediately and unequivocally cease all hostilities and all abuses of human rights and violations" in the presidential statement.
It accused Boko Haram of carrying out kidnappings, killings, hostage-taking, pillaging, rape, sexual slavery and recruitment of child soldiers since it launched its campaign in 2009.
Diplomats said the statement pointed to a shift from Nigeria which has shied away from discussing Boko Haram even though it is one of the 10 non-permanent members of the council.
The council statement urged regional leaders to "undertake further planning toward the sustainable, viable and effective operationalization of the Multinational Joint Task Force."
It urged the African countries to "identify the means and modalities of the envisaged deployment, especially in the areas of intelligence sharing and joint operations."
The advocacy group Avaaz had launched an online petition on Friday, signed by 725,000 people, to press the Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the Boko Haram crisis.
"Boko Haram has butchered its way into the global spotlight and finally the Security Council is reacting," said Alice Jay, campaign director for Avaaz.
"All eyes are now on Nigeria, its neighbors and the international community to put words into comprehensive action to stop 10-year-olds being strapped to bombs or kidnapped in the night."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
#1
Aka the OWG AU = AFRICAN UNION???
Other "mix/hybrid" of regional + International Milfors???
[Ynet] The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting on the chaotic situation in Yemen.
"That'll do it. Okay, who made off with the tea trolly? I had a bottle of the good whiskey on the bottom shelf to help us celebrate!"
Violence has gripped Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since Monday and has been described as a coup. Yemeni authorities say Shiite Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels are shelling the presidential residence and have raided the presidential palace.
Britannia's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said he called Tuesday's closed-door meeting to hear a briefing on the situation from the UN envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, who is in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and heading to Sanaa later Tuesday.
"Clearly the situation has tanked very significantly over the last 48 hours and that's why the Security Council needs to meet and decide its response," Lyall Grant said.
By the end of January the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees could run out of funds to repair Gaza homes or provide rental subsidies to those who were made homeless from this summer's conflict, its Gaza director Robert Tuner said on Tuesday. Actions have consequences. Arabs should learn this. You, very selectively, bleeding hearts---should learn it too.
#3
Director Turner also added "Luckily, the UNRWA's Epicurean Lunch Buffets, Travel Expenses, Housing Allowances and Entertainment Budgets are not affected."
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/21/2015 9:06 Comments ||
Top||
#4
And then? Let's use the funds for helpoing the victims of Boko Haram. And BTW, close the UNRWA.
Development of a new tunnel-detection system by Israel to help prevent the types of cross-border attacks experienced during last summerâs war in Gaza has progressed in recent months, a senior IDF source said Tuesday.
Classic A-10 gun system smack-down from late yesterday:
#16 To fight against the GAU8 is suicide.
There, fixed that for ya Lionel. You ever seen it live in person? From your comments, I think not - you sound like a REMF, one of the perfumed princes of the pentagon procurement pack. If so, kindly just piss off - you're whats wrong with the Pentagon.
FYI, it has a wonderful effect on enemy personnel and equipment that far exceeds that of an SDB. As a former Cavb Scout, I highly recommend it.
Posted by OldSpook 2015-01-20 22:55|| 2015-01-20 22:55|| Front Page Top
[AnNahar] Leaders of Israel's 1.7 million Arabs declared a general strike throughout the country on Tuesday in protest at the recent deaths of two Bedouin men in confrontations with police.
Former member of parliament Taleb al-Sana, chairman of an umbrella organization of Arab Israeli groups, said schools and businesses would close from the Galilee in the north to the Negev desert in the south.
"The general strike today is to send a strong message that the entire Arab community... strongly protests the murders of two citizens of the state of Israel whose only crime is being Arab," Sana, who is himself Bedouin, told Israeli army radio.
Sami al-Jaar, 22, died of a gunshot wound last week during a police drug raid on the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat.
Police have opened an inquiry to determine if the shot was fired by officers or townspeople.
During Jaar's funeral on Sunday, Sami al-Zayadna, 47, died of a heart attack during clashes in which police fired tear gas.
Following Zayadna's burial on Monday, angry protesters -- some of them masked -- hurled stones at the Rahat police station, police said.
Police said five suspected stone-throwers were detained and more arrests were expected.
Officials in Rahat and in the northern Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm said schools were closed and shops were shuttered on Tuesday.
Arab students at Tel Aviv University staged a protest outside the campus fence, drawing jeers and angry retorts from Jewish passers-by, according to Israeli public radio.
Other media reported a similar protest by university students in the northern city of Haifa.
Residents of Rahat have been on strike since Sunday.
[Ynet] As IDF sends armored personnel carriers and tanks to northern front, section of highway close to border blocked for traffic; farmers directed to avoid fields by border.
A northern section of Route 4, the old coastal road, was closed Tuesday due to its proximity to the border with Lebanon. Farmers from nearby towns were told to stay away from their fields near the border, while armored personnel carriers and tanks were seen travelling towards Israel's north.
Military sources said the closed section of the road is rarely used and only by local residents. The majority of the traffic in the area passes through the new road, Route 2.
An official security source said that "the State of Israel does not refer to the incident in Syria and not to reports regarding the event, which do not come from official sources. The policy of the State of Israel was and remains to thwart every terror attack against it."
Meanwhile, a Lebanese television station affiliated with Hezbollah, Al-Manar, reported increased activity by the Israeli Air Force in northern towns and southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, in the area of Al-Qasmiyah.
The IDF raised its alert level on the northern front on Monday, in positions along the border with Syrian and Lebanon, as foreign media outlets reported that Iron Dome batteries were being deployed in the north, less than a day after a strike attributed to Israel killed senior Hezbollah officers and Iranian soldiers.
Apart from the deployment of the missile interceptor batteries on the northern front – reported by Sky News in Arabic – there has not been a significant reinforcement of the forces on the border.
Earlier on Tuesday, a senior Israeli defense source told Reuters that an Iranian general killed in an air strike in Syria largely attributed to Israel was not its intended target and Israel believed it was attacking only low-ranking guerrillas.
Asked if Israel expected Iranian or Hezbollah retaliation for the air strike, the source said: "They are almost certain to respond. We are anticipating that, but I think it's a fair assumption that a major escalation is not in the interest of either side."
"We did not expect the outcome in terms of the stature of those killed - certainly not the Iranian general," the source said. "We thought we were hitting an enemy field unit that was on its way to carry out an attack on us at the frontier fence."
Earlier on Tuesday, security forces were deployed to the border with Lebanon after a civilian convoy on the Lebanese side was seen carrying weapons, firing in the air, and waving Hezbollah flags. It was later discovered the convoy was part of a funeral procession from a nearby town.
The tension on the northern front has continued in the days after the Sunday strike on Hezbollah officers in Syria, including Jihad Mughniyeh – son of Imad Mughniyeh, killed in 2008.
[AnNahar] The military prosecutor charged on Tuesday 28 people, four of them detainees, in the double suicide bombing that rocked the Jabal Mohsen district of the northern city of Tripoli earlier this month.
The state-run National News Agency said the charges issued by Judge Saqr Saqr include membership to an armed terrorist organization for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities.
Among the suspects who are on the run are top wanted terrorists Osama Mansour and Shadi al-Mawlawi.
Both are wanted for leading armed groups that engaged in deadly gunbattles with the Lebanese army in Tripoli and its surrounding areas last October.
Mansour and al-Mawlawi were also charged with recruiting people for the purpose of carrying out terrorist attacks, assaulting the army and planting bombs, said NNA.
Saqr referred the 28 suspects to the first Military Examining Magistrate, Judge Riyad Abu Ghida.
Nine people were killed and at least 37 injured on Jan. 10 when two suicide bombers attacked a packed cafe in Jabal Mohsen.
Syria's al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility on Twitter for the blast. But Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said the bombing was carried out by the Islamic State extremist group.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AnNahar] A U.N. official said on Tuesday that the flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon has dropped sharply due to restrictions recently imposed by Lebanese authorities.
Although Lebanese border officials began informally restricting the entry of Syrians last October, the country officially imposed visa regulations earlier this month on their neighbors. The move was the first such in decades.
Ninette Kelley, the U.N. refugee agency's representative in Lebanon, told reporters that the number of new Syrian refugees in Lebanon dropped by 44 percent in 2014, compared to the previous year.
Syria's nearly four-year civil war has forced more than 3 million people to flee the country.
The UNHCR says there are about 1,150,000 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon now. Beirut estimates there are another 500,000 unregistered Syrians in the country.
Iran and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on military cooperation, the Islamic Republic’s Fars news agency reported Jan. 20. The accord emphasizes fighting terrorism, extremism and separatism as well as boosting mutual cooperation for peace and security in the region.
The MoU also includes holding joint military drills, cooperation in military training as well as fighting against piracy in international waters and the Caspian Sea, according to the official website of the Islamic Republic’s defense ministry.
The two ministers also agreed to resolve disputes over delivering Russian S-300 missile system to Iran. No further details on the issue has been published yet.
A contract inked in 2007 requires Russia to provide Iran with at least five S-300 missile defense systems. However, Moscow refrained from meeting its obligations under the pretext that they were covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council resolutions against Iran.
In September 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning the delivery of the S-300 systems to the Islamic Republic.
Russia's refusal to deliver the systems under the contract prompted Iran to file a complaint with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva against the Russian arms company Rosoboronexport.
Earlier Iranian media outlets reported that Tehran has rejected Russia's proposal to supply the Islamic Republic with S-300VM "Antey-2500" anti-ballistic missile system, instead of the promised S-300 system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/21/2015 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Only because it is now in Russia's interest to do so.
#5
From the 'ups revenue 22% - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last December that the drop in oil prices is a plot by certain governments ... an opportunity to reduce the dependence of the country's budget on oil revenues.
The plot, of course, that's part of the mentality. But the dependence on oil revenue is delicious irony.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/21/2015 15:15 Comments ||
Top||
[AnNahar] Up to four thousand people from Muslim former Soviet Central Asian countries are believed to have joined Islamic State jihadists, a report published on Tuesday said.
Often driven by poverty, some "2,000 to 4,000 have in the past three years turned their back on their secular states to seek a radical alternative," the International Crisis Group said in a briefing on the region.
That figure is much higher than the official one of several hundred given by the governments of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, the report said.
It said that ethnic Uzbeks were the largest group from Central Asia fighting with the Islamic State, but "Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Turkmen and Tajiks are also well represented."
IS has previously released footage purporting to show adult and child recruits from Central Asian states.
An IS propaganda video that came out in November alleged to show young children from Kazakhstan training to become fighters for the jihadi extremists.
One of the boys -- who identified himself as Abdullah from Kazakhstan -- then appeared in another video this month that apparently showed him executing two alleged Russian spies with a pistol.
"Dozens" of fighters from Central Asia are thought to have died in the ranks of IS and their families are sometimes only informed via text messages or on social networking sites, the Crisis Group said.
In December, Uzbek President Islam Karimov expressed his "utmost concern" at the "expansion of militant extremism", while Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon last month said "the Islamic State is the plague of the new century".
The report warned, however, that secular governments in the region are ill-prepared to deal with the problem, either in preventing radicalization or coping with the return of fighters.
People from the region are drawn to join Islamic State by poverty and lack of opportunities, but there is no one single profile, the report said, with those recruited including young women.
Officials with Soviet backgrounds have a "limited understanding of religion’s appeal in society", the report said.
The think-tank urged the United States and European countries to "recognize that Central Asia is a growing source of foreign fighters and consider prioritizing policing reform."
Western countries should promote "a more tolerant attitude to religion, in their recommendations for combating the problem," it added.
Known collectively as "Chechens" within Islamic State, the Central Asians are often ill-prepared for fighting, the Brussels-based group reported, citing an aid worker calling them "human material".
Returning fighters can expect the harshest possible treatment from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, it said, with a Russian official being quoted as saying that "Uzbekistan will shoot them at the border".
Central Asian governments "are using the threat to bolster political agendas while curtailing civil liberties, but they have yet to create a credible counter-action plan," it warned.
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.
[ARABNEWS] President Abdel Fattah 
[ARABNEWS] Kuwait's trade minister has canceled the business license of the company that publishes a newspaper known for being critical of the government, citing violations of corporate regulations, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[DAWN] The 
[DAWN] During an interview with senior CNN journalist 
Wazoo
