[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Afghan cops have reached something of an impasse with the Taliban, which has been unable to expand its grip on Afghanistan but still holds large parts of the country, a US general said Friday.
Army General John Nicholson, the US commander in Afghanistan, said local forces during the summer fighting season had thwarted a Taliban attempt to take over Kunduz province, and had improved security in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , western Kandahar and Uruzgan.
Afghan forces currently control or "heavily influence" 65 to 70 percent of the population, the Taliban controls about 10 percent in mainly rural areas, and the rest is contested, Nicholson told news hounds.
The top US military officer, General Joe Dunford, told politicians Thursday that the situation in Afghanistan was "roughly a stalemate."
"The Taliban have not been successful in achieving the goals that were outlined in their campaign plan, which they typically make public in the spring of each year, and on balance the Afghan forces are holding," said Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Nicholson said another way to "think about stalemate is you’ve reached some sort of equilibrium."
A resurgent Taliban dealt Afghan cops serious blows in 2015, the first year the local forces led security operations in Afghanistan, taking over from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... More than 5,000 Afghan police and troops died last year alone, and they have confronted multiple challenges apart from just the Taliban -- including attacks from ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The Taliban even managed to briefly capture the major city of Kunduz last year, jolting confidence Afghan government forces could hold their own.
The Taliban threat forced President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... to slow plans to draw down US troop numbers at the end of this year. Some 8,400 will remain in the war-torn country in 2017, compared with 5,500 initially planned.
Most US forces in Afghanistan operate under the NATO banner and work as trainers or advisers to Afghan forces.
Around 40 NATO members and partner countries currently contribute to the overall force of nearly 13,000.
The B.O. regime also announced looser rules making it easier for US troops to proactively target the Taliban and assist Afghan forces, instead of waiting to respond to an attack.
Nicholson also described the current situation with ISIS, which is trying to expand its self-declared "caliphate" in Khorasan Province, with Jalalabad as the capital.
"They’ve been frustrated in that by us, and the operations in July have pushed them down into the mountains of southern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. ," Nicholson said.
He estimated ISIS numbers to be between 1,200 to 1,300, and said the murderous Moslems in Afghanistan were getting financial and leadership help from fighters in Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Afghan forces currently control or "heavily influence" 65 to 70 percent of the population, the Taliban controls about 10 percent in mainly rural areas, and the rest is contested, Nicholson told news hounds.
So its basically under complete Muslim control, regardless of affiliation.
But hey! We're not supposed to be concerned about that.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A prominent Pak politician and religious scholar Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has slammed the Pak government for its hard stance against the Afghan refugees, saying forced repatriation of Afghan refugees is the worst example of cruelty.
Questioning the government’s stance against the Afghan refugees, Rehman said the situation in Afghanistan still remains hostile, emphasizing that there would be no need for the US and allied forces to stay in Afghanistan if there was peace in the country.
Rehman further added that the Afghan nationals must be treated well and should be repatriated with dignity and respect, calling the Afghan refugees as ’guests’ and ’brothers’.
Pakistain started crackdown against the Afghan refugees following a deadly attack on an army-run school in 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. city of Pakistain.
The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... refugee chief urged Paks asked the Pak authorities late in June not to blame Afghan refugees for terrorism in their country.
The call by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Fillippo Grandi followed amid growing public calls for their deportation and worsening relations between the two neighbours.
Warning that the roughly 2.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistain risked becoming a "forgotten" crisis, Grandi called on the international community to invest more funds to help them.
"My appeal is that, not only to the authorities but also to the local population: refugees as you know are not terrorists," Grandi said during a visit to a repatriation centre outside the northwestern Pakistain city of Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
#1
"2.5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistain... " Some have been there since the nineteen eighties. They have much in common with the Arab refugee camps in the Levant that have been there since the nineteen sixties. Muslims seemingly enjoy enforced idleness.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan Vice President Sarwar Danesh said the recent attacks in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... by the Taliban group 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.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were organized from inside Pakistain.
In his speech at the UN General Assembly, Danesh urged implementing international commitments and and avoiding a distinction between good and bad terrorists.
"Where are the previous leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban hiding," he asked, further questioning how and from where snuffies were being trained, equipped and financed.
Danesh further added that Pakistain had been requested to destroy safe havens, but the situation remained unchanged.
The remarks by Danesh came as the Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistain for allowing the Afghan murderous Moslem groups to use its soil for planning and coordinating attacks in Afghanistan.
The Afghan officials are insisting that the leadership councils of Taliban group and the notoriouss Haqqani terrorist network are based in 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. and Quetta cities of Pakistain.
In other parts of his speech, Danesh said the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (Afghanistan, China, Pakistain and the United States) could remain a useful platform as long as Pakistain acted in good faith to meet its commitments.
Welcoming efforts of any Islamic country to promote peace in Afghanistan, Danesh said "Those individuals and groups resort to violence, terrorism and killing are not acquainted with this religion."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
#1
Danesh further added that Pakistain had been requested to destroy safe havens, but the situation remained unchanged.
An excellent start would be the destruction of Pakistani frontier corps outposts.
[Ynet] Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita warned the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... on Friday that the failure to fully implement a nationwide peace accord was helping al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated groups spread their influence in the country.
UN peacekeepers are deployed across northern Mali to try to stabilize the vast region, which was occupied by separatist Tuareg rebels and al Qaeda-linked Islamist murderous Moslems in 2012 before La Belle France intervened in 2013. Tit-for-tat violence between rival gangs has distracted Mali from fighting Islamist murderous Moslems and the country has become the deadliest place for UN peacekeepers to serve.
"We have to admit that several factors are contradicting our will and effort," Keita told a high-level meeting on Mali at the annual United Nations General Assembly. "In particular the extension of terrorism and banditry in the centre of our country which is even putting into question the stability and security of neighbouring countries because of the desire of terrorist groups affiliated to al-Qaeda and ISIS seeking to expand."
A clash in the north this week between pro-government Gatia militia and the Tuareg separatist Coordination of Azawad Movements highlighted the fragility of a UN- backed deal signed last year between the government and northern gangs meant to end a cycle of uprisings.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The bodies of 162 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by Friday, two days after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants colonists capsized in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe.
Dozens more are feared dead, said Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira, who provided The News Agency that Dare Not be Named with the latest corpse count. He also said that the search operation is still ongoing. Many of them are believed to be children and women who were unable to swim away when the boat sank.
Wahdan el-Sayyed, the front man of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, provided the latest figures and told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the search operation was ongoing.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
#1
"Some of the interviewees said the traffickers asked for $6250 per family, to be given on arrival in Italia."
Fleeing war maybe. Fleeing poverty not so much at those prices.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi vowed at the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... on Friday to "extract Yemen from the claws of Iran" as he accused Tehran of impeding peace by taking a "multitude of actions and interventions."
A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been fighting 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 in Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to restore the internationally-backed Hadi to power. 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... and Yemen accuse Iran of supplying the rebels with weapons. Iran denies the allegation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Islamic Relief Worldwide was barred from operating in the West Bank amid claims of funds being funnelled to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,
A UK-based Moslem charity is taking legal action against the Israeli government after it was barred from operating in the West Bank, the Jewish News can reveal.
Islamic Relief Worldwide ‐ which works on health and education programmes in 40 countries and responds to disasters worldwide ‐ was placed on a banned list by former defence minister Moshe Yaalon two years ago amid claims of funds being funnelled to Hamas.
Islamic Relief strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! the claims and a subsequent independent audit of its work in the territories was said to have found "absolutely no evidence" of money being passed to Hamas or of any link to terrorism.
The charity has now confirmed to the Jewish News that it is bringing court action to overturn the ban, although it’s understood a date for a hearing has yet to be set.
A statement from the charity said: "Islamic Relief Worldwide commenced legal proceedings in 2014. We are bringing a court action against the State of Israel to overturn its designation of us as an ’unauthorised association’ by the Defence Ministry. We do not wish to prejudice legal proceedings and will be making no further comment at this time".
Israel has not elaborated on its allegations over the past two years but Shin Bet said at the time the banning order was "based on information that has been accumulated over years, that the fund is a central player in financing of Hamas... [and] on accumulated knowledge and experience in fighting terror and financing of terror organizations".
Islamic Relief is the largest Moslem charity in the UK and has received millions in support from the Department for International Development. The government said back in 2014 that it saw no reason not to continue its association with the charity.
The ban was announced weeks before the start of the last conflict between Hamas and Israel. Following the conflict, IRW said it would not use funds raised under the auspices of the Disasters Emergency Appeal while Israel’s claims were probed.
The charity has from time to time worked with UK Jewish charities and individuals, and was one of the key players in interfaith climate change event just yesterday.
North Korea conducted a successful ground test of a new rocket engine on Tuesday as leader Kim Jong-un looked on, North Korean media claimed.
In the test of a rocket engine with 80 tons of thrust, "thrust and other technological indexes of the engine accurately reached the estimated values and its operational system remained stable during 200 seconds of working time," the official KCNA news agency said. That would mean the engine can endure an 80-ton weight for 200 seconds.
If that is true and the North makes a first-stage rocket of four such engines with a combined thrust of 320 tons, then it could build an intercontinental ballistic missile with a 1-1.5 ton warhead that would be capable of hitting any target on the U.S. mainland. The thrust is about about three times as strong as the 108-ton engine of a space rocket launched in February.
Kim said the North needs to "become a possessor of geostationary satellites in the next several years," according to the state media.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
North Korea has covered the entrances to two tunnels at its remote nuclear test site, fanning speculation that it may be about to detonate another nuclear bomb. Camouflaged covers over tunnels at nuclear test sites are considered clear signs of an impending test.
The South Korean military believes the North could conduct another nuclear test around Oct. 10, the founding day of the North Korean Workers Party.
North Korea has dug three tunnels at the site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province. The first was used for the first nuclear test in 2006, while the second to fifth nuclear tests took place in tunnel No. 2. A government source here said, "There are suspicions that North Korea may conduct a sixth nuclear test at tunnel No. 3, which has never been used."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
We should send one over...you know, in the spirit of a test.
[AnNahar] Lawyers for Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders on Friday urged judges to drop an upcoming discrimination and hate speech case against the controversial politician, slamming it as a "political trial."
Wilders was appearing again
...is this the third time or the fourth?
before a top security court ahead of the start of his trial next month on charges of inciting racial hatred due to statements he made about Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
"Public prosecutors are asking the judges to hand down a political verdict," lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops told a three-judge bench at the preliminary hearing.
"That's unacceptable and irresponsible... and will have far-reaching consequences for democracy in the Netherlands," he argued at the hearing, held in a fortress-like courthouse close to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
Knoops drew on a U.S. legal principle called the "political question doctrine" to underline his case, and argued that in his comments, Wilders had merely "put forward the political program of his party."
The case focuses on comments made by the populist politician at a March 2014 local election rally.
Wilders asked supporters in The Hague whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?"
When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organize that."
The remark triggered 6,400 complaints from across the country, and Wilders even faced criticism from within his Freedom Party (PVV).
At least 56 people and five organizations have registered as victims of the comments and at least 34 witnesses have come forward ahead of a possible trial, judges said.
Knoops said his client had a fundamental right to freedom of speech, particularly as a politician, adding his client "did not make the statement based on a racial prejudice."
- Tight security -
Security was tight on Friday, but Wilders, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie seemed relaxed and smiled at onlookers.
Wilders is described as the "most heavily-guarded man" in the Netherlands. And since the 2004 liquidation of anti-Islam director Theo van Gogh, he has had around-the-clock protection.
The outspoken politician has drawn heavy flack from fellow MPs after saying he would close all mosques and confiscate Korans -- which he famously compares to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- should he take power in the Netherlands.
His party rode high in opinion polls as the migrant crisis polarized the country.
But in recent months, it has dropped back again ahead of general elections in March, in which observers say the outcome of his eventual trial could play an important role.
If found guilty, Wilders could face up to two years in jail or a fine of more than 20,000 euros ($22,000).
Wilders was acquitted during a first hate trial in 2011 which concluded his remarks targeted a religion and not a specific group of people.
[AnNahar] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... accused the United States of sending more weapons to a Syrian Kurdish militia in defiance of Ankara's repeated insistence it is a "terrorist" organization.
Although the U.S. views the the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia as its most significant ground ally against jihadists, Ankara says the fighters are "terrorists" linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which for decades has waged an insurgency in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Erdogan said late Thursday that three days earlier the U.S. sent "two planes with weapons" to Kobane in northern Syria for the YPG and its Democratic Union Party (PYD) political wing.
In a speech in New York after attending the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said Washington was mistaken in using the YPG as an ally in the fight against IS.
"If you think you can finish ISIS (IS) off with the PYD and YPG, you cannot, because they are terrorist groups as well," he said in remarks posted on the presidential website.
He added he had raised the issue of the alleged weapons delivery in talks with U.S. Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... but said Biden insisted he had no information.
Erdogan added the U.S. sent arms to Kurdish militia during the battle for Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town, between IS and the YPG in 2014, saying half of the weapons fell into the hands of IS murderous Moslems.
The president's accusations risk causing further tension between the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... allies over Washington's support for the YPG in its fight against IS.
Previously, the U.S. has insisted that any military equipment provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the past has gone only to Arab fighters.
There are about 30,000 fighters in the SDF which is made up largely of Kurds, but also has a significant Syrian Arab component.
General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that the U.S. was considering arming the SDF who would join the offensive to retake the IS stronghold of Raqa.
But Dunford said that the U.S. would work "very closely with our Turkish allies" to assuage Ankara's concerns over the Syrian Kurds' long-term political prospects.
Turkey's presidential front man Ibrahim Kalin said Thursday it was "out of the question" for Ankara to join any operation to take Raqa if it included the YPG or PYD.
Turkey has over the last month sent dozens of tanks and hundreds of troops into Syria to back pro-Ankara Syrian rebels fighting IS and the YPG.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... will on Friday veto legislation allowing 9/11 victims to sue 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... , risking public outrage and the first congressional override of his presidency.
The White House confirmed Thursday that Obama would veto the legislation ‐ unanimously passed by Congress ‐ allowing 9/11 families to launch civil suits against Riyadh.
"We believe this is a bad bill," said White House front man Josh Earnest. "It’s why the president’s going to veto it."
The White House argues the legislation would undermine sovereign immunity and potentially expose US officials and service members to litigation.
Obama has issued 11 vetoes so far in his presidency, none of which have garnered the two-thirds opposition needed for an override.
That's two thirds of members of each House. Impossible to achieve in the Senate without the help of Democrats, who have been remarkably disciplined.
Update from The Times of Israel at 2:20 p.m. ET: He vetoed it.
US President Barack Obama rejected a bill Friday that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, arguing it undermined national security and setting up the possibility Congress may override his veto for the first time in his presidency.
The president said the bill, which doesn’t refer specifically to Saudi Arabia, could backfire by opening up the US government and its officials to lawsuits by anyone accusing the US of supporting terrorism, rightly or wrongly.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#1
Let's all watch and act surprised when the do-nothing and make-believe "opposition party" does not one damn thing to over-turn the veto.
#4
I understand newc's reticince, but BRING IT MOFO's.
Past time to be civil.
Past time to treat the Saudi's as anything less than treachers.
Kill them in the court of public opinion.
What are they going to do, STOP SELLING OIL?
They are a cancer on the world corpus.
Screw them.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/24/2016 21:17 Comments ||
Top||
#5
And if it reflects back, somehow, stretching reality, on the USA, screw them.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/24/2016 21:19 Comments ||
Top||
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former Cold War-era rivals Pakistain and Russia are due to hold their first ever military exercise this month, Pakistain’s military said on Friday, in another sign of shifting alliances in South Asia.
During the Cold War, Pakistain spent a decade helping the United States funnel arms and fighters into neighboring Afghanistan to help murderous Moslem groups fight Soviet soldiers following their 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.
At the time, the communist Soviet Union was closely aligned with Pakistain’s arch-enemy India, while the United States was a staunch supporter of Pakistain.
Pakistain’s top military front man, Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, said a "contingent of Russian ground forces" arrived in Pakistain for a two-week exercise beginning on Saturday.
About 200 military personnel from both sides would be involved in the exercises, Pakistain’s Tribune Express newspaper said, citing military sources.
Pak media last year reported Islamabad had bought four Mi-35 attack helicopters from Russia in a first military deal of its kind between them.
While ties between Russia and Pakistain are growing closer, Pakistain’s relations with the United States have cooled. Washington accused Islamabad of harboring Afghan Taliban fighters, something that Pakistain denies.
The United States has also improved ties with India, which Pakistain views warily.
Pakistain’s relations with its steadfast, "all-weather" ally China have developed over the past year or so with a plan for $46 billion in Chinese investment in a road and rail energy corridor linking western China with Pakistain’s Arabian Sea coast.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
If only the United States weren't a 1-party country.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] With US 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... invoking North Korea’s latest nuclear kaboom as a "reckless act of provocation," the UN Security Council on Friday approved a resolution urging quick global implementation of a treaty that would ban tests of such weapons.
Kerry said universal adoption of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty would result in a "safer, more secure, and more peaceful planet," as the United States and 18 other council members approved the resolution, with none opposed and Egypt abstaining.
Proponents of nuclear disarmament welcomed the vote. The Washington-based Arms Control Association called it "a very important reaffirmation of the global taboo against nuclear weapon test kabooms and strong call for ratification" by key nations.
Security Council approval comes as the Comprehensive Test Ban Organization set up to administer the treaty marks its 20th anniversary. Yet Friday’s move was mostly symbolic.
The US remains one of the holdouts among the 44 countries that are designated "nuclear capable" - the United States, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistain - that still need to ratify the treaty for it to enter into force.
The UN’s CTBTO already polices the world for any sign of nuclear tests with a global network of monitoring stations that pick up seismic signals and gases released by such events. But until those eight countries embrace the treaty it is supposed to administer, it cannot go on site to inspect for tests.
The White House has lobbied Congress for support since anti-treaty minded Republicans rejected ratification 17 years ago under 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... , with Senate approval falling far short of the required two-thirds majority.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/24/2016 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This paperwork will be so important...
...to somebody, somewhere.
It won't do a damn thing to detour N. Korea.
But hey! Lots of cocktails will be had, because some people will pretend that something took place.
Why we do continue to pay the salaries of people who participate in such farces?
[AnNahar] In the three days since the Iraqi city of Fallujah was reopened for residents following its recapture from 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, just over 500 families have returned home, Maj. Gen. Saad al-Harbea, the head of west Baghdad operations, said.
Hundreds more have massed around the checkpoints that block the city's entrance to await the multiple security approvals required to re-enter Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... which lies 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital. But the vast majority of the 300,000 people that made up the city's prewar population remain scattered across the country.
Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to IS, in January 2014. Its civilian population steadily declined after the Death Eater takeover, with some families renting homes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, or traveling further north to the country's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Many more civilians were forced out of the city by Iraqi troops as they pushed through Fallujah, leaving a ghost town in their wake. Fallujah was declared "fully liberated" in June, following an operation that officially lasted just over a month and was assisted by U.S.-led Arclight airstrikes. The tens of thousands of people who left the city last summer often ended up in desert camps with little food or water.
Al-Harbea defended the security checks outside Fallujah as essential to preventing IS from regaining power in the city. "Of course we need to turn some people away," he said.
He said Iraqi intelligence agencies had drawn up lists of IS collaborators based on information from local leaders and informants within the bully boy group. Ten families had been turned away so far because "they had sons or fathers with connections to ISIS," he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Repopulating territory retaken from IS forces of Evil is a slow process, demonstrating how painstaking wider reconciliation efforts will be in Iraq, where suspicions and enmity plague communities long after the fighting stops and victory has been declared.
In Fallujah, the process is rendered more difficult by the town's history of anti-government sentiment.
After the U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraq's longstanding leader Saddam Hussein in 2003, many of Fallujah's residents initially supported the Sunni insurgency that rose up against U.S. forces and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. Militants from al-Qaeda in Iraq fought two bloody battles with U.S. troops in Fallujah in 2004, in which more than 100 Americans were killed and over 1,000 maimed.
Inside the city today, little has changed since the aftermath of IS's overthrow.
Basic services like running water or electricity have not yet returned. Military vehicles line the streets and in many neighborhoods the only signs of life are the freshly-painted checkpoints.
As a military convoy rolled through a narrow residential street, a handful of children peeked out of garden gates. On one street corner a group of men sold cooking gas, and a local mosque handed out large bricks of ice and thin mattresses.
Basaad Jadoua, 58, along with her her daughter, son and husband, had waited for days for security approval to return to the city that has been their family's home for generations. Squeezed into a microbus between tanks of water and bags of dried food stuffs, they drove along a debris-strewn road, past rows of looted shops, burnt-out government buildings and razed homes. They had brought the essentials with them, they said, because they had heard they were impossible to buy in Fallujah.
The family had fled the city in 2013 when, following two years of instability, it became clear that IS was growing in power. They haven't returned since.
The bus stopped outside their house, on an empty street flanked on both sides by damaged or destroyed buildings.
"For 30 years this was my home," Jadoua said, looking over the garden wall.
Unlike many of the city's residents, her home is still standing, but it had been looted and a rocket that landed in the front garden destroying the driveway where her husband's car still stood. The windows were all broken and the rooms were filled with dust. Her husband and son busied themselves unloading the minibus and evaluating the damage.
Jadoua faltered as she walked up the driveway and began to cry. Her daughter, Imaa, 24, found an unbroken plastic chair for her to sit on in a room inside, and Jadoua seemed to recover her composure. "We knew there would be destruction, so we were prepared," she said, "once there is water and electricity, I know we can return to our old lives."
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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan Vice President Sarwar Danesh said the recent attacks in 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The bodies of 162 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by Friday, two days after a boat carrying hundreds of 
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Relief Worldwide was barred from operating in the West Bank amid claims of funds being funnelled to 
[AnNahar] Lawyers for Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders on Friday urged judges to drop an upcoming discrimination and hate speech case against the controversial politician, slamming it as a "political trial."
Joe 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Former Cold War-era rivals Pakistain and Russia are due to hold their first ever military exercise this month, Pakistain’s military said on Friday, in another sign of shifting alliances in South Asia.
North Korea
