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Today: 69 articles and 175 comments as of 15:29.
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Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Kenyan police nab 6 terror suspects in coastal town
Today's Headlines
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Africa Horn
Two women arrested for failing to inform police of their friend who left for Somalia
[Standard Digital (Kenya)] Two women who failed to inform police of their friend who had traveled to Somalia to join terror group al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
have been locked away
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
Eunice Wanjiku Wachira and Caroline Mwangi are expected to be charged in a Nairobi court Monday, for failing to disclose information relevant in securing the arrest and prosecution of a person who travelled to Somalia, which is a terrorist designated country, contrary to the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012. Wanjiku and Caroline were arrested for failing to report to the police that Eric Njoroge Wachira, had left for Somalia to join the al-Shabaab. The mother to Eric had confided in a friend that, Eric had left for Somalia and she was very frustrated because her efforts to reach Njoroge in Somalia through the phone were futile.

According to the Act, it is an obligation for every Kenyan to report to the local administration, the police or relevant authority a person suspected to be engaged in terror activities. Therefore, failure to disclose information relevant in securing and prosecution of a person engaged in terror activities is an offence.

Police say Caroline who is the girlfriend to Eric met him in August 2015 in Nyeri town. Eric was a business man selling second hand shoes and a bhang peddler in Nyeri town. Caroline was aware of Eric’s plan to go to Somalia and she allegedly facilitated his travel to Somalia in November 2016. The two kept in touch through the phone, where Caroline updated Eric on the situation back at home.

Eric’s journey to Somalia to join the al-Shabaab must have started when he took a keen interest in literature and videos that promoted violent extremism in the social media. According to police, Eric Isolated himself and most of the time, he would lock himself in his room while watching the video or reading the books.

Later on, the friend learnt that Eric had converted to "Islam", however he noted that there was something not right about his behavior, because he suddenly began to isolate himself from friends, became disobedient and also he stopped doing things that he was passionate about like sports, social events and education among others. Eric talked of martyrdom and fighting for the course of Allah. He even talked of relocating to a Moslem country in order to find peace.

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Africa North
Libya’s deepening split finds battleground at oil terminals
[Gulf News] Hundreds if not thousands of gunnies are converging on Libya’s main oil shipping terminals, which the rival powers in the country’s east and west are fighting to control in a battle being watched by global oil markets.

The struggle for the Ras Lanuf refinery and nearby Sidr depot threatens to spiral into an all-out conflict between east and west. Already, it has seen the bloodiest fighting yet between the two camps: Around 40 troops from the east were killed over four days as militias backed by western factions stormed the area last Friday, losing a handful of casualties.

Now forces from the east loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Russia sends mercenaries to back Libya’s Haftar
[MIDDLEEASTMONITOR] A force of several dozen armed private security contractors from Russia operated until last month in a part of Libya that is under the control of regional leader Khalifa Haftar
... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
, Rooters reported the head of the firm that hired the contractors as saying.

It is the clearest signal to date that Moscow is prepared to back up its public diplomatic support for Haftar ‐ even at the risk of alarming Western governments already irked at Russia’s intervention in Syria to prop up dictator Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
Haftar is opposed to a UN-backed government which Western states see as the best chance of restoring stability in Libya. But some Russian policymakers see the Libyan as a strongman who can end the six years of anarchy that followed the ousting of veteran tyrant Muammar Qadaffy
...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse...
The presence of the military contractors was, according to the head of the firm, a commercial arrangement. It is unlikely though to have been possible without Moscow’s approval, according to people who work in the industry in Russia.

Read: Russia and Libya sign new oil deal

Oleg Krinitsyn, owner of private Russian firm RSB-group, said he sent the contractors to eastern Libya last year and they were pulled out in February having completed their mission.

In an interview with Rooters, he said their task was to remove mines from an industrial facility near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in an area that Haftar’s forces had captured from rebels.

He declined to say who hired his firm to provide the contractors, where they were operating or what the industrial facility was. He did not say if the operation had been approved by the UN-backed government, which most states view as the sovereign ruler of Libya.

Asked whether the mission had official blessing from Moscow, Krinitsyn said his firm did not work with the Russian defence ministry, but was "consulting" with the Russian foreign ministry.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
Inside the Green Berets’ Hunt for Wanted Warlord Joseph Kony
Hat tip Steve Green and Instapundit. A good summary of what we're doing to get a guy who really, truly needs to be planted underground. Worst possible outcome is to miss getting him; second worst outcome is to get him and turn him over to the World Court and Carla del Ponte.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Whatever happened to OpSec?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 4:00 Comments || Top||

#2  And after Joseph Kony is dood dan wat (dead then what)? Whatever happened to staying at home and minding our own business? These feckless 'sows hear - silk purse' missions do not originate at Fort Bragg or the Pentagon, they are the creations of Foggy Bottom and Langley elites and globalists.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 4:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Why is this America's problem? It has nothing to do with us. Let Africans solve African problems.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/13/2017 7:39 Comments || Top||

#4  HA9366 and Besoeker, We are compassionate, plus Kony recruit child solders, some as young at 8 to 10 years old. can you image the trauma those children have to deal with? In time we will have to help them as well recover. Those kids are too young to have PTSD and we will at some time or another have to face that.

Kony is evil and really need to be dealt with.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/13/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||

#5  We are compassionate, plus Kony recruit child solders, some as young at 8 to 10 years old.

Yes, the 'compassion' of the Foggy Bottom and Langley regime change crowd really is overwhelming. Am I to understand that we're.....'doing it for the children.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Seriously? You're going with "for the children"? That's a weak emotional argument.

Kony is bad but he's not our problem. Africa for Africans.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/13/2017 13:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Am I to understand that we're.....'doing it for the children.'



We're probably doing it to get boots in country, and all that entails.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 13:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Seriously? You're going with "for the children"? That's a weak emotional argument.

No, I'm not. I hope no one else is either.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 13:43 Comments || Top||

#9  I can see where Besoeker is coming from. I was not thinking in term of "doing it for the children", but real physiological issues.

Good point about the Obama "Foggy Bottom and Langley regime" as I was not thinking of them.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/13/2017 15:05 Comments || Top||

#10  can you image the trauma those children have to deal with?

This is the emotional argument. It's weak.

In time we will have to help them as well recover.

How does this follow? It's not our job nor our obligation. Kony is an African problem that needs an African solution.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/13/2017 15:50 Comments || Top||

#11  Imperial Overreach Syndrome -- it's always fatal in the long term. Where does this stop?
Secondly, like the EU's lawfare puppet the ICC, all actions taken depend on whose ox is gored.
Posted by: magpie || 03/13/2017 15:51 Comments || Top||

#12  It's the usual virtue signalling.

Africa is full of bad guys. Who are we to decide who is the baddest?
Posted by: phil_b || 03/13/2017 16:30 Comments || Top||

#13  Africa is a pesthole and a terrible place for a white man to try and do business or give someone the business.

The Cubans found that out in Angola and so did we.

It would have been much easier to zap Kony ten years ago but we've driven him into the worst bush in the world and he'll probably die in there of malaria before someone can give him a bullet.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/13/2017 23:38 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
‘Teach captured terrorists to sing, dance and play’
The headline makes Gunaratna sound a lot dumber than he is. He's referring to the snuffie's humorlessness. I'd suggest hanging them or chopping their heads off. A sect -- and I'm referring to a sect, not to the entire religion -- that is capable of forcing the idea that "My mother and my sister are impure" needs to be exterminated like the vermin they are. Many, if not most, of these beauzeaux were perfectly capable of singing, dancing, and playing before they threw in their lot with Evil.
[Dhaka Tribune] International terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna is now in Dhaka to attend a conference of the chiefs of police from South Asia and neighbouring countries.

On the sidelines of the event, Gunaratna spoke extensively to journalists on challenges of Bangladesh in countering terrorism and on the rehabilitation of terrorists, which he believes is essential in stopping the spread of these ideologies.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea seen excavating tunnel for far more powerful nuke test
At this point it's all engineering, materials and supply. The Norks have solved the science end of this. We can look forward to more tests with larger devices. They're now limited by their supply of fissile material and the most critical technology.
North Korea is continuing to excavate a tunnel at its nuclear test site, which may support an explosion up to 14 times more powerful than its last test, according to U.S. analysts Saturday.

Satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast shows that substantial tunnel excavation is continuing at the North Portal, where the last four of the five underground nuclear tests by the North were conducted, according to the analysis posted at 38 North, a website run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

"The continued tunneling under Mt. Mantap via the North Portal has the potential for allowing North Korea to support additional underground nuclear tests of significantly higher explosive yields, perhaps up to 282 kilotons (or just above a quarter of a megaton)," said the article written by Frank Pabian, a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) fellow, and David Coblentz, an earth and environmental science expert at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The North's latest nuclear test on Sept. 9, 2016, is estimated at 15-20 kilotons yield. One kiloton is equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT.

They said that after the test, new tunneling activity has only been observed at the North Portal while activity at other portals had either been sharply reduced or already halted.

"This suggests that the North Portal will very likely continue to be used as the primary test location, possibly because it provides the greatest amount of overburden and would likely be the most capable of containing the largest possible explosive yields, potentially up to just above a quarter of a megaton." they said.

Meanwhile, John Schilling, an engineering specialist at the U.S. Aerospace Corporation, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Saturday that North Korea is likely to successfully launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) within the next two years and deploy it by 2020.

In the past decade, Pyongyang has stepped up efforts to develop a nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental U.S.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  I look forward to seeing a mountain collapse on Google Earth.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 8:35 Comments || Top||


Europe
Sweden Realizes It's Been Financially Supporting Hundreds Of Terrorists For Years
[Daily Caller] Close to every person who left Sweden to fight for terror groups in the Middle East received welfare to support themselves abroad, according to a new government report.

A study of 300 Swedish citizens who fought in Syria and Iraq between 2013 and 2016 shows jihadis are getting increasingly good at getting away with welfare fraud. The individuals often use a person in Sweden to handle paperwork and create the illusion that they’re still in the country.

"It’s not surprising, we’ve seen the same pattern in other countries," Magnus Ranstorp, one of the authors behind the report, told state broadcaster SVT. "What’s most surprising is that close to everyone received it in some form. The oversight process needs to get better."
"What you subsidize, you get more of."
The most attractive option are government loans to study abroad. The loans are easy to get and thousands of dollars are paid out at once.
Very good. Now that this has been both realized and admitted, what will the Swedish government do about it?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 04:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  what will the Swedish government do about it?

Forgive the loans?
Posted by: Bobby || 03/13/2017 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh that's cruel Bobby. Funny as heck, but cruel.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/13/2017 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  " individuals often use a person in Sweden to handle paperwork"

Who's not been charged with aiding terrorism and their family expelled with them.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/13/2017 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Do they mean Sweden's unwavering support for the "Palestinian Cause"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 14:48 Comments || Top||


Islamic State’s German Magazine Tells Fighters To Kill ‘Apostate’ Imams
[BREITBART] The German-language Islamic state magazine Rumiyah has called on supporters and 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....
fighters in Germany and Austria to murder moderate Imams who they consider "apostates."

The magazine was released in several languages earlier this week through the various internet channels Islamic State uses to broadcast propaganda to its sympathisers, MEMRI reports. One of the methods used was a "telegram" app, an encrypted messaging service that ISIS often uses and is generally the first place the group takes credit for terror attacks.

The terror group named several prominent members of the Moslem community in both Germany and Austria as potential targets for liquidation in an article entitled "Kill the infidel imams in Germany and Austria."

Among the targets listed is Aiman Mazyek, Secretary-General of the Central Council of Moslems in Germany. Mazyek has made controversial statements in the past, such as calling for German leaders to limit the number of migrants colonists flowing into the country in late 2015.
Sensible and honest. Did German bien pensants slam him as a racist at the time?
The Moslem leader has also slammed the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) likening them to Nazis after they revealed a platform of anti-Islamisation last year.

Omar al-Rawi, a Vienna city councilman for the Socialist Party (SPÖ) and a member of the Council Committee on European and International Affairs was also listed as a target. al-Rawi is also no stranger to controversy ‐ in 2010 he led an official condemnation of Israel in the Vienna city hall over the Israeli raids on a flotilla heading for Gazoo, which Israeli authorities claimed was not the humanitarian mission activists stated it to be.

Al-Rawi also led a protest against Israel in Vienna. Among the demonstrators were members of the Turkish far-right nationalist group the Grey Wolves who have clashed with Kurds in Germany and have been accused of trying to infiltrate German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom...
’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party through its diversity program.
Was it the Grey Wolves who the Germans meant when they stated that Turkey had increased spying in Germany, or are they enthusiastic amateurs in addition to the Turkish professionals looking for Gulenists in Turkey's near abroad?
Killing Imams they don’t agree with is nothing new for the Islamic State. In 2014 ISIS executed 13 holy mans in the city of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
whom they deemed to be too moderate. Imam Muhammad al Mansuri was one of the victims of the terror group and was the imam in charge of the mosque in which ISIS leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi gave a rare public appearance to lead prayers.

Islamic State killed a further six imams in early 2015 after they condemned the group’s actions when they burned Jordanian pilot Mu’ath Kasasbeh alive.

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Was it the Grey Wolves who the Germans meant when they stated that Turkey had increased spying in Germany

Background on the Gray Wolves
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 11:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Precisely, Pappy. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 21:36 Comments || Top||


Denmark warns Turkish PM to postpone visit as Germany mulls legal options
[DW] Denmark has joined a growing list of countries to block The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's attempts at political campaigns in Europe. Germany's interior minister says there could be legal avenues to bar entry to referendum campaigners.

Denmark's prime minister suggested his Turkish counterpart postpone his visit due to "tensions" between Ankara and the Netherlands, he said in a statement on Sunday.

Danish public broadcaster DR reported Binali Yildirim had planned to visit the country on March 20 but Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said that such a visit could not take place in light of "the current Turkish attack on Holland."

"Under normal circumstances, it would be a pleasure to welcome the Turkish prime minister," Rasmussen said in a statement. He told DR that the Danish government was "very concerned" about political developments in Turkey.

Ankara is squabbling with several European countries over its attempts to rally support among the Turkish diaspora for an April referendum aimed at expanding President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
's powers.

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Carlos the Jackal faces trial again in France
[Gulf News] Carlos the Jackal, the perpetrator of headline-grabbing attacks in the 1970s and early 1980s, goes on trial in La Belle France on Monday for the deadly bombing of a Gay Paree shop more than 40 years ago.

With attention in La Belle France now focused on the ever-present threat of myrmidon attack, the trial in Gay Paree will reach back to a time when Europe was repeatedly targeted by ruthless groups sympathetic to the Paleostinian cause.

Carlos, 67, a Venezuelan whose real name is Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, describes himself as a "professional revolutionary" and was dubbed ’Carlos the Jackal’ by the press when he was one of the world’s most wanted terror suspects.

The nickname came from a fictional terrorist in the 1971 Frederick Forsyth novel, ’The Day of the Jackal’, which was turned into a popular film.

Arrested in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in 1994 by elite French police, Carlos is already serving a life sentence for the murders of two coppers killed in Gay Paree in 1975 and that of a Lebanese revolutionary.

He was also found guilty of four bombings in Gay Paree and Marseille in 1982 and 1983, some targeting trains, which killed a total of 11 people and injured nearly 150.

Carlos will be judged by three judges for the attack on the Drugstore Publicis, a busy shop once located in Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the heart of Gay Paree.

In the late afternoon of September 15, 1974, a grenade was lobbed into the entrance of the store, killing two men and leaving 34 people injured.

Georges Holleaux, a lawyer representing the two widows of the men killed and 16 other people affected, said they relished the chance to finally see Carlos in court.

"The victims have been waiting so long for Carlos to be judged and convicted. Their wounds have never healed," he said.

Carlos’s lawyer, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, said the trial was a waste of time and money.

"What exactly is the point of having a trial so long after the events?" she said.

Carlos denies the charges, which include "murders carried out with a terrorist organization".

Al Watan Al Arabi magazine published an interview in 1979 in which Carlos is said to have admitted that he had thrown the grenade into the shop.

He has since denied giving the interview.

The prosecution says the attack was linked to a hostage-taking at the French embassy in the Dutch capital The Hague that had begun two days earlier, on September 13, 1974.

The Japanese Red Army, a communist myrmidon group which had close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine in which Carlos was the head of "special operations", was demanding that French authorities free one of its members who had been locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
at Gay Paree Orly airport two months early.

The prosecution says Carlos orchestrated The Hague hostage-taking and carried out the Gay Paree grenade attack to force the French government to give in to the Japanese group’s demands.

He achieved his aim -- the Japanese suspect was released and was able to travel to 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...
with other members of The Hague hostage-taking team.

The case against Carlos is also based on witness testimony from his former brothers-in-arms, including Hans-Joachim Klein, a German to whom the Venezuelan is said to have admitted he wanted to "apply pressure to get the Japanese man freed".

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doing something about nothing offsets doing nothing about something.

Better to trial an already incarcerated murderer than to take action on immigrants rioting in the streets.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 8:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Ditto Skid.

he trial was a waste of time and money.
A single bullet would have been a major saving on both accounts.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/13/2017 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  He's still alive?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/13/2017 10:50 Comments || Top||


Turkey rallies row: Germany and Netherlands harden stance
[BBC] Several EU leaders have criticised The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, amid a growing row over the Turkish government's attempts to hold rallies in European countries.

President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
accused Germany and the Netherlands of "Nazism" after officials blocked rallies there.

Dutch PM Mark Rutte called his comments "unacceptable", while Germany's foreign minister said he hoped Turkey would "return to its senses".

Denmark's leader has also postponed a planned meeting with Mr Erdogan.

Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he was concerned that "democratic principles are under great pressure" in Turkey.

He added that he had postponed the meeting because: "With the current Turkish attacks on Holland the meeting cannot be seen separated from that."

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


The Grand Turk
Ankara Threatens 'Harshest' Retaliation After Minister Barred From Rotterdam
[Haaretz] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
told the Netherlands on Sunday that it would retaliate in the "harshest ways" after Turkish ministers were barred from speaking in Rotterdam, as a row over Ankara's political campaigning among Turkish immigrants colonists escalated.

The Dutch government, which is set to lose about half its seats in elections this week as the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders makes strong gains, said the ministers' visits were undesirable and it would not cooperate in their political campaigning in the Netherlands.

"If you can sacrifice Turkish-Dutch relations for an election on Wednesday, you will pay the price," Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
said in a speech at an awards ceremony in Istanbul.

"I thought Nazism was dead, but I was wrong. Nazism is still widespread in the West," Erdogan said. "The West has shown its true face."

Speaking to news hounds before a public appearance in the northeastern French city of Metz, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey would continue to act against the Netherlands until it apologises.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he would do everything to "de-escalate" the confrontation, which he described as the worst the Netherlands had experienced in years.

But he said the idea of apologizing was "bizarre".

"This is a man who yesterday made us out for fascists and a country of Nazis. I'm going to de-escalate, but not by offering apologies. Are you nuts?" he told a morning talk show.

In a statement issued early on Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would retaliate in the "harshest ways".

Protesters also gathered outside the Dutch Embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul, throwing eggs and stones at the buildings. 
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Was he looking forward to visiting their red district so much?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 16:29 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Scores of immigrants are creeping into Canada in the dead of night to escape Trump's America
  • [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Immigrants are entering Canada illegally through Champlain in New York

  • They take Roxham Road on foot and enter the village of Hemmingford in Quebec on the other side

  • Police arrest them in Canada and take them to immigration offices to file asylum requests

  • Champlain residents said they'd seen them being dropped off in taxis in the middle of the night
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call me when it's scores of thousands.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Good but as g(r)om points out it's only a trickle.

Let's make sure they can't come back this way.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/13/2017 8:50 Comments || Top||

#3  1 score is 20, right?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 10:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Hell, rent some buses and help them across.
Posted by: chris || 03/13/2017 12:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
FBI undercover stings foil terrorist plots ‐ but often plots of the agency's own making
[Kansas City Star] Announcements of foiled terrorist plots make for lurid reading.

Schemes to carry out a Presidents Day jihadist attack on a train station in Kansas City. Bomb a Sept. 11 memorial event. Blow up a 1,000-pound bomb at Fort Riley. Detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Wichita airport -- the failed plans all show imagination.

But how much of it was real?

Often not much, according to a review of several recent terrorism cases investigated by the FBI in Kansas and Missouri. The most sensational plots invoking the name of the Islamic State or al-Qaida here were largely the invention of FBI agents carrying out elaborate sting operations on individuals identified through social media as being potentially dangerous.

In fact, in terrorism investigations in Wichita, at Fort Riley and last week in Kansas City, the alleged terrorists reportedly were unknowingly following the directions of undercover FBI agents who supplied fake bombs and came up with key elements of the plans.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 04:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This needs some serious looking into.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 5:02 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm certain the closely held methods and agents will be protected under some DHS 'official secrets' policy. Of the incidents published, invariably there is some UC agent involved early engaging the actor. Quite often this complementary antagonism is all that is necessary to push an already unstable personality into action.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 8:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Quite often this complementary antagonism is all that is necessary to push an already unstable personality into action.

Nidal Hasan immediately comes to mind
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 8:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like the old KKK meetings when more than half the attendees were FBI.

Is it entrapment when you're trapping yourself plus some poor schmuck that don't know nothin'?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/13/2017 8:45 Comments || Top||

#5  I would say they do it to make themselves look good and to justify better budgets... but never assign to malice what can be explained by incompetence.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/13/2017 9:13 Comments || Top||

#6  The problem is that ISIS also has groomers looking for these people, and when they're done with 'em, they'll commit jihad for real. Rachid Kassim, who specialized in youths in France for ISIS, had 317 boys and girls who were his friends on the Telegram chat app -- a significant number not originally Muslim -- that he was at various stages of seducing either to make hijra to Iraq or commit jihad at home. He accounted for half of the jihadi plot arrests in France last year, as I recall. It was reported that he was killed by a drone this February. In time, no doubt, it will be revealed who took over cultivating his garden, and who is cultivating other gardens using ISIS' channel on Telegram.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 9:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Shortsighted articles such as these never quite a give the complete picture. In one respect they reveal the challenges (often folly) of conducting domestic counter-terrorism through a law enforcement model. But they always seem to insinuate that the mental instability of the targets is proof of their vulnerability. And they never state the obvious. People that are willing to kill and maime innocents are wired much differently than the rest of civilized society. Moreover, Islamic terrorists willing to kill themselves in a quest for martyrdom can't be treated the same as common criminals. Therfore prevention strategies require a more aggressive approach.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/13/2017 11:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Shortsighted articles such as these never quite a give the complete picture. In one respect they reveal the challenges (often folly) of conducting domestic counter-terrorism through a law enforcement model

The more accurate term is counter-intelligence, even when it's done by the FBI. And in the past, it's been done more aggressively. Unfortunately its application has also been spotty.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 11:45 Comments || Top||

#9  i'd term it "counter colonization"
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/13/2017 12:26 Comments || Top||

#10  Soofa and Simpson in Garland Texas, Abdulazeez in Chatanooga, the Tsarnev brothers in Boston, Mateen in Orlando...all were "groomed" or collected on by the FBI in a CI type manner...all eventually launched attacks on innocent US citizens, and we're eliminated by local police. All FBI failures just like Nokoula.

The FBI needs Roto Rooter their head outta their azz.
Posted by: Tennessee || 03/13/2017 13:25 Comments || Top||

#11  My sentiments exactly Tennessee.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 13:33 Comments || Top||

#12  So, they can count both sides of a sting transaction as an "investigation."

The bean counters tracking stats will call this a win/win.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 03/13/2017 13:58 Comments || Top||

#13  This needs some serious looking into.

Pour encourager les autres.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/13/2017 14:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Haqqanis, LeT, JeM should be treated like terror groups, says India
Yes, well they would think so.
[HINDUSTANTIMES] India has said that outfits like the Haqqani network, LeT and JeM should be treated like terrorist groups and warned that terrorism’s "resurgent forces" are not given sanctuaries and safe havens in any form.

"The unimpeded and increasingly brutal terrorist attacks, the territorial gains by terrorist groups with support from outside Afghanistan and the emerging grave humanitarian crises are all portents of dreadful times," India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin said on Friday during a Security Council session on the situation in Afghanistan.

"It is our first and foremost duty to ensure that the resurgent forces of terrorism and extremism do not find sanctuaries and safe havens in any name, form or manifestation," he said, adding that experience has shown when "foreign assistance" is available to Death Eaters, situations tend to fester and take a greater toll.

He strongly warned against differentiating between good and bad holy warriors as well as playing one group against the other.

"The Taliban, Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
, Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
, and others of their ilk are all terror organizations, many of them proscribed by the UN. They should be treated like terrorist organizations and their activities universally opposed," he said.

In a criticism of the world body, Akbaruddin said it is obvious that the political process the UN had started and the sanction regimes it had split have not quite worked.

"The fact that the Council has not acted on the Taliban leaders as it had vowed in resolution 1988 is now well documented," he said.

The Indian envoy also strongly criticised the Security Council’s subsidiary body for taking four months to confirm the death of the leader of the Taliban.

"It is now 7 months and we are still counting as we await the decision of the Council’s same subsidiary on freezing the accounts of that slain terrorist," he said.

Akbaruddin cautioned that the international community cannot stand and watch from the sidelines as gains achieved by them and the Afghan people towards the war-torn country’s development in the last decades are reversed.

India called for decisive action to combat terror groups, saying nations have had to pay a costly price for their inactions in the past.

"While territories are captured by terrorists, people are killed and threatened to go back to a situation perhaps same as or worse than what they fled, can we remain just looking on? Standing, where we are today, it is imperative that we take action and take it decisively. We must not forget the implications the world faced in 2001 for its lack of action. History never forgives those who forget it," he added.

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Iraq
Group of Sunni Arab leaders asks for Kurdish Peshmerga help in Hawija ops
[RUDAW.NET] A group of Sunni Arab leaders is calling on Masoud Barzani to authorize Kurdish Peshmerga forces to assist their 1,200-strong force in efforts to rid ISIS from Hawija.

"We do have the Peshmerga and [Kirkuk] suburban police to ask [to assist] in re-controlling Hawija. We hope Hawija is going to be re-controlled. Therefore, we call upon the president of Kurdistan to try to attempt and engage in serious work to liberate it as soon as possible." Masrour Naji, chief of the al-Jabouri tribe, said to Rudaw after meeting with several other Sunni Arab leaders in Kirkuk on Sunday.

It was reported last month that some 1,200 Sunni tribal fighters have been trained by the Iraqi government to take part in the long-anticipated offensive to recapture the ISIS stronghold of Hawija, about 55 km south of Kirkuk.

"The Sunni people of the area have some opposition to the participation of some of the forces; the Iraqi government to some other. And Kurdistan wants the Peshmerga’s participation. They are all impediments. Removing them is up to the political parties not the Peshmerga," Rebwar Omer, a Peshmerga commander said.

Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries in southern Kirkuk have prepared three brigades for the Hawija Operation. Under and Iraqi law passed in December 2016, Hashd al-Shaabi is under the umbrella of the Iraqi army and answers to its commander in chief, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

"We will not withdraw since Hashd al-Shaabi is now holding its position like other forces and in this way it fights terror. It is a military force that received votes from the parliament. Therefore, no force could tell us ’do not participate," Zaki Mohammed, a Hashd al-Shaabi official, said to Rudaw.

Hawija city lies about 55 kilometers southwest of Kirkuk and is from where deadly October attacks were directed against Kirkuk in which more than 100 people were killed. Hawija has been under ISIS control for more than two years.

Iraqi forces, supported by local Sunni militia, opened a front against ISIS in the Hawija Plains in November 2016.

Kirkuk city and security officials have long complained that the Hawija operation have been delayed with no real justification; thereby underestimating the security of the city.

"More than 75,000 civilians remain trapped in Hawija where they are subjected to severe food and medicine shortages, torture, and ’crimes of genocide," the Iraq Security and Humanitarian Monitor in mid-February reported Deputy General of the Arab Council Ismail Hadidi as saying.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli schoolgirls' killer: Israelis are human garbage
[NEWS24] A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in a 1997 shooting rampage was unrepentant after his release from prison on Sunday, lashing out at Israelis with harshly derogatory remarks.

Ahmed Daqamseh, who had spent 20 years in prison, was given a rousing welcome in his home village in northern Jordan after his release. He was greeted by chanting supporters who kissed him on the cheek and raised a photo of him with the caption, "Welcome to the hero Daqamseh."

Daqamseh opened fire on a group of Israeli students at the scenic "Island of Peace" border post in March 1997, killing seven and wounding seven.

A Jordanian military court deemed Daqamseh mentally unstable and sentenced him to life in prison, rather than imposing the death penalty. Jordan had announced several days ago that Daqamseh would be released this week, after completing his term. In Jordan, life terms are not open-ended, and prisoners can be released after 20 years.

Upon arriving in his hometown, Daqamseh expressed no regrets, telling a news hound that Israelis are "human garbage".
Such a lovely man, along with all those who cheered him, there and elsewhere.
Israel's government had no comment on Sunday.

Israel and Jordan co-operate closely on security matters, including in the battle against Islamic extremism, even if their 1994 peace treaty remains widely unpopular in Jordan where many residents have Paleostinian roots.

Yisrael Fatihi, whose 13-year-old daughter Sivan was killed in the attack, told Israel Radio on Sunday that he had been informed by the Israeli embassy in Jordan last week that Daqamseh's release was imminent.

"It is unfortunate, but this is the situation," Fatihi said.

After the shooting, Jordan's King Hussein - the late father of the current king, Abdullah II - rushed to Israel and paid condolence visits to the girls' families, a gesture that touched many Israelis at the time.

Fatihi recalled Hussein's condolence visit, saying he and his family had been sitting on the floor in mourning at the time and that the monarch knelt down next to them. "We told him we really appreciated his visit," Fatihi said.

Peace
Nurit, his wife, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named her daughter was a "very happy" child who "took everything easily." She said she misses "her laughter, her smile, her joy of life".

"Despite the murder we are for peace," she said.

Daqamseh was released from prison before dawn on Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, he was receiving well-wishers in his clan's meeting hall in the village of Ibdir, about 120km north of the capital of Amman.

Jordanian security forces set up checkpoints along the access road to the village, preventing journalists from entering with cameras.

In comments broadcast on the Al Jazeera satellite TV channel, Daqamseh appeared to be unrepentant. He said that those who criticised him for killing maidens were "hired pens" and admonished them to "fear God".

Standing in a street dressed in a suit and tie, he said, "Paleostine needs every single Arab and Moslem."

Asked by the Al Jazeera news hound about a purported Israeli plot to kill him, Daqamseh said: "They [Israelis] are human garbage that other peoples got rid of by dumping them in Paleostine, the most sacred place after Mecca."

'Burned and buried'
"This garbage should be burned or buried," he added. "This will happen, if not in our generation, then in other generations."

In a videotaped statement posted online, Daqamseh urged Jordanians not to believe what he called "the lie of normalisation with Israel" and the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.

Keren Ofri Mizrachi, one of the girls Daqamseh shot and maimed in the attack, said his release from prison is a difficult day for her.

She told Israel's Channel 10 TV how he shot her four times from close range while she was trying to escape the carnage. Her twin sister was also shot and maimed in the attack.

"I saw the look of murder in his eyes," she said, adding that his release had brought memories flooding back. It feels like being "maimed again".

"I have chosen to live. I won't allow anybody or anything in the world break me. I am strong, I am a proud Jew. I have a family and children, they are my strength," she said.
Well said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not the unrepentant murderer it's the country that executes people for drug trafficking
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:42 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not the unrepentant murderer it's the country that executes people for drug trafficking, but gave this one less than 3 years in jail per murdered Jewish teenager - who came to Jordan to make Peace.

You think that maybe, just maybe, people who think that the only way to make peace is to make peace without Arabs, may be right?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:46 Comments || Top||

#3  In a videotaped statement posted online, Daqamseh urged Jordanians not to believe what he called "the lie of normalisation with Israel" and the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict.

At least he learned something during his period of incarceration, primary causation outstanding.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 3:47 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Mossad isn't figuring out a way to bump this guy off, it's not earning its keep. Pour Encourager Les Autres.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/13/2017 14:20 Comments || Top||


Palestinian children reportedly pretend to execute IDF soldiers in foreign aid-funded schools
[Ynet] Mail on Sunday reports on Paleostinian schools operated by British foreign aid: named after terrorists, with photos of hard boyz on their walls and children playing at killing IDF soldiers.
The song has been sung before, but this time British Prime Minister May has postioned herself and her party as pro-Israel. So possibly this time funding will actually be cut, not rearranged in differently fungible categories.
An investigation by British newspaper Mail on Sunday
...that would be our old friend, The Daily Mail, but on Sunday...
found that Paleostinian 24 schools named after terrorists, in addition to evidence of promoting violence against Israel by teachers, while describing hard boyz as heroes. The paper also stated that these schools are funded by British foreign aid.

The piece includes photos of children pretending to kill an IDF soldiers as part of a school play.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  So possibly this time funding will actually be cut, not rearranged in differently fungible categories.

You're such an optimist, TW.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 22:01 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran announces mass production of domestic main battle tank-cool autoloader
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  So, they make it from Russian supplied parts - or the Russians don't trust the "chernozopii" even that much?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably both - the Iranians probably got a basic 'tank in a box'.

But they didn't get the really cool stuff, like the armor. Likely they also had to provide their own engine and power-train, and the "electro-optical fire control system, a laser rangefinder, and a ballistic computer." they got buying from either China, ex-Soviet satellites, or on the black arms market.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  and why does Iran even need Tanks?

they can intimidate lightly armed protesters but even a Hummer with a few automatic guns would do the second task better than a tank

I guess the tank looks better in a parade
Posted by: lord garth || 03/13/2017 9:14 Comments || Top||

#4  and why does Iran even need Tanks?

Given the current trends, one can assume that Iran will use them in an expeditionary role eventually.

Aside from that, the more likely reason is defense, with possible export applications.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  and why does Iran even need Tanks?

Because Russia won't sell them to the NKors.
Iran can trade them for missiles.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 13:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Iraq and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are all ideal tank territory.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/13/2017 13:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Iraqand Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are all ideal tank territory. Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain

The issue frequently NOT discussed (often overlooked) about armor is it's huge logistical tail. It's not like jumping in your F-150 in Atlanta, topping off your fuel tank, and being in Henderson, KY seven or eight hours later.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/13/2017 13:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Drink UP!
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2017 14:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Iraq can be reached via maritime transport. Same with Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, etc.

As I said, it'd be in an expeditionary capacity if they're used outside of Iran, with the associated support and transport assets. Definitely not in a 'blitzkreig' thunder-across-the-fields capacity.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 16:12 Comments || Top||

#10  and why does Iran even need Tanks?

Because they all still re-fighting Yom Kippur when IDF armor crushed numerically superior Arab armored corps.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 16:27 Comments || Top||

#11  and why does Iran even need Tanks?
In living memory they were invaded by the armored forces of Iraq. Their armored units fought quite well (per Cordesman) despite being the hollowed out leftovers from the Shah's old professional army.
Posted by: magpie || 03/13/2017 17:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Because they all still re-fighting Yom Kippur when IDF armor crushed numerically superior Arab armored corps.

Seems IDF refought previous wars with the Arabs the last time they went up against the Hesbies...

BLUF: Don't underestimate your enemies.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/13/2017 18:45 Comments || Top||


Iranian backed militia forms Golan liberation brigade
[Ynet] An Iraqi Shiite brigade, who is backed by Iran, declares its intentions: liberate the Golan; trained and armed by Iran with Russian weaponry, this branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps poses possible threat to Israel.

Equipped with Russian-made tanks (via the Syrian army), Iranian rockets and operating as an elite unit trained by the Islamic Theocratic Republic, a brigade formed by the Iraqi Shiite militia declared that its target is to liberate the Golan. This brigade is the reason behind the message Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed in Russia, according to which Israel will not tolerate permanent Iranian presence in Syria.

"The declaration regarding the formation of the liberation of the Golan brigade is not only a media campaign, but the real goal of the movement," said the secretary general of the militia, Akram al-Kabi.

So who is this militia? Intelligence researcher Ronen Solomon, owner of the Intel Times blog, traced this significant branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

"The militia's name first surfaced in 2013 when it deployed its divisions in Syria, in the areas of Sayyidah Zaynab of the Damascus suburbs (which is sacred to the Shiites), Idlib, Aleppo, Homs, al-Klmon near the Lebanese border, and Iraq under the auspices of the Revolutionary Guard," Solomon explained.

"That same year, the militia released a series of videos that expressed loyalty to the commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, and even adopted the resistance symbols of Hezbollah," continued Solomon.

The organization in question is an extension of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq that includes several Shiite militias who are perceived as controversial due to their religious zeal.

The organization, according to Solomon's analysis, is one of the Shiite militias deployed to Syria by Iran to help Hezbollah and the Syrian army in securing the Shiite holy places, but also to conquer the strategic city of Aleppo, in addition to reinforcing Hezbollah's defense in the al-Klmon Mountains. "All activity is coordinated with Russia, who has been providing the forces with aerial backup and assisting in transferring weapons of their production."

Solomon claimed that the Iraqi militia has an elite unit trained by Iran, which operates in similar fashion to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force. "Iran provided the militia with multi barrel rocket launchers... and even though the rockets are not precise, they hold deadly impact, which has proven itself in Iraq against American bases and now, in pounding rebel outposts in northern Syria."

In recent months, there have been records of the Syrian militia fighters equipped with Russian T-90 tanks, which they probably received indirectly from Russia through the Syrian army, according to Solomon's assessment. He noted that "the fighting in Iraq and Syria has made them proficient in guerrilla warfare and urban warfare."

Solomon also linked between this militia and the reports concerning an attempt by the Quds Force to use an Iraqi citizen with a Norwegian citizenship against Israel from Jordan territory in July 2015. Jordan tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
the citizen, who was captured with 45 kilograms of powerful explosives.

Sheikh al-Kabi, who heads the militia, occasionally exchanges his traditional garb with a military uniform: "He wanders back and forth on the Iraq--Iran axis, Syria and Leb ... and holds meetings with security officials working from the Iranian government, and even visits in Leb with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah."

In September 2015, al-Kabi gave a speech to his fighters in Aleppo, going so far as to directly accuse Israel of attacking his organization, a claim which to this day remains unproven. al-Kabi neglected to specify where and where Israel had allegedly attacked, but this accusation is a first of its kind.

Usually, the attacks attributed to Israel in Syria are meant to prevent arms shipments from being transferred to Hezbollah in Leb. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
on the backdrop of the formation of this brigade along with Netanyahu's quicksilver visit to Russia, it is quite possible that one day, Israel will find itself in conflict with this Shiite militia.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Golan Fertilization brigade?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 3:35 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't suppose anyone will notice if they quietly succumb to food poisoning or a spontanous explosion of their weapons supply one evening, g(r)omgoru, fixated as everyone is on excitements in Aleppo and Raqqa.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/13/2017 9:42 Comments || Top||


Lebanese Cardinal slams Hezbollah
[Gulf News] In a bold interview with SkyNewsArabia, Maronite Patriarch Mar Bisharah Al Rai has slammed the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group for its involvement in the Syria war.

He said the decision to participate in the war, which helped bolster Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, contributed to division in Lebanese society.

"Hezbollah disregarded Leb’s dissociation policy," the Cardinal said, the first time he has spoken with such openness on the issue.

From the onset of the war, Lebanese politicians collectively agreed on a policy to not involve themselves in the Syria war -- in an effort to spare the war-ridden country from further conflict.

Al Rai’s comments come at a time where GCC relations with Leb are at an all-time low, due to Iran’s growing influence over its politicians and institutions.

In January, Lebanese President Aoun travelled to 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 met with King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Cutodian of the Two Holy Mosquesand Lord of Most of the Arabians....
Bin Abdul Aziz, on his first presidential foreign visit.

Lebanese hoped the visit would restore vital economic ties and that Saudi Arabia would give Leb $3 billion (Dh11 billion) to purchase French weapons for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) which it had previously withheld after Jibran Bassil, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who heads the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
, voted against the unanimous Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation resolutions that condemned the January 5, 2016 Iranian attacks on Saudi missions in Iran.

However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
a planned follow-up visit by King Salman to Leb was cancelled after Aoun praised Hezbollah and backed the militia’s right to bear arms alongside the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) during an interview with Egyptian TV.

Al Rai’s comments reveal widespread fear in the country over Hezbollah’s arms -- the Cardinal called the situation "abnormal".

Aside from maverick former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, other Lebanese politicians notably did not comment on Al Rai’s interview, reflecting a deep fear in the country to speak out against Hezbollah.

Rifi, a Sunni politician from Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
who does not miss an opportunity to lash out at Iran and Syria, backed the Cardinal and emphasised the importance of upholding the illusory sovereignty of the nation.

"Hezbollah’s weapons are being used by Iran as a tool for chaos to achieve expansionist ambitions," he said, adding that they directly negate the interests of Leb, its stability and its relations with Arab states.

Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Durned redbirds!
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/13/2017 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  We'll be reading his obituary in a few days.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/13/2017 17:02 Comments || Top||

#3  His chauffeur is as brave man.
Posted by: magpie || 03/13/2017 17:40 Comments || Top||


With Lebanon No Longer Hiding Hezbollah's Role, Next War Must Hit Civilians Where It Hurts, Israeli Minister Says
[Haaretz] Lebanese President Michel Aoun
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
paid an official visit to Cairo a month ago, ahead of which he gave a number of interviews to the Egyptian media. Aoun was only elected president after a long power struggle in which Iran and Hezbollah finally held sway, and he spoke about the fact that the Shi’ite organization continues to be the only Lebanese militia that refuses outright to disarm.

Hezbollah is a significant part of the Lebanese people, Aoun explained. "As long as Israel occupies land and covets the natural resources of Leb, and as long as the Lebanese military lacks the power to stand up to Israel, [Hezbollah’s] arms are essential, in that they complement the actions of the army and do not contradict them," he said, adding, "They are a major part of Leb’s defense."

Brig. Gen. Assaf Orion from the Institute for National Security Studies wrote recently that Aoun’s comments were a "lifting of the official veil and tearing off of the mask of the well-known Lebanese reality ‐ which widely accepted Western diplomacy tends to blur. The Lebanese president abolishes the forced distinction between the ostensibly sovereign state and Hezbollah. Thus, the Lebanese president takes official responsibility for any actions by Hezbollah, including against Israel."

Aoun’s declaration also tallies with the facts on the ground. At a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this past week, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the Lebanese army is now "a subsidiary unit of Hezbollah."
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Terror Networks
Islamic State Relationship Advice: Gossiping About Wives Shows ‘Lack of Manliness’
[BREITBART] 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....
(ISIS/ISIS), through a relationship advice column featured in the latest issue of its Rumiyah propaganda magazine, warns jihadi husbands against gossiping about their wives, saying it shows a "lack of manliness."

Titled, "The Flesh of Your Spouse Is Poisonous," the marriage advice article notes that jihadi husbands must not reveal secret information about their relationship no matter the number of wives, according to Daily Mail.

Worse than a wife who engages in gossip is "an otherwise intelligent man speaking about the secrets of his home to others," points out Rumiyah.

"Indeed, this is evidence of a lack of manliness," declares the ISIS article. "Only one who makes a fool of himself does such a thing."

Acknowledging that even jihadists have to "breathe and vent" at times, the column suggests that husbands should reserve complaints for a religious "counselor who is trusted with regards to his religion and morals, and who safeguards the secrets of those of his brothers who speak to him."

The article compares a husband exposing the secrets of his relationship with a wife removing "her veil in front of other men."

ISIS further notes in the column:

Some spouses -- be they men or women -- are not careful when it comes to exposing their homes to gossip and idle talk. We often find husbands talking about the problems that happen between them and their wives in both private and public gatherings, and also find that wives do so as well. Each of them might mention the other, in the latter’s absence, with displeasing terms.

Backbiting is a disease of the tongue that only incurs ruin and loss.

Neither spouse "is allowed to backbite the other ‐ even when one is right concerning his claims," states the terrorist group.
Posted by: Fred || 03/13/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  "Real Housewives of Raqqa™ sponsored by Hefty Lawn and Trash Bags"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/13/2017 8:55 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2017-03-13
  Kenyan police nab 6 terror suspects in coastal town
Sun 2017-03-12
  Double suicide attack kills 40 in Damascus
Sat 2017-03-11
  Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
Fri 2017-03-10
   Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
Thu 2017-03-09
  Baghdadi abandons Mosul fight to field commanders
Wed 2017-03-08
  IS gunmen dressed as medics kill 30 at Kabul military hospital
Tue 2017-03-07
  Mufti Hannan jailbreak attempt fails
Mon 2017-03-06
  New wave of US air raids on Qaeda in Yemen
Sun 2017-03-05
  Jordan hangs 15 death row prisoners at dawn in further break from moratorium on executions
Sat 2017-03-04
  Kurdish YPG fighters repel treacherous Turkish attack near Syria’s Afrin
Fri 2017-03-03
  Syrian Army recaptures Palmyra, aided by Russian Air Force: Kremlin
Thu 2017-03-02
  Islamic State supreme leader’s speech admits defeat in Mosul
Wed 2017-03-01
  Two women in nerve agent attack on Kim Jong-nam charged with murder
Tue 2017-02-28
  Islamic State claims attempted bombing in Algeria -AMAQ
Mon 2017-02-27
  Taliban shadow governor among 21 killed in counter-terrorism operations

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