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Today: 53 articles and 126 comments as of 9:31.
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Iraqi forces take Mosul
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 6: Politix
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Africa North
Hafter discuss further support with UAE deputy armed forces chief
[LibyaHerald] Following the crushing of Islamist snuffies in Benghazi, Field Marshal Kahlifa Hafter has flown to Abu Dhabi for talks with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and the UAE armed forces’ deputy supreme commander about further boosting collaboration.

In a statement afterwards congratulating Hafter on the liberation of Benghazi, Sheikh Mohammed expressed the UAE’s support for what he said were the Libyan people’s "choices and ambitions" for a stable and secure life. The crown prince also wished the Libyan National Army "good luck" in achieving further victories against gunnies and Death Eaters "in order to liberate all Libya from these destructive menaces".

Cooperation with "other regional and international actors" in countering extremism and terrorist organizations was also discussed. This is seen as a reference to Egypt and Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
For his part, Haftar thanked the UAE for its support so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2017 01:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
French police charge suspect linked to 2015 kosher supermarket attack
[IsraelTimes] Officials say the prints of Abdelaziz S. were found on one of the weapons used by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly

French police have charged a 42-year-old man in connection with the January 2015 terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Gay Paree, a judicial source said Saturday.

DNA testing found samples from the man, identified as Abdelaziz S., on one of the weapons used by Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four people after taking shoppers hostage at the Hyper Cacher market.

He was detained in a Gay Paree suburb on Wednesday and is being held on charges of criminal association with terrorists.

"During questioning, the suspect failed to provide any satisfactory explanation about why his DNA was found inside the weapon, but he insists he knew nothing of Coulibaly’s plans," the source said.

Two women, aged 23 and 31, who were also detained by Sherlocks earlier in the week, have been released.

The attack on the Jewish store on January 9 came a day after Coulibaly killed a policewoman, and a few days after the assault by other jihadists on the Charlie Hebdo
...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
satirical magazine offices that killed 12 people.

According to Sherlocks, the Tokarev handguns and an assault rifle used by Coulibaly were purchased by a company owned by the wife of a suspected arms trafficker, Claude Hermant.

Hermant, a former mercenary during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, claims to have sold them on to another suspected trafficker, identified as Samir L., in a deal aimed at infiltrating a network, a sale which had the blessing of the French police.

Samir L. was one of several people charged in the months following the Hyper Cacher attack for helping Coulibaly obtain the weapons, though all have denied any knowledge of his plans.

Hermant and his wife have been called in twice for questioning in the inquiry, but no charges have been filed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Fifth Column
Military Judge Gives Bowe Bergdahl A Lot Of Bad News
[RedState] Last week, the military judge overseeing the trial rendered two adverse decisions. First, he decided that Bergdahl will stand trial on all charges. Most damaging, though, was his decision that if Bergdahl is convicted that the jury would be allowed to hear about the injuries suffered by an Navy SEAL and an Army NCO while specifically searching for Bergdahl.

Serious wounds to a soldier and a Navy SEAL who searched for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl can be used at the sentencing phase of his upcoming trial, a judge ruled Friday, giving prosecutors significant leverage to pursue stiff punishment against the soldier.

The judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, ruled that the service members wouldn’t have wound up in the firefights that left them wounded if they hadn’t been searching for Bergdahl, so their injuries would be relevant to his sentencing if he’s convicted of misbehavior before the enemy at trial in October.

I suspect we are heading for a guilty plea and Bergdahl taking his chances with a military judge. Any court-martial panel Bergdahl draws will be composed of officers with combat tours. Bergdahl can demand that a third of his jury be composed of noncommissioned officers senior in rank to him‐but he’d have to have a profoundly incompetent defense team for them to think that senior NCOs are going to be very sympathetic to his case.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/09/2017 00:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...It says something about Bergdahl and his defense team that they're apparently going to stick to their story and try to fight it out. Now that COL Nance has ruled that at least two men were wounded looking for him (and a Purple Heart still gets people's attention) the smartest thing he can do is just say the hell with it and plead guilty. He's going down and going down very, very hard.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 07/09/2017 5:56 Comments || Top||

#2  or at trial the defense could call Susan Rice who said, back in 2014, that Berghahl served with honor and distinction

that would be interesting
Posted by: lord garth || 07/09/2017 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Any court-martial panel Bergdahl draws will be composed of officers with combat tours.

No. Bergdahl is an enlisted and entitled to request part of the board to be composed of enlisted personnel. Been on one of those boards. Not recommended, but his right under the UCMJ.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 07/09/2017 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  a Purple Heart still gets people's attention)

Maybe true MK, but after JFnK probably not as much.
Posted by: AlanC || 07/09/2017 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Either way, he should just drown himself in the prison toilet and save everyone a lot of time and money.
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/09/2017 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  could call Susan Rice who said, back in 2014, that Berghahl served with honor and distinction

as if she knew what those words even mean
Posted by: Frank G || 07/09/2017 9:57 Comments || Top||

#7  Probably something the WH staff wrote up for her, Frank. I'd go with Ben Rhodes.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2017 12:39 Comments || Top||

#8  I don't know Pappy, the "Liar of Benghazi" doesn't seem to need any help in the lying-thru-her-teeth department.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 07/09/2017 12:40 Comments || Top||

#9  As I've said many times, I would cheerfully be called out of retirement to sit on Bergdahl's court martial.

Of course, the defense would probably object to my attitude of giving the guilty SOB a fair trial before we hang him.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 07/09/2017 12:48 Comments || Top||

#10  The bastard that should be on trial is the SOB who authorized Bergdaul's release and the repatriation of 5 key Taliban terrorists.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2017 12:54 Comments || Top||

#11  @#10: Melanin = Teflon
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/09/2017 13:31 Comments || Top||

#12  or at trial the defense could call Susan Rice who said, back in 2014, that Berghahl served with honor and distinction

Susan Rice is a high dollar sportin' lady. I doubt if they could afford her.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 07/09/2017 14:53 Comments || Top||

#13  I don't know Pappy, the "Liar of Benghazi" doesn't seem to need any help in the lying-thru-her-teeth department.

Perhaps. I'm more inclined to think that, since the Oval Office was facing scrutiny over this debacle, they would lend help to someone who might have problems with the lie, no matter how accomplished a liar.
Posted by: Pappy || 07/09/2017 17:08 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Ex-Hamas members took part in deadly IS Sinai attack, Israeli general says
[IsraelTimes] Yoav Mordechai says Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", is ’enabling free passage of terrorists’ into Egypt, insists the groups are ’two sides of same coin’

Four former Hamas members took part in 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....
’s attack in the Sinai Peninsula that killed at least 23 Egyptian soldiers, a top Israeli defense official said Saturday.

According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the four were previously members of Hamas’s military wing, but had left the group to join forces of Evil in Sinai. He did not say where the information had come from.

Mordechai, in a Facebook post, said this fact showed that Hamas is not actually helping Egypt fight Sinai’s jihadists but rather "enabling the free passage of terrorist elements between Gazoo and Sinai and vice versa."

He added that it also raised questions as to Hamas’s control over the Paleostinian territory.

"Hamas and Islamic State are two sides of the same coin," he wrote.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Gaza again hit by power shortages as PA blocks payments
[IsraelTimes] Strip’s energy officials say Ramallah is preventing funds from going through Paleostinian banks, causing further cuts.

The electricity authority said two of the three generators at Gazoo’s only power plant were offline because "the Paleostinian Authority in Ramallah stopped all the financial transactions through Paleostinian banks to Egypt to buy fuel."

"This led to the stopping of fuel (deliveries) two days ago from Egypt."

The Energy Authority in Gazoo is paying Egypt for the fuel but must make transfers through Paleostinian banks, which are based in the West Bank and under Paleostinian Authority laws.

A front man for the PA government in Ramallah, Tarek Rishmawi, told AFP that "the main reason for the worsening situation in Gazoo is Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", as they rejected the initiative of (PA President) the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
to end the split" between Paleostinian factions.

He did not confirm or deny the allegations of blocking fuel payments.

The electricity distribution company confirmed only one generator was operating, producing 23 megawatts of power -- which added to other sources means Gazoo currently has a total of 93 megawatts a day.

More than 500 megawatts are required to serve the Paleostinian enclave’s population.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/09/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Generating electricity is easy. Paying for electricity takes responsibility. It's hard when you're stupid. Cannot have it both ways,Abbas. From here on up, its downhill all the way.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 07/09/2017 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Make sure you keep paying terrorists' welfare, though!
Posted by: gorb || 07/09/2017 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  So much f**kedupedness in only 141 square miles. It's like a little bowl of Campbell's Condensed Somalia, now with more rancor and seething!
Posted by: SteveS || 07/09/2017 15:50 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Cruz to Push for More Action to Secure Release of U.S. Hostages in Iran
[Free Beacon] Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) next week plans to introduce a bill calling for both the unconditional, safe return of several U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents imprisoned in Iran and also the creation of a multi-national task force to try to secure their release, according to a Senate source.

Cruz's measure will mirror a bipartisan House resolution sponsored by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), Ted Poe (R., Texas), Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), and Ted Deutch (D., Fla.). That version calls on the Trump administration to make securing the release of at least six U.S. hostages the "highest of priorities."

It also urges the United States and its allies who also have citizens detained in Iran to create a multi-national task force to leverage resources and share information in an attempt to win the prisoners' freedom.

Iran has over the last several months jailed several dual-nationals of other western nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Canada.

The move comes in the wake of stepped up efforts by several families of prisoners held in Iran to try to secure the release of their loved ones. The families feel a new sense of urgency after the death late last month of Otto Warmbier. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student held in North Korea for a year and a half, was released in mid-June only to die just days later from complications his family believes were the result of his detainment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2017 12:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Give them 24 hours to release all American citizens or rubblize Arak and a couple of their other sites. They'll come around, and so will the NORKS.
Posted by: Besoeker || 07/09/2017 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Love Cruz. He's also the only one talking sense on ObamaCare, and I will never forget his calling Mitch McConnell a liar on the Senate floor.
Posted by: Iblis || 07/09/2017 19:09 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
4Islamic State
3Taliban
3Commies
2Moslem Colonists
2Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Hamas
1Houthis
1Ansar al-Sharia
1al-Shabaab (AQ)
1Palestinian Authority
1Salafists
1Sublime Porte
1Maute group (IS)
1Govt of Iran

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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2017-07-09
  Iraqi forces take Mosul
Sat 2017-07-08
  Turkey detains 29 IS group militants in raids in Istanbul
Fri 2017-07-07
  40 ISIS troops die in battle with Iraqi forces in Salahuddin
Thu 2017-07-06
  Haftar's forces declare victory in battle for Benghazi
Wed 2017-07-05
  Baghdadi’s “mail man” killed in security ambush in Diyala
Tue 2017-07-04
  US-backed SDF breaches Raqqa's Old City wall
Mon 2017-07-03
  British soldier drowns ISIS thug in puddle after being ambushed
Sun 2017-07-02
  Palestinian Forces Hand Over Most Wanted Fugitive in Ain Hilweh
Sat 2017-07-01
  ISIS abandons Aleppo
Fri 2017-06-30
  Raqqa fully encircled
Thu 2017-06-29
   ISIS Number 4 and human shield deaths west of Mosul
Wed 2017-06-28
  Ottoman Turkish artillery opens fire on Kurdish forces across entire frontier in northern Aleppo
Tue 2017-06-27
  IS suicide bomber’s belt explodes, kills 12 well-wishing comrades in Diyala
Mon 2017-06-26
  High Court reinstates Trump travel ban, will hear arguments
Sun 2017-06-25
  Evolution theory to be scrapped from Turkish schoolbooks

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