[AlAhram] Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as Shawkan, and 213 others who have served five-year prison terms for their involvement in a Moslem Brüderbund sit-in in Cairo's Rabaa El-Adawiya in 2013 were all released on Monday.
Shawkan, 32, is a freelance photojournalist who was enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! in August 2013 while covering the dispersal of the sit-in, where supporters of ex-president Mohammed Morsi had gathered to protest his ouster.
The 214 defendants were convicted in 2018 on charges including murder, attempted murder, assault on police and citizens, vandalism and the burning and destruction of public and private property.
Shawkan and the other defendants were released as the jail time they spent in pre-trial detention goes towards time served.
Shawkan will be on probation for five years.
Since his detention in 2013, many local and international human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organizations have criticised Shawkan's imprisonment, saying he was merely doing his job as a freelance photojournalist when covering the sit-in.
In April 2018, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) announced that Shawkan was selected to receive the 2018 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize.
"The choice of Mahmoud Abu Zeid pays tribute to his courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression," said Maria Ressa, president of the jury, in a media statement.
Egypt's foreign ministry in a statement at the time said that it regretted UNESCO's decision to award the prize to Shawkan.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The terrorism circuit at Cairo Criminal Court sentenced on Sunday one to death four others to life in prison in the case known in the media as the "October Terrorist Cell" over murder and terrorism related charges.
Apparently the October Terrorist Cell (the first mention of that name in our archives) is an ISIS cell, trained in Syria and Libya, unconnected to Ansar Bayt al Maqdis/ISIS province in the Sinai. They specialized in Coptic churches.
The prosecution had charged the defendants with premeditated muder, attempted murder, joining an outlawed group and plotting violent acts in 2013 and 2014 with the aim of preventing state institutions from fulfilling their duties.
The men were convicted of killing a policeman and attempted murder of other police on guard at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Cairo's 6th of October City on the outskirts of Cairo.
Those convicted were also accused of assaulting members of the armed forces and the police, endangering the safety and security of the community, financing terrorist groups, and obtaining illegal firearms and ammunition.
The verdicts can be appealed.
Some years from now some will find themselves freed, some with reduced sentences, and some of the current sentences will be updheld. In the meantime, they will stay in prison.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Moscow is ready to consider Doha’s requests for weapons delivery, if such requests appear, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Monday during a joint presser with Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.
"Our military-technical cooperation with Qatar is regulated in a bilateral manner, 18 months ago we signed an intergovernmental agreement on military-technical cooperation," the minister noted. "Today, we reaffirmed the need to follow this agreement."
"When our Qatari partners send us requests for delivery of Russian military products, we will consider them," Lavrov said.
Earlier on Monday, al-Thani stated that Doha is holding negotiations with Moscow on the purchase of S-400 missile systems, however, the parties have not made a decision so far.
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03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp will receive the first payment toward the installation a $15 billion missile defense system in Saudi Arabia as part of a $110 billion arms package the Trump administration said it negotiated with the Kingdom in 2017, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed a $946 million payment for the foreign military sale.
In November, the Saudis and U.S. officials signed the letters of offer and acceptance formalizing terms for Saudi’s purchase of 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment.
As a part of the scope of work outlined by the Pentagon, obsolete systems currently in place will be updated to prepare the current Saudi missile defense infrastructure for the new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) technology.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
03/05/2019 01:05 ||
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#1
This of course is a so-called defensive system, but I believe Ike had a word or two about the downside of manufacturing things that kill people.
#2
Saudis also have some Raytheon and Northrup stuff
hope it works with what they are getting
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/05/2019 8:51 Comments ||
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#3
THAAD is purely defensive. It has a kinetic kill vehicle, which means it doesn't have an explosive warhead. Just a solid lump of metal that has to impact the target to kill it.
In theory it could kill high altitude bombers, but I don't think they have ever tested that.
A Saudi version of THAAD is a counter to Iranian missiles. Iran is pushing the rest of the middle east to work against them. And that includes Israel. Interesting times.
h/t Gates of Vienna
[VoiceOfEurope] Le Pen shared the gruesome images in December 2015, a few weeks after ISIS jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris ‐ and after a French journalist drew a comparison between the jihadist group and her party. Her move sparked widespread condemnation in France.
One of the pictures showed the body of James Foley, an American journalist beheaded by the Sunni extremists. Another showed a man in an orange jumpsuit being run over by a tank and the third showed a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.
’Daesh is this!’ Le Pen wrote in a caption, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
She is facing a possible three year jail term and a fine of 75,000 euro’s if an investigating magistrate decides a trial should take place for ’circulating violent pictures liable to bee seen by children’. You really don't wont to loose the next election
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
03/05/2019 02:59 ||
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#1
Children saw and felt far worse when an islamist in france drove a truck over them.
[Jpost] A Ottoman Turkish court accepted an indictment seeking life sentences against businessman and rights activist Osman Kavala
Mr. Kavala’s organization is called Anadolu Kultur (Anatolian Culture) and may or may not be connected to George Soros...
and 15 others over the 2013 Gezi protests, Kavala's lawyer said on Monday.
Over 3,000 have been arrested and hundreds convicted of protesting against Sultan Erdogan I “the much beloved” taking Gezi Park in Istanbul by eminent domain, the latest step in the Erdoganification of Turkey. Over 3.5 million Turks protested across the country at that time, though we have since seen the protests were to no avail.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor is seeking aggravated life sentences for the 16 defendants on charges of financing the mass protests and attempting to overthrow the government, state-owned Anadolu agency reported last month.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/05/2019 00:09 ||
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[Jpost] The United States intends to end The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's preferential trade treatment under a program that allowed some exports to enter the United States duty free, the US Trade Representative's Office said on Monday.
Turkey is no longer eligible to participate in the Generalized System of Preferences program because it "is sufficiently economically developed," USTR said in a news release.
That, too. Congratulations, guys.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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Posted for the amusement value — nobody here actually cares what happened to the gentleman, who totally deserved bad things happening to him.
[IsraelTimes] Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s
...who was simultaneously a very well paid Washington Post columnist and a long time propagandist for the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda — most recently for Qatar, but in the past at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s intel chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal...
body was cremated in a large oven at the Saudi consulate general’s residence in Istanbul, Al Jazeera reports, citing Ottoman Turkish authorities.
The writer, who disappeared on October 2, 2018, after entering the Saudi consulate, is believed to have been killed by a Saudi team. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of 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... as of 2016.... has been accused of ordering the killing.
The report says Khashoggi’s body was burned in the custom-built furnace over three days. Afterwards, large quantities of meat was reportedly cooked in the oven to cover up the cremation.
Ottoman TurkishSherlocks reportedly found Khashoggi’s blood on the walls of the Saudi consul’s office. The walls had been painted over after the operation.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
According to Turkish authorities... specially built oven... burned over 3 days - this story just gets better and better.
[AHVALNEWS-COM.CDN.AMPPROJECT.ORG] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... ’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defence system will have grave consequences for the United States' defense relationship with Turkey, Pentagon Spokesperson Eric Pahon told Ahval in a written statement on Monday.
The United States government objects to the purchase on several grounds, with defence interoperability issues topping the agenda. U.S. officials and analysts also argue the Russian air defense system along with Russian officials who are almost certain to be stationed in Ankara would pose a significant risk to the new generation F-35s fighter jets set to be deployed in the country.
In an earlier report to the Congress in late November, the Pentagon said Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile systems could result in Ankara’s exclusion from the programme to build and operate F-35 advanced fighter jets, as well as affecting its acquisition of other weapons including the Boeing Co.'s CH-47F Chinook helicopter and Lockheed’s F-16 fighter and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Pahon continued his statement, saying Washington understands Turkey’s desire to improve its air defense; however, "Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defense system will have grave consequences for the U.S. defense relationship with Turkey," he said.
Pahon in a statement said that the United States is "working to help Turkey find better solutions to address its defense needs while also warning of the broader implications of purchasing Russian S-400s."
U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... on Feb. 15 signed a spending bill that blocks the transfer of the country's F-35 new generation fighter jets to Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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[St. Louis Post Dispatch] ISLAMABAD ‐ Pakistan's navy says it spotted and warned an Indian submarine approaching its territorial waters in the Arabian Sea not to attempt an incursion.
The navy said in a statement Tuesday that the Indian submarine wasn't targeted, "keeping in view Pakistan's policy of peace" under which Islamabad wants to de-escalate tensions with New Delhi.
A navy official says the warning was "communicated" to the submarine during Monday's encounter. The submarine then moved away. He didn't elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity to talk to reporters.
Tension escalated after India last week launched an airstrike inside Pakistan, claiming it targeted militants behind a Feb. 14 bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.
Pakistan retaliated by downing two Indian fighter jets and capturing a pilot who was later handed back.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
03/05/2019 07:33 ||
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#1
downing two one Indian fighter jets
Why is the AP parroting Pakistani propaganda? Where are the layers and layers of editors they assure are protecting us from uncomfortable facts?
Posted by: Bugs Darling of the Wee Folk1353 ||
03/05/2019 7:46 Comments ||
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Curious. The whole of submarines is not to be seen. So... Poor tactics? A deliberate demonstration? Pakistani (#insert nice diplomatic word for made-up bullshit)?
#3
Depends on what sub India was using. They have some 14 diesel subs and only two nuclear subs (including one SSBN). Most of the conventional powered subs come from Russia and if Pakistan did detect it, most likely it was one of those since they are old Kilo models.
[DAWN] A decisive crackdown on bully boy and turban organizations in the country looks imminent.
"The action would soon be visible as things progress," a source told a group of journalists at a background briefing on Sunday.
The imminence of an action against bully boy groups was confirmed by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while talking in DawnNews programme Do Raaye. He said the government had taken a firm decision that there would be a stern action against all turban groups. This, he said, was in accordance with the political consensus contained in the National Action Plan (NAP).
The information minister refused to give any timeline for the operation against turban groups like 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... (JeM), accused of criminal masterminding the Pulwama attack that triggered the latest crisis with India and took both nuclear-armed rivals close to war, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... (JuD) and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). Mr Chaudhry said the timeline was something for the security forces to decide.
The National Security Committee had in its Feb 21 meeting "decided to accelerate action against proscribed organizations" and ordered re-imposition of ban on JuD and FIF. Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... had on that occasion, while emphasising eradication of "militancy and extremism" from society, said the state could not be allowed to "become hostage to bully boys".
The source categorically denied that the action was in response to Indian pressure after the Pulwama incident and said the decision had been taken much before the Feb 14 attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama, although it became public later. The dossier given by India on the Pulwama attack, he maintained, contained nothing except an iteration of its narrative on alleged Pakistain-based groups.
"We are taking action in our national interest. We have to correct the course. We cannot leave this mess for our next generation," the source said, adding that the "existing political consensus within the country was an opportunity to take Pakistain on the positive track".
He said the action would help deal with the issues arising out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) listing. Pakistain, despite making significant progress on the initial concerns of FATF, came under renewed pressure at the Gay Paree plenary last month.
The source said at the briefing that there could be law enforcement actions against JeM, JuD and FIF. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... it was clear from the conversation that Pakistain would also review its stance on the issue of listing of JeM leader Masood Azhar by the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council. "No individual is more important than Pakistain," he said while responding to a question. "Pakistain won’t make it a matter of ego," he said in response to another. "We won’t test our friends either," he said in reference to China that has been maintaining a technical hold on Azhar’s listing by the UNSC.
The United States, Britannia and La Belle France ‐ three permanent members of the UNSC with veto power ‐ have again, after Pulwama, moved the Security Council for designation of Azhar as a global terrorist.
When asked why Pakistain had in the past failed in acting against the proscribed groups, the source said the elements of NAP relating to military had been implemented, but those pertaining of civilians lagged behind because of lack of "capacity, capability and will". He pointed to compulsions of certain politicians as one reason, but said no one could be absolved of responsibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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BLUF: Playing at statesmanship, two heads of their respective governments uttered pointless inanities that they completely lack the power to make happen.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi President Barham Saleh stressed on Monday the importance of protecting holy sites in Jerusalem from the violations of the Israeli occupation forces.
Saleh made the remarks during a meeting at As Salam Palace in Baghdad with Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and his accompanying delegation, Alghad Press news website quoted the Iraqi presidency as saying in a statement.
The two presidents discussed ways to strengthen mutual cooperation in different fields in a manner that serves the interests of the two countries and achieves aspirations of the Paleostinian people.
Saleh stressed "the importance of protecting the holy sites in Jerusalem from any violations" and called for stepping up efforts aimed to realize the hopes of the brotherly Paleostinian people for peace and stability, the statement read.
"Iraq has been taking the lead in defending the rights of Paleostine and considers it the top issue at the international forums," Saleh further said.
The two presidents also tackled the latest developments in the Arab and regional arenas and stressed the need for unifying the Arab stance to achieve security and stability in the region.
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03/05/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Falih Fayadh, Iraq’s national security adviser and head of the Hashd al-Shaabi Commission, says the future of the Shiite paramilitias assembled in 2014 to fight 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 is a "purely Iraq affair" in which the United States has no say.
On the sidelines of Rudaw’s first Erbil Forum, where Fayadh took part in a Friday panel about security, the Hashd Commission chief said the US has no right to demand the dismantling of the paramilitias.
Continued on Page 49
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[Jpost] An anonymous hacker could have brought parts of the Israeli economy to a halt over Shabbat, when it compromised hundreds of websites and destroyed nearly 1 million web pages.
According to media reports, an attempt to infest websites with ransomware that would lock administrators out until they agreed to pay to get back in was made by a hacker who simultaneously defaced several sites with the words, "Jerusalem is the capital of Paleostine."
The hacker got in due to a vulnerability that existed in a third-party accessibility plug-in called Nagich, which means accessibility in Hebrew, and helps make Israeli websites accessible for the disabled. Experts said the move was achieved by taking control of a record on a DNS server of the Nagich service domain name that allowed the hackers to redirect traffic to a server that it controls rather than the original server.
Nagich had neglected some basic security measures, according to reports.
By law, Israeli websites providing public service must be accessible to those with disabilities. Among Nagich’s clients and the sites that were affected are McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Bank HaPoalim, Partner, 012 Mobile and Golan Telecom, as well as several news sites, including Ynet. Calcalist and Makor Rishon.
Nagich managed to stop the breach in about 20 minutes, though some website remained unusable for up to an hour.
Programmer Ran Bar-Zik, who works at Verizon Media, posted about the attempt after he helped halt it. He criticized the company for "incredible negligence, about which warning have been sounded in the recent past" and said that "the hackers could have caused billions in damage instead of mere vandalism."
[IsraelTimes] TV report says IDF commandos are teaching local forces krav maga, urban combat and hostage rescue in a dozen African nations.
Israel Defense Forces commandos are reportedly training local forces in more than a dozen African nations, part of a broad strategy by Israel to boost its diplomatic ties in the continent.
According to a Sunday Channel 13 report, which showed footage of Israeli officers training Tanzanian soldiers in hand-to-hand krav maga, hostage rescue operations and urban combat, there has been a dramatic upsurge of military cooperation with African nations.
This is a direct result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to improve ties with African nations and establish relations with several others, a centerpiece of his foreign policy, the report said.
Asked about making sure that the soldiers being trained were not using their new skills to oppress or carry out atrocities, Segal noted that they were mostly being trained in krav maga, shooting skills and hostage rescue situations.
Among the countries that Israel was cooperating with were Æthiopia, Rwanada, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , Togo, Ivory Coast and Ghana, the report said.
It noted that another possible benefit to Israel from this cooperation came from the fact that many of the nations it was training take part in peacekeeping missions on the Israeli borders in Syria and Leb. It would be advantageous to Israel, the report said, if these forces were led by Israeli-trained soldiers.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the report also noted that Israel has already categorically ruled out working with a number of African nations due to their human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... record. The report said a delegation of Israeli officials has been traveling to countries in Africa and "carefully" weighing requests for further military cooperation.
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.
[AlAhram] The terrorism circuit at Cairo Criminal Court sentenced on Sunday one to death four others to life in prison in the case known in the media as the "October Terrorist Cell" over murder and terrorism related charges.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
Crown Prince of 
