[AnNahar] Russia has said it is not taking sides in the fighting in Libya but behind the scenes, experts say, Moscow is firmly backing strongman Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, 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... Haftar, whose forces launched a surprise assault on the capital 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... last week, has visited Moscow, met with bigwigs and even speaks some Russian.
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#1
Well, just another example of Foggy Bottom betting on the wrong horse. The GNA can't even clean out the militias in Tripoli. Haftar cleaned out Benghazi and Dernaa (no small feat).
I put Haftar in the same category as Savimbi in Angola. He was winning the civil war but the US chose to support this murderous thug instead. Savimbi had vast popular support and State and the CIA (are they the same?) wouldn't touch him. The only way to get supplies was from the Soviets.
The second Savimbi took one sou of aid from Russia, he was a communist. It was a set up.
Typical. Obviously our wonder boys in State want a bunch of incompetent Muslim Bruderbund sycophants in charge when there is an obvious solution to the mess that Hillary created.
Methinks that Haftar was pro-US but since we won't give him a dime of assistance, he follows the money.
The Russians were everywhere in Tripoli when I was there. You couldn't throw a rock at any of the coffee shops down town without hitting one. A lot of the locals thought I was Russian (blue eyes don't you know) and would talk to me in Russian...how the locals knew how to speak Russian is another story.
Haftar will fix the mess in Libya and if he's Putin's boy, that is our fault not his. We treated him like Typhoid Mary so what do you expect?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Lawmakers named the speaker of the upper house as Algeria’s first new president in two decades Tuesday, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported, after the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... following mass protests.
The election of Abdelkader Bensalah as interim president follows constitutional rules but goes against the demands of demonstrators, who have pushed for him and other top politicians to stand down.
"I want to work towards fulfilling the interests of the people," Bensalah told parliament on taking up the 90-day interim presidency.
"It’s a great responsibility that the constitution demands of me."
Opposition parties refused to back Bensalah’s election and boycotted the session, as hundreds of students protested against him in Algiers.
"Resign Bensalah!" they chanted outside the main post office, which has become the focal point of weeks of mass protests in the capital.
Ahead of the parliamentary session, an editorial in pro-government daily El Moudjahid on Tuesday suggested Bensalah should step aside from the presidential post.
He is not only "not tolerated by the citizen movement, which demands his immediate departure, but also by the opposition" and various political groups in both houses of parliament, the newspaper said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... has funded dozens of mosques and Islamic center projects in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to the tune of several millions of dollars, the majority through a network tied to the Moslem Brüderbund, a new book reveals.
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
...but that the situation requires action by the EU countries.
Won't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
The authors also point out that the Brotherhood is the only organization that has open relations with the French authorities, especially mayors.
Gee - think they're getting greased too, like Tariq Ramadan? Maybe not as good as him, but come on now.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In July 2017, a UN chartered plane carrying half a million doses of cholera vaccine 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... was not given permission to land by the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias until almost a year later, an AP report revealed.
Meanwhile, ...back at the railroad tracks, Little Nell tried to kick her bound feet and scream post the snotty handkerchief Scarface Al had stuff into her mouth... the outbreak continued to get worse, producing more than one million suspected cases.
UN officials believed they had the go-ahead to bring in cholera vaccines. Half a million doses were loaded onto a plane in the African republic of Djibouti.
At the last minute, hard-liners in the Houthi-controlled Health Ministry told the UN they would not allow the plane to land.
UN officials blamed the canceled flight on the difficulties in distributing vaccines during an armed conflict. But officials with knowledge of the episode told the AP that the real reason was that the Houthi militias who control northern Yemen refused to allow the vaccines to be delivered, after spending months demanding that the UN send ambulances and other medical equipment for their military forces as a condition for accepting the shipment.
A front man for the UN’s World Health Organization said at the time that delivering vaccines "has to make sense" in terms of the conditions on the ground, adding that the vaccine doses intended for Yemen would likely be re-routed to places that "might need them more urgently."
UN officials sent the shipment to South Sudan in central Africa, where the disease had recently erupted. The cholera outbreak in South Sudan left 436 dead but was declared over by early 2018, largely due to the introduction of vaccines during the outbreak’s early stages.
The outbreak in Yemen went on unabated.
The cancellation of the shipment was just one of the setbacks that aid agencies faced in battling the cholera epidemic, which has killed nearly 3,000 Yemenis.
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04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Hundreds of Bangladeshi left-wing "extremists" will lay down their arms on Tuesday in what police say is the largest surrender of its kind in decades in the South Asian nation.
More than 600 forces of Evil were expected to turn in homemade weapons and firearms to Bangladesh's home minister and police chief at a formal ceremony at a sports stadium, officials said.
"The government will work to help rehabilitate them so they can return to society," Sheikh Rafiqul Islam, police chief in the restive northwestern district of Pabna, told AFP.
Bangladesh's western regions have been wracked with conflict since the 1970s until quite recently, with left-wing movements including Maoist outfits and tribal groups fighting the state from jungle redoubts. The country describes them as "extremists" and blames them for the liquidations of political figures and journalists, as well as deadly attacks on the armed forces and police.
Their resistance waned with the formation of Bangladesh's elite police unit in the mid-2000s, which forced the various insurrection movements into retreat through a brutal crackdown.
Rights groups have accused the Rapid Action Battalion police unit of extrajudicial killings of left-wing figures in the country's west and northwest.
Islam said the surrender would be the largest since 1997, when several thousand tribal fighters from the jungle-clad Chittagong hill tracts bordering Myanmar laid down their arms in a peace deal with the government.
Two years later, 400 other holy warriors surrendered and were appointed to Bangladesh's reserve police force. Two months ago, roughly 100 methamphetamine traffickers turned themselves in under an amnesty struck with local authorities.
The government announced a no-holds-barred war on drugs last year to purge Bangladesh of drugs, killing dozens of alleged dealers and methamphetamine kingpins.
Their main target was to curb the smuggling of "yaba", a cheap and addictive methamphetamine pill trafficked to the country by the hundreds of millions.
Police said 24 "godfathers" were among the traffickers who surrendered in Teknaf, a key border gateway for smuggling yaba into Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd be fine with that if it was a test computer NOT connected to a network - remember that scene in Skyfall when Q did the same thing with Silva's USB drive? Wotta maroon (take your pick).
Anyhow, doing this on a test computer would've been very informative, but come on, buddy...
The next step in a story we’ve been following for a while.
[Rudaw] A German woman who joined 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.... jihadist group went on trial Tuesday accused of the war crime of letting a five-year-old Yezidi "slave" girl die of thirst in the sun.
The case against Jennifer W., 27, is believed to be the first anywhere in the world for international crimes committed by ISIS bully boyz against members of the Yazidi minority.
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04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...the political wing of the Pak Taliban... -Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... on Tuesday called on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... at his residence to inquire about the latter's health and discuss the political situation in the country.
Rehman, while talking to journalists after the meeting, said he had been in touch with other politicians, including Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... , who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... . He added that he will also call on Zardari in the next few days as believes that "internal connections [among opposition parties] should remain intact".
"The agenda of the meeting was limited to inquiring about his [Nawaz Sharif's] health, but we also discussed our shared concerns about towering inflation, which is affecting the common man, and the troubled economy," he said while responding to a question.
Calling Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... a "fake and khala'i [extra-terrestrial]" premier, Rehman described the current regime as an "installed" one. He added that the ruling regime has no knowledge of the ideology of Pakistain, the ground realities of the country and the economy.
He repeated that the JUI-F has completed 10 'million marches' against the government and that they are ready for a decisive one.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pie fight, Bella went down under the weight of the custard... Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry ‐ who is already not in the good books of the JUI-F ‐ took to Twitter to criticise the meeting and asked the judiciary to take notice.
"The Supreme Court had been informed that Nawaz Sharif was ill at a extant that it would be life threatening if he is denied bail. Lied, as always. And now instead of an ambulance, Fazalur Rehman has reached there and is providing political oxygen to Mian Nawaz Sharif. Courts should take a notice of it."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A division bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday summoned the record of Mumbai attacks case proceedings pending before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in two weeks.
The division bench sought the record while hearing an appeal filed by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) seeking cancellation of the post-arrest bail of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi ...an asset of the Pak govt and a big turban in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is actually a redundant statement. Zak was the criminal mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attack. Despite what India's provided there is not enough evidence in this world for a Pak court to convict him or even to keep him in the calaboose for very long... , the alleged criminal mastermind of the attacks.
An ATC in Islamabad had on Dec 18, 2014, granted the post-arrest bail to Lakhvi.
In the appeal against the ATC judge’s order, the FIA said: "The fact remains that such like cases of defunct terrorist organizations are not so easy to be conducted and especially the prosecution in such cases is the most difficult job in our country for the last many years."
It added: "In the present case, the learned trial judge (of ATC) after the terrorist attack in Islamabad courts (of March 2013) refused to visit Adiala Jail for a long time due to security reasons.
"Even the prosecutors of this case have been receiving threats through cell phones during the proceedings which were duly conveyed to the concerned authorities. The witnesses are also not secured, and reluctant to depose against the accused persons in the given situation."
The appeal pointed out that the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by Indian authorities after the Mumbai attacks, was still part of the evidence and it was at no stage discarded and that statement clearly established Lakhvi’s link to Mumbai attacks.
The prosecution claimed that it had sufficient evidence against Lakhvi and requested the court to cancel his bail.
The counsel for the accused person argued before the court that the prosecution was not pursuing the case.
He said some witnesses in the case were Pak nationals and some were foreign citizens. The local witnesses are not appearing to testify and the ATC had issued their perpetual warrants for arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party vowed on Monday to strip decades-old special rights from the people of Jammu and Kashmire, making an election promise that provoked warnings of a backlash in the country’s only Moslem-majority state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to retain power after general elections that start on Thursday, though with a much smaller mandate, hit by concerns over a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices.
It pledged to spend 100 trillion rupees ($1.44 trillion) on infrastructure in the next five years, to help create jobs for the millions entering the workforce each year.
Pollsters say the BJP’s re-election bid got a boost from recent hostilities with arch-rival Pakistain, after a krazed killer group based there claimed a February suicide kaboom that killed 40 Indian security forces in the Himalayan region of Kashmire.
"Nationalism is our inspiration, economic development of the poor and backward sections our philosophy, and good governance our mantra," Modi said after releasing the election manifesto at BJP headquarters in New Delhi, as supporters chanted "Modi, Modi".
The BJP has consistently advocated an end to Kashmire’s special constitutional status, which prevents outsiders from buying property there, arguing that such laws have hindered its integration with the rest of India.
"In the last five years, we have made all necessary efforts to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmire through decisive actions and a firm policy," it said in the manifesto. "We are committed to overcome all obstacles in the way of development and provide adequate financial resources to all the regions of the state."
The party also reiterated its long-held desire to abolish Kashmire’s autonomous status. BJP supporters have sought the removal, expressing anger at many Kashmiris’ resistance to rule by India, which, for three decades, has battled an armed insurgency in the region also claimed by Pakistain.
"The BJP’s campaign is largely around nationalism, national security and this is what is getting echoed in their manifesto," said Sanjay Kumar, director of thinktank the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. Repeal would bring widespread unrest, Kashmiri politicians warned.
"Let them do it and it will pave the way for our azadi," Farooq Abdullah, president of Kashmire’s National Conference party, told an election rally, referring to freedom for the region. "They are wrong. We will fight against it."
Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, the leader of a left party in Kashmire, warned of "disastrous and unimaginable repercussions". Voting in the general elections begin on Thursday, but with about 900 million eligible voters, will be spread across several weeks, with ballots counted on May 23.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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Here’s hoping this time they don’t lose them to marauding jihadis.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraq received on Tuesday a new batch of T-90 tanks from Russia, a military official said as the country still strives to boost its armed capabilities following the defeat of 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.... terror group in 2017.
Speaking to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) on Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Walid Khalifa, the commander of the army’s 9th armored division, said the fourth batch of the Russian T-90 battle tanks arrived safely in Iraq and was delivered to the Iraqi Defense Ministry.
He added that army troops have been prepared to operate the tanks after they received training at the hands of Russian experts.
In July 2017, Iraq signed a deal with Russia on the delivery of a "large batch" of modernized T-90 main battle tanks worth one billion dollars.
The T-90 is the newest export version of the T-90AM tank which uses the same types of ammunition as the T-90. The ammunition includes fragmentation shells with a remote blasting which makes it possible to effectively destroy enemy personnel.
Speaking to Sputnik, Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky recalled that "the conditions of Iraq and Syria are desert and semi-desert areas and a long range of open spaces."
"The T-90 is already successfully using guided missiles launched through the barrel; in this regard, a high-precision missile with a range of up to five kilometers can be described as a sort of [the T-90’s] ’high-precision hand’," Murakhovsky said.
"At present there are no targets on the battlefield that the Russian tanks [T-90] could not destroy. If the target is found, it will be obliterated," Murakhovsky added, referring to an enemy tank, vehicles used by hard boyz and firing points.
According to him, these tanks "meet the main requirements of military operations" which is why the T-90 is a tank of choice for the military of many countries. Murakhovsky touted the Russian T-90 tanks as "extremely reliable, highly protected and fool-proof vehicles."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
"Chimp" version.
Posted by: Albert Elmineck3306 ||
04/10/2019 6:55 Comments ||
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Not a bad choice at all for an arab nation. They are pretty idiot proof and rugged.
"At present there are no targets on the battlefield that the Russian tanks [T-90] could not destroy. If the target is found, it will be obliterated," Murakhovsky added, referring to an enemy tank, vehicles used by hard boyz and firing points.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The southern Iraqi city of Basra is struggling to cope with a growing drug problem that has overcrowded prisons and strained police resources, only months after violent protests over poor municipal services.
Basra’s prison system is clogged up and creaking. On a recent day in one cop shoppe, Rootersnews hounds saw about 150 men, their heads shaved, squatting in two small, cramped holding cells.
Arrests of drug users and dealers have shot up in the past year, further stretching prison services and police in a sign that the problems with municipal resources that prompted protests in Basra last summer have not gone away.
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#1
Think of the savings in food
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2019 10:59 Comments ||
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Crystal meth is cheap to make, cheap to get and a hard habit to break.
Sitting around all day listening to clerics will cure 'em, you betcha.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/10/2019 12:02 Comments ||
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[UK.REUTERS] Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Tuesday that Washington’s decision to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group "could have negative repercussions on Iraq and the region".
"Iraq tried to stop the decision," Abdul Mahdi told news hounds during his weekly news conference, adding that Iraq would use all of its efforts to bring calm to the region since it maintains good relations with both Tehran and Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
As different from before, how? They get too overt, they'll get more attention than they could handle.
[IsraelTimes] In a reversal of a 2018 policy announcement, Airbnb will not remove West Bank settlement listings from its website.
The policy change came in a court settlement Monday between the vacation rental company and a dozen American Jewish plaintiffs who had sued the company, organized by Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, a pro-Israel law organization. A copy of the settlement obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency says that Airbnb will now allow rentals in both Paleostinian areas and Israeli settlements of the West Bank.
"Airbnb takes no position on the Host-Plaintiffs’ claims, or others’ claims, to legal title to the properties on which the accommodations are located," the court settlement reads. "All listings for accommodations located in the Affected Region [the West Bank] will at all times be permitted on its platform, subject to applicable laws, rules, and regulations."
Airbnb announced in November that it would remove some 200 rental listings in West Bank settlements because it contended that the settlements "are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Paleostinians." The movement to boycott Israel saw the decision as a victory.
But Airbnb never actually removed the listings. And about a week after the decision, Shurat Hadin organized the suit on behalf of a dozen American Jewish families, most of whom own properties in West Bank settlements. The suit was filed under the Fair Housing Act, which was meant to prevent discrimination against minorities in the United States. Because Airbnb is based in the United States, it must adhere to the act in all its listings worldwide.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that Airbnb was discriminating against them for being Jewish, given that it still allowed listings by Paleostinian Moslems and Christians in the West Bank.
In a statement posted to its website Tuesday, Airbnb said it will donate any profits from the West Bank to humanitarian groups. It also will apply the same policy to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two disputed territories adjacent to Georgia, and evaluate its listings in other disputed territories.
Airbnb has yet to announce where it will donate the profits.
Airbnb said in its statement that it does not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.
"Airbnb has always opposed the BDS movement," the statement reads. "Airbnb has never boycotted Israel, Israeli businesses, or the more than 20,000 Israeli hosts who are active on the Airbnb platform. We have always sought to bring people together and will continue to work with our community to achieve this goal."
Netanyahu has won the election, according to updated/revised exit polls on all of Israel's TV channels. He will now proceed to try build a narrow right wing/religious coalition.
Bottom line: According to exit polls. Gantz won the popular vote, Netanyahu has enough coalition support to join with other parties and form a government. These are exit polls and this could change as official results are released in the coming days.
Possibly due to lower turnout among Arab-Israeli voters. This time President Obama’s minions weren’t around to spread funds and advice to their favoured parties.
[IsraelTimes] Some 67.9% of eligible voters exercised their right to vote on Tuesday, according to final turnout rates. The figure is down nearly 4 percentage points from 2015, when turnout was recorded at 71.8%.
The Times of Israel is liveblogging the final vote count and, no doubt, coalition formation negotiations here.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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Hamas's English-language media service would like you to know they oppose the Trump administration's designation of Iran's IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. pic.twitter.com/IPvUk5jkLD
[JPOST] The Israel Air Force, along with pilots from the United Arab Emirates and a number of other countries, is flying in Greek skies as part of Iniohos 2019, Greece’s largest military exercise.
Pilots from the IAF are taking part in the drill, which started on Monday at the Andravida Base in the Peloponnese and will end on April 12, along with pilots from the UAE, United States, Italia, Cyprus, and almost the entire Hellenic Air Force fleet.
"The objective of the exercise is to provide realistic operational training in conditions that resemble a complex, multi-threat combat environment to maximize the operational capabilities of the Air Force," read a statement released by the HAF.
According to reports, Iniohos 2019 will include F-16, F-35, F-4, M-2000, EMB-145H AEW&C, Tornado and Tanker aircraft. The HAF is flying six F-4E fighter jets, 32 F-16C/D jets and six M2000. Israel is participating with 12 F-16 C/D/Is, the Italians are flying with six Tornado ECR/IDSs, the Americans with 12 F-16 C/Ds and the United Arab Emirates are participating with six M2000-9s.
As part of the drill, Israeli pilots took part in a formation of seven fighter jets consisting of F-35s, F-4, M-2000 and Tornado jets flying over central Athens last week, Greece’s Ekathimerini news site reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Since December, the United States has proposed establishing a 32 kilometre deep "safe zone" along Syria’s northern border to help prevent another major conflict between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... ally.... and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). More than four months on, however, little progress been made and it remains unclear how exactly it will work.
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04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] In light of the U.S. designating the Islamic Revoluationary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "terrorist organization", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that Iran’s commander of its Quds Force (IRGC unit), Major General Qassem Suleimani , will be viewed the same way as 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/IS/ISIS) His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... "He’s a terrorist. Qassem Suleimani has the blood of Americans on his hands, as do the forces he leads," Pompeo told Fox News.
"America is determined each time we find an organization, institution or an individual that has taken the lives of individuals, it is our responsibility to reduce that risk," he added.
Suleimani has been an active presence in several Middle East countries, including Syria and Iraq.
The Iranian general has often traveled to both Iraq and Syria to not only rally troops, but also to implement battle plans and meet with military commanders.
The last time Suleimani was publicly pictured was during his meeting with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Mohsen Rezaei, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), has warned the US Navy to keep its vessels, including an aircraft carrier, at a distance from IRGC speed boats in Gulf waters.
"Mr Trump, tell your warships not to pass near the Revolutionary Guards bumps boats", the ISNA news agency cited Rezaei as saying on Tuesday.
The remarks came a day after Washington designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization, in what Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described as a move rooted in America’s "rancour" against the IRGC.
"The IRGC is the vanguard both on the field confronting the enemy on [Iranian] borders and even several thousand kilometres away [in Syria] as well as on the political battleground against the enemy", Khamenei pointed out.
Referring to the US’ move to blacklist the IRGC, Khamenei said that "such malice will lead nowhere" and that "with the their deceit rebounding back to themselves, the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s enemies ‐ such as Trump and the idiots [...] in the US government ‐ are moving toward rock bottom".
IRGC head Mohammad Ali Jafari, in turn, dismissed Washington’s designation, which he said "was quite laughable since the Revolutionary Guards are in people’s hearts".
Jafari also pledged that "the Revolutionary Guards will increase its defensive and offensive capabilities in coming year".
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme Security Council reportedly designated the US CENTCOM and related forces as a terrorist organization.
"As a retaliatory measure to the US illegal decision [to recognize the IRGC as a terrorist organization], Iran declares the US regime a ’state that supports terrorism’ and the CENTCOM and forces that are linked to it a ’terrorist group’", the security council’s statement, quoted by the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iranian Broadcasting state media outlet, read.
Announcing the decision to blacklist the IRGC on Monday, US 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... boasted that this "unprecedented" move "recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2019 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
These guys sure talk a lot of shit, don't they? Here's hoping Trump's massively changed the ROE so I can soon read about some speedboats getting blown into next year.
This video shows the US Navy carrying out a test of a new ship-based Laser Weapon System (LaWS) in the Persian Gulf. The seaborne death lasers consist of a 30-kilowatt prototype system, mounted on the USS Ponce transport ship.https://t.co/X6uwenpS7V
[IsraelTimes] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday refused to reaffirm American support for a Paleostinian state after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to extend Israeli illusory sovereignty over West Bank settlements.
Testifying before a Senate subcommittee just as Israel wrapped up tight elections, Pompeo declined to respond when Democrats asked him to back a two-state solution.
"Ultimately, the Israelis and Paleostinians will decide how to resolve this," Pompeo replied.
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.
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, 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...
Bouteflika
...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...
...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...
[DAWN] Hundreds of Bangladeshi left-wing "extremists" will lay down their arms on Tuesday in what police say is the largest surrender of its kind in decades in the South Asian nation.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Asif Ali 
...an asset of the Pak govt and a big turban in Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is actually a redundant statement. Zak was the criminal mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attack. Despite what India's provided there is not enough evidence in this world for a Pak court to convict him or even to keep him in the calaboose for very long...
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
