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Today: 85 articles and 245 comments as of 15:52.
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Sudan's Hamdok says government ready to cooperate with ICC over Darfur
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
A Taliban target killing list includes prominent Afghan politicians leaked
Terrorizing them with terror, as is commanded, without actually lifting a finger.
[KhaamaPress] A list that includes names of several prominent Afghan politicians is spreading over social media as if the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
wants to eliminate them.

Former NDS director Rahmatullah Nabil and former Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, whose names are on the list, have also tweeted it.

The List includes the names of ex NDS director Rahmatullah Nabil, ex-Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Abdul Karim Khurram former Minister of Information and Culture, Mohammad Amin Weqad, ex parliament member Hamayun Hamayun, Ahmad Zia Masood, NAI Director Mujeeb Kheltwatgar, University professor Faiz Mohammad Zaland, political observers and analysts Nazar Mohammad Motmayen, Waliullah Shaheen, Khalil Safi, Pajhwok director Danish Karokhail, Asif Ashna, Doctor Fayaz Safi and previous Taliban official Sayed Akbar Agha.

According to the statement attached to the list, the Taliban’s cultural commission has proposed a target list and the Taliban leadership has approved the names for elimination.

"we are all aware of these ignorant games through the domestic and foreign mercenaries," Rahmatullah Nabil, a former NDS chief tweeted.

Zakhilwal, another political figure whose name is on the list, said that those behind the game should understand we know whose work it is and we will take that seriously.

This comes as Suhail Shaheen a Taliban spokesperson in 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...
rejected these assertions and accused the Afghan government to be behind it.

Afghan authorities have not yet commented in this regard.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Horn
Sudan's Hamdok says government ready to cooperate with ICC over Darfur
[Al Ahram] Sudan's government is ready to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for those accused of war crimes to appear before the court, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Saturday, a list that includes ousted President Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
The country has also come a long way towards being removed from the U.S. state sponsors of terror list, Hamdok said in a televised address he gave on the anniversary of his ascent to office.
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1 
Posted by: Jiling Gravitch9209 || 08/23/2020 11:57 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Libya ceasefire first step on 'arduous' path to peace
[Al Ahram] A surprise ceasefire announcement by Libya's rival administrations offers a glimmer of hope for peace, but analysts caution scepticism after years of violence and as multiple foreign forces back opposing sides.

Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the west in 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...
, and Aguila Saleh, speaker of the eastern-based parliament backed by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander 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, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. 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. Actually, he is, but slowly...
, each announced a ceasefire on Friday.The leaders, in separate statements, said they wanted to end fighting and hold elections, drawing praise from the UN, the EU and several Arab countries.

Emhemed Shoaeb, a key member of talks that led to the last major agreement in 2015, said the announcement was a step "in the right direction" that showed a "desire to break with the madness" of the past.

European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
diplomatic chief Josep Borrell described it as a "constructive first step forward".

But international pressure has sought to bring Libya's leaders to an agreement several times in past years, and a lasting deal has yet to be reached.



Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  Rationally, a peace agreement would result in the division of Libya into two states: Tripolitania in the east, and Cyrenaica in the west, with the south being subject to division. However, such an agreement would solidify the hold the Muslim Brothers and Islamist movements have on Tripolitania, and thus would be a threat to Europe, the Mahgreb and the Sahil. Look for both sides to add armaments and the war should continue in about three weeks. It should be bloodier than ever.
Posted by: b || 08/23/2020 8:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
West African mediators arrive in Mali seeking reversal of coup
This doesn’t seem an approach likely to succeed against men of violence...
[EN.ALGHADEER.TV] Mediators from West Africa’s regional bloc arrived in Mali on Saturday for talks aimed at reversing a coup that has been condemned abroad but celebrated by many in a country battling an Islamist insurgency and simmering political unrest.After three days of calm in the capital Bamako after Tuesday’s ouster of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, police used tear gas on Saturday when a scuffle broke out between a group of 50 pro-Keita protesters and local residents who threw stones, an eyewitness told Rooters.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has taken a particularly hard line on the coup. The bloc quickly shut borders and ended financial flows this week — a move diplomat said was as much about warning opponents at home as stabilizing Mali.

"They cannot tolerate this taking place. They are taking it very personally. It is on their doorstep and they think they are next," one regional diplomat said.

The presidents of Ivory Coast and Guinea are among those pushing for a tough response, another diplomat said, as both have faced violent mostly peaceful public protests to their third-term bids and want the bloc to show it will not tolerate power grabs in its own backyard.

All eyes are on the visit by an ECOWAS delegation led by Nigeria’s former President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau.Other than that he's pretty useless as the Boko Haram debacle shows..
"We’ll continue to engage Malian stakeholders until lasting peace is found," Jonathan said in a tweet shortly after landing at Bamako airport on Saturday afternoon.

A junta of military officers has controlled the country since Tuesday when the mutineers detained Keita at gunpoint and forced him to resign. They have promised to oversee a transition to elections within a "reasonable" amount of time.



Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
UAE to potentially purchase laser defense system from Israel
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They're getting balloon bombs?
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/23/2020 11:18 Comments || Top||


Yasser Arafat's widow apologizes to UAE over insults, burning of flags
Mrs. Arafat returns briefly to the world stage.
[Jpost] Suha Arafat,
...the fashionable, formerly Catholic, bottle-blond Palestinian expat who ran off and married the elderly PLO Number 1 in a queer sort of patriotism, then lived to regret it...
the widow of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat,
...formally Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Born in Cairo in 1929, and educated there, died in 2004 in a French hospital. The flamboyant and brutal USSR-trained terrorist failed to destroy Israel in the service of Arab transnational socialism under the guise of Palestinian national liberation, though he was lauded internationally for his efforts. After founding Fatah sometime in the 1950s, Arafat was chairman of the PLO from 1968 until he died, probably of AIDS from unusual interactions with his personal guards, though his people claimed Israel had poisoned him. Whether the child of the wife he took near the end of his life was also his has never been tested, nor the rumour that she inherited his ill-gotten millions...
has apologized for the burning of Emirati flags in protest of the normalization deal between the UAE and Israel. The apology, which appeared on Instagram account called "officialsuhayasserarafat," was welcomed by some UAE citizens but criticized by several Paleostinians.

Some Paleostinians expressed concern over the harsh response of the PA leadership to the Israel-UAE accord. They accused the PA leadership of an "overreaction" and warned that scenes of Paleostinians burning UAE flags and photos of bin Zayed would cause great damage to the Paleostinians, particularly those living in the Gulf.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat
...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state...
appealed to Paleostinians not to harm the symbols of the UAE. "The Emirati flag is a symbol that must be respected, and so are all other symbols of Emirati illusory sovereignty," he said.

Erekat’s statement came after many Gulf citizens strongly condemned the Paleostinian leadership’s campaign of incitement against the UAE. Several UAE and Saudi academics, journalists and political activists accused the Paleostinians of being "ungrateful" and denounced the burning of Emirati flags and pictures of bin Zayed.

Suha’s apology, however, drew sharp criticism from other Paleostinians, including bigwigs in the West Bank who said that she was not entitled to speak on behalf of the Paleostinian people.

Some Paleostinians claimed that the apology was a sign of the close relationship between Suha Arafat and Mohammed Dahlan, the deposed Fatah operative who serves as special adviser to bin Zayed. Based in Abu Dhabi, Dahlan is considered an archrival of Abbas.

Suha, who does not hold any official position in the Paleostinian Authority, has been living in Malta for the past decade.

After the death of her husband in 2004, she and her daughter, Zahwa, moved to Tunisia and obtained Tunisian citizenship. In 2007, Tunisia revoked her citizenship. Four years later, the Tunis Court of First Instance issued an international arrest warrant for her in connection with a corruption scandal that involved the former Tunisian first lady, Leila Ben Ali.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: PLO

#1  Swiss bank account running a little low for that wife of a Kinderschänder?
Posted by: Clem || 08/23/2020 9:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Her daughter graduated from university last year, so expenses should be down, Clem, and supposedly she gets a pension of €10,000/month from the Palestinian Authority. But really, there’s no way of knowing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 13:43 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Armenia unveils new 'Dragon' suicide drone: video
[ALMASDARNEWS] A video clip appeared on the website VK this week, showing the Armenian military testing a new drone.

The video shared by the Armenian Video Portal showed the new ’Dragon’ drone patrolling in the Nagorno Karabakh region.

The Dragon operates as a kamikaze drone, with an operating range of 100 km and maximum speed of 200 km/hr.
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Europe
Leaked EU review giving high marks to PA textbooks allegedly studied wrong books
[IsraelTimes] Israeli education watchdog IMPACT-se claims German report examining Paleostinian schoolbooks for the UK is riddled with errors, overlooks anti-Semitism and incitement to violence.

A post-Brexit row, described as "a comedy of errors," has broken out between the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Britannia over a review of Paleostinian school textbooks that was commissioned before Britannia left the EU on January 31, 2020.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority


Switzerland is considering banning Hezbollah and all of its arms due to its activities and movements
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  "No chocolate for you!"
Posted by: Frank G || 08/23/2020 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  That took a long time.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/23/2020 16:24 Comments || Top||


DETERMINED to reach Britain: Sudanese migrants in France say they will NEVER give up trying to cross the Channel despite up to TWENTY failed bids in lorries and boats... because the French 'don't want them'
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Whereas the British are ecstatic?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/23/2020 3:05 Comments || Top||

#2  ..well, there is Londonstan.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/23/2020 6:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Ere curried Roast Beef was the Englishman's food,
We danced in the nude, drunk on mead, blue-tattooed,
And Romans and Normans and Hindoos were screwed!
Racist Roast Beef of old England,
And immigrant-bashing Roast Beef!
Posted by: Spise Ominese7158 || 08/23/2020 7:07 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Chinese Consulate in Houston Intervened in US Political Movement
[ChinaScope] Radio Free Asia (RFA) published an article explaining the reason that the U.S. closed China’s Consulate in Houston.

The article stated that the U.S. has known that the staff members at the consulate were conducting suspicious activities, but, for a while, it did not take any action. The Second Department of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is the PLA’s intelligence unit, sent staff members from a large network company, with fake IDs, to China’s Consulate in Houston. Those technicians used a large video platform’s backend data to identify people who might participate in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and ANTIFA’s protests and then created and sent them customized videos on how to organize riots and how to do promotions.

The purpose was to “weaponize” big data technology. It delivered relevant materials precisely to those people who were most likely to participate in the protests, while other people could not even find those videos.

RFA did not spell out the company names. A Twitter account said the technicians were from Huawei and the video platform they used to identify candidates and push videos to was TikTok.

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, August 7, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/ear/ear-straw-08062020081345.html
2. Twitter, @Raymond999USA
Posted by: 3dc || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Absolutely shocking! Were they using Walmart, Target, and Best Buy parking lots for protest training venues ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/23/2020 2:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Fake Huawei employees / CCP agents, manipulating the BLMers...
So how many & which of the BLM movements' promoters and finders are themselves in the pay of the CCP?
Posted by: Betty White3716 || 08/23/2020 7:28 Comments || Top||

#3  So how many & which of the BLM movements' promoters and finders are themselves in the pay of the CCP?

More than a few, I would presume. And probably supplementing that funding with Tides Foundation money.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/23/2020 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  My money is more on Geo. Soros than the CCP.
Posted by: Clem || 08/23/2020 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  'Tides Foundation' = Soros
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 08/23/2020 10:50 Comments || Top||

#6  'Tides Foundation' = Soros

Prob started the 'Tide Pod' movement.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/23/2020 11:16 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Hamas leader meets Turkey's Erdogan in Istanbul
[Jpost] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", leader Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
on Saturday met Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
in Istanbul, according to Ynet.

Haniyeh's deputy, Saleh al-Arouri,
...about whom the Times of Israel adds: Hamas No. 2 Saleh al-Arouri, a top military commander in the Palestinian terror group has a $5 million US bounty on his head...
and head of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
's national intelligence organization Hakan Fidan, also attending the meeting, according to the report. The report did not mention the topics discussed during the meeting.
Betcha the imminent reconquest of Israel was somewhere on the agenda.

Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  planning their strteagery against HAMDOK! limited market at thanksgiving!
Posted by: Jiling Gravitch9209 || 08/23/2020 12:04 Comments || Top||


Turkey to convert another historical church into mosque
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Friday, the Ottoman Turkish Religious Affairs Administration confirmed that the Chora Monastery in Istanbul will be converted into a mosque for prayer.A representative of the administration told Russia’s Sputnik, "this building, which was stationed in it until 2019, a museum and its affiliated institutions, will be handed over, according to a presidential decree, to the Department of Religious Affairs of our circuit."

It is noteworthy to mention that the Chora Monastery is a Byzantine church in Istanbul, which was converted 74 years ago into a museum, and it is one of the oldest surviving Byzantine monuments that have witnessed several eras. It is located in the western part of Fatih municipality.

The church was converted into a mosque for a period of 434 years before it was converted (the mosque) in 1945 into a museum. In 2019, the Supreme Administrative Court — the State Council, in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, decided to convert the museum into a mosque.

The presidential decree came in July of this year to support this trend. The museum (mosque) contains many paintings and mosaics, and its building is divided into three main sections: the entrance hall or nave, the main body of the church, and a side chapel, and the building has six domes.

In a related context, the Supreme Administrative Court in Turkey had annulled, on July 10, the decision of the Council of Ministers issued on November 24, 1934 to convert the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a mosque to a museum.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
announced that he had signed a decree to convert the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque.
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Might dress like a square, but he's gnatty,
One wacky tabacky jihadi:
That 'stache is mad ratty,
His minaret's batty,
And, dammit, he rolls like a Fatih!
Posted by: Spise Ominese7158 || 08/23/2020 4:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Tablighi Jamaat: HC quashes 29 FIRs says there is probability they were made scapegoats
[OneIndia] The Bombay High Court has quashed the FIRs against 29 foreign nationals who attended the Tablighi Jamaat
A peaceful group of itinerant Deobandi preachers who form one of al-Qaeda's recruiting arms...
event in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March.

While quashing the FIRs, the court said that there was no evidence to show that they violated visa conditions and propagated Islam or were responsible for the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
The judges deny the much-touted, in jihadi circles, soft jihad of the plague? How ... interesting.
"A political government tries to find a scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats," the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court said.

A Division Bench comprising Justices M G Sewlikar and T V Nalawade was hearing a petition against the foreign and Indian nationals booked under The Epidemics Act, Disaster Management Act and The Foreigners Act for attending the Markaz event. FIRs against seven Indian nationals were also quashed by the court.

The petitioners from various countries said that they had come on a valid visa issued by the Indian Government. We had come to experience Indian culture, tradition, food and hospitality. We were screened at the airport in accordance with the procedure and even informed the local authorities about our stay. We had said that we are here only to observe religious practices of Islam, the petitioners also told the court. The police however said that they had violated the visa norms.

"It appears that the state government acted under political compulsion and police also did not dare to exercise powers given to them under provisions of procedural law like the Criminal Procedure Code and substantive laws," the court said.

There was non-application of mind and the government cannot give different treatment to citizens of the different religions of different countries. On why these persons were given shelter in Mosques, the court said, " giving shelter to such persons could not have been treated as offence, commission of the act of disobedience of orders."

"The material discussed shows that no such nuisance was created by the foreigners or Indian Moslems and only an attempt was made by others to create such atmosphere against them," the Bench also said.

"A political government tries to find the scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats. The aforesaid circumstances and the latest figures of infection in India show that such action against present petitioners should not have been taken. It is now high time for the concerned to repent about this action taken against the foreigners and to take some positive steps to repair the damage done by such action," the court also noted.

The court also refused to grant a stay order for an appeal as the procedures to grant permission for the foreign nationals for their return and arrangement for flights would anyway take time.

In a situation like the current pandemic, instead of being more tolerant and sensitive towards guests, they were lodged in jails by making allegations that they were responsible for violation of travel documents and for spreading the virus when no such evidence was found, the court also said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 02:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Tablighi Jamaat


Pakistan finally admits Dawood Ibrahim is on their soil
India to Pakistan: “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”
[OneIndia] Dawood Ibrahim lives in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. The admission comes from the Pakistain government for the first time after years of denial that he is not on their soil.

The admission by Pakistain came in a list of 88 banned terror groups that were disclosed as part of its efforts to get out of the tough financial sanctions for helping bandidos holy warriors and their organizations.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 01:33 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Pakistan to Comply with UN Sanctions against over 80 terrorists including Haqqani, Taliban and TTP members
[ToloNews] To prevent a demotion from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey record to the blacklist, Pakistain has issued an order for full compliance with UN Security Council sanctions against Afghan Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and groups associated with the bad boy group.

The UN sanctions list covers Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of Taliban’s political office in Qatar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies

#1  The Goverment of Pakistan proposes, the Pakistan military disposes. This agreement will not be worth the paper on which its printed.
Posted by: b || 08/23/2020 8:27 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Basra killings undermine Iraqi PM's efforts to rein in Iran-backed militias
[Al Ahram] Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi had just embarked on a state visit to Washington when button men rubbed out the young protest leader Reham Yacoub in her car in Basra on Wednesday.

Yacoub, 29, was an outspoken critic of the Iran-backed militias whose power and influence Kadhimi has been trying to rein in since taking office in May.

The attack was the third on activists in the southern city in a week. Tahseen Oussama, 30, was bumped off on Aug. 14 and four others were shot at while together in a car Monday.

Her killing cast a pall over the prime minister's trip to the United States. The violence reignited anti-government protests in Basra and the U.S. State Department publicly urged Kadhimi to hold the militias accountable, just two days after he sacked the Basra police and national security chiefs and formed a special committee to investigate the attacks.

"The reality is the PM and his team are unable to control these groups," said Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House.

"Removing a police chief ... is not even scratching the surface of the problem."

Kadhemi's visit was intended to cement U.S. support for his government and while he was there, five U.S. firms, including Chevron Corp, signed agreements with Iraq aimed at boosting its energy independence from Iran.

"The PM is hoping he can go to the U.S. and sign a bunch of deals and say this is how he can fix things, but it doesn't look good that while you're away young activists are being killed by militias and forces under your government," said Mansour.

Most of the militias come under Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella grouping of paramilitary forces. Although formally integrated in Iraq's security forces, in practice they operate independently and have resisted all attempts to curb their influence.

Neither do they tolerate any dissent from the population. Yacoub and Oussama were killed two weeks after a national umbrella grouping of activists, to which both belonged, announced it would form a political party to challenge the dominance of militia groups in parliament.

The Basra killings come after Husham al-Hashemi, a well-known security analyst and government advisor, was bumped off outside his Baghdad family home in July by men on a cycle of violence.

Kadhimi talked tough after Hashemi's killing, pledging to hunt down his assailants and keep the gangs in check. But there have been few developments since.

His efforts to employ law and order to restrain the groups earlier in the year also backfired.

When Iraqi forces arrested 14 fighters in June for their alleged involvement in rocket attacks on U.S. installations, their comrades drove vehicles into the heavily fortified Green Zone to pressure Kadhimi for their release. All but one were let go.

In May, an arrest raid in Basra on the Iran-aligned Tharallah group, accused of shooting protesters, also failed to result in any prosecutions. In both cases judges cited a lack of evidence.

"The situation in Iraq has devolved to the point that button men can roam the streets and shoot well-connected members of civil society with impunity," said Belkis Wille, senior Crisis and Conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"One has to question whether the federal government is even capable of reining in the violence at this point."

Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Trump, Kadhimi launch new chapter in US-Iraq relations
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Iraq’s new prime minister and President Trump refrained on Thursday from setting a schedule for withdrawing American troops from the country, as they grappled with the threat posed by remnants of ISIS and the ongoing need to train Iraqi forces.

"We definitely don’t need combat troops in Iraq," said Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who met with Mr. Trump for the first time Thursday. "But we do need training and capacity enhancement and security cooperation."

Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly talked about extracting U.S. forces from "endless wars," was just as careful not to set an end date for the American military presence, which was triggered by the advance of ISIS bully boyz in 2014.

When a news hound asked about his timetable for withdrawing the 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq, Mr. Trump turned to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said that the U.S. forces would leave "as soon as we can complete the mission."
Posted by: Fred || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Olde Tyme Religion
Egypt: Christians Ordered to Sell Home and Leave Village
[PJMedia] An Egyptian government-appointed village mayor has just ruled that a Christian family must sell its home and leave their village, in what is being described as a strange and unprecedented incident for that village.

This happened during a traditional "reconciliation session." In Egypt, local authorities and involved parties in a dispute often meet outside of courtrooms in an effort to resolve matters and restore peace before getting the law involved.

The case revolves around a Christian youth who accidentally ran over and killed a Moslem girl in the narrow roads of the village of Hawarat al-Maqta. Despite the fact that such accidents are very common in the chaotic and near lawless roads of Egypt; despite the fact that even the girl’s father acknowledged that it was an accident and is not accusing the Christian youth; and despite the fact that these sessions are informal and meant to find the most equitable solution before the courts get involved—Mayor Hanni Snofar of Fayum governorate, who was invited to the session, ordered not just the expulsion of the youth, but his entire family, who must sell their home as soon as possible and essentially go into "exile."

According to the August 15 report:

It was just another reconciliation session but it turned into a courtroom with the animated mayor ordering the selling of the Christian family’s home and their expulsion. By what right does the mayor judge and issue mandatory decrees to expulse a family, force them to sell their home, and create other problems? Do we no longer have judiciaries to rule on such cases?

Needless to say, if the Moslem girl had been accidentally killed by a Moslem youth, no one would be ordered to sell their home and move.

Reconciliation sessions are regularly used against Egypt’s Christians—particularly when they are attacked, by pressuring them to drop charges against their persecutors. This is so common that a 2009 book is entirely devoted to it. According to a review of the book, which is titled (in translation), Traditional Reconciliation Sessions and Copts: Where the Culprit Emerges Triumphant and the Victim is Crushed:

In some 100 pages the book reviews how the security apparatus in Egypt chooses to "reconcile" the culprits and the victims in crimes where churches are burned; Coptic property and homes plundered, and Copts themselves assaulted, beaten and sometimes murdered; and when even monks are not spared. Even though it stands to reason that such cases should be seen in courts of law where the culprits would be handed fair sentences, this is almost never allowed to take place. And even in the few cases which managed to find their way into the courts, the culprits were never handed fair sentences since the police invariably fell short of providing any incriminating evidence against them.

The farcical scenario of reconciliation sessions has thus without fail dominated the scene where attacks against Copts are concerned, even though these sessions proved to be nothing but a severe retreat of civil rights.

Politically speaking, the authorities’ aim—through the reconciliation sessions—to secure a rosy facade of the "time-honoured amicable relationships between Moslems and Copts," implying that they live happily ever after. The heartbreaking outcome, however, is that the only winners in these sessions are the trouble mongers and fanatics who induce the attacks in the first place and who more often than not escape punishment and emerge victorious. The Coptic victims are left to lick their wounds.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Instead of being killed out of hand? Progress.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 08/23/2020 3:23 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Officials in Iran say black box from downed Ukrainian passenger plane with 176 on board reveals jet was hit by TWO missiles 25 seconds apart - and some passengers were alive after first blast
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/23/2020 12:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Alive? Just long enough to scream in terror.
Vaya con Dios.
Posted by: ed in texas || 08/23/2020 12:48 Comments || Top||

#2  It is a long way down to the ground, and time goes by so slowly when you are terrified to death.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/23/2020 16:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Cognizant and alive are two different things.
Posted by: magpie || 08/23/2020 16:31 Comments || Top||

#4  ^ Is that a Joe Biden reference?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/23/2020 17:01 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm thinking the iranians could hire Mr. Vindman as a consultant on this.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/23/2020 18:13 Comments || Top||


Iran Money-Trail Links Hezbollah to Beirut Blast, German Newspaper Die Welt Reports
Followup on the Wednesday Die Welt reports
[LI] Huge Hezbollah-bound shipments of ammonium nitrate handled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Al Quds Forces, Western intelligence agencies say.

While the mainstream media has largely shied away from reporting Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah’s apparent link to this month’s deadly Beirut blast, German newspaper Die Welt has published a detailed account citing Western intelligence agencies linking the Lebanese terrorist outfit to the carnage that killed more than 200 people and left thousands injured.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G || 08/23/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah



Who's in the News
43[untagged]
6Sublime Porte
4Hezbollah
4Muslim Brotherhood
3Islamic State
3Antifa/BLM
3Govt of Iraq
3Govt of Pakistain Proxies
2Hamas
2Commies
1Tablighi Jamaat
1Taliban
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1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Sudan
1Govt of Syria
1Houthis
1Human Trafficking
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1Palestinian Authority
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2020-08-23
  Sudan's Hamdok says government ready to cooperate with ICC over Darfur
Sat 2020-08-22
  PDF about major Soros loss in the Supreme Court.
Fri 2020-08-21
  Ansarallah forces kill high-ranking ISIS leader in Yemen
Thu 2020-08-20
  Mali soldiers promise civilian transition after president's ouster
Wed 2020-08-19
  Ansarallah leader, who has not missed many meals, says negotiations with Saudi Arabia reached dead end, war to continue
Tue 2020-08-18
  Lebanese customs chief arrested over Beirut blast
Mon 2020-08-17
  Syrian presidency reveals conditions for direct talks with US
Sun 2020-08-16
  Erdogan accused Greece of state terrorism against Turkish/Muslim minority
Sat 2020-08-15
  Recently released ISIS terrorist beheaded his mother, father, sister & two nephews in Ain Zara Tripoli
Fri 2020-08-14
  Oman and Bahrain to follow UAE in normalizing Israel ties
Thu 2020-08-13
  Diplomatic relations between Israel and UAE
Wed 2020-08-12
  Turkish strike kills Iraqi border guards, Iraqi military says
Tue 2020-08-11
  Seattle police chief to resign following department cuts
Mon 2020-08-10
  Lebanese Prime Minister announces resignation of government
Sun 2020-08-09
  Lebanese Army evacuates protestors from government buildings

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