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Somalia: Troops Loyal To Embattled Speaker Seize Parliament Building
Today's Headlines
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Page 6: Politix
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7 19:18 magpie [4]
Afghanistan
Victims' relatives demand accountability over Kunduz air raids
[Al Jazeera] Distraught relatives of children killed in a government air raid targeting Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters in Afghanistan's Kunduz province have rejected official claims that no non-combatants were killed in the attack as "dishonest".

A religious school in the Dasht-e-Archi district of the northern province was hit late on Monday.

The Afghan government said the raids targeted a Taliban gathering, but witnesses and local officials maintained that at the time of the attack, a Dastaar Bandi ceremony - an event celebrating young men completing the memorisation of the Koran - was taking place at the school.

There are conflicting reports over the number of people killed in the attack, and under which circumstances.

A district official said a total of 70 people - including children and top Taliban Überstürmbannführers - were killed, while witnesses put the corpse count to at least 100. Nematullah Temori, front man for the provincial governor, said seven non-combatants were killed in the attack.

But General Mohammad Radmanish, front man for the defence ministry, said that according to their intelligence, no civilians were present at the time of the air raid.

He told Al Jazeera that the air raid targeted a Taliban gathering where members of the group were discussing plans to capture Kunduz city.

"The Taliban were gathered in a room planning their next move to take over Kunduz city.

"We have surveillance footage of gunnies and pictures of Taliban leaders in the area that was attacked," he said, adding that 18 Taliban Überstürmbannführers were killed in the raid.

'Civilians not killed'
Radmanish said the civilians killed in the attack could be the result of "an attack we are not aware of".

"The government is investigating the death of these civilians."

Radmanish also said that the civilians admitted into hospitals were hit by bullets, a claim denied by the father of one of the victims.

"My son, a 13-year-old, had finished his Koran and was being recognised at the ceremony. He was well-dressed and was very happy upon his accomplishment," Abdul Khalid told Al Jazeera.

"His body had no signs of bullet wounds. He was killed in the air raid, not by firing.

"My son is dead now, and I buried him yesterday. I don't understand why would they attack children? We need to know the truth," he said, calling the government "dishonest".

Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa North
Egypt's Sohag court sentences 35 Brotherhood members to life on terrorism charges
[AlAhram] Upper Egypt's criminal court of Sohag on Wednesday sentenced 35 members of the banned Moslem Brüderbund group to life in prison on charges of weapons possession in Sohag.

In the same case, the court also convicted 155 others, handing down various sentences ranging between three and 15 years in prison. The sentences can still be appealed.

The weapons were uncovered in 2015 after the interior ministry’s national-security investigations department in Sohag received information about a group hiding in a cave in the governorate's western mountains.

According to the court, 61 defendants received 15 years in prison, 62 received 10 years, 26 others received five years in prison and six members received three years in prison.

The general prosecution has accused them of acts of terror, planning terror crimes in the governorate and targeting police personnel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 01:34 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Daesh and Al-Qaeda are fighting over remains of the Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta
[AlAhram] The Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
Monitoring Observatory at Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta said on Wednesday that celebrations held by the Moslem Brüderbund to commemorate its 90th anniversary are surprising given that the group's young members are being snatched by terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda.

On Monday, the Moslem Brüderbund, which is banned in Egypt as a terrorist group, commemorated in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
its 90th anniversary in a ceremony attended by dozens of Brotherhood leaders including Ibrahim Mounir, the movement’s deputy leader, and the former head of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", political bureau Khaled Meshaal.

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, the instititution in charge of issuing official religious edicts, said in a statement that the Brotherhood has been suffering serious splits and disintegration, especially among its younger members.

"The [Brotherhood] has split into various hostile and conflicting groups. The cuurent conditions of serious divisions and fragmentation into various groups and currents made it "a savory feast" for al-Qaeda and ISIS, who are fighting over a larger share of the group's youths," the staement said.

Dar al-Ifta's Takfiri Monitoring Observatory was created in 2015 to track and combat extremism, reform religious discourse in Egypt, and respond to erroneous and murderous Moslem interpretations of Islam, especially those that promote violence. The observatory's website produces content in 10 different languages.

The Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization in Egypt in late 2013 after it was accused of involvement in several terrorist attacks on security forces in the country following the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

The statement added that ISIS has been successful in recruiting a number of these Brotherhood members, as was the case with the son of prominent Brotherhood leader Ibrahim El-Deeb.

In February 2018, a video was released by ISIS revealing that El-Deeb's son, Omar, had joined its ranks in Sinai.

Dar al-Ifta also said that the Brotherhood has been approached by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who has attempted to recruit its members with the aim of "toppling the regime" in Egypt.

The Dar al-Ifta statement said that Brotherhood members are prime candidates for murderous Moslem groups given their custom of blind obedience to directives by leadership.

"The Brotherhood represent the womb out of which all terrorist and murderous Moslem organizations have come out," Dar al-Ifta said.

The Moslem Brüderbund was founded 90 years ago by Hassan El-Banna in Egypt, later growing to become a major player in both Egyptian and regional politics.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 00:52 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  al q has been trying hard to recruit Muslim Brotherhood members for at least 10 years, ISIS for at least 5

the change is the tactics used for the recruitment
Posted by: lord garth || 04/05/2018 5:30 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Killer herdsmen could be Boko Haram terrorists - Ilorin lawyer alleges
  • [NAIJA.NG] - Abdul Ganiy Bello, an Ilorin-based lawyer, has warned Nigerians to be careful with the activities of killer herdsmen in Nigeria

  • - Bello said that these cattle rearers could be the same Boko Haram terrorists who were dislodged from Sambisa forest by the military

  • - He advised Nigerians not to allow politicians to cause disunity in the country with terrorist groups and activities
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Fulani Herdsmen (Boko Haram)


Competing Ideologies at Play in Boko Haram’s Return of Dapchi Girls
[CFR.ORG] Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
has split into at least three factions. 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....
-affiliated faction, also known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP, was reportedly behind the kidnapping. There were initial uncorroborated reports that its leaders received a ransom or prisoners in exchange for returning the 105 girls. However,
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Home Front: WoT
Trump signs proclamation sending National Guard to Mexico border immediately
[FOX] President Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday night to send the National Guard to the southern border immediately, a senior White House official told Fox News, in response to what the administration described as an "unacceptable" flow of drugs, criminal activity and illegal immigrants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said at the White House press briefing that the signing would be done in conjunction with governors and that the administration hoped the deployment would begin "immediately."

"Despite a number of steps this administration has taken...we continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity transnational criminal organizations and illegal immigration flow across our border," she said.

"The president has directed that the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security work together with our governors to deploy our National Guard to our southwest border to assist the border patrol," she said. "The president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today."

Details about what the National Guard would do and how many would be deployed and for how long were not immediately disclosed.

Under the George W. Bush administration, deploying the National Guard to the border cost $415 million dollars.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't f*ck with this president. Finally someone in charge that has cajones.

Time to say to them, "Say hello to my little friend"
Posted by: Warthog || 04/05/2018 9:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Do we have sufficient resources to protect both:
1. The border; and
2. Our cities during the inevitable violent unrest that will take place this summer?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 04/05/2018 10:22 Comments || Top||

#3  ...well some states (looking at you Texas) has a militia to back them up when the Guard is federalized.

Some states have enough former military who can volunteer for state militia duty. Mainly used for corridor and point defense. Just have to be sworn in to be covered by various public immunities as already addressed by SCOTUS. Report to your local sheriff.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/05/2018 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Do we have sufficient resources to protect both:
1. The border; and
2. Our cities during the inevitable violent unrest that will take place this summer?


Well, you own 300,000,000 firearms - doncha?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/05/2018 11:33 Comments || Top||

#5  The cities? Excepting museums and zoos, whats worth defending in the citie
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/05/2018 12:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Oregon Gov. Says She Will Refuse Trump’s Call To Deploy State Guardsmen To Border
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 04/05/2018 13:23 Comments || Top||

#7  In today's news, the NG will not be armed.
Posted by: Menhadden Ebberong1723 || 04/05/2018 14:01 Comments || Top||

#8  some states (looking at you Texas) has a militia to back them up
Texas also has an informal militia. 1 Aug 1966 they were among the first to respond to Charles Whitman's shooting rampage from the Texas Tower.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/05/2018 14:55 Comments || Top||

#9  So Oregon's expecting a border incursion from Vancouver?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/05/2018 18:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Governor of Arkansas found out what happens when the Guard is federalized. Just saying.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/05/2018 19:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Yes, the governor can be very quickly removed from the mobilization equation, as can aging and obese senior officers or those simple exhibiting idle and curious traits.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/05/2018 20:33 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Fazl, Durrani grabbed land meant for Kargil martyrs: PTI
[DAWN] Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI)’s central leader Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday alleged that 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 ...
and former Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Akram Khan Durrani had illegally taken over 1,200 kanals of land allocated for families of deaders and demanded that the matter should be investigated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Speaking at a news conference at the National Press Club here, Mr Mahmood, who is also the head of the PTI’s anti-corruption cell, said that in 2001 the KP government had given 140,624 kanals (17,578 acres) of land to Pakistain Army in Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
for families of Kargil
... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ...
deaders, and other deserving serving and retired officials of the army.

"As per terms and conditions signed by the KP government and the GHQ, only legal heirs of the deaders and deserving army personnel were entitled to the allotment. However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
in 2002 when the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government came to power in KP and Mr Durrani became the chief minister, they both managed to get 600 kanals of land each and transferred the land in the names of their front men," he said.

"In 2008 when the Awami National Party
founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism....
and Pakistain Peoples Party formed the government in KP, the Revenue Minister Makhdum Zada Mureed Kazim from D.I. Khan also started efforts, like Maulana Fazl and Mr Durrani, to get the share in the land. In 2010-11, Mr Kazim illegally got allotted 150 kanals of land to his front men.

"In 2009/10, the NAB, KP, started an inquiry into the illegal allotment of the land to Maulana Fazl and Mr Durrani. Later, a second inquiry was started against Mr Kazim," he said.

Mr Mahmood said that NAB not only locked away
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
Mr Kazim, but he had been facing the case since then, but Maulana Fazl and Mr Durrani were neither arrested nor cases against them were pursued or taken up because they politically managed them.

He urged the current chairman of NAB to look into the issue and explain why cases were not pursued against the two leaders.

"Mr Durrani has a number of properties in different areas of the country and his property does not match with his known sources of income so NAB should initiate cases against both personalities because they have deprived families of deaders from their due rights," the PTI leader alleged.

He said that allegations should be investigated so that the land was handed over to the deserving people.
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Punjab govt finding it 'difficult' to arrest absconder Khadim Hussain Rizvi
[DAWN] The front man for Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

government, Malik Ahmed Khan, said on Wednesday that arresting Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi and other Tehrik-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) leaders is proving to be difficult for the provincial authorities.
Oh do tell.
The TLP chief and TLYRA leaders were declared proclaimed offenders by an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on Tuesday.
"Round 'em up, chief! No excuses!"
Speaking to DawnNewsTV regarding the ongoing TLYRA protest at Lahore's Data Darbar, Khan said Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah is in constant contact with the protesters and is trying to convince them to abandon the sit-in. He said the government wants the protest to conclude through dialogue.
Preferred dialogue: "Break it up! Go about your business!"
"Okay."

Yesterday, Rizvi had threatened to hold nationwide protests if the government fails to fulfill the terms agreed in the controversial army-brokered agreement during the Faizabad sit-in last year.
Actual dialogue: "Break it up! Go about your business!"
"Blasphemy! Kill the infidel!"
"Hey! I didn't... Aaaaiiieee! I am undone!"

But "the demands made in the Faizabad agreement cannot be fulfilled as the Islamabad High Court has already declared the agreement null and void," Khan told DawnNewsTV.
"As a point of law, if you and him talk, that don't apply to me and the rest of the nation."
The contentious Faizabad agreement had led to the resignation of the then law minister Zahid Hamid in return for the TLYRA promising they would issue no fatwa against him.
The entire episode is a good example of rule by street mob.
Leaders at the protest had announced on Tuesday that if the conditions stated in the Faizabad agreement ‐ which had become a cause of much controversy for carrying signatures of an army general as a mediator ‐ are not met, they will announce their future course of action via a presser on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


UN terror list has 139 Pakistan entries
[DAWN] The United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Security Council’s consolidated list of terrorist individuals and entities includes 139 entries from Pakistain.

The list ‐ updated and accessed on Tuesday ‐ identifies all those individuals who have lived in Pakistain, operated from there or have been associated with groups that used Pak territory for carrying out their operations, from Al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies

#1  Men like Zawahiri, when they die what do autopsies show is the damage to their frontal lobes from all of that head banging? %20,%30,%50 or more?
What are the cognitive effects of such low level constant damage?
Posted by: 3dc || 04/05/2018 16:22 Comments || Top||


Pakistan has no influence over Afghan Taliban: Pak Army officials
Protesting too much.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pak military officials are saying that the country has no influence over Afghan Taliban
...Arabic for students...
as they have emphasize that the group will not participate in peace talks on Pakistain’s request.

A front man for the military of Pakistain Gen. Asif Ghafoor has said "Pakistain is contributing and supporting the grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan."

Speaking to a private TV channel, Gen. Ghafoor further added that "We have contributed as much as we can and will continue to do so."

In regards to the key role Pakistain could play to encourage Taliban to participate in peace, Gen. Ghafoor said "Pakistain Army has never said that it has influence on Taliban."

"It’s not that we’ll tell Taliban to negotiate and they’ll come to the table. We don’t have influence over them," he said.

This comes as the Taliban group has so far refrained from participation in direct peace talks with the Afghan government and insists on direct talks with the US.

On the other hand, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs told news hounds last month that President Ghani offered a dignified process during the Kabul Process-II summit.

"This is not a surrender that’s being offered to the Taliban, but a dignified process for reaching a political framework. And again, he emphasized that this is negotiations without preconditions, a process that would lead to a cessation of violence, halt the ties with terrorism, and respect for the Afghanistan constitution," she added.

Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Iraq
Iraq did not launch operations against IS in Syria: defense ministry
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraq has not carried out military operations against 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....
snuffies in neighboring Syria, the defense ministry said on Wednesday as speculations grow about a possible Iraqi action against the snuffies beyond the borders.

Ministry front man Tahseen Ibrahim told Almaalomah website that "security forces have not conducted any military operation inside the Syrian borders, and media reports about that are untrue".

According to Ibrahim, "the federal government has started tracking ISIS (IS) elements on the intelligence level by sharing information with other countries". He added that Iraq is currently "engaged in a broad cooperation with regional countries, sharing intelligence information on the activity and presence of runaway ISIS elements".

Earlier this week, London-based The New Arab said elite Iraqi forces and U.S. commando teams were carrying out special operations targeting IS leaders inside Syria.

Also recently, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a weekly briefing that his country had ended IS’s presence on its soil, and that plans were there to start the stage of chasing the snuffies in Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


UN agency: 104 Iraqis killed, another 177 injured in March clashes
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ A total of 104 Iraqi civilians and coppers were killed and another 177 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in March, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

In its monthly statement released on Wednesday, the UN agency said the number of civilians killed, excluding police, was 84, while 164 others were maimed.

Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 124 civilian casualties (33 killed, 91 injured), followed by Salahuddin with 12 killed and 26 injured, and Anbar with 11 killed and 22 injured.

The surge in violence between gangs and government forces has resulted in over 3 million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi president says relations between Baghdad, Erbil “were back to normal”
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ Iraqi President Fuad Masum has stressed that both Baghdad and Erbil are now on good terms following a few months’ conflict over a referendum Kurdistan Region held in September for independence from Iraq.

In an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, Masum said there were "calm and unannounced talks between Baghdad Erbil" over the past period to solve pending issues, stressing that ties between the Federal and Kurdish governments "were back to normal".

"The two sides (referring to Baghdad and Erbil) need each other and none of them can get along without the other," Masum said, stressing that both governments are based in the same country and have the same interests.

He also hailed as a "good step" a decision recently taken by the federal government to send salaries to Kurdish employees working in the health and education sectors.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Iraqi official: PKK has actually left city of Sinjar
[ALMASDARNEWS] The head of district state administration of the Iraqi city of Sinjar, Mehma Xelil, told Sputnik that members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) officially left the territory of Sinjar, near Iraq’s northern border, April 1.

According to Xelil, the PKK has now officially retreated from Sinjar.

"[On April 1], the PKK officially left our region in compliance with the demands of Sinjar residents and headed towards Syria along with its equipment and heavy armament. The exact number of PKK members who have retreated hasn’t been estimated," the official told Sputnik.

"The government of Iraqi Kurdistan, Baghdad and the people of Sinjar demanded that the PKK leave the territory of the city and we are grateful that they have complied with the demand," Xelil said.

He added that the PKK has decided to retreat due to the fact that Sinjar residents are capable of ensuring their own security.

"This step will contribute to safeguarding the security of Sinjar," the official stressed.

Last week, a representative of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish military forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, told Sputnik that claims by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) about having retreated from Sinjar were a ruse, despite a number of key political and military figures saying that the PKK has completely retreated and that government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga units had taken their place.

Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army gives Jaysh Al-Islam final deadline to surrender east Qalamoun
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has given the murderous Moslems of Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
a final deadline to surrender their positions in the eastern part of the Qalamoun Mountains, Damascus Now reported this afternoon.

According to the Syria-based news site, the Syrian Army gave Jaish al-Islam, today, a deadline to surrender the eastern Qalamoun towns of Jayroud, al-Mansourah, al-Nasariyah, al-Rahbiyah, and al-TnahJayroud, al-Mansourah, al-Nasariyah, al-Rahbiyah, and al-Atnah.

No date was released by Damascus Now regarding the deadline.

A military source in Damascus recently informed al-Masdar that the Russian Reconciliation Center had postponed talks with Jaish al-Islam in the eastern Qalamoun.

The reason for the Russian postponement was due to the ongoing evacuation of the East Ghouta region; they will shift their attention to the eastern Qalamoun shortly after the last Jaish al-Islam murderous Moslems leave Douma.
Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Jaish al-Islam (MB)


Erdogan vows to continue operation in Syria until Kurds leave Manbij
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
will continue its operation in Syria until Kurdish forces leave Syria’s Manbij region, the country’s President 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...
said on Wednesday.

"I would like to repeat that unless we ensure security in all the regions controlled by the YPG [the Kurdish People’s Protection Units] first of all, in Manbij, we will not stop," Erdogan said at the trilateral Russia-Turkey-Iran summit on Syria.

The president noted that the three guarantor states’ leaders agreed on the necessity to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity. He mentioned that they also had worked out some steps on Syrian settlement, however, without providing details.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Erdogan held their second trilateral meeting on Syrian settlement in Ankara. Iran, Russia, and Turkey are the three guarantor states of the ceasefire in Syria, which has been mired in a violent civil war since 2011, and active participants of the Astana format of the Syrian reconciliation.

On March 28, the Ottoman Turkish National Security Council warned that Ankara would push its operation in the northern district of Afrin further to Manbij, if the Kurdish YPG forces, supported by the United States, did not leave the region. Turkey considers YPG militia to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Posted by: Fred || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Terror Networks
Google should not be in business of war, say employees
[BBC] Thousands of Google employees have signed an open letter asking the internet giant to stop working on a project for the US military.

Project Maven involves using artificial intelligence to improve the precision of military drone strikes.

Employees fear Google's involvement will "irreparably damage" its brand.
"We believe that Google should not be in the business of war," says the letter, which is addressed to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai.

"Therefore we ask that Project Maven be cancelled, and that Google draft, publicise and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology."

No military projects

The letter, which was signed by 3,100 employees - including "dozens of senior engineers", according to the New York Times - says that staff have already raised concerns with senior management internally. Google has more than 88,000 employees worldwide.

In response to concerns raised, the head of Google's cloud business, Diane Greene, assured employees that the technology would not be used to launch weapons, nor would it be used to operate or fly drones.

However, the employees who signed the letter feel that the internet giant is putting users' trust at risk, as well ignoring its "moral and ethical responsibility". "We cannot outsource the moral responsibility of our technologies to third parties," the letter says.

"Google's stated values make this clear: every one of our users is trusting us. Never jeopardise that. Ever.
"Building this technology to assist the US government in military surveillance - and potentially lethal outcomes - is not acceptable."

'Non-offensive purposes'

Google confirmed that it was allowing the Pentagon to use some of its image recognition technologies as part of a military project, following an investigative report by tech news site Gizmodo in March.

A Google spokesperson told the BBC: "Maven is a well-publicised Department of Defense project and Google is working on one part of it - specifically scoped to be for non-offensive purposes and using open-source object recognition software available to any Google Cloud customer.

"The models are based on unclassified data only. The technology is used to flag images for human review and is intended to save lives and save people from having to do highly tedious work.
"Any military use of machine learning naturally raises valid concerns. We're actively engaged across the company in a comprehensive discussion of this important topic and also with outside experts, as we continue to develop our policies around the development and use of our machine learning technologies."

The internet giant is working on developing policies for the use of its artificial intelligence technologies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/05/2018 08:01 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The late Anwar al-Awlaki - So they wait until NOW to start bitching and moaning about U.S. drone targeting.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/05/2018 8:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Google should not be in business--at least in the way that business has been conducted in the past.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/05/2018 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  So, no jobs?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/05/2018 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  And yet this is okey-dokey.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 04/05/2018 10:24 Comments || Top||

#5  "Do Evil"

Sort of rules out rainbows and unicorns.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/05/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

#6  They didn't say anything when Borat Obama was writing big fat checks to Iran, which they used to... guess what? Wage war in Syria, and pay the Russians to wage war in Syria.

(Yah, the leftovers of the Administration that paid for the Russian bombing campaign in Syria are going to investigate Trump and Co. for Collusion.)
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/05/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Google is a search engine. They should not be in the business of censoring or elevating one candidate or another.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/05/2018 12:05 Comments || Top||

#8  They don't want to work with the US military, then they should get off our network.

And keep in mind -- they cooperate with censorship and policing in totalitarian countries like China, Iran, Germany and Britain.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/05/2018 12:54 Comments || Top||

#9  If you're using Google to search, you should be using this.
Posted by: Don Vito Barnsmell6785 || 04/05/2018 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  DuckDuckGo all the way!
Posted by: Roth LaDoad || 04/05/2018 18:01 Comments || Top||

#11  I switched to DuckDuckGo when y’all recommended it last time Google was in the news.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 22:19 Comments || Top||


Islamic State militants renew loyalty pledge to 'caliph' Baghdadi
[Ynet] 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....
Death Eaters have restated their loyalty to the group's leader 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...
, in what is believed to be their first public pledge of allegiance to him since his "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq collapsed last year.

The group continues to carry out bombings, ambushes and liquidations in both countries, as well as in Libya. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
Baghdadi's whereabouts have been unknown since the cross-border "caliphate" he declared in 2014 disintegrated with the fall of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and Raqqa, its strongholds in Iraq and Syria respectively.

"To infuriate and terrorize the infidels, we renew our pledge of loyalty to the commander of the faithful and the caliph of the Moslems, the mujahid sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Hussaini al-Qurashi may god preserve him," Death Eaters said in a statement posted on their social media groups.

Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises several governments including Iraq's on Islamic State affairs, told Rooters this was the first known pledge of loyalty to Baghdadi since Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul in July and an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias took Raqqa in November, in both cases backed by a US-led coalition.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/05/2018 00:52 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Al-Baghdadi killed at least 4 times and captured several times; the Freddy Krueger and Houdini combined of ISIS? Probably will die of old age with his two wives, 6 children and grandkids.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/05/2018 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Another 'Dread Pirate Roberts', perhaps.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/05/2018 12:10 Comments || Top||


Government
Congress And Wasserman Schultz Negligent For Allowing Hacking Suspects Continued Access
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/05/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  The author, cybersecurity expert Kevin McDonald of Alvaka Networks, especially faults the judgement of Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who kept Imran on her payroll for an additional six months after House leadership banned him from the network. He also questions her claim the IT aide was somehow providing tech services without ever connecting to the House network.

In other words, it's how I feel.
Posted by: Fairbanks || 04/05/2018 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Is that merely negligent or "criminally negligent?"
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/05/2018 8:25 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll take "criminally negligent" for $600 Alex.

What is espionage ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/05/2018 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Is that merely negligent or "criminally negligent?"

This isn't negligence. They're de facto victims of blackmail since they reasonably have to assume that all dirty secrets stored on congressional IT infrastructure is in the hands of the Pakistanis/Chinese.

Negligence may have played a role when the Awans got initial access. OTOH some foreign player might have applied pressure on key decision makers even then, using information obtained by other means.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 04/05/2018 12:23 Comments || Top||




Who's in the News
31[untagged]
7Islamic State
4Taliban
3Govt of Iraq
3Govt of Saudi Arabia
2Govt of Pakistan
2Govt of Pakistain Proxies
2Muslim Brotherhood
2Commies
2Boko Haram (ISIS)
2Sublime Porte
1TTP
1Fulani Herdsmen (Boko Haram)
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Islamic Jihad (Palestian)
1Jaish al-Islam (MB)
1Moslem Colonists

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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2018-04-05
  Somalia: Troops Loyal To Embattled Speaker Seize Parliament Building
Wed 2018-04-04
  Four members of Christian family shot dead in Quetta
Tue 2018-04-03
  Iraq sentences seven Turkish females to death, life over joining Islamic State
Mon 2018-04-02
  Sayyaf commander captured in Sulu
Sun 2018-04-01
  Horror On Streets Of Germany: State Of Emergency Declared As 80 Men Brawl With Machetes
Sat 2018-03-31
  Mohammed bin Salman: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ is an incubator for terrorists
Fri 2018-03-30
  Hamas to Swarm Israel's Border, Sparking Fear of New ‘Passover War'
Thu 2018-03-29
  ISIS launches massive offensive in Deir Ezzor
Wed 2018-03-28
  China announces NKOR agrees to de-nuclearize
Tue 2018-03-27
  Five Killed by Boko Haram in Niger Attack
Mon 2018-03-26
  10 injured in grenade attack at D.I. Khan cultural festival
Sun 2018-03-25
  Malaysia arrests seven men with Islamic State links over attacks plot
Sat 2018-03-24
  Ruth Bader Ginsburg rules that hot dogs are sandwiches
Fri 2018-03-23
  France supermarket hostage-taking: At least two killed by Trebes known wolf gunman claiming allegiance to ISIS
Thu 2018-03-22
  Jordan jails two for planning Daesh embassy attacks


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