[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Amnesia Amnesty International said Friday that Sudanese military rulers must guarantee the safety of protesters ahead of planned mass rallies over the weekend calling for civilian rule and following a deadly military crackdown that has left more than 100 dead since early June.
Sudan’s pro-democracy movement said they would proceed in their demonstrations despite intensified efforts by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Æthiopia to end the political impasse and bring protest leaders and the ruling military council back to the negotiating table. The rallies are planned nationwide, with a focus on Khartoum.
"The horrific unprovoked use of lethal and unnecessary force against peaceful protesters as witnessed on June 3 must not be repeated this Sunday, or ever again," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary general.
Protest leader Sherif Osman, from The Forces for Decoration of Freedom and Change, which represents the protesters, told news hounds in a news conference in Khartoum that the "peaceful" marches planned for Sunday could only be called off "if the military council handed over power to civilians."
The demonstrations are planned to mark the 30th anniversary of the Islamist-backed coup that brought Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. 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 president-for-life. He has fallen 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. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. to power in 1989, toppling Sudan’s last elected government.
Amnesty warned the military council of repeating the June 3 crackdown, when security forces led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces violently broke up a protest sit-in outside the military’s headquarters, dealing a massive blow to the protest movement.
The break-up of the sit-in and ensuing clampdown has killed at least 128 people cross the country, according to protest organizers. Authorities say the toll is at 61, including three security forces.
The military took over the country after protests drove al-Bashir from power in April. Negotiations with protesters over the transfer of power to civilians reached a deadlock following the clampdown on their sit-in.
In recent weeks, Æthiopia and the AU have been mediating between the two sides. On Thursday, they presented a proposal to resume talks after the military refused to accept an Æthiopian initiative, which had been approved by the protesters.
The military council did not comment on the joint proposal and a front man for the council did not answer phone calls seeking comment.
The Æthiopian proposal also stipulates that the military would chair the council in the first 18 months, and the FDFC the second half of the transition.
Syrian government forces and bully boyz fought fierce battles that left dozens dead in the country’s northwest as troops tried to regain control of two villages they lost earlier this month.
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General Haftar’s LNA is angry at Turkey because allegedly Ankara had provided air cover to UN-backed Tripoli government to re-take key town Gharyan this week.
Last week Erdogan acknowledged selling weapons to UN-backed Tripoli gov, he didn’t specify the equipment
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Drone attacks on Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s oil industry in May originated in Iraq, not 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... , US officials have concluded, drawing questions from Iraqi officials who have asked Washington for more information supporting the claim, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
US officials familiar with the intelligence on the May drone attacks say they originated in southern Iraq, the Journal reported, saying that most likely pointed a finger at Iran-backed militias in that region.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...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 legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. 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 They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s said they carried out the dronezaps against the East-West pipeline.
The drone attack happened two days after four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were damaged by sabotage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
The attacks took place against a backdrop of US-Iranian tension following Washington’s move last month to try to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero and beef up its military presence in the Gulf in response to what it called Iranian threats.
The State Department declined to comment on the report.
On May 14, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said that two oil-pumping stations for the East-West pipeline had been hit by explosive-laden drones, calling the attack "an act of terrorism" that targeted global oil supplies.
At a weekly news conference on Tuesday, Iraq’s prime minister denied allegations that drones which targeted Saudi oil pipelines last month could have taken off from Iraq, rather than Yemen.
"All of our intelligence services and our air force denied these reports because the air space is known," Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. "As far as we are concerned, we have no proof and we have no evidence in this matter."
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[IsraelTimes] Corbyn ally Chris Williamson loses whip while new decision on ban pending; senior members of UK opposition party decry ’offensive and reputationally damaging’ decision to reinstate. "What part of 'keep it on the downlow' did you not understand?"
The UK Labour Party on Friday reportedly reimposed the suspension of an MP two days after it was lifted, amid an ongoing furore over the party’s handling of complaints of anti-Semitism.
Chris Williamson, a Corbyn ally, was filmed in February telling a meeting that the party was "too apologetic" and had "given too much ground" in its response to anti-Semitism allegations.
He was reinstated Wednesday after being suspended pending an ethics review.
However a member of the panel which allowed Williamson’s return to the party, Keith Vaz MP, said he felt the decision should be reconsidered.
Following Vaz’s comments, the Labour general secretary, Jennie Formby, told the party’s national executive that Williamson’s case would be on the agenda for the next meeting of its disputes committee, the Guardian reported.
"Subsequently, the whip is not restored as the decision is still pending," a source told the BBC.
Some 90 senior members of the Labour Party have urged its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to expel Williamson.
A trustworthy source confirms M. Murcek’s Friday afternoon news dump from Zero Hedge:
[Jpost] Britannia, La Belle France and Germany have a special trade channel up and running with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... that aims to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions, the EU said in a statement.
"La Belle France, Germany and the United Kingdom informed participants that INSTEX had been made operational and available to all EU Member States and that the first transactions are being processed," the EU said in a statement, referring to the channel's formal name.
Iran has also established an entity to trade with Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... , while some more EU countries are joining INSTEX as shareholders, the statement said, following talks between the remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal - Russia, China, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany - after the United States pulled out.
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[Jpost] According to the Gazeta Express, a Kosovo news portal, Kosovo's government adopted the EU ban on Hezbollah's so-called military arm.
The US, Canada, the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , Israel, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have already designated Hezbollah's entire movement a terrorist entity. The EU and Germany have merely outlawed Hezbollah's so-called military wing.
Hezbollah's "political wing" operates in the EU and Germany. Hezbollah's leadership considers its organization to be a unified movement without political and military wings.
According to a Post review of an intelligence report from the German state of Lower Saxony, 1,050 Hezbollah operates are in the federal republic. Hezbollah members and supporters raise funds, recruit new members and spread antisemitic and jihadist ideologies. Germany is currently experiencing a huge spike in antisemitism, according to statistics and media reports.
[Jpost] Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
The previous episode of this nasty little tale can be seen here.
The Syrian refugee Mohammed Omran Albakr
...he arrived in Germany in 2015 and was praised in print as a model refuge a year later. Eventually he and his wife moved in with the victim’s parents...
persuaded his Paleostinian accomplice Iyad Bayatneh to murder a German millionaire because he allegedly was a Jew.
The dramatic development was reported on Thursday by the local newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote.
The 57-year-old victim Michael Riecher, a real estate investor who was not Jewish, was found strangled in his home in November.
According to the report, the 28-year-old Albakr told a number of acquaintances that he was looking for help to rob Riecher, who reportedly had gold and 250,000 Euro in a safe.
Piffle. Nobody keeps that much money at home when there are trustworthy banks nearby. Unless they are mafioso, I suppose...
A Lebanese-born Paleostinian named Haitham Ahmad provided the eye-popping testimony about Albakr and the 31-year-old Bayatneh. Ahmad, who is a barber, said he recommended Bayatneh as an accomplice to Albakr because Bayatneh has a "strong heart."
According to Ahmad, who used an alias during his testimony,
...clearly to no avail. One hopes he profits from this lesson...
he said Albakr said to Bayatneh that "the man who will be attacked is a Jew." Bayatneh responded: "The Jews destroyed my country." Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
Exactly the kind of upright replacement citizen one would want giving one sponge baths in one’s twilight years, instead of the grandchildren one neglected to have...
The news hound Jurgen Luck, who broke the story about the role of deadly antisemitism as a motive for the murder of Riecher, wrote that a antisemitism watchdog organization Recherchestelle Antisemitismus contacted him on Thursday.
After reports in the Schwarzwälder Bote and The Jerusalem Post , Germany’s top-selling paper Bild titled its Friday story:
"Millionaire murdered because perpetrator considered him Jew?" The next court session is in early July.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hundreds gathered at Istanbul's main court on Friday to support an opposition politician who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticizing the government.
Canan Kaftancioglu, who heads the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s Istanbul branch, is accused of "insulting" 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... and the Ottoman Turkish state in tweets posted between 2012 and 2017.
The supporters gathered outside the court chanted "Down with fascism ...a political system developed in Italy, symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... " and held signs reading "We are thirsty for justice".
Kaftancioglu’s tweets include an insult directed at Erdogan, and criticism of the death of a 14-year-old boy, who was hit by a tear gas grenade during the mass "Gezi Park" protests of 2013.
She is also accused of "terrorist propaganda" for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.
Her supporters say another tweet, in which she appeared to deny the Armenian genocide, was fake and had been created to smear her. "This trial, as everyone knows, is a political trial," said a lawyer for the CHP outside the court.
"We are once again before the court for a case that is unjust, outside of the law and without any foundation."
Kaftancioglu was a key figure in the campaign to elect Ekrem Imamoglu, the new CHP mayor of Istanbul ‐ whose landslide victory this week marked the first significant defeat for Erdogan since he took power in 2003.
There was little progress in the trial itself on Friday, with the case quickly adjourned until July 18.
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#1
I'd love to have this power in the US...as long as I get to decide what's insulting.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The new mayor of Istanbul said on Friday he is ready to work with 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... but that he was also preparing to deal with any attempts by the government to restrict his powers.
Speaking to international media in Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu said the government had already put into practice new regulations to bypass the mayor in appointments to municipal companies and to give authority to municipal assemblies where Erdogan’s party has a majority. The mayor said such measures were against the current laws governing local government.
"We are prepared even for the most risky situations," said Imamoglu, who won last weekend’s rerun definitively. "Right now I am the Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul and Mr. Erdogan is President. I think we can contribute great things to this country and the city by coming to an agreement."
Imamoglu was elected mayor for a second time on Sunday after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor... ’s electoral board annulled the results of the March 31 polls in Turkey’s largest city. He beat his opponent, the government candidate Binali Yildirim, with more than 806,000 votes.
Days before the election’s re-run, Erdogan hinted that the judiciary could investigate Imamoglu, who represents the opposition Republican People’s Party, for insulting a public official.
Since his stunning victory, which represented a major setback for Erdogan, the president quickly congratulated the mayor. And in a speech on Thursday in Japan where he is attending the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, Erdogan struck a somewhat conciliatory tone in, saying his party would support "realistic projects to the benefit of Istanbul."
"But we will never support unacceptable projects for the benefit of Istanbul."
Earlier on Friday, the leader of Imamoglu’s party in Istanbul went on trial on numerous charges, including insulting the country’s president and allegations of terror propaganda, with sentences up to 17 years in prison.
Canan Kaftancioglu has called the trial, which was adjourned until July 18, "politically motivated."
Imamoglu echoed her position and said he stands with Kaftancioglu "until the very end."
The mayor has been busy since his victory, outlining plans to combat Istanbul’s paralyzing traffic and citywide poverty. He is also looking to address the issues of refugees living in Istanbul.
Over half a millions Syrian refugees live in the city.
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[IsraelTimes] Ottoman Turkish citizen who translated for American drug enforcement agency accused of links to alleged criminal mastermind of failed 2016 coup attempt.
A Ottoman Turkish court rejected an appeal on Friday to free a US consular staffer on bail during an espionage trial that has deepened tensions between Washington and Ankara.
Prosecutors argued that Metin Topuz, a Ottoman Turkish citizen and liaison for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was a flight risk and must remain in jug in Istanbul.
His next hearing was set for September 18.
Topuz was arrested in 2017 and accused of contacts with police. A prosecutor also suspected of ties to US-based Moslem preacher Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost... , who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup in 2016.
"All my contacts with those in high-ranking positions of the state at the time were entirely part of my work as a translator and assistant liaison officer at the DEA. I am innocent," Topuz said during his last court appearance in May.
The US embassy says there is no credible evidence against him.
Topuz faces a separate investigation on charges of seeking to "overthrow the constitutional order."
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[Jpost] The U.S. Senate on Friday defeated legislation that would have barred President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... from launching an attack on Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... without first obtaining the approval of Congress, except in self-defense.
The measure was defeated 50 to 40, ensuring that the measure would not get the 60 needed to pass the Republican-majority Senate as an amendment to an annual defense policy bill.
Ten senators did not vote.
The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed the Senate on Thursday, but Senate leaders made the unusual decision to allow the amendment vote on Friday after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in calling for debate on the matter.
They also agreed that the voting, which began at 5 a.m. EDT, would last through most of the day to allow Democrats running for president to return from a debate in Miami. The vote concluded 10 hours later, at 3 p.m. EDT.
Republican opponents of the legislation argued it would impose unnecessary restrictions on Trump if he faced a threat from Iran.
Supporters said it was necessary to ensure that Congress retains its constitutional right to authorize the use of military force and to lessen the chance of a miscalculation that could plunge the country into prolonged conflict.
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#1
Oh, yeah, like I feel real threatened by Iran. I'm just waiting for their naval infantry to storm the shores of the Atlantic and come right to my house and ask for a cup of sugar.
#2
Oh God no, we can't have the people's will being represented in government. Starting wars is the neocon specialty and they know quite well nobody outside of DC supports them.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/29/2019 12:28 Comments ||
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#3
It’s not their naval infantry we need to worry about. It’s their perfectly legal residents and dual citizens (both Iranian a d Lebanese Shiites) who have been undergoing skills training while visiting the cousins back in the Olde Country and casing America for targets for two generations that is the very real concern. The Tsarnaev brothers were amateurs; these people are professionals.
We’ve arrested two of them recently. You both may recall reading about it here at Rantburg.
[ToloNews] The federal government has decided to extend the stay of registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistain till June 30 next year, the Express Tribune reported on Friday.
The decision, notified by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), comes during Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... ’s ongoing visit to Pakistain and days before the current extension ends on June 30, 2019.
"In pursuance of approval of the Federal Cabinet conveyed vide Cabinet Division’s Memorandum No.550(S)/Rule-19/2019-Cab, dated 27 June, 2019, the Government of Pakistain is pleased to extend the Validity in respect of Tripartite Agreement, Proof of Registration (PoR) Cards till 30-06-2020," read the notification, quoted by the Express Tribune.
The ministry also announced an extension in the validity of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) till October 31, 2019.
Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka The Great Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... also informed the Afghan president about the 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) government’s decision, the report says.
Figures by United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... High Commissioner for Refugees show that there are 1,405,715 registered Afghan refugees and 210,465 Afghan families in Pakistain as of June 3, 2019.
Statistics by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicate that 10,720 Afghans have returned home from Pakistain since the beginning of this year. Of the total figure, 8,421 have returned spontaneously, while 2,299 others were deported.
The UN refugee agency defines registered Afghans as those who have valid Proof of Registration cards issued by the Pak government, the report said.
The data shows the agency facilitated voluntary repatriation of 4,374,208 Afghan refugees from 2002 till December 4, 2018.
This year ‐ till June 24, 2019 ‐ UNHCR has facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 2,036 Afghan refugees, the Express Tribune says in the report.
At the UNHCR hosted and chaired 30th Tripartite Commission Meeting in Islamabad on June 18, Pakistain, Afghanistan and the refugee agency reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the principle of voluntary repatriation ‐ in safety and dignity ‐ under the Tripartite Agreement.
They called for enhanced efforts to create an environment conducive to voluntary return and sustainable reintegration in Afghanistan and vowed to continue supporting the host communities in Pakistain, within the framework of the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR).
All three stakeholders also expressed concern at the decrease in the voluntary repatriation grant provided to Afghan refugees and encouraged the international community to increase the cash grant to its previous level of approximately $400 per individual, the report said.
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[DAWN] Refusals and misconceptions have been hampering the polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... eradication drive in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as five more cases have been reported from various parts of the province.
The cournty-wide tally for the first six months of the year 2019 has reached 32 as compared to 12 cases in 2018 and only eight in year 2017.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa alone has recorded 26 cases so far, mostly from the highly-infected Bannu division. Bannu has 11 cases and North Wazoo six, followed by Torghar with three and one each from D.I. Khan, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Shangla, Bajaur and Khyber Agency ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though... An official of the Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), requesting anonymity, said that two cases each had been reported from Bannu and Torghar and one from North Waziristan.
"An eight-month-old boy from Takhti Khel Union Council and a 10-month-old boy from Kotka Gul Adat Khan village of Bannu district were diagnosed with the crippling virus," he said.
"Of the two cases reported from Torghar, the first one is a 48-month-old girl who belongs to Gaeito village and the other is a 24-month-old boy from Harnail Union Council. From North Waziristan’s Zeraki village, an 11-month-old girl has been infected," he said.
When contacted, retired captain Kamran Ahmad Afridi, KP Emergency Operations Centre coordinator, said: "The propaganda against polio vaccine and increase in number of refusal cases is a major cause behind the spike in cases in the province."
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#1
I'm told one can lead a horse to water but not make it think.
Posted by: Roger Smith ||
06/29/2019 12:17 Comments ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Brent crude oil held near $67 a barrel on Friday ahead of talks over the trade dispute between the US and Chinese presidents this weekend and on production cuts from OPEC on Monday.
Brent crude futures were up 5 cents at $66.60 a barrel by 1350 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 22 cents at $59.21 a barrel.
Brent was on course for a gain of around 25 percent in the first half of 2019 and WTI for a 30 percent gain.
The leaders of the G20 countries meet on Friday and Saturday in Osaka, Japan, but the most anticipated meeting is between 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... and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.
A trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has weighed on prices, fanning fears that slowing economic growth could dent demand for oil.
Trump said on Wednesday a trade deal with Chinese President Xi was possible this weekend but he is prepared to impose US tariffs on most remaining Chinese imports should the two countries disagree.
"The next few days will provide a much-needed dose of clarity for the oil balance over the coming months," PVM’s Stephen Brennock said in a note.
"Market bulls will be (hoping) that the G20 summit will provide a trade breakthrough ... All the while, the supply side of the oil coin continues to display bullish signals," he added.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-members including Russia, known as OPEC+, will hold meetings on July 1-2 in Vienna to decide whether to extend their supply cuts.
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[Jpost] A May 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities may have been carried out from Iraq, not 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... as originally suspected, increasing the spotlight on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and threats to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... A Wall Street Journal report on Friday reported that "US officials have concluded that drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in May were launched from Iraq." The attack on May 14 followed US warnings on May 5 about Iranian threats, which set in motion the last month and a half of tensions between the US and Iran. The US has warned Iran
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Assault that crippled Revolutionary Guard missile system result of massive investment in cyber warfare by American military, likely took months or years of preparation.
A cyber attack on Iranian missile systems, claimed by the US last week, would have had to exploit a flaw in the heavily-guarded network, experts said.
Citing US official sources, American media last week reported that the Army Cyber Command had crippled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s air defense units that shot down a sophisticated drone on June 20.
Military computing security is usually "hardened" to defend against attack but highly-skilled computer scientists in cyber units of modern armies are always working to find a way in.
"The simplest way would be for a special forces member to plug in a USB (carrying a virus) to the right place," Loic Guezo of the French Information Security Club told AFP.
This is almost certainly how the well-known US-Israeli Stuxnet virus was introduced in 2010, into the computers of Iran’s nuclear complex, according to experts.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... at the time accused the US and Israel of using the virus to target its centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.
The Revolutionary Guards are believed to have since bolstered precautionary measures in a bid to isolate their military computer networks from the internet.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... according to a military expert who requested anonymity, an "anti-aircraft defense system requires radars, control and command centers and ground-to-air missile sites to be inter-connected."
Those components are connected by intranet networks that "at one time or another" must be connected to the internet.
"In the past, there was no way to connect to a weapon system," said Guezo.
Today, however, he said most computer operating systems are commercial and vulnerable to attacks even if "everything is done to make them impenetrable."
"Nothing is impenetrable," said Guezo.
Modern cyber crime units, especially American and Israeli, have massive resources at their disposal and recruit high-level experts.
The Cyber Command became a fully-fledged combat unit within the US army in May with a budget running into billions of dollars.
In Israel, its renowned 8200 electronic warfare unit attracts the country’s best talent.
When cyber attackers "have identified an entry point," they "intrude the network with messages carrying hyper-aggressive malware which will at least partially cripple the air defense network," said an anonymous military specialist.
In March 2017, researcher Remy Hemez of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) told of how the Israeli army had used a program called SUTER in 2007 to temporarily blind Syrian air defense radars.
Operation Orchard, according to Hemez, showed how cyber weapons can successfully be used in battle.
Israeli fighter jets had penetrated deep into Syrian air space to destroy a suspected nuclear facility after having disabled Syrian air defenses.
Last week’s US claim of an attack on Iranian missile launching systems would have required months or even years of preparation, said Guezo.
"You have to study the architecture of the equipment and then create attack plans," Guezo said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2019 00:50 ||
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#1
Most of Iran's cyber security is designed piecemeal and haphazard by their independent contractors who also run their cyber offensive proxy programs. The IRGC has relied on semi-professional hackers and moderately trained personnel for both security and mundane administrative networks since 2012, when they began absorbing the hackers into service as consultants, directors and trainers. These are not soldiers trained as cyber specialists but nerds and delinquents with a relgio-patriotic streak.
#3
Tied into S-300 and S-400 deployment, but....sshhhhh. Don't tell anybody. It's a secret
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2019 8:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
TW I don't know what Dron's sources are. But I do remember when Iran was using pirated Windows OS systems that could not install updated security patches. Thus compromised digital certificates belonging to Realtek Semiconductor, Siemens component monitors and JMicron Technology.
That included open firewall holes. Not something that your run-of-the-mill hacker can pull off. The Iran's Bushehr reactor, a possible end target, but there could easily be other facilities such as refineries, chemical plants or factories were wide open exploited.
Example: Stuxnet finally identifies its target, it makes changes to a piece of Siemens code called Organizational Block 35. This Siemens component monitors critical factory operations, things that need a response within 100 milliseconds. By messing with Operational Block 35.
So as far as Dron's aforementioned nerds and delinquents, I don't know where that came from. The layer depths are not what an amature relgio-patriotic squad would have coded out.
PC World had an interesting piece including Ralph Langner's take on the hacks.
#6
TW, it's more likely that the CIA and friendlies have actively followed the progression of the Iranian cyber-security apparatus and has been branching and dynamically adjusting their own research to their evolution of threats and counterbalances. And coupled with field assist from friendlies, they could compromise existing systems when presented with a chance. In hacking, I believe knowing what the target is using and possessing the code for certain platforms is the key. But then, I'm a dunce.
What I do know :
Iran’s cyber activities are overseen by the IRGC. In 2012, they were composed of a handful of independent contractors who handled everything from interior security work, criminal fraud, some research and software development. They contracted hackers from overseas for offensive capabilities and for training their own IRGC personnel. By 2016, some of the contractors had diversified into their own criminal enterprises. Some of the individuals herein were also part of the APT39 group. Though some defense 'specialists' speculate that Iran's cyber offense capabilities may be superior because of support from Russian or Korean help, so far the sophistication seen has been of an amateur level. One IRGC affiliated group labeled 'Rocket Kitten' called Iran’s premiere threat, then faded into quiescence, eclipsed by the player 'Oilrig' compromised IT personnel had enabled the destruction of data on computers maintained by Saudi Aramco. Defacement of Voice of America’s websites by the Iranian Cyber Army, one of the first disruptive attacks by Iran against the United States, was accomplished again through compromised networks. Operation Ababil was one of the largest DDoS attacks back in 2012. Perpetrated by a few young Iranian nerds, breaching thousands of websites that were running vulnerable software, to pool enough bandwidth to overwhelm the infrastructure of banks. From 2012 onward the IRGC's reliance on semi-professional independent hacking groups within Iran's 'patriotic hacker-space' led to many compromises in their own cyber shield, and many unreported or suppressed incidents with their own sponsored cyber criminals attacking their own systems.
Post stuxnet they have even tried to switch to some Debian-based Linux platform for their Transport and Energy sectors, but the transition hasn't happened because of contractual disagreements. Malware agents known as Wiper and Flame, successors to Stuxnet, had been discovered when Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company computers were disabled, their hard drives overwritten in a unilateral operation reportedly conducted by Israel in 2012.
The transition of amateur hackers into contractors for state security agencies was actively monitored by certain mid-east agencies since then. In fact the individuals are known to some degree by these agencies. The suppression of internal rebellion like the Green Movement was also their brief. The tactics, tools, and threat actors that arose during this domestic challenge shaped the cyber defense of Iran. A recurrent theme since the outset of Iran’s cyber operations is that Iranian campaigns do not maintain clear boundaries between operations directed against its internal opposition and those directed against foreign adversaries. The same infrastructure and tools used by Iranian threat actors for campaigns against the American defense industry are also used to target Persian-language women’s development programs; the same malware used in destructive attacks against Saudi government institutions had been previously used for surveillance against members of the Green Movement opposition. The same contractors that enabled The Iranian Cyber Army to attack corporations and governments the world over, oversee and administer their 'sustainable cyber defense' initiative. Their present security apparatus has grown rather organically, piecemeal. Iran has often emphasized its defensive capabilities, announcing in 2015 that its Cyber Attacks Emergency Center had successfully managed to thwart U.S. cyber attacks against the country’s industrial infrastructure. Iranian military touts its domestic contractors as the best in the business, their products unassailable, like the antivirus Padvish. While technical sophistication does not impede Iranians from conducting successful cyber operations, those actions reflect a disorganization and lack of professionalism that runs contrary to what would be expected of a state actor and limits their capabilities. Add to that the sanctions that impede them from acquiring updated tech and support.
The preparation for Operation Olympic Games was substantial. US and Israeli intelligence obtained confidential information about the specific configuration of the centrifuge controllers in Natanz, built a test environment based on comparable hardware seized from Libya, and then deployed the malware agent through human assets inside Iran to reach computers disconnected from the internet. These operations were sustained over years. Later versions of Stuxnet exploited several previously unknown vulnerabilities and sought to strategically infect other computers in Iran in the event that they were connected to the Natanz systems. The agencies never stopped playing. They shall continue to evolve threats and groom on-site agents traitors.
The intelligence report continued, “From these points of view, it is essentially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [North Korea] and the Syrian Arab Republic that need to be mentioned. The intelligence services of these countries, in many ways, are involved in unlawful procurement activities in the field of proliferation, using globally oriented, conspiratorial business and commercial structures.”
[Jpost] Germany’s federal intelligence said on Thursday in its new report on security threats that Iran’s regime worked to obtain equipment for its nuclear program that could be used for weapons of mass destruction.
According to the 388 report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, which covers a range of security threats to Germany’s democracy, the intelligence document said the agency "was only able to identify isolated indications of Iran's proliferation-related procurement attempts for its nuclear program compared with the previous year.
"Such indications emerge when the methodological approach to the procurement of goods, their possible use also in a nuclear program and / or existing findings on the final recipient or the requesting body point to a potential proliferation-relevant procurement background."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2019 00:00 ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] 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... "tried to revive the illusion of the Ottoman Empire and the aspirations of this colonial empire have been abandoned and will not return," Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, stated during a U.N. Security Council session on Thursday.
Dr. Ja’afari stated that Erdogan had visions of "reviving the caliphate", which could only be done by overthrowing the governments of several Arab countries.
The Syrian Ambassador accused Erdogan of being involved in a massive terrorist plot that was aimed at destroying Syria. He said that Erdogan’s plan was to facilitate the entry of Death Eaters into Syria by leaving the Ottoman Turkish border open and setting up training camps for them with all kinds of weapons. .
Dr. Ja’afari added that Erdogan turned to reestablishing this empire after the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union rejected The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... ’s bid to join the organization.
The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the Ottoman Turkish President of being sympathetic to the Moslem Brüderbund, which is outlawed inside Syria and much of the Arab world.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
oddly, Jaafari who represents one of the most blood soaked dictators on the planet is mostly correct on these statement
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/29/2019 15:43 Comments ||
Top||
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called on Washington to destroy its chemical arsenal, saying the only way toward a world without weapons of mass destruction would be to "completely destroy the chemical weapons arsenal of the US as the only owner of such weapons in the world."
In a written address cited by Mehr News dedicated to the commemoration of the 1987 chemical attack on Sardasht, which occurred during the Iran-Iraq War and killed over 1,000 people and left 8,000 more seriously injured, Zarif reiterated that "Iran, once more, emphasises its principal policy of condemning the use of chemical weapons anywhere, anytime and under any circumstances."
The US, the foreign minister alleged, was "addicted to using inhumane tools of economic sanctions and terrorism" against Iran, with the restrictions imposed by Washington said to have made providing the Sardasht attack’s victims with medication significantly more difficult.
Zarif also blasted many countries’ "intentional negligence and ignorance" in the face of US actions, saying such behaviour was "deeply regrettable" and similar to "their silence thirty-one years ago toward the savage attack of the Ba’ath dictator [Saddam Hussein], backed by the US, against the defenceless civilians in Sardasht."
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... suffered up to 100,000 civilian and military casualties at the hands of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, and was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in the 1990s. Iran did not retaliate in kind to the estimated 350+ large-scale gas attacks by Iraqi forces despite having the legal right to do so under existing treaties. The country reported the complete elimination of its chemical weapons stocks at the moment it ratified the CWC in 1997.
CDC.gov and US disposal of chem weapons All weapons are destroyed at 6 sites.
The last 2 sites are awaiting completion of destruction to EPA mandated standards. The two sites are: Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, Pueblo, Colorado. Blue Grass is destroying 523 tons of mustard and nerve gas while Pueblo is destroying 2600 tons of mustard gas. Safely doing so takes care and time.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... said on Friday it had formally filed a complaint to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... against the United States over the violation of its airspace with an unmanned drone shot down by Tehran earlier this month, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
"The complaint was filed to the UN Security Council over the aggression against our airspace by the American drone ... the complaint states that Tehran reserves the right to respond firmly if the US repeats the violation," Tasnim quoted deputy Foreign Minister Gholamhossein Dehghani as saying.
Tensions spiked between Tehran and Washington after Iran downed a US military drone on June 20 that it said was flying over one of its southern provinces on the Gulf.
Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Signal that has been interfering with airplanes in Israeli airspace is detectable from space, appears to come from new deployment of Moscow’s electronic warfare systems.
The signal that has been disrupting satellite navigation for planes flying through Israeli airspace in recent weeks originates inside a Russian air base inside Syria, according to data collected by a US-based researcher.
This interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS) reception does not appear to be specifically directed at Israel, but rather the Jewish state is likely collateral damage in an effort by Moscow both to protect its troops from drone attacks and to assert its dominance in the field of electronic warfare, Todd Humphreys, a professor at the University of Texas, told The Times of Israel this week.
Continued on Page 49
[Rudaw] The US-led coalition said Thursday it had unintentionally killed at least 1,319 civilians in strikes during its fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
In five years? Five goes into 13 twice, carry the three... that’s 263 plus someone not completely dead each year — pretty good for an active war in two countries with millions of people wandering through the battlefields...
How many did the Islamic State kill?
The figure is far lower than the corpse counts given by groups that have monitored the conflict in the two countries.
"The coalition conducted 34,514 strikes between August 2014 and the end of May 2019," it said in a statement.
...or four hundredths of a person per airstrike. There must be lots of civilians wandering around missing a big toe or their left earlobe after our lot came thundering overhead.
During this period, it "assesses at least 1,319 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes."
The coalition, which has repeatedly insisted it does all it can to avoid civilian deaths, said it was still assessing 159 additional reports of civilian casualties.
Airwars, an NGO that monitors civilian casualties from air strikes worldwide, estimates more than 8,000 civilians have been killed in coalition raids.
In a report released in late April, Amnesia Amnesty International and Airwars found that coalition air and artillery strikes killed more than 1,600 civilians just in the four-months blitz to oust IS from the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2019 00:00 ||
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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.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[Jpost] Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
...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...
She is also accused of "terrorist propaganda" for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor...
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money...
.jpg "polio")
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though...
...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...
[Jpost] A May 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities may have been carried out from Iraq, not 
[IsraelTimes] Assault that crippled Revolutionary Guard missile system result of massive investment in cyber warfare by American military, likely took months or years of preparation.
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
