[ToloNews] The cabinet in Berlin will give the green light on Wednesday for an extension of Germany’s military mission in Afghanistan until Jan 31, 2022, German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Tuesday, Rooters reported.
The current parliamentary mandate for the German operation with up to 1,300 troops expires at the end of March while the new US government is reviewing a 2020 agreement with the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... which called for foreign troops to withdraw by May 1.
A premature withdrawal of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... troops could jeopardize peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, Kramp-Karrenbauer warned, adding NATO troops needed to prepare for Taliban violence should they stay beyond the end of April.
[KhaamaPress] Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... ordered to exclude foreign bandidosDeath Eaters from their ranks and failure to go against the rule will result in dismissal.
In a statement, the Taliban directed all its members that no one is allowed to arbitrarily let foreign foreigners join the group or give them shelter.
The statement added, that if any of Taliban members are proven to be involved in such activities will be "dismissed", and their groups will be disbanded and for further punishment be referred to the military commission.
Recently Ministry of Defense stated on Sunday, that during a night raid ten Taliban fighters including four Paks were killed in Arghistan district of Kandahar.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the Taliban front man denied the report and told the media that no Pak nationals fight alongside the group.
The Taliban has been under criticism by Afghan and US officials for keeping their ties with terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda. The Taliban has denied its relations with al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
According to the UN monitoring team’s report in January, there are 200 to 500 al-Qaeda gunnies across about 11 Afghan provinces.
"We believe that the top leadership of al-Qaeda is still under Taliban protection," a UN official, Edmund Fitton-Brown, said earlier this month.
According to the UN monitoring team’s report in January, there are 200 to 500 al-Qaeda gunnies across about 11 Afghan provinces.
#1
In WW2 the British had a complaint about the US troops quartered there before D-Day: "Over sexed, over paid and over here!" Maybe the locals are just getting tired of their "foreign mercs".
[ToloNews] The United States on Wednesday handed hundreds of military vehicles and other equipment to the Afghan Ministry of Defense as part of Washington’s commitments for continued support until 2024.
The aid package includes 400 Humvees, 230 cycle of violences, 23 ambulances and 43 Ford Ranger vehicles.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense has said that the US will continue its support to the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) until 2024.
The newly provided military resources will be delivered to the Afghan army divisions serving in the north and east of the country.
"We will deliver this equipment to the 209, 217, 201 and 203 army corps," said Shahmahmood Miakhel, the Afghan Deputy Minister of Defense.
According to the Afghan government, so far the US has provided 19,000 pieces of military equipment to Afghanistan.
"The support by our partner nations will continue until 2024—this has great significance for us," said Abdullah Raqibi, the head of technology and maintenance department of the Ministry of Defense.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the Afghan cops are also preparing for a possible surge in the level of violence in the spring.
Afghan officials have said that the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... have gone against their commitments and have increased violence and hundreds of Taliban prisoners who were released by the Afghan government as a goodwill gesture for peace have returned to the battlefield.
"They committed to not return to the battlefields, but some of them returned to the war, some of them were killed and arrested—the latest statistics that we have is that 600 to 800 of them have returned to the war," said Shahmahmood Miakhel, the Afghan Deputy Minister of Defense.
Equipping and modernizing the Afghan cops is one of the main goals of the US military presence and its allies in Afghanistan. The US believes that providing support and training to Afghan forces is the best option to ensure the security of Afghanistan in the future.
[Yemend] As the sound of gunfire grew closer, Mahfouz Ahmed knew to scoop up his children and run, before getting caught in the line of fire between Yemen's warring sides.
The Al-Zor camp where they had been living for four years was no longer safe, as the Iran-backed Huthi rebels drew near in a major offensive against the northern city of Marib and its nearby oil fields.
The family collected what few possessions they had, including a small television, a cooking burner and a few pots and pans, and headed to Jaw al-Naseem, another camp closer to Marib, which is the Saudi-backed government's last northern bastion.
"We were about 600 families living in Al-Zor camp, and now they have dispersed," Ahmed told AFP, as he sat on the floor of a green tent in Jaw al-Naseem, just three kilometres (less than two miles) from the city.
"Some are living with relatives and others -- three or four families, sometimes even seven -- are living in one tent. Only God knows what kind of situation this is."
Ahmed and his family first fled their home in the battleground city of Taez in 2016, part of a huge exodus of Yemenis for whom Marib province became a sanctuary of sorts in a country ravaged by years of war.
Around 140 sites have sprung up in the region to provide basic shelter for the displaced, who number up to one million according to some estimates. More at the link
[AnNahar] China has dramatically increased its prosecution of Moslem minorities in Xinjiang through the formal court system, handing out long prison terms for dubious charges such as "picking quarrels" and giving gifts to overseas relatives, a rights group said Wednesday.
These criminal convictions are in addition to the detention of an estimated one million Uighurs and other mainly Moslem minorities in "political education" camps in Xinjiang.
More than 250,000 people in the northwestern region have been formally sentenced and imprisoned since 2016, according to Human Rights Watch.
"Despite the veneer of legality, many of those in Xinjiang's prisons are ordinary people who were convicted for going about their lives and practicing their religion," HRW researcher Maya Wang said in a statement.
The US State Department has said China's actions in Xinjiang amount to genocide, while Canadian politicians on Tuesday passed a similar declaration.
HRW said criminal sentences in the region had spiked between 2017 and 2019 during a crackdown on Uighurs and other mainly Moslem minorities.
Xinjiang courts sentenced nearly 100,000 people in 2017, up from less than 40,000 in 2016, the organization said, citing government data.
The rights group said police, prosecutors and courts had been placed under pressure to "deliver swift and harsh punishment" in the name of counter-terrorism, causing many to be imprisoned without committing any genuine offence.
Sentences were handed out for activities including "telling others 'what is haram and halal'" and bringing gifts to relatives in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , HRW said, noting that prison terms have also grown longer.
Prior to 2017, around 11 percent of the sentences carried prison terms of over five years. In 2017, 87 percent did.
China's treatment and incarceration of Moslem minorities in Xinjiang, which includes accusations of forcibly sterilising women and imposing a regime of forced labour, has drawn a growing chorus of international condemnation.
After initially denying the existence of camps in Xinjiang, Beijing later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday that Beijing's treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang was a "shining example" of China's human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... progress.
#2
It will come to naught, this systematized attempt to 'breed out the islam'. Such things have been attempted by many geniuses in the past. The folly lies in trying to balance between full Hitler and a modern Gandhi. In the end it just becomes an expensive ethnocide, with its own bloated bureaucracy and diplomatic costs. I imagine the resources consumed by those camps are higher than some of western prisons.
The human mind is resilient, the more animalistic a tribe is the less ingress you can make into its collective psyche. And never with some systems theory based 're-education' factory. What motivates human society perfectly well to progress and shrug off even inherited cultures though, is the threat of annihilation. Notice I say threat, O' those of the bleeding sump pump. A deterrence is established by example, a sure promise of destruction. This needs sacrifice of one's self righteousness some times.
One major problem with the world is you have too many Sauls and not enough Samuels. Maybe our resident Rebbes will remember Agag and the Amelekites. The point is, you've got to set aside the inherent biological empathy and sometimes kill. In the modern age of criminal rampancy, I think even a little controlled culling is not out of order.
Usually, 'any that pisseth against the wall' is a good formula... just a thought.
China has shown one approach, the first bold and decisive step toward eradication of islam, for our times. I would say it's the only polity that knows so far that islam must not be tolerated, even if they are floundering with the execution of it. Other societies must learn from them and insist on similar, nay... even more 'decisive' approaches.
Aah I know what you're going to say, 'We're not like this' and 'That... that's a horrible thing to say, 66046!' and so on. Thing is, before long, we be left with no choice but to descend from our moral spires and into the pit with the swine for our own survival. And who'll be left unmolested, free to carry on their heavenward romp? Things like China. What a goddamn irony.
[Just the News] Judge said Biden administration's moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedure, U.S. failed to show why pause justified.
A federal judge in Houston late Tuesday banned the Biden administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas that argued that the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state, according to the Associated Press.
The judge's injunction issued indefinitely extends a temporary restraining order he issued Jan. 26 that was set to expire Tuesday.
Tipton expressed general opposition to nationwide injunctions but cited precedent in other cases. He therefore issued a nationwide injunction of the deportation pause.
Sauce for the goose being sauce also for the gander. Or less colourfully, precedents matter.
The stay of the pause will remain in place pending a final resolution of the case or until a further order from a federal court, such as an appeals court.
Approximately 6,000 noncitizens subject to a final order of removal are currently detained nationwide, according to the government, which alleged only some of those would be released from custody during the pause. Many are detained by local authorities, who may or may not work with federal immigration officials.
Defendants had asked the judge not to issue the injunction, writing in a filing in mid-February that Pekoske’s memo did not violate federal law and that Texas lacked standing.
...an argument that worked for the US Supreme Court...
“Texas has failed to show it will be harmed by the temporary removal pause at all, let alone irreparably, as is required for injunctive relief,” government lawyers asserted. In addition, they said, “multiple statutory provisions expressly preclude review in district court, and over the substantive and procedural issues raised here.”
At a time when Pakistan is dealing with the financial fallout from their Coronavirus lockdown and begging Financial Action Task Force (FATF) not to move them from grey list to black list for excessive money laundering and financing terrorism, where on earth did Pakistan find a spare $15 million to throw around? And why Sri Lanka?
[DailyTimes.pk] Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi ...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached... stated that defence and security cooperation to eradicate the threat of terrorism is of equal importance to Pakistain and Sri Lanka.
Regarding this, he added that Pakistain has offered Sri Lanka $15 million to enhance defence and security cooperation to end terrorism.
FM Qureshi said that Pakistain is standing side by side with Sri Lanka as a partner for the development of human resources, security cooperation, fighting terrorism, development and prosperity. The foreign minister is currently visiting Sri Lanka with Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... on a two-day official trip. He shared an update on reaching Colombo on his Twitter a day earlier.
Qureshi said Pakistain has transformed its geo-political priorities into geo-economic priorities.
He said that the visit will focus on the enhancement of bilateral trade and investment with Sri Lanka.
We have decided to give 100 scholarships to Sri Lankan students in top medical institutes of Pakistain, Qureshi said.
On February 23, Prime Minister Imran Khan reached Sri Lanka on his two-day visit. The premier’s visit comes on the invitation of his counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Imran Khan along with his delegation landed at Bandranaike International Airport in Colombo. The PM was presented with the Guard of Honour on his arrival.
[IsraelTimes] Special UN rapporteur says Tehran’s explanation of 2020 incident, which killed 176, contradicts facts and technical assessments of experts.
A UN official on Tuesday accused 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... of lying in its explanation of how it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet near Tehran last year at a time of acute tension with the US.
On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 crashed shortly after taking off from Iran’s capital Tehran killing all 176 people aboard, including 55 Canadians.
The Islamic republic admitted three days later that its forces mistakenly shot down the Kiev-bound Boeing 737-800 plane after firing two missiles.
Agnes Callamard, a special UN rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, unveiled the results of a probe into the tragedy and said the Iranian explanation of what went wrong is full of contradictions.
"The most troubling thing is that the explanations by the Iranian authorities about the mistake or mistakes that were made do not add up," she told news hounds.
She said the Iranian version of events is "full of contradictions. They are contradicted by the facts, by the technical assessments of many experts."
"Why does Iran lie? Because there is no other term to use," said Callamard.
She cited what she said were Iranian statements about the "visual approach" of the aircraft and "instructions on the radar systems."
Callamard said Iran has failed to explain how its military could make such a huge mistake as to shoot down a passenger plane.
Callamard said that under international law it is possible to "kill by mistake" and that jurisprudence determines if the error was committed in good faith.
"My conclusion is that on the basis of international law, error is not a defense for Iran," said Callamard.
She said Iran had not answered the questions she asked as part of her investigation.
UN experts like her are affiliated with the UN Security Council but this body is not bound by their conclusions.
Tensions between Iran and the US were soaring at the time of the downing of the Ukrainian jetliner.
Iranian air defenses were on high alert for a US counter-attack after Tehran fired missiles at a military base in Iraq that was used by US forces.
Those missiles were fired in response to the killing of General Qassem Soleimani , who headed the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a US dronezap near Baghdad’s international airport.
It’s who they are and what they do. No point in asking why in an individual case — all the reasons are excuses, even if true.
[AnNahar] La Belle France said on Wednesday that 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 the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... arrested a French national in May 2020 and has been holding him since, confirming a news report which called the detention illegal.
The foreign ministry said the French national was under consular protection,
...clearly not worth much...
its embassy in Tehran was in regular contact with him and that it was "attentively following the situation of our fellow national".
French news publication Le Point said the 35-year old, whom it named only as Benjamin,
...not a traditional French name, as far as I’m aware — would it be fair to assume he is Jewish? That kind of suspicion is triggering in that part of the world...
was arrested in northeastern Iran near the Turkmenistan border where he was travelling as a tourist in a van, according to his Iranian lawyer who also said that lawyers had not been granted access to case files.
Quoting a source close to Benjamin, Le Point said he had spoken by telephone to his family, but his detention was illegal because "the authorities never produced the slightest case file or any explanation for his detention".
Was he in the country legally, with an official visa and all that?
Iran has in recent years repeatedly detained foreigners and dual nationals on charges campaigners and governments say are unfounded, with the prisoners only going free after months and sometimes even years of painstaking negotiation.
High-profile releases of foreign prisoners in Iran -- of American Xiyue Wang in December 2019, American Michael White in March 2020 and Frenchie Roland Marchal, also in March -- were all accompanied by the release of Iranians held abroad on sanctions-busting charges.
But concern over the tactics intensified last autumn with the release of Australian-British lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was freed in an apparent exchange for three Iranians convicted in Thailand over a 2012 bomb plot that Israel linked to attacks against its interests.
The 60 year-old Egyptian-born former military general is a “brilliant and ruthless strategist,” and is tipped to take the reins from Ayman Zawahiri.
One senior British terrorism expert told the Daily Mirror: “Compared to Zawahiri he is likely to be a much more effective leader, at least so or more so even than bin Laden.”
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
It will come to naught, this systematized attempt to 'breed out the islam'. Such things have been attempted by many geniuses in the past. The folly lies in trying to balance between full Hitler and a modern Gandhi. In the end it just becomes an expensive ethnocide, with its own bloated bureaucracy and diplomatic costs. I imagine the resources consumed by those camps are higher than some of western prisons.
...a Pak political shape-changer. He is undistinguished except for his habit of periodically needing to have his lips reattached...
...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 
...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 
