[Garowe] Authorities in Zambia have retrieved several bodies of immigrants colonists who were initially thought to be Somalis given their physical identities, around the outskirts of the capital Lusaka, in what could trigger heightened surveillance around the borders.
Initially, Zambian media reported that the number of bodies retrieved was around 40 by counting but police in the country have since established that the bodies were about 27. They were dumped by unknown individuals around the Ngwerere area in the country.
Upon retrieval, police said, one person was found conscious and has since been admitted to a local hospital in Zambia where he's recuperating. Most of the victims are said to make Africans with light skin, physical attributions of people from the Horn of Africa.
Mohamud Mohammed alias Hiiraan, the Chairperson of the Somalis living in Zambia, confirmed that the victims come from Æthiopia and not Somalia as earlier thought. According to him, the Zambian Police Services had already done verification and established that indeed they were from Æthiopia.
"For and on behalf of Zambia Somalia Friendship Association, we would like to pass our condolences to the families of the Æthiopian Nationals who have been found dead this morning on a road in Lusaka’s Meanwood Khosi Area," he said in a statement which was published by Zambia Reports media network.
"We have established this information through a report from Zambia Police Services," he added without revealing whether the police were able to retrieve identification documents of the dear departed persons or they interrogated the survivor.
The immigrants colonists are said to have died due to " suffocation" having been bundled into a container from their country to the destination. In most cases, a container is used to hide them from cross-border scrutiny in countries they travel to on a journey that takes several days.
Sunday's incident is not isolated since about two years ago, several bodies of Æthiopians were also retrieved in Mozambique in a container that they were traveling in with survivors confirming that they were running away from the Horn of Africa nation which is struggling with instability.
Æthiopia is undergoing internal challenges including but not limited to the ongoing Tigray conflict which has left thousands of people dead. Inter-clan conflicts are also escalating especially in the Oromia region where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hails from and to date, a long-term solution is yet to be found.
[NBCNews] Abu Agila Mas’ud has been charged in a three-count indictment. The charges carry potential sentences of up to life in prison.
A Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that blew up a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 made his initial appearance in federal court Monday after he was taken into U.S. custody.
Abu Agila Mas’ud was charged in a three-count indictment — two counts of destruction of an aircraft resulting in death and a count of destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce by means of an explosive resulting in death. The charges carry potential sentences of up to life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson told the judge Monday that the Justice Department will not seek the death penalty because the charges were not punishable by death at the time of the bombing. Today, those charges are punishable by the death penalty.
Mas'ud, 71, did not enter a plea. He was represented by two public defenders; an interpreter was present, as well. Mas’ud indicated that he wants to try to retain his own counsel and that he has no health problems.
In arguing for Mas'ud to remain in detention, a federal prosecutor emphasized to the judge that he is accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground. Of the 270 people who were killed, 190 were American. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom.
Mas'ud did not argue against the government’s request that he be held in detention. He consented to be detained for one week while he waited to hear about his lawyer.
"I cannot talk until I see my attorney," he said through the interpreter.
Mas'ud was remanded into the custody of U.S. marshals and is being held without bond.
U.S. and Scottish authorities said Sunday that Mas’ud had been taken into custody. It was unclear how he had arrived in U.S. hands.
The bomb went kaboom! 38 minutes after takeoff as the Pan Am flight was on its way from London to New York. It crashed in Lockerbie, a small town in southwest Scotland about 80 miles south of the capital, Edinburgh.
White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall praised "the unrelenting efforts of the Department of Justice, Department of State, and their partners."
"Yesterday, the United States lawfully took custody of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al-Marimi and brought him to the United States where he faces charges for his alleged involvement in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103," Sherwood-Randall said in a statement. "This action underscores the Biden Administration’s unwavering commitment to enforcing the rule of law and holding accountable those who inflict harm on Americans in acts of terrorism."
Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather set Dec. 19 for Mas’ud’s next court appearance. She also scheduled a detention hearing for Dec. 27.
Mas’ud will become the first Libyan operative to be tried on U.S. soil in connection with the bombing.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 at a special court in the Netherlands overseen by three Scottish judges and no jury. He is so far the only person to have been convicted in the attack.
He was freed in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was terminally ill with cancer. Still protesting his innocence, he died in Libya three years later.
Another Libyan intelligence operative, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted of all charges.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, admitted in 2012 to building the bomb that took down Pan Am Flight 103
The announcement of charges against Mas’ud on December 21, 2020, came on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing and in the final days of the tenure of then-attorney general William Barr. At the time of the announcement, Mas’ud was in Libyan custody. The criminal charges were a career bookend of sorts for Barr, who, in his first stint as attorney general in the early 1990s, had announced criminal charges against two other Libyan intelligence officials.
The Libyan government initially balked at turning over the two men, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, before ultimately surrendering them for prosecution before a panel of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands as part of a special arrangement.
The Justice Department, which did not disclose how Mas’ud came to be taken into US custody, said Mas’ud faces two criminal counts related to the explosion.
Torn by civil war since 2011, Libya is divided between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by international patrons and numerous armed militias on the ground. Militia groups have amassed great wealth and power from kidnappings and their involvement in Libya’s lucrative human trafficking trade.
A breakthrough in the investigation came when US officials in 2017 received a copy of an interview that Mas’ud, a longtime explosives expert for Libya’s intelligence service, had given to Libyan law enforcement in 2012 after being taken into custody following the collapse of the government of the country’s leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
In that interview, US officials said, Mas’ud admitted building the bomb in the Pan Am attack and working with two other conspirators to carry out the attack. He also said the operation was ordered by Libyan intelligence and that Gaddafi thanked him and other members of the team after the attack, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
That affidavit said Mas’ud told Libyan law enforcement that he flew to Malta to meet al-Megrahi and Fhimah. He handed Fhimah a medium-sized Samsonite suitcase containing a bomb, having already been instructed to set the timer so that the device would explode exactly 11 hours later, according to the document. He then flew to Tripoli, the FBI said.
[Dawn] Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the interim government in Kabul has apologised to Pakistain for firing by Afghan Border Forces on the civilian population in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... ’s Chaman district a day earlier, clarifying that the "matter is now resolved".
At least seven people bit the dust and 16 others suffered injuries on Sunday in Chaman when it came under "unprovoked and indiscriminate" heavy gunfire and artillery shelling by Afghan border forces, according to the military’s media affairs wing.
Continued on Page 49
Leading up to and after independence, Ahmadis were considered Moslems in good standing, and they were very proud that the Father of the Pakistani Nuclear Bomb, was one of theirs. But Pakistan has evolved toward greater purity since then, and AQ Khan’s little eccentricity is no longer mentioned.
[Dawn] The authorities ordered the removal of the minaret of an Ahmadi place of worship in Gujranwala’s Baghbanpura area last week.
According to the representatives of the Ahmadi community, police cordoned off the street and switched off the lights before going ahead with the removal of the minaret on Dec 7.
Some religious outfits had been pressing the administration for the last one year to get the minaret removed from the front side of the building since the law bars the Ahmadis from making their places of worship resemble a mosque.
The building’s management had placed steel sheets around the minaret to hide it from public view after the administration advised them to do so in order to avoid a law and order situation. Clever! Nobody noticed?
Official sources said the administration sprang into action after some religious groups asked it to get the minaret removed. The administration called a meeting of the district intelligence committee as soon as an organization lodged a complaint with the police.
The administration also held a meeting with the representatives of the Ahmadi community to sort out the matter. The authorities told them that there was no alternative but to remove the minaret as passions were running high in the city and things might get out of control.
The administration decided to carry out the operation after obtaining the Ahmadis’ consent, according to sources.
#1
Gujranwala. One of the most despicably unfriendly places for anyone who is not a ball scratching, drooling, Sunni male.
Displayed to tourists and foreign media as a secular, tolerant, modern town with sophisticated citizens and culture, cuisine and arts... the worst kind of forced prostitution, inhuman treatment of women, especially Christian or hindu ones brought from all over Punjab, trafficking, slavery... if you want to kill every criminal in Gujranwala, you'll have to kill all of the city.
Gujranwala, City of Wrestlers,
Quite famous for food... and Eve hasslers.
Chief figures of lore:
The Gujranwala Whore
(a fat f-cker of brass
on a wee bloody ass)
And muezzins, or Muslim Horst... wassailers.
#4
Mr, Wife told of seeing women in cages in the markets in Mumbai thirty years ago... If what you are describing is worse, Dron, I can’t begin to imagine it.
[Shafaq News] More than 59 families have left the "Ashti" displacement camp in the Kurdistan region to their hometowns in the Saladin, Migration Minister Evan Faiq Jabro said on Monday.
"The government attaches huge importance to the displacement issue," she said, stressing that the process is entirely "voluntary".
The Ashti displacement camp in Saladin's sub-district of Arbat houses 1,865 families; the majority of whom are residents of neighboring Saladin. It also shelters families from djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Sinjar, and Diyala.
[IsraelTimes] Agency says terror elements in Strip operated Facebook and Instagram accounts using photos of real Israeli women, in attempt to harm Israelis.
Terror operatives from the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip attempted to contact and harm Israelis by posing as young Israeli women on social media, the Shin Bet security agency said Monday.
According to the Shin Bet, the operatives used photos of real Israeli women, in an attempt to "lure Israeli citizens into contact, with the aim of harming them," a practice known as "catfishing."
The Shin Bet said some of the recent profiles on Facebook and Instagram were ostensibly of a personal trainer by the name of Maria David or Maria Shimon.
The profiles were removed from the platform following requests made to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, by the Shin Bet and the cyber division at the State Attorney’s Office.
"Terror elements use social networks and operate fictitious profiles to fool innocent citizens, in a way that poses a threat to their privacy and personal security," the Shin Bet said in a statement.
It was not clear if the operatives had managed to make contact with any Israelis.
The Shin Bet did not name the terror group allegedly behind the fake accounts.
Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip in recent years have repeatedly tried to "catfish" Israelis, notably soldiers, in order to install software on their phones that the terror group could use to gather intelligence on the military.
Each Moslem region seems to have its own special brand of unbelievers to bully. In Iran Jews and Christians get picked on for being unbelieving People of the Book with potential external allies among their co-religionists outside the country. The Baha’i get picked on for stubbornly continuing to be a heretical offshoot of Islam even with almost two centuries of being shown the error of their ways.
[IsraelTimes] Few details on national security charges against two women representing faith regularly accused of spying for Israel; sentences handed down after 1-hour trial, community says
They’re accused of spying for Israel because the Baha’i big guy was exiled by Persia toward the end of the 19th century, ending up in Haifa — which later became part of Israel.
Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... has tossed in the calaboose Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! two prominent Baha’i figures for 10 years each as part of a crackdown on its largest non-Moslem religious minority, the group representing the community at the UN said Sunday.
Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, who had both previously served 10-year prison terms over their activism, were handed new sentences after a one-hour trial on November 21, the Bahai International Community said in a statement.
The two women had been arrested in late July at the start of a fresh crackdown against the Baha’i, who are estimated to number some 300,000 in Iran.
The Islamic republic recognizes minority non-Moslem faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism but does not extend the same recognition to Baha’ism.
"It is profoundly distressing to learn that these two Bahai women... are once again being incarcerated for another 10 years on the same ludicrous charges," said Simin Fahandej, representative of the Bahai International Community to the UN in Geneva.
"Words fail to describe this absurd and cruel injustice," she added.
The precise nature of the national security-related charges were not immediately clear, but Iran’s intelligence ministry said in August it had arrested Baha’is suspected of spying for a center in Israel and working illegally to spread their religion.
At least 90 Baha’is are currently in prison or subject to ankle-band monitoring, the Bahai International Community said, adding that it had counted 320 individual acts of persecution against members of the community since the end of July.
The crackdown has seen Baha’i homes destroyed and business shut down, it added.
Iran is also in the throes of a nationwide crackdown against protests over the September death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian women of Kurdish origin, after her arrest by the morality police.
Baha’is are used to Iranian accusations of links to Israel, whose northern city of Haifa hosts a center of the Baha’i faith that was established following the exile of a Baha’i leader well before the state of Israel was created.
As I said above...
Baha’is regard such allegations has a pretext for persecution.
Both Sabet and Kamalabadi had been part of a now disbanded Baha’i administrative group known as the Yaran.
The pair were first arrested in 2008 and released in 2018, according to the Bahai International Community.
Sabet, who wrote poetry during her decade in Tehran’s Evin prison, was recognized in 2017 as an English PEN International Writer of Courage.
[JPost] Mossad head Barnea: His last message about Syrian high command intercepted
The Mossad revealed decisively for the first time on Monday how its most famous spy was caught in 1965.
Mossad Director David Barnea disclosed on Monday the content of Eli Cohen’s last cable to the agency, on January 19, 1965, as well as that the cable was intercepted.
In the cable, Cohen reported to his clandestine supervisors that then-Syrian president Amin al-Hafiz had met with the Syrian military high command at 5 p.m. — this being just shortly before Cohen was captured.
For decades, there has been a debate about whether Cohen, who gave the Mossad significant information about top Syrian officials and armaments from the early 1960s-1965, was caught because his handlers pushed him too hard or he himself took too many risks.
Barnea said releasing the last cable was part of an effort to make it clear that no one was "to blame," and that sometimes even the best of spies — and he rated Cohen a legend for his contributions to the organization — can be caught by persistent counterintelligence by an enemy.
Who was Eli Cohen?
He said Cohen "was not captured because he sent too many transmissions, because he did not act according to protocol or because headquarters pressured him into transmitting too frequently."
"From now on, this is an intelligence fact," said Barnea.
Cohen trained extensively and spent time in Argentina to build a deep cover story as a businessman with strong ties to Syria, and succeeded in befriending a variety of top Syrian officials.
During his time in Syria, he threw lavish parties for wealthy Syrians, especially security officials, connecting some of them with prostitutes and sometimes lending them money.
"Eli Cohen was among our best spies. He continues to impact us through his fighting spirit, courage, values and dedication" serving as a "source of inspiration" for the full spectrum of Mossad agents, said Barnea.
There is some debate among historians, but at least some credit the intelligence he provided as playing a crucial role in Israel’s success during the Six Day War.
However, some Syrians were already suspicious of him after an internal coup in 1963 and Syria also received new technological tools for detecting spy transmissions from the USSR.
Despite Barnea’s disclosure, some historians will continue to claim that Cohen wanted to stay in Israel in 1964 and was concerned about returning to Syria for another period of time undercover — the period in which he was caught.
Barnea made the revelation at a ceremony opening a new museum named for Cohen in Herzliya.
The spy chief also vowed to continue searching for Cohen’s remains.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
Highly recommended : The Spy starring Sasha Baron Cohen.
Tells Eli Cohens story. I know Sascha is a jerk but this series is very well done.
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.
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
[JPost] Mossad head Barnea: His last message about Syrian high command intercepted
