[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The United States will deploy at least 1,500 soldiers from the Ready First Brigade to Afghanistan, it has been reported. The soldiers will serve for a period of 9 months as part of the advise, assist, and train mission to help the Afghan army and police.
With 300 already deployed to Afghanistan, the deployment of the remaining soldiers will start this month with the brigade expected to take up the mission in mid-February.
"For many soldiers, it will be their first deployment," Strong, from Syracuse, N.Y. told The Stars and Stripes newspaper. "They are very excited. Honestly, it is what a lot join the military for ‐ to serve and defend the nation."
Before their deployment to Afghanistan, the soldiers have gone on three rotations to combat training centers during that time ‐ to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., in June 2015 and October-November 2016 and to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., in January 2016.
The brigade and its battalions also did extensive gated train-ups leading up to all of those rotations.
"As in any train-up, you’ve been training and you’ve been training, and it gets to the point where you are ready to go and do what you’ve been training so hard to do," Strong said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Some Iranian representatives have reportedly met with the Taliban group in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan.
Provincial governor Hayatullah Hayat informed regarding the possible meeting, saying the issue has been shared with the intelligence directorate for further confirmation.
Hayat cited preliminary intelligence report regarding the meeting and said the Iranians have met with the Taliban representatives in the restive Garamser district.
He also added that several Iranian rockets were also found after the Taliban used them to attack the provincial government compound.
According to Hayat, several rockets were fired on the compound when the group launched a coordinated attack and some of the rockets did not explode after impacting the buildings.
Hayat said the Iranian signs could be clearly read from the captured rockets.
This comes as the former Afghan intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil earlier said Iran is supporting the Taliban group to counter the growing influence of ISIS in the country.
Nabil said the group is receiving financial and equipment support from Iran, particularly in the western parts of the country.
Nabil further added that Russia’s interest towards Afghanistan has also grown as the violence has spread in northern parts of the country since 2014.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pak authorities are preparing for a ’tough talk’ with the Afghan government officials as the country’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is mulling to visit Afghanistan, it has been reported.
Sources privy of the development have said Gen. Bajwa will visit the country in an appropriate time with the main motive behind his visit would be to amend the fractured ties between the two nations.
A security bigshot speaking on the condition of anonymity told a local newspaper that Gen. Bajwa will likely visit the country after the Trump administration announces its Afghanistan policy.
The source further added that Gen. Bajwa will also deliver a clear message to the Afghan leadership to ’stop blaming Pakistain for your own failings’.
This comes as the Afghan officials have long been criticizing Pakistain for allowing the Afghan krazed killer groups, specifically the Taliban and Haqqani terrorist network leaderships use its soil for planning and coordinating attacks in Afghanistan.
The US Department of State earlier said problem regarding the safe havens of the terrorist groups in Pakistain still persists.
State Department spokesperson Mark Toner made the remarks in response to a question regarding Afghan officials concerns about the attacks being carried out in Afghanistan using the Pak soil.
Endorsing Afghanistan’s view that bandidosDeath Eaters are able to strike at whenever they want to because of the existence of safe havens, terrorist safe havens inside Pakistain, Toner said "Well, it continues ‐ so the short answer to your first question is yes, and I think we’ve been very frank and very open about publicly saying to ‐ to Pakistain that it needs to not provide any safe haven to groups that will or are intent on carrying out attacks on Afghanistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Ynet] Hamas Deputy Chief Ismail Haniyeh arrives in Egypt, the highest level visit by a member of the Palestinian militant group since Egypt's army overthrew an Islamist president in 2013; In recent months, Cairo has increased the number of people allowed out of Gaza and sent public signals that it is interested in improving relations.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Deputy Chief Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... has arrived in Egypt for meetings with security officials, the highest level visit by a member of the Paleostinian bully boy group since Egypt's army overthrew an Islamist president in 2013.
Haniyeh arrived late Sunday, Egyptian security officials said, as Hamas officials confirmed the visit. All spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief news hounds.
For most of the past decade, Egypt had issued a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gazoo, stifling the economy and largely blocking its 2 million people from moving in and out of the territory. But after a three-year crackdown, signs are emerging that Egypt is easing the pressure in a step to repair its shattered ties with Hamas.
In recent months, Cairo has increased the number of people allowed to exit through the Rafah border crossing, Gazoo's main gateway to the outside world. It also has begun to allow Gazoo to import commercial goods through Rafah for the first time since 2013, and sent public signals that it is interested in improving relations.
Haniyeh left Gazoo in September to perform the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca--the first time Egypt allowed him to leave the territory since Morsi's ouster.
He then went to Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... to see Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal and discuss issues including the group's upcoming elections. Mashaal is slated to step down from his position this spring, and Haniya is considered a strong candidate to replace him. Meshaal's deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk is the other main candidate.
[Libya Herald] Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... ’s most powerful militia has warned that the city’s people cannot bear further armed conflict and has insisted the political process based on the Libyan Political Agreement is "irreplaceable."
The Tripoli’s Revolutionaries’ Brigade (TRB) led by Haitham Tajouri today warned against further fighting in the capital and repeated that it would not remain passive in the face of violence.
"We demand everybody keep Tripoli away from their struggle, as its residents cannot bear any new armed conflict inside the city" it wrote on its social media page.
The TRB said it had just held a meeting at which it demanded that politicians stand up for the capital. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... at the same time the militia added "We announce, as Tripolitanians, that we have never assigned anyone to represent us at talks and we confirm that anyone who attempts to act in such a way is just a liar."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
Terrorist Who Killed Lee Rigby Will Pursue £20,000 Lawsuit for Teeth Broken in Prison
23 Jan 2017
Islamist terrorist Michael Adebolajo, who murdered Lee Rigby, has found a lawyer who will pursue a lawsuit after he lost two teeth after lashing out at prison guards.
Extremist Preacher Given £123,000 in Legal Aid to Fight Deportation
23 Jan 2017
Islamic preacher Hani al-Sibai has been given £123,000 over 20 years in legal aid to fight deportation from the UK despite alleged associations with a terrorist organisation, thanks to human rights laws.
#1
Nothing to do with former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and the 35-page dossier and collection of memos alleging that Trump has ties to Russia, published by BuzzFeed ?
[Al Jazeera] Israel's former foreign minister cancelled a trip to Brussels after Belgian prosecutors confirmed they wanted to question her over war crimes allegations. Tzipi Livni was expected to meet Jewish leaders in the city on Monday, but cancelled ahead of time.
A front man for the event said Livni cancelled for "personal reasons" but local newspaper Le Soir said prosecutors had been hoping to question her over allegations of war crimes in the 2008-9 Israeli war in Gazoo, when she was foreign minister.
"We wanted to take advantage of her visit to try to advance the investigation," a front man for Belgium's federal prosecutor Thierry Werts told the AFP news agency.
Livni is named along with other political and military leaders in a complaint filed in June 2010 over alleged crimes committed during the Gazoo war.
More than 1,400 Paleostinians, mostly civilians, died during the Israeli offensive between December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009.
Thirteen Israelis, including ten soldiers, also died.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
[Hurriyet Daily News] A ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy has declared that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... is a "terror organization," saying the alliance has become a "structure threatening The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... In an interview with pro-government daily Milat, AKP Gaziantep deputy Samil Tayyar claimed that NATO had "always been involved in activities targeting Turkey" since its establishment.
"Turkey has been subjected to coups since it joined NATO. NATO has always been in charge of the dirty and bloody deeds in the country. The 1960 military coup was staged by the British, the 1971 coup was staged by the CIA, and the 1980 coup was staged by NATO. In NATO’s new plan, a Turkey with [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan should not exist," Tayyar said.
"NATO has become a threat and is spreading terror organizations across the region. You can designate NATO along with DEASH [Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant - ISIS], the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and FETÖ [Fethullahist Terror Organization]," he said.
Tayyar also suggested that Turkey may opt for shutting down the Incirlik Air Base, located in the southern province of Adana and used by NATO jets, "as a precaution."
The AKP deputy said Ankara "could open a new page" with Washington under new 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... , but warned that Turkey could downgrade bilateral relations and withdraw from NATO if its demands from the new administration, including "the extradition of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen ... 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... and halting support to terror organizations in Syria," are not met.
Let Turkey withdraw from NATO. Let it wither from the lack of military spare parts, stores and interactions with us. Let Europe see what Turkey is.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Gülenist network is a threat not only to Turkey but to all the countries in which it operates, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said during a state visit to Tanzania.
Speaking at the Tanzania Business Forum on Jan. 23, Erdoğan underlined the prevalence of the Gülenist network in different regions of the world, “hiding behind the notions of humanitarian aid, education, and trade.”
The group is “not only a threat to Turkey but to all countries in which it has activities,” he said. “We know that this sneaky network has arms in Tanzania. We have discussed the required measures with the president. I will ask a favor from you. Do not pay attention to any establishment, especially businessmen’s associations that have the name of ‘Turkey’ but do not have any ties to us and have not been recognized by our embassy,” he said.
“The biggest problem of the world currently is terror. Therefore, we should take measures against this terror altogether. ‘Soft terror, hard terror’ ... We should never come to this plot,” said Erdoğan, adding that he believed Tanzania would take “much different measures” in the upcoming period against the Gülenist network.
The Gülenist movement is accused of perpetrating the July 15, 2016, coup attempt in Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
Former Iranian Official, Pro-Tehran Lobbyist Hosted at Obama White House Dozens of Times
Two high-level Iranian government backers, including a former Islamic Republic official and another accused of lobbying on Tehran’s behalf, were hosted at the Obama White House for more than 30 meetings with top officials at key junctures in the former administration’s contested diplomacy with Iran, according to White House visitor logs that provide a window into the former administration’s outreach to leading pro-Iran advocates.
Both Parsi and Mousavian helped the White House craft its pro-Iran messaging and talking points that helped lead to the nuclear agreement with Iran.
. Seyed Mousavian, a former Iranian diplomat and head of its national security council, was hosted at the White House at least three times, while Trita Parsi, a pro-Iran advocate long accused of hiding his ties to the Iranian government, met with Obama administration officials some 33 times, according to recently updated visitor logs.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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...apparently about as hapless a gullible sucker as one can be and still stand upright, whose ISIS-loving alter ego on Facebook was named Almlak Benitez for reasons that pass understanding. He's awfully lucky the FBI found him before the ISIS recruiters got their claws in him...
25-year-old man Stock Island charged with plotting to bury a bomb wrapped in nails under the sand at a Key West beach, is nothing like the homegrown ISIS sympathizer federal prosecutors have described, his defense team told a jury Monday.
"There’s no action, it’s just talk," Richard Della Fera, a Fort Lauderdale-based attorney who, with law partner Joshua Entin, is representing Suarez, said in opening trial statements Monday. "Harlem Suarez is not even a practicing Moslem and knows very little, if anything, about the Islamic religion."
After the government’s lawyers depicted a young man eager to make it onto CNN with his bombing of beachgoers, Della Fera stood up to say his client was goaded, intimidated and directed into trying to buy explosives from a paid FBI informant.
Suarez, who was born in Cuba and moved to the Keys with his family in 2004 when he was 12, faces life in prison if the jury finds him guilty.
The trial opened at 9:30 a.m. Monday in U.S. District Court in Key West, where federal agents blocked off parking in front of the building on Simonton Street. Inside Judge Jose Martinez’s courtroom, royal-blue curtains hung ready to be drawn above the wooden ledge that separates the attorneys’ tables from the audience.
The curtains will be drawn during the testimony of three government witnesses -- each an undercover informant working on behalf of federal law enforcement -- to protect their identities from the public.
Suarez was targeted after a Facebook user reported to police he had received a disturbing message about recruiting ISIS sympathizers, prosecutors said.
While living with his parents at a Stock Island apartment in 2015, Suarez communicated via text and Facebook with the informants, agreeing to meet at a motel in Homestead, where he was recorded making statements about carrying out violence under the alias Black Angel of Death to support ISIS.
"Everyone against us must die," Suarez said, according to prosecutors. "We are ISIS Moslems. One day I will cook Americans."
Suarez also talked of plotting a Fourth of July bombing in Key West, Miami or Marathon, prosecutors said.
Della Fera said his client was working two jobs July 4, 2015, and then went out to meet friends. "On July 4, Harlem Suarez was drinking with his friends on Duval Street," Della Fera said.
To be fair under the presumption of innocence, a magistrate judge ruled jurors can’t learn that Suarez legally bought an AK-47 rifle in 2015, having it mailed to a Key West pawn shop. But Suarez didn’t pick up the gun because he had failed to properly fill out the paperwork.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/24/2017 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] 2-year exemption aims to keep Israeli banks from withdrawing financial services from the fragile Palestinian banking system
The state has reportedly granted two Israeli banks immunity from lawsuits accusing them of financing terrorism, in a bid to prevent them from ending cooperation with Paleostinian banks.
According to a report Sunday in the Haaretz daily, the unusual decision was taken by the cabinet last week out of concern that if Israeli banks end the crucial financial services they supply to their Paleostinian counterparts, it could lead to the collapse of the Paleostinian banking system and even the Paleostinian Authority.
The move comes after Israel’s Bank Hapoalim reportedly informed the government last year that it intended to end its services to Paleostinian banks out of fears it could face charges from overseas, particularly from the United States, for potentially violating terrorism funding and money laundering laws.
According to the report, Hapoalim is the main bank provider to Paleostinian banks of clearing, guarantees and other services that enable them to conduct international trade. Israel Discount Bank also works with the Paleostinian banks.
The two banks have asked the state to provide them with legal and financial protections, to facilitate their continued work with their Paleostinian counterparts.
The cabinet decided to approve the recommendations of a special team from the finance, justice, defense and foreign ministries, which had been working together with representatives of the intelligence community for 10 months to find a solution to the issue, the report said, quoting a bigwig.
The immunity would be given for a period of two years, during which the state would seek an alternative way to support the Paleostinian banks, the report said, most likely by transferring the responsibility from private banks to the government.
During that period, the Paleostinian banks would also work to improve on meeting international standards for combating money laundering and terror financing.
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.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pak authorities are preparing for a ’tough talk’ with the Afghan government officials as the country’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa is mulling to visit Afghanistan, it has been reported.
[Ynet] Hamas Deputy Chief Ismail Haniyeh arrives in Egypt, the highest level visit by a member of the Palestinian militant group since Egypt's army overthrew an Islamist president in 2013; In recent months, Cairo has increased the number of people allowed out of Gaza and sent public signals that it is interested in improving relations.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Gülenist network is a threat not only to Turkey but to all the countries in which it operates, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said during a state visit to Tanzania.
[MiamiHerald] Harlem Suarez, 
