TUNIS: A Tunisian court has handed 31 people death sentences over a 2014 attack on the home of then interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday.
The 31, who included Algerians as well as Tunisians, were sentenced in absentia and some are reported to be already dead.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed the attack on the minister’s family home in the western border region of Kasserine, which left four police officers dead.
Ben Jeddou was not in the house at the time.
Those convicted were found guilty of “wilful homicide and membership of a terrorist group” and were also sentenced to 36 years in prison.
A total of 46 people were prosecuted over the attack, said the spokesman for Tunis district court, Sofiene Sliti.
Among the 15 remaining defendants, eight were sentenced to between three and 10 years in jail for “membership of a terrorist group” and “involvement in terrorism-related matters.”
The court, which issued the rulings on Friday, dismissed cases against the remaining seven, Sliti told AFP.
Among the 31 sentenced to death were Seifallah Ben Hassine, an associate of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and founder of the jihadist group Ansar Al-Sharia.
The New York Times has reported that Ben Hassine, also known by the nom de guerre Abou Iyadh, was killed in an air strike in Libya in mid-June last year.
The list also included Lokmane Abu Sakhr, an Algerian jihadist killed by Tunisian security forces at the end of March last year, also in Kasserine.
Since its independence from France in 1956, Tunisia has carried out 135 executions, but has observed a moratorium on the practice since 1991.
A new anti-terror law adopted in July upheld the death penalty, despite condemnation by local and international rights groups.
Since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, jihadist attacks have cost dozens of lives among security forces as well as civilians.
Attacks claimed by the Daesh group on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort also killed 59 foreign tourists in 2015.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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The futuristic looking HSV-2 Swift, an ex-U.S. Navy experimental high-speed logistics catamaran now being utilized by the UAE government, was struck by a missile on the evening of October 1, according to multiple reports. The ship was operating near the Yemeni port of Mokha located on the northeastern edge of the Mandeb Strait, a narrow and strategic body of water that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Iranian-backed Houthi rebel fighters have claimed responsibility for the attack.
The video below supposedly shows the attack. The missile launch does appear to be that of an anti-ship missile, and the ship on fire does appear to be an HSV-2. A massive explosion is shown when the supposed missile impacts the ship; it likely detonated the fuel onboard, plus any flammable or explosive cargo. The ship's aluminum hull and commercial ship design standards offer little resilience to an anti-ship missile attack, and the HSV-2 is not equipped with a close-in weapon system (CIWS) capable of fending off such attacks.
The UAE has formally acknowledged that there was an "incident" with the ship, but claims that no lives were lost. If the video above is legitimate, which it appears to be, that would be a miracle.
The Australian-built Swift was launched in 2002, and served with the Navy as a semi-operational test platform used to explore new sea basing, minesweeping, and high-speed logistical support concepts.
Her slightly older sister ships, USS Joint Venture and USAV Spearhead, also served with the US armed forces from the early- to the mid-2000s before being released from service.
Aden, Cairo- Saudi-led Arab coalition running a military campaign to restore Yemen’s legitimacy launched a series of intensified airstrikes against various sights in Houthi-held Sana’a on Sunday.
The raids come in response to Houthi militants claiming a previous attack against a vessel operated by the United Arab Emirates military, which is part of an Arab coalition fighting in support of Yemen’s government.
Yemeni locals reported to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the coalition’s recent offensive targeted insurgency weapon stockpiles located west of the capital Sana’a. Sources add that the air campaign targeted militia hubs in the Nihm District.
The coalition has been aiding the elected and internationally recognized government to retake control over the war-torn country. Most fighting includes Iran-backed militants staging an insurgency along with the aid of combatants supporting ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The UAE military said on Saturday that a boat under its command was involved in an “incident” in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off Yemen’s southern coast. The vessel was attacked by Houthi militants. But the coalition rescued its civilian passengers.
The Houthis claimed the attack, saying that their forces had destroyed a UAE military vessel that was advancing toward the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha.
“Armed forces destroyed with a missile a military vessel belonging to the forces of the UAE,” a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba Yemeni news agency, run by the dominant Houthi movement since it seized Sana’a, last year.
In a statement, the Arab coalition said the vessel belonged to the UAE Marine Dredging Company “on its usual route to and from Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians to complete their treatment outside Yemen.”
“Coalition air and naval forces were targeting Houthi militia boats involved in the attack,” it said.
The coalition said the incident showed that Houthi tactics involved what it called “terrorist attacks” against civilian international navigation in the waterway.
For its part, Gulf Cooperation Council member states condemned the attack, considering it a clear violation against international maritime law and an act of terror which attacks international and regional efforts to send relief to Yemen.
[WASHINGTONPOST] Citing "unfriendly actions" by the United States, the Kremlin announced Monday that Russia would suspend a landmark agreement to dispose of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, yet another sign of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
In a decree released by the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider a resumption of the accord only if Washington agreed to several sweeping conditions. Among them: reducing the American military presence in NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... countries near Russia’s border, canceling all sanctions against Russia and compensating Moscow for losses resulting from those sanctions.
The largely symbolic move reversed an agreement once hailed as an example of successful U.S.-Russian cooperation, and comes at a low point in post-Cold War relations between Moscow and Washington. The State Department on Monday said it would suspend bilateral contacts with Russia over Syria, a week after Secretary of State John F. Kerry said the United States might do so because of Russia’s aerial assault on the Syrian city of Aleppo.
More from the UK Telegraph
Putin has scrapped a key nuclear control agreement over the "unfriendly" actions of the United States towards Russia.
In an extraordinary series of ultimatums issued on Monday, the Kremlin said it would suspend an agreement to turn weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear fuel unless Washington cancel all sanctions and slash its military commitment to Nato allies.
In a presidential decree published on Monday, Mr Putin froze The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PDMA) because of "a drastic change in circumstances, the appearance of a threat to strategic stability due to unfriendly actions of the United States toward Russia".
The document claimed that Washington was "unable" to meet its obligations under the terms of the agreement and that Moscow "must take urgent measures to defend Russian security".
A draft law later published on the site of the lower house of the Russian parliament said Russia would only reinstate the deal if the US drops all sanctions, pays compensation for the damage they have caused, and reduces its military infrastructure and man power in Nato countries that joined the alliance after 2000 to the same levels as when the deal was signed.
The Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) was an arrangement for reprocessing weapons-grade material into fuel for nuclear reactors.
The deal, first negotiated by Mr Putin and Bill Clinton in 2000 and updated in 2010, committed both counties to disposing of at least 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium, enough to produce around 17,000 nuclear weapons.
The US State Department praised the deal at the time as an "essential step in the nuclear disarmament process." Note that in the middle of the source article - Hillary has an ad stating Donald Trump is unfit to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. Didn't her husband sign off on this lost deal?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Any bets that USA, at least as long as Obama in office*, will keep it's part pf the bargain?
[MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET] An Islamic school in Michigan has been awarded $1.7m after settling its lawsuit for the right to build a new facility, following a five-year legal battle that those involved say paves the way for Moslem-Americans across the country to protect their rights.
The Michigan Islamic Academy (MIA) brought a lawsuit against Pittsfield Township, in the midwestern US state of Michigan, arguing that it was unlawfully denied the right to build a school on its property.
The school used the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which protects individuals and religious institutions against discrimination in zoning, and the Establishment and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution.
Last week, the MIA announced the township agreed to settle the lawsuit for $1.7m. The academy also has the green light to build a 70,000-square-foot facility, a residential development consisting of 22 duplex units and three single-family homes, and a park.
"The community in general is elated by the settlement," said Dawud Walid, executive director at the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... (CAIR ...designated a terrorist group by the UAE... -MI), which brought the lawsuit.
Walid told Middle East Eye the local Moslem community has grown substantially in the last 25 years, and the current MIA facility is overcrowded and does not meet the community’s current needs.
"That was the whole purpose of buying the property to establish a new school because the current location is simply too small for the current needs of the community, much less the expected growth of Moslems in that part of Michigan," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Even as the Indian prime minister insisted on Sunday that his country never attacked any country and never coveted anyone’s territory, his home minister said the country was "proud of the manner in which Indian troops carried out surgical strikes against myrmidon launch pads" in Azad Kashmire last week.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, a complex dedicated to overseas Indians, Narendra Modi said: "India has not attacked anyone; it is neither hungry for any territory."
He said that in the two World Wars (which were fought before India’s independence) as many as 150,000 Indian soldiers laid down their lives while "fighting for others".
While Modi’s speech was replete with references to the "sacrifices Indians had rendered for others", his Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement was full of praise for the troops "who carried out the surgical strikes" in Azad Kashmire.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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The S-300VM is said to be able to defeat cruise as well as ballistic missile attacks. Not the same as the Buk S-400
As Richard Fernandez (Wretchard) has remarked, Obama/Kerry have been rolled and left in a ditch.
[FoxNews] Russia deployed a separate air defense system, the S-400, to Syria after a Russian jet was shot down by a Turkish warplane last November. Since the S-400 deployment, the U.S. military has been careful about flying manned aircraft inside the range of the system, despite repeated pledges by the US military that its airstrikes in Syria are focused on ISIS, not the Assad regime.
Monday, the Pentagon announced it conducted an airstrike potentially killing a “prominent” al-Qaeda linked operative in Syria. Officials said they were still assessing the strike and have not released the name of their target.
Hours after the State Department announced it was cutting off talks with Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said he had suspended a Russia-U.S. deal on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium. Putin's decree released by the Kremlin cited Washington's "unfriendly actions."
Top US officials have recently accused Russia and the Syrian regime of indiscriminant bombing in Syria using incendiary and bunker busting bombs on civilians. Two weeks ago, a UN aid convoy was bombed, killing dozens of aid workers attempting to deliver critical supplies to the more than 200,000 Aleppo residents trapped inside the eastern portion of the city, once Syria’s most populated. In the past week, hundreds of civilians, including children, have been killed, according to local reports.
Russia began its air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30, 2015 following a weeks-long buildup of fighter jets and attack aircraft. Long-range bombers flying from Russia and Iran have also been used to attack Syrian rebels, some backed by the United States.
Days after Russian bombs started falling in Syria, President Obama predicted that Russia and Iran would find themselves mired in a “quagmire.”
“[A]n attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire. And it won’t work,” he told reporters in a White House press conference on Oct. 2, 2015.
On Friday, the one-year anniversary of the Russian strikes, the State Department acknowledged that Russia had succeeded in its goal of propping up the Assad regime.
“It is a grim anniversary…It is hard not to assess that they have succeeded in bolstering the regime,” said Mark Toner, a State Dept. spokesman.
#1
On Friday, the one-year anniversary of the Russian strikes, the State Department acknowledged that Russia had succeeded in its goal of propping up the Assad regime.
Riyadh-Head of the Syrian opposition delegation to Geneva, Asaad al-Zoghbi revealed a Russian-Iranian plan in coordination with the Assad regime to move the systematic destructive battle from Aleppo to the city of Idlib and later to Hama.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat published on Monday, al-Zoghbi said that a meeting of the opposition held in Istanbul two days ago agreed on uniting all military opposition factions under one brigade and one leadership capable of facing the Russian destructive forces that are supported by the Syrian regime and Iranian militias.
President Erdogan is organizing proxies to send to war against Russia? This seems... unwise.
Al-Zoghbi said opposition groups expect Gulf countries to take a position regarding the latest events in Aleppo.
According to him, the High Negotiations Committee is expected to meet in the next two days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to take a firmer position over the developments in Syria.
“The position will have two parts: Enhance the military operations and ask for the help of the international community without relying on Washington,” he said.
Congratulations, President Obama. Even the untrustworthy no longer trust you.
Commenting on the latest developments in Aleppo, al-Zoghbi said: “Currently, there is a complete systematic destruction of Aleppo, and this destruction is on its way to devastate Idlib and later Hama. The attention in Syria is not directed anymore to a revolution against the Assad regime, but rather towards the Aleppo battle. This is what the Russians and the Americans want.
“After this phase, an agreement will be reached supported by a decision from the U.N. Security Council. Then everybody will forget about what Assad controls from Lattakia to Damascus.”
The head of the Syrian negotiating team said scores of Russian warplanes are currently bombing Aleppo. “There was a Russian plan that the Russian Defense Minister and Iran had agreed on during a meeting held three months ago in Tehran to either totally control Aleppo, or completely destroy the city.”
He said that since the announcement of the alleged seven-day ceasefire during the Eid al-Adha, the Russians, the Iranians and the regime were mobilizing their forces and more than 8,300 soldiers to prepare for the battle of Aleppo.
Al-Zoghbi said that Saudi Arabia and other brotherly countries, which are helping the Syrian opposition, have decided to back the armed opposition and provide them with weapons.
He said Turkey also supports arming the opposition,
Definitely unwise. May Sultan Recep I the much beloved, known familiarly as Erdogan Bey, have all the joy of it that he deserves.
adding he expected a similar position from Gulf countries soon.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I think the Russian plan could be all about sucking the Turks into a military confrontation. The Dardanelles is unfinished business as far a they are concerned. A pretext to bomb the Saudi oilfields would be a real bonus.
[UPI] When Hezbollah engaged in the Syria war, it was in a battle for its own existence. The collapse of the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... would result in Hezbollah losing a major ally that secured a much-needed supply route from its sponsor, Iran.
More than five years later, Assad is still in power due to Russia's direct military intervention in the war but Iran's influence in Syria -- like that of all the other regional players -- seems in decline, with Moscow and Washington emerging as the major actors.
A political settlement will be needed to end the war in Syria. Although it is premature to speculate how and when it will be implemented, the day will come for Hezbollah to pull its fighters back to Leb and this is a major concern.
"If Hezbollah, which awaits a dramatic change in Syria in its favor, thinks that it will have an influential role in [a] future Syria in a way it will benefit from to later have greater influence in Leb, it would be gravely mistaken," said Amin Kammourieh, a political analyst. "The maximum it can achieve is to have an ally or rather a non-hostile regime in Syria that could somehow protect it... but it won't be like it was in the past" when Syria had a free hand in Leb.
The heavily armed Shia Hezbollah is the most powerful group in Leb, with a strong military structure, well-established social institutions and representatives in the parliament and Cabinet. It has become a key power broker in Leb's political system, with its critics accusing it of controlling the country.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... Hezbollah's formidable strength proved to be limited in Leb's delicate confessional system, made up of 18 religious sects, with many political and social agendas as well as regional affiliations. The group has failed to impose the election of its favorite candidate for president, Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... , to formulate a new electoral law that would strip its Sunni rival of majority in parliament or to change the constitution.
"These are all signs of weakness and not strength. Hezbollah proved that it can obstruct but cannot impose," Kammourieh said.
Riad Tabbarah, a political analyst and head of the Beirut-based Centre for Development Studies and Projects research institute, said Leb is like the U.N. Security Council in which Hezbollah and other major political groups "have the veto power but not the power of decision."
"Although Hezbollah is the most powerful, it is not allowed to use its weapons in any internal civil war in Leb because billions of dollars were spent to acquire these weapons, including missiles, for the sake of confronting Israel and deter it from striking Iran," Tabbarah said.
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10/04/2016 00:00 ||
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[LATIMES] The B.O. regime Monday made good on an ultimatum delivered last week and withdrew its cooperation with Russia over Syria, signaling anger and exasperation at relentless Russian and Syrian Arclight airstrikes on Aleppo and other civilian sites.
The decision means Washington is breaking off diplomatic negotiations with Russia over Syria's fate and cancels plans to share military intelligence and operations-related information, including targeting, with Moscow.
"This is not a decision that was taken lightly," State Department front man John Kirby said in a statement.
The decision came after continuous negotiations, including near-daily telephone conversations between Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, aimed at reducing violence and opening up routes for desperately needed food and medicine for besieged enclaves.
"Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments," Kirby said, "and was also either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2016 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.
TUNIS: A Tunisian court has handed 31 people death sentences over a 2014 attack on the home of then interior minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou, a judiciary spokesman said on Monday.
The futuristic looking HSV-2 Swift, an ex-U.S. Navy experimental high-speed logistics catamaran now being utilized by the UAE government, was struck by a missile on the evening of October 1, according to multiple reports. The ship was operating near the Yemeni port of Mokha located on the northeastern edge of the Mandeb Strait, a narrow and strategic body of water that connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Iranian-backed Houthi rebel fighters have claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Australian-built Swift was launched in 2002, and served with the Navy as a semi-operational test platform used to explore new sea basing, minesweeping, and high-speed logistical support concepts.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Michel Aoun
[LATIMES] The 
