#1
Two thirds of Britain's global training team effort is now in the continent
Hopeless mission aside, are we to understand that the British 'Global Training Team' consists of a total of less than 150 personnel, or is that just the Sierra Leone or African contingent ?
Understand there have been MOD cutbacks but that seems like a paltry number in any case.
#2
I can't imagine that 90 is meant to be the two thirds, Besoeker, but that ninety plus the other teams elsewhere on the continental together make up the two thirds. Since I have no idea where else British teams might be in Africa, nor what else they might be doing wherever they are, I have no idea how to calculate a total. This makes me sad only because I used to be pretty good at algebra. ;-)
[DAILYPOST.NG] The International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC), has said that women and their children in the Lake Chad Basin, have been forced into prostitution, in order to make ends meet.
ICRC stated this on Thursday, while explaining how the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... insurgency has driven millions from their homes and left families starving.
Over 2.4million have been displaced across the swamp lands of Lake Chad, where the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Niger meet.
"It’s extraordinary to see a woman and her family and they have nothing other than what they have been given," Simon Brooks, who is the head of ICRC’s delegation in Cameroon, said.
"The children are clearly malnourished and it’s just hopeless", he added.
Speaking on how some mothers were now into prostitution, Brooks said: "When you don’t have the means to survive, you’ll go begging for it.
"It’s a loss of dignity when you’re having to resort to something like that just to keep your children alive ‐ fraternising with people who have money."
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01/07/2017 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] The number of migrants reaching the European Union by sea fell by two-thirds in 2016 due to a migration deal with Turkey but arrivals in Italy from north Africa hit an all-time high, the EU said on Friday. The deal concluded in March provides Turkey with billions of euros as long as it keeps refugees on its territory and stops people smugglers from moving them across the Aegean to Greece.
It also involved promises to Ankara of financial aid, visa-free travel to much of the EU and accelerated membership talks, which have all been put on hold because of Turkey's crackdown on critics after a failed military coup last July.
Migrants still making the journey across the western Mediterranean mainly came from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, the EU's border agency Frontex said.
[IsraelTimes] On 2-year anniversary of terror attack, columnist Zineb el Razhoui says magazine ‘died on January 7,’ criticizes decision to stop drawing Muhammad.
[IsraelTimes] Tens of thousands clicked and shared the Breitbart.com story with the headline “Revealed: 1,000-Man Mob Attack Police, Set Germany’s Oldest Church Alight on New Year’s Eve.”
It said the men had “chanted ‘Allahu Akhbar’ (God is Greatest), launched fireworks at police, and set fire to a historic church,” while also massing “around the flag of al-Qaeda and Islamic State collaborators the ‘Free Syrian Army’.”
The local newspaper charged that Breitbart had combined and exaggerated unconnected incidents to create a picture of chaos and of foreigners celebrating terrorism. Stray fireworks did indeed start a small blaze, but only on netting covering scaffolding on the church, and it was put out after about 12 minutes, it said. The roof was not on fire and the church is not Germany’s oldest.
Dortmund police Thursday said its officers had handled 185 missions that night, sharply down from 421 the previous year.
U-Turn: Merkel Considers Annual Migrant Number Cap
6 Jan 2016
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is considering setting a flexible limit on the number of migrants allowed into the country each year.
Police Chief After Terror Raids: Muslims Are Our Stand Out Suspects
6 Jan 2016
Upper Austria’s chief of police has spoken out on the nature of the terror threat and rising crime in his central European nation, detailing the extent of operations his officers have undertaken since the Islamist attack on a Christmas market in neighbouring Germany in December.
Integration Expert: Ban Headscarves for Public Employees
6 Jan 2016
An Austrian integration expert has advised the government that public employees should be banned from wearing Islamic headscarves in the workplace.
Majority of Poles Do Not Want Middle Eastern Migrants in Poland, Prefer Culturally Similar Ukrainians
6 Jan 2016
Two-thirds of Poles reject the European Union (EU) redistribution of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and more than half do not want to accept any asylum seekers at all, a new poll reveals.
[AA.TR] A French court sentenced Friday four members of the PKK terrorist organization to two months in prison. That sounds like they sure threw the book at 'em.
The convicts aged between 25 and 45 had been sentenced to suspended prison terms on charges of "providing financial resources to terrorist organizations" in Gay Paree on Dec. 7.
The court in Reins made the sentence immediate and fined them 300 Euros ($316) each for not notifying the police of their current residence addresses within a fortnight, according to the L'Union news site.
The court ruled as per the new anti-terrorism law enacted on July 1, 2016, French media wrote.
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[Breitbart] The Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... -based Centre for Security Studies (CSS) has published a report, focusing on the "Dynamics of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Kosovo", which claims that "foreign-funded turban networks" are active in states applying to join the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... (EU).
The report, originally authored for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), claims that Macedonia, an official Candidate Country for the bloc, is subject to "long-term and targeted radicalization, recruitment, and mobilization efforts", alongside neighbouring Kosovo.
Author Adrian Shtuni describes how more than a thousand fanatics have travelled to Syria and Iraq from the two countries, as well as from Albania, Bosnia, and other Balkan states.
Albania, which was made a Candidate Country in 2014, imprisoned three holy mans who had been recruiting jihadi fighters last April, and a terror plot aimed at the visiting Israeli football team was barely foiled in November after Israeli security services raised the alarm.
Bosnia’s membership application was accepted by the EU last September, following an agreement to allow visa-free travel between the fractious republic and the Schengen Area in 2010.
The bloc signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Bosnia in 2015 and deploys "considerable resources" there via its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), but the German news outlet Der Spiegel reported last April that "in some remote villages, the black flag of IS is flown".
The Ministry of Security in Bosnia has denied the existence of such "Sharia villages", but Der Spiegel claims the public prosecutor responsible for terrorism investigations has conceded "that there are places in the northern part of the country where up to forty Islamist families live in accordance with Sharia law".
Similar reports have described the country as a "recruitment hotbed" for 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.... , furnishing the terror group with hundreds of soldiers, and munitions used in attacks on a Jewish supermarket and the offices of Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... in Gay Paree have been traced back to it.
Kosovo has provided Islamic State with more imported muscle than any other European country, per capita, including the notorious Lavdrim Muhaxheri (pictured above), who has appeared on social media beheading one hostage and executing another with a rocket-propelled grenade.
This is despite an expensive and extensive EU rule-of-law mission in the breakaway state. This mission has itself been mired in controversy, with a UK whistleblower accusing it of corruption and bribe-taking.
#1
"Dynamics of Radicalization and Violent Extremism in Kosovo",...Kosovo has provided Islamic State with more imported muscle than any other European country,
Help me out here, wasn't this one of Bill Clinton's great foreign policy successes?
[Ynet] Coming two months after a French government initiative to label Israeli products from WB, E. J'lem, Golan as "settlement products," Gay Paree grocery store labels Israeli products in this manner for the first time.
The first French supermarket has labeled Israeli products as "Made in Israeli Settlements." This comes after the French Government instituted a policy of labeling Israeli produce grown in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights as "settlement products" two months ago
The signs were first seen at the Auchan supermarket chain in the Kremlin Bicetre suburb of Gay Paree.
The incident is known to the Israeli Embassy in La Belle France, who then turned to French Jewish organizations to ask the chain to take down the offending signs.
The manager of the supermarket said that it was a localized initiative to put up the sign, and that he had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, he replaced the sign the next day to a sign which simply read "Israel."
Israel claims that this is the French government’s "Dire Revenge" for Israel refusing to attend the upcoming Gay Paree Peace Conference on January 15.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a harsh response to the event, saying they "condemn the French government’s decision to implement the EU Commission guidelines regarding marking Israeli products originating from beyond the 1967 lines. We are sad that it was La Belle France who came up with an anti-boycott law, and is now taking these steps which might boost anti-Israel radical elements."
"Moreover," the letter continued, "it’s puzzling that La Belle France is adopting such a double standard in regards to Israel, especially when there are over 200 territorial conflicts around the world ‐ including in La Belle France."
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... Embassy officials said that this seems to be the initiative of a pro-Paleostinian employee of the supermarket, and that the store is in a low socio-economic, immigrant area.
No doubt. And if they hadn't got caught, shortly therafter it would have been in all stores staffed by low income pro-Palestinians, many of them patronized by high income pro-Palestinians.
Nor is Turkey an ally.
[AA.TR] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's defense minister used a television interview on Friday to say the country’s Incirlik Air Base was under Turkish illusory sovereignty, not NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... ’s.
Fikri Isik also criticized Barack Obama I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody... ’s administration over its Syria policy.
Isik told private news channel Haberturk: "Incirlik base is not a NATO base. This needs to be known by everyone. They [foreign forces] are in there with the permission of Turkey."
He said Turkey had the right to shut down the strategic military facility and warned the country’s allies to be clear about fighting ISIS.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Thursday said the world needs to tell India "enough is enough" with regard to its policy towards the freedom movement in held Kashmire.
The premier was addressing an International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmire held in Islamabad to discuss the prevailing situation in India-held Kashmire.
"Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," the PM added, calling for an end to the "continued suffering" of generations in IHK.
Referring to Burhan Wani as a "vibrant and charismatic leader", the premier said that his "martyrdom has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people of the territory".
The oppressors' efforts "to silent that one voice have unleashed a thousand more", he said at the conference organised by the Young Parliamentarians Forum of the National Assembly.
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[DAWN] Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Friday confirmed the recent development that former army chief General (retd) Raheel Sharif ..Pak chief of army staff, meaning he pulls the strings on the Nawaz Sharif puppet to make it dance and sing and not do much at all.... was made the chief of 39-nation Islamic military coalition formed to combat terrorism.
Speaking during a talk show at Geo TV, Asif admitted that an agreement in this regard was finalised few days back; however, the defence minister said he didn’t have much information at the moment about the details of the said agreement.
Asif said that the decision to appoint Gen (retd) Raheel, who retired in November 2016, was taken after taking the incumbent government into confidence.
"No, definitely our government's consent must have been part of this," he replied when asked if the decision was taken in Riyadh or Islamabad.
The defence minister said that any such assignment or posting requires proper clearance from the government and General Headquarters (GHQ) both and confirmed that the due process was followed before finalising the agreement. He was, however, unaware of the exact details.
"As you are aware that this thing was in the pipeline for quite some time and the prime minister was also part of the deliberations," Asif said.
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#1
His experience as Pak chief of staff overseeing their terrorist trainer NGC camps should be quite useful
Posted by: John Frum ||
01/07/2017 14:19 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Announcement comes day after US House of Representatives overwhelmingly votes in favor of measure condemning Resolution 2334.
Israel on Friday suspended about $6 million in funding to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to protest a Security Council resolution demanding an end to settlements in the Paleostinian territories.
The council adopted the resolution last month after the United States refrained from using a veto to block the measure in a break from its usual practice of shielding its Middle East ally.
The cut to Israel’s $40 million annual contribution to the United Nations represented the portion of the UN budget allocated to four committees on Paleostinian issues, the Israeli mission said.
"It is unreasonable for Israel to fund bodies that operate against us at the UN," Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement.
"We seek to stop the practice where the UN is used solely as a forum for unending attacks against Israel."
The announcement came a day after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of a measure condemning the UN stance and chastising President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... ’s administration for abstaining in the Security Council vote.
The cut in funding is the first in a series of retaliatory measures that the Israeli mission said would be taken at the United Nations after the new US administration takes office.
[IsraelTimes] Terror group representatives meet with Egyptian officials to discuss swap of soldiers’ bodies, freedom for captive Israelis held in Strip.
The Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror group is reportedly willing to negotiate the release of two Israeli civilians and the remains of two IDF soldiers held in the Gazoo Strip, if Israel releases 60 of the organization’s members from prison as a precondition to talks.
The Gazoo-based group is currently holding the remains of IDF soldiers Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, who the army says were killed in the 2014 Gazoo war, and is also believed to be detaining Avraham Mengistu and Juma Ibrahim Abu Anima, two Israeli men who crossed into Gazoo on their own accord.
The Hamas terror group has long demanded Israel first release hundreds of Paleostinians who were relocked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! after they were freed in the 2011 Shalit deal before it would even enter into negotiations with Israel over a prisoner exchange.
According to a report in the al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk discussed a prisoner swap with Egyptian officials last week, according to a translation Friday by Israel Radio.
Abu Marzouk hailed Egyptian mediation between Hamas and Israel, but set a precondition that it would only launch negotiations into the possible release of the bodies and the captured Israelis if Jerusalem freed 60 Hamas members who were released during the 2011 prisoner swap for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but have since been rearrested by Israel.
A high-level Hamas delegation will soon travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials, Israel Radio reported. The matter of the captive Israelis was expected to be raised at the meeting, the radio report said.
The Hamas terrorist group has slammed Jerusalem’s decision to stop returning bodies of Hamas hard boyz killed while carrying out attacks, calling the directive "evidence of criminality and barbaric occupation" by Israel.
In a renewed effort to pressure Hamas into returning the two Israeli civilians and the remains of the two soldiers, the high-level security cabinet on Sunday ruled that Hamas murderous Moslems killed while carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians or security forces would be buried quietly, instead of being returned to their families.
Israel has often gone to great lengths to retrieve bodies of soldiers with unknown burial places, setting up a designated unit within the Manpower Directorate to find them and, in some cases, embarking on regular search missions.
For live soldiers, like Shalit who was captured by Hamas in 2006, and also for bodies of deceased fighters, Israel has often agreed to wildly lopsided exchanges with terrorist groups.
To secure the release of Shalit, for instance, Israel set free 1,027 murderous Moslems from its prisons.
That policy is heavily debated on the Israeli street and in the upper echelons of the country’s security services. One side stresses the need for Israel to do everything within its power to bring back any soldier who falls into enemy hands, while the other argues that such a sentimental approach to individuals, and especially bodies, is ultimately a weakness, which can be and has been exploited by Israel’s enemies.
[Ynet] With EU labeling decisions and BDS pushing for international boycotts, West Bank industrial parks are seeing a boom, with a new park set to be built soon; regional council head: companies marketing to Africa, India, China.
Despite BDS calls to boycott goods produced in the West Bank, a recent report has revealed that West Bank goods are more in demand than ever before.
At the Shahak industrial park being built in the northern West Bank, over 100 dunams have been sold to developers. The Barkan industrial park outside of Ariel - which already has 160 factories and companies ‐ has registered a further 60 companies who want to relocate to the area.
Due to this huge increase in demand, another industrial park is set to open. Called the Nahal Rabah ‐ Gates of Shomron Industrial Park, it will be located next to Sha’ar Tikvah and Oranit, putting it within a 20 minute drive of Petah Tikvah.
The industrial park will include both manufacturing and hi-tech companies, and will be owned by the Shomron Regional Council in conjunction with the Oranit and Elkana local councils.
Head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan was one of the drivers behind the opening of the new industrial park. He said "on the one hand, international companies don’t really comply with EU decisions. On the other hand, Israeli companies aren’t ready to give up on the advantages (of operating in these areas), and are marketing their products to places other than Europe, such as Africa, India, and China."
[Ynet] Several Russian SS-26 Iskandar ground to ground missiles discovered by Israeli satellite; stationed at the Latakia airbase in Syria, they are thought to be in use by the Russians, missiles are able to hit Tel Aviv, J'lem; can carry half ton warhead.
Several lovely satellite photos at the link, with circles and arrows and an explanation under each one.
The Eros B satellite operated by the Israel based ImageSat International (ISI) has located two long range Russian ground to ground SS-26 Iskandar missile launchers in the Syrian Latakia air base. The base is also used by the Russian Air Force.
Below are the first high quality photos of the launchers in Syria ever released.
#1
Yawn. Reported back in March. Was seen on Russian TV.
A still from footage aired by Russia's Zvezda TV on 27 March shows an Iskander TEL next to the runway at Humaymim Air Base. (Zvezda TV)
Russia has deployed at least one Iskander missile system to its Humaymim Air Base in Syria, although it is unclear if it is the ballistic or cruise missile variant.
The Iskander transporter erector launcher (TEL) was spotted in footage broadcast by Russia's Zvezda TV channel on 27 March. The system could be seen on the east side of the runway at Humaymim as an An-124 transport aircraft took off from the base.
The TEL, which is 13 m long, can be seen at the same location in Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery taken on 20 March.
Like numerous other Russian military systems, the Iskander is mounted on an 8x8 MZKT-7930 chassis. However, the one at Humaymim does not match any other known systems, including the K-300P Bastion-P anti-ship missile system, which is in Syrian service. The superstructure needed to accommodate the Yakhont missiles launched by the Bastion-P is notably longer than that of the Iskander.
Posted by: John Frum ||
01/07/2017 14:14 Comments ||
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[AA.TR] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... will remain resolute in its fight to clear all forms of terrorism from Syria's Manbij and al-Bab, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... said on Friday. The Kurds ejected ISIS from Manbij. They were going to head for al-Bab next. The goals are Ottoman, not anti-terrorist.
Speaking during an inauguration ceremony in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, Erdogan said that Turkey's ongoing operation to take control of the northern Syrian towns of al-Bab and Manbij from the terror organization continued.
Criticizing the U.S.-led coalition forces, the president said Turkey has been left to combat ISIS alone in the region, without any help of its allies.
"They started the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... operation to put Turkey in trouble and decelerated it, and then they delayed the Raqqa operation. ISIS is there. You were saying ISIS was an element to fight against. Why don't you fight against the group?"
"They saw that Turkey was achieving results and then they changed their plans. We will not stop until we clear Manbij, al-Bab and other regions from terror," Erdogan said.
He said that Turkey would do everything necessary to "ensure that our brothers in Iraq and Syria have peace. If we have no [military] support, we will continue with our own means," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2017 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] An al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria has said the nearly week-old cease-fire brokered by Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is "humiliating" and those who agreed to it made a "big mistake."
The cease-fire, which excludes the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham Front as well as the 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.... group, has largely held, except for intense fighting in the Barada Valley outside Damascus, a major source of water for the capital. Both the government and the rebels have accused the other side of violations.
Fatah al-Sham front man Hossam al-Shafei said in an interview published late Wednesday by al-Jazeera Net that the current truce only protects Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... and allied Iranian-backed militias.
"What was agreed upon was a big mistake and a responsibility of everyone that attended and signed," al-Shafei was quoted as saying. "The people of (Syria) didn't offer all these sacrifices to be handed this humiliating agreement."
Asked if his group would accept the outcome of the expected peace talks, he said the Syria rebellion "today needs someone to unify its ranks and restore its spirit and strengthen its political position by battlefield achievements." He added that there will be no resolution to Syria's conflict without Assad's exit from power, which is not on the agenda of the talks.
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.
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
[DAWN] Prime Minister 
[AA.TR] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
