Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Iraq Situation report, June 27-29, 2015

(Iraq) Those nice people at the institute of the Study of War knock out a sitrep on what is happening in Iraq.

US Department of Defence reveals latest air strike targets in the Levant

(US) The US DoD revealed yesterday the details behind their air strikes against ISIS for the past 24 hours. They are:


Airstrikes in Syria
Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Hasakah, seven airstrikes struck five ISIL tactical units, destroying four ISIL vehicles, an ISIL armored personnel carrier and an ISIL tank.
-- Near Raqqah, an airstrike struck an ISIL excavator.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Baghdadi, three airstrikes struck land features, denying ISIL a tactical advantage and destroying two ISIL excavators.
-- Near Fallujah, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL tunnel system.
-- Near Haditha, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying two ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Mosul, two airstrikes struck an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar firing position, destroying an ISIL building.
-- Near Waleed, an airstrike destroyed three ISIL armored personnel carriers.

Islamist ‘time bomb’ in French prisons

(France 24) A French government policy of grouping together and isolating radical Islamist inmates in prisons is “potentially dangerous” and risks creating a “time bomb”, the country’s independent prisons authority has warned.

In a report published Tuesday, Adeline Hazan, France’s controller general for prisons, said the policy could lead to those with less extreme views becoming influenced by some of the more radical prisoners they are confined with.

"The grouping facilitates proselytism. There is a risk of exacerbation and a snowball effect,” she said in the report. “We risk creating time bombs.”

France has been separating radical Islamist inmates from the rest of the prison population at certain detention facilities since October last year, when a pilot scheme was launched at Fresnes Prison just south of Paris.

More...

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 30, 2015)

(Afghanistan) A suicide bomber targeted a military convoy in Kabul this morning, killing 5 people and wounding 20 others.

(Pakistan) Security forces who were carrying out a patrol in Balochistan came under fire from a number of idiots with guns, who I supposed uttered the Urdu version of "Get of my Land" Return fire from the troops saw 13 gunmen killed for the cost of one of their own

(Iraq) ISIS has executed Abu Usman al-Hassan—one of the group’s commanders on charges of conspiracy, prompting a number of Syrian and Arab fighters to withdraw towards Raqqa in protest of the execution.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and in two towns near the capital has killed at least ten people. The deadliest among Tuesday’s attacks was in the town of Mahmudiyah, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Baghdad. A bombing there killed three civilians and wounded 10.

Two bombs went off in Baghdad’s northern Hurriyah and western Ghazaliyah neighbourhoods, killing a total of three civilians and wounding 15. And in the town of Madain, about 20 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of Baghdad, a bomb killed two civilians and wounded six. In Baghdad, officials found two bodies with shots to the chest and head.

The Iraqi army killed 40 ISIS idiots in the towns of Qaim, Salahuddin and Samarra.

(Yemen) A couple of ISIS-led car bombs aimed at Shia Huthi rebel leaders in Sanaa on Monday night saw 28 people killed.

(Egypt) At least three people have been killed when a car bomb exploded near a police station in Cairo's western suburb of 6th of October City.

(Libya) Fighting in the eastern city of Derna, which this blog reported as having claimed 14 lives, has seen the death toll increase to 21.

(Syria) In the Syrian city of Daraa, Syrian rebels scored a direct hit on a Syrian army command post with a 1000lb surface-to-surface missile, killing 40 soldiers inside. 2 civilians were killed during an air raid by the Syrian government.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,601.

In Yemen chaos, Islamic State grows to rival al Qaeda

(Reuters) Al Qaeda's leadership of Islamist militancy in Yemen is being challenged amid the chaos of civil war by its rival Islamic State, which could become a bigger threat to the group than the U.S. drones that periodically kill its commanders.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) remains the country's top militant network and its several thousand fighters and bomb makers, who have repeatedly tried to bring down Western aircraft, are still seen as a serious threat by Washington.

But followers of Islamic State in Yemen have sought to steal al Qaeda's thunder by launching a string of attacks against the Zaydi Shi'ite Muslim Houthi group, which is fighting a messy war against a Saudi-led coalition of Arab counties.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, evolved from the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda and now controls swathes of Iraq and Syria. It broke from the Sunni Muslim group founded by Osama bin Laden and has declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims.

More...

Pakistani Christian woman facing death for drinking from Muslim water cup

“Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”
~Barack Obama
(Fox News) A Pakistani Christian woman facing death for drinking water out of the same vessel used by her Muslim co-workers is in such poor health her supporters fear she won't make it to her date with the executioner.

Aasiya Noreen, a wife and mother of five better known as Asia Bibi, was sentenced in 2010 to be hanged for apostasy. The grim verdict was handed down after her co-workers charged she had insulted Prophet Mohammed when she was told she could not share the water vessel. Now 50, Bibi is suffering from numerous health problems, including intestinal bleeding, according to Global Dispatch, which cited Bibi's family in reporting the woman is “so weak she could hardly walk.”

“She is an exemplar of a gross miscarriage of injustice rooted in Pakistan’s extremely unfair blasphemy laws and of how this law can victimize someone who should not be inside the criminal justice system whatsoever,” said Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division.

More...

Arab screaming 'Allah ackba' shot in Israel as he tried to force his way through check-point

(Jerusalem) A man today drove his BMW at speed towards an Israeli checkpoint, guards fired their weapons into the air in which to warn the driver of the risk to him if he continued. At this point, the driver stopped his car and then ran towards the checkpoint screaming 'Allah Achba' as he neared the check point. At this time, the guards had enough and shot him in which to put an end to his Olympic aspirations.

The wounded man has been taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital for treatment.

ISIS beheads 2 women in Syria for sorcery

(Syria) ISIS decided to execute 2 women, one Sunday and one Monday, on charges of sorcery. What kind of world do we live in where people can not only get accused of such non-existence crimes, but actually be murdered?

As a child, we (my sister and I) were taken aback by how our stepmother claimed my sister was possessed by devil, simply because my sister spoke in her sleep. Even at the age of 9 and 7 we both knew that the stepmother was talking out of her arse.

And yet here we are years down the line and we are seeing people being killed over the superstitious beliefs of a faith which the liberals quite readily import into the West and demand we remain silent on their medieval mindset.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,452.

Scotland Yard forms a SWAT team

(London) The British police are on the whole unarmed policemen. Yes, they have armed units, but they are few and far between, which is why gun crime is rife in the UK. Anyway, whilst the British Bobby tries to promote the image that being unarmed is the way to go, idiots have said otherwise, which is why more black people have been shot dead since 2001 in London by black people than Soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Then we have the increase of idiots who subscribe to the mores of Islamic intolerance and like to do nothing more than take a walk on the beach/city/shopping mall in which to kill as many people going.

During the attacks in India and Kenya, it was found that the gun totting terrorists were better armed than the security forces, and the Met have taken note of this and set up a squad of highly trained police officers who are equipped to fight fire with fire.

Sorry, did I say fight fire with fire? Here are the guidelines this new rapid reaction police force will have to abide by.
The new unit would aim to arrest the attackers, but would be prepared to contain and “neutralise” them. “We’re police officers, not soldiers. We’re not at war. Our job is to arrest people.

Even if faced with a gunman or gunmen on the rampage, the unit would not have orders to shoot to kill, but would be told to use minimum force. They would not be “firing the maximum number of bullets” and their actions would be subject to the criminal law.
Good to see that the police have the safety of the British public at hand by not allowing them to do their job. Think I'm kidding? The CPS spent £30,000 trying to convict a traffic policeman who chased a man who failed to pay at a petrol station in a marked car for... dangerous driving. On his day in court the judge threw it out saying:
He deserved praise not prosecution for chasing the criminal and said it was a 'pleasure' to see him go free.
The only way the UK can combat crime (including terrorism) is to allow the people who keep us safe to do their job.

US Department of Defence reveals latest air strike targets in the Levant

(US) The US DoD revealed yesterday the details behind their air strikes against ISIS for the past 24 hours. They are:
Airstrikes in Syria
Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted six airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Raqqah, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying an ISIL crane.
-- Near Hasakah, an airstrike had inconclusive results.
-- Near Kobani, four airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units, destroying eight ISIL boats, three ISIL vehicles, two ISIL bunkers, an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar system.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber and fighter aircraft conducted 17 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Beiji, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and land features denying ISIL a tactical advantage, destroying an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Habbaniyah, two airstrikes struck an ISIL logistics compound and an ISIL staging area.
-- Near Haditha, an airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit.
-- Near Makhmur, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units, destroying an ISIL building and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Mosul, two airstrikes struck two ISIL tactical units, destroying an ISIL building and an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Sinjar, three airstrikes struck three ISIL tactical units and three ISIL heavy machine guns, destroying four ISIL buildings.
-- Near Tal Afar, five airstrikes struck four ISIL tactical units and three ISIL bunkers, and also struck land features to deny ISIL a tactical advantage. Two ISIL mortar firing positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun and an ISIL vehicle were destroyed.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Why Flotillas Sail to Gaza, Not Syria

(Commentary Magazine) Today, the latest publicity stunt by pro-Palestinian activists ended harmlessly as the Israel Navy intercepted a ship off the coast of Gaza that was attempting to break the blockade of the strip in order to draw attention to what is passengers claim is a humanitarian crisis. But, like previous Gaza flotillas, the effort has little to do with the plight of the people of Gaza and everything to do with the long war being waged to end Israel’s existence. More to the point, the continued focus on Gaza by those calling themselves advocates for human rights at the very moment that a genuine human catastrophe is occurring inside Syria without much of response from the international community tells us all we need to know about the hypocrisy of Israel-bashers.

The fact that it was Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who today pointed out the fact that flotillas aren’t sailing to Syria doesn’t make it any less valid. Hundreds of Syrians have been slaughtered by the Assad regime that is backed by Iran and Hezbollah terrorists with more being killed by its tacit ISIS allies. The carnage has created millions of refugees who are living in squalor inside the country or in camps in neighboring Jordan.

But as Netanyahu knows, there will be no peace activist flotilla to Syria to bring aid to people who really need it. Nor had those on the Swedish-registered Marianne that was diverted by the Israelis gotten lost on their way to help those truly in need. Instead, they were on the way to try and help the Hamas government of Gaza that has been rightly isolated by the international community since the bloody 2007 coup when the Islamist group seized power.

While the situation in Gaza isn’t pleasant, the popular notion of a humanitarian crisis there is a myth. That’s because there is no shortage of food or medicine in the strip since Israel allows daily convoys of such supplies into Gaza every day, including those when Hamas is shooting rockets over the border at cities and towns inside the Jewish state. It is true that there is a shortage of building materials inside Gaza. Given the scale of the destruction wrought by the war Hamas launched against Israel last year, that’s a problem. But the reason why such materials can’t be brought into the strip without restrictions was revealed anew when Hamas showcased a new terror tunnel that it claims reaches into Israel on Iranian TV on Sunday. Most of the concrete that is brought into Gaza is being used for such tunnels or for the construction of elaborate fortifications that will enable Hamas to shield its arsenal and other structures intended to make it harder for Israel to repress rocket fire aimed at civilians.

If Gaza is a mess, it is not because both Israel and Egypt understand that Hamas terrorism must be quarantined. Rather, it is because the international community stood by indifferently as Hamas transformed the congested strip into a terrorist state that believes it has the right to pursue its war on Israel by any means anytime it sees fit. Hamas not only commits war crimes by engaging in terrorism but by using the population of Gaza as human shields behind which its killers and their armaments find shelter.

Those who want to help Gazans need to think of ways to free them from the despotic control of Hamas, which executes its enemies without mercy and represses every kind of free expression as it enforces its ruthless Islamist ideas on the population. The independent Palestinian state in all but name that they govern is an experiment in tyranny that is particularly cruel. Yet somehow those who purport to care about the Palestinians think the real villain is an Israeli government that withdrew every single soldier, settler and settlement in 2005 and simply wishes in vain for quiet along the border.

Activists seek to go to Gaza, however, for one clear reason, and it has nothing to do with humanitarian concerns. Arabs who are engaged in conflicts with other Arabs don’t interest them no matter how many people are killed or how much suffering is caused. Even at the height of the fighting last year when hundreds of Palestinian civilians were unfortunately killed as they were caught in fighting provoked by Hamas, the casualties there were dwarfed by what is going on in Syria. But it is only when Jews are involved in defending their state that the human rights community discovers a crisis.

The double standard this sort of behavior illustrates has nothing to do with good works for a suffering people. It is nothing less than anti-Semitism, since it treats Israeli self-defense as inherently illegitimate and bolsters those who commit atrocities as valid forms of “resistance” against the presence of Jews inside the 1967 lines and not just in the West Bank. Those who seek to aid the efforts of Hamas to wage war on Israel and oppress their own people are not humanitarians. They are anti-Semites.

Game for a Laugh... Egyptian style

(Cairo) During the 80s in the Uk there ran a show called 'Game for a Laugh', where unwitting member's of the public were pranked and how we all laughed. Here's one such example.


Well, its Ramadan and all over the Middle East, audiences switch on their TVs and do nothing but watch the Box until its time to eat. So just like the Western Christmas season, The Arabs spend a lot of time and effort in knocking out the best TV shows and they too have their version of Game for a Laugh. But rather than just have a laugh they really do go to town. So for example this past week we heard about how Paris Hilton was taken up in an plane, which then was made to act if it was going to crash. (Watch from 6.30 mins) Gee I haven't laughed so much since me grannie died. Not!


I'm sorry, but as much as I am so not into laughing at how Miss Hilton has the living crap scared out of her, that isn't entertainment and it certainly isn't funny. Maybe I've become long in the tooth and don't understand the current standard for comedy but then I was always brought up not to laugh at somebody else's misfortune. Which is why I'm a fan of truly well written comedy:


Unfortunately, well written comedy is a bloody hard act to find nowadays. Which is why most is a good few years old. So after the Paris Hilton in a crashing aircraft stunt, you'd think that the Egyptians couldn't get any lower could you? Think again.

The latest show has a Syrian Pop star ‘Yakhour’ being taken out to sea by the film crew which is then intercepted by a false Israeli patrol boat, where they were captured by uniformed “Israelis” who board the yacht, and tell the passengers they are under arrest for entering Israeli territorial waters.  blindfolded and returned to land — to an “Israeli” army base on the beach, complete with watch-towers, Hebrew signs, buildings bearing Stars of David, and Hebrew-speaking soldiers.

Yakhour is then interrogated at gunpoint. Sounds of torture, screams and dogs barking are audible to him as he is questioned. “We were in the Egyptian water,” Yakhour protests in English to his captors. “I swear. You kidnapped us. You brought us here.” Later, he pleads: “I’m not the captain of the ship.” The cruel “Israelis,” unimpressed by Yakhour’s protestations of innocence, now march him out of the interrogation room and force him to his knees on the sand outside. An “Israeli” officer puts a gun to the back of his head. Yakhour plainly believes he is about to be executed.

Then a burst of gunfire rings out, people start running in all directions, and Yakhour is pulled to his feet and encouraged to flee. The hoaxer now appears alongside Yakhour, and urges him, “Run! Come on! Don’t be afraid!” Eventually, The Syrian sinks to his knees, recognizing the prank, and looking drained and furious. The prank ends with the hoaxer and victim reconciled, and declaring to the cameras that they would “never come to terms with Israel.”

That, people, is what transpires for quality TV in the Middle East. Scare the living delights out of somebody, then blame the Jew.

Now if in the West somebody had done something similar . Say getting kidnapped by somebody with an ISIS flag who threatens to chop your head off. There would be a court hearing, charges of Islamophobia would be made and no doubt the Prime Minster/President of that country would offer a formal apology to Islam. However when it’s done in the Middle East, and there's a Jew involved.

Why, its Game for a laugh.

How the liberal world sees Gaza

Gee, and there was me thinking that the stated aim of Hamas is to destroy Israel.

PC in the UK: British PM demands that we stop called Islamic state, Islamic state

(London) It never fails to amaze me how political correctness finds new things to object to. So, for example, after years of being told that calling somebody black was offensive and that we should refer to them as 'coloured' I was shocked when I was picked up by a white woman, when I answered her question about somebody by saying "That coloured person over there" by her reprimand that referring to somebody as coloured was 'offensive'. When I asked her how she would define me (I'm coloured) she stated she didn't want to walk down that line and walked away with her moral righteous ass in the air.

The media have been referring to terrorists as... militants, simply because terrorist is a loaded term and that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. But I cannot see how those who go around chopping heads off are trying to militise their captive audience. Terrify? Certainly, as that is what their objective is. I mean, how many news agencies do you know that would publish a picture of Mohammed? Do you think they were militised or were they terrorised into not doing so?

And so it is with Islam. Only last week, after the horrific killings in Tunisia, the British PM David Cameron openly stated, and I quote:
Islam is a religion of “peace”, and that the terrorists’ atrocities are “in the name of a twisted and perverted ideology that we have to confront.”
Today he went a stage further and complained about how we shouldn't be referring to the Islamic state as... Islamic state. I quote:
“I wish the BBC would stop calling it Islamic State because it’s not an Islamic state,” the prime minister said. “What it is, is an appalling, barbarous regime … It’s a perversion of the religion of Islam and many Muslims listening to this programme will recoil every time they hear the words Islamic State.”
You know what, I'm sick to death of all this apologising to Muslims over the ugliness written into Islam's DNA. In the UK, the authorities go well out of their way to fear for Muslims after each and every atrocity carried out in its name. UK child grooming by Muslims was suppressed for over 10 years because nobody wanted to be seen as a... racist.

Female genital mutilation, whilst being outlawed in the UK for 30 years, has yet to see one person done for chopping off the bits of little girls. Here is the NHS page on the odious practice, and note how Muslim/Islam isn't mentioned once. Yet 130,000 are now living in the UK with the curse of FGM between their legs, and 500 British based girls a month are feared to be having it done to them. And that's only the ones we know about.

In the UK, we are constantly reminded that Christianity was evil, Crusades, Spanish inquisition, paedophillic priests, anti-abortion laws, or even having children sing hymns during school assembly. Why, in the UK you are now banned from saying "singing from the same song sheet", in case somebody finds offence.

Yet not only do we allow an intolerant and bigoted ideology to do as it pleases in the UK, we actually are told not to mention the elephant in the room, because it might offend Muslims.

Meanwhile in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan and lots of other places, Muslims - sorry, followers of a peaceful religion - are not killing others in the most horrible ways going and not uttering the name of their god as they don't do so.

'Christian Tidal Wave About to Crash on BDS'

(INN) The Christian Zionist NPO Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN) on Monday welcomed the adoption of anti-BDS resolutions it has pushed for at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and New York State Assembly.

In the New York vote adopting the resolution that aims to fight the economic boycott movement against the Jewish state, PJTN President Laurie Cardoza-Moore traveled to the State Assembly to personally present Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky with a draft resolution.

PJTN activists in Pennsylvania were also instrumental in having the draft resolution passed there as well, after Tennessee in April passed anti-BDS legislature followed by a similar move in Indiana.

But PJTN announced that this is just the beginning, as supporters of the group in 34 states throughout America have already started working to prepare anti-BDS motions in a wave of support for Israel.

"The Jew-hating BDS movement is about to be hit by a tidal wave of support for Israel and the Jewish People," Cardoza-Moore said. "As proud Christian Zionists that represent millions of believers worldwide, we will stand as a firewall around the Jewish People and will ensure that no form of genocidal anti-Semitism be tolerated."

"We call upon all Christians worldwide to join our movement and let the people of Israel know that they are not alone in their struggle. Mark my words: By the end of this year, what began as a pro-Israel resolution in Tennessee will be a national movement across the USA and around the world. We have already recruited 34 states, with the recent addition of New York and Pennsylvania and this is only the beginning."

Last month Cardoza-Moore visited Jerusalem to present Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein with a framed copy of the original Tennessee resolution.

While PJTN activists played a key role in the Pennsylvania resolution, the motion was drafted by Pennsylvania Representative Matt Baker.

Baker noted, "the Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution I authored condemning economic, social, cultural and other boycotts of Israel and growing incidents of anti-Semitism."

"The international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign’s call for academic boycotts have been condemned by many of our nation’s largest academic associations, more than 250 university presidents and many other leading scholars as a violation of the bedrock principle of academic freedom. I am proud to have Pennsylvania join the call for an end to these types of anti-Semitic incidents."

Hisham Barakat, Egypt’s top prosecutor, assassinated in a car bomb attack

(Cairo) Egypt’s top prosecutor Hisham Barakat who led the wide scale prosecution against figures from the Brotherhood and other Islamists, including former President Mohammed Morsi, was murdered today when a car bomb was detonated as his convoy went past.



The attack took place around 10:00 a.m. when a car laden with large amount of explosives was detonated by a remote control as Barakat’s car and his entourage passed through the eastern Cairo district of Heliopolis. 65-year-old Barakat received multiple shrapnel wounds to the shoulder, chest and liver, according to a medical official at the nearby Nozha hospital. His two guards and five other people were also wounded by the explosion, officials said.



Hours after the attack, he was announced dead after undergoing a critical surgery.

The first assassination of a top official in the country in a quarter century, marking an apparent escalation by Islamic militants in their campaign of revenge attacks for a 2-year-old crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.


And to think that the liberals have all been telling me that the Muslim Brotherhood are a peaceful bunch of thugs...

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,450.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 29, 2015)

(Iraq) Across the country, 51 ISIS thugs were killed Sunday. 25 alone where killed when the local ISIS management in Anbar province held a meeting, problem for them was the Iraqi airforce, decided to hit it from the air.

(Pakistan) A suicide bomber in Lahore had a case of premature ejaculation when he was forced to utter'Allah ackba' before he was meant to, this was due to a police operation which exposed him for what he was. As he went to pieces he took 3 other terrorist thugs with him.

(Syria) A mortar attack in Damascus Sunday killed 3 people. The round exploded in a market in the Saroujah district just northeast of the city centre.

(Algeria) Two terrorists were killed Saturday in Ain Defla by the Army who recovered weapons and a quantity of ammunition, the Ministry of National Defence reported Sunday.

(Afghanistan) The Taliban in western Afghanistan ambushed a convoy of soldiers Sunday in the Karukh district of Herat. A spokesman for the 207 Zafar military corps, Najibullah Najibi, said the fighting lasted five hours, with 11 soldiers and six Taliban killed.

Three Islamic followers of peace, found themselves in pieces when the IED they were planted at the side of the road went 'Bang!' The incident took place in Sozyano area of Shah Wali Kot District around 20:30 pm last night.

(Iraq) It has been reported that since the start of Ramadan began, 71 civilians have been killed and 90 wounded due to indiscriminate shelling. Whilst I have reported of deaths from the town, I have only reported military and terrorist deaths, (I've also checked to be sure)

Attacks in and around Baghdad Monday have claimed the lives of 13 people. Drive-by shooters killed a pro-government Sunni tribal sheikh along with his three guards in the town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad. Three civilians were killed and nine wounded in a bomb explosion at an outdoor marker in Baghdad's western Ghazaliyah neighborhood.

Authorities also found the bodies for four men and two women dumped in different areas in and around Baghdad, all shot in the chest and head with their hands and legs tied. None had identification cards.

Well, it appears that despite so many media outlets bigging up ISIS. The pressure from getting a good kick from the air, from the Kurds, from the Iraqis and from the Iranians is starting to grind on Allahs finest as it has been reported that ISIS executed 30 of its own yesterday because of suspicion of information leaks to Iraqi intelligence.

The Kurds have continued their sweep against ISIS, by killing 13 of the bastards near Mosul city.

Further setbacks for ISIS continues as the Iraq military capitalised on the US led air campaign which has vastly degraded the teeth arm units of the so called Islamic State. Iraqi army forces used artillery to kill 26 IS militants near the city of Haditha, while security forces defending positions near the IS-held city of Hit killed 15 attacking IS militants and destroyed eight of their vehicles. Iraqi airstrikes on IS-controlled Fallujah reportedly killed 10 people and wounded 19. Shia militias known as Popular Mobilization Forces killed nine IS fighters and destroyed two of their vehicles in an attack on IS positions near the city of Samarra

(Yemen) Saudi air strikes killed 15 people today in the Sarwah district of Yemen’s central province of Ma'rib.

(Somalia) As the noose tightens around the Islamic terrorist group Al Shabab, so does their room for maneuver. Which means that instead of being able to melt away, they are now having to fight. This happened today near the southern port of Kismayo, where a couple of clashes saw 15 people killed. This apparently also included another attack by Al Shabab on a military base, this time the troops were waiting.

(Chad) A police raid on suspected members of Boko Haram in N’Djamena saw one of the idiots blow himself up, killing six suspects and five police officers.

(Libya) Clashes between the Libyan army and terrorists associated with the Mujahideen Shura Council in the eastern city of Darnah, saw 14 soldiers killed. No figures have been released on the number of terrorists who were killed.

(Egypt) A roadside bomb hit a bus travelling in the restive North of the Sinai today, killing 3 people and injuring 14 others.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,449.

Kuwait identifies mosque suicide bomber as Saudi

Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait identified the suicide bomber behind its worst militant attack as a young Saudi Arabian man and said on Sunday it had detained the driver of the vehicle that took him to a Shi'ite Muslim mosque where he killed 27 people.

The disclosure of the bomber's nationality is likely to focus the attention of authorities probing Friday's suicide attack on ties between Islamists in Kuwait and those in Saudi Arabia, a center of ultra-conservative Islamic thought.

Kuwait's interior ministry named the bomber as Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa and said he flew into Kuwait's airport at dawn on Friday, only hours before he detonated an explosives-laden vest at Kuwait City's Imam al-Sadeq mosque.

More...

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Israeli naval commandos board Gaza-bound pro-jihad flotilla ship, no injuries reported


IDF naval fighters board the Swedish Marianne vessel that was attempting to break the blockade on Gaza. No injuries reported.
(INN) IDF naval fighters early on Monday morning boarded the Swedish ship Marianne that was taking part in the latest flotilla trying to violate Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

The troops took control of the ship and will take it to the Ashdod Port where its contents will be inspected. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the takeover process was short and there were no injuries on either side.

“According to the decision of the political echelon, and after exhausting all diplomatic channels to prevent the Marianne vessel from reaching the coast of the Gaza Strip and violating the naval blockade, navy fighters took over the vessel a short time ago before its arrival in Gaza,” the statement said.

“The action was taken after a large number of requests to the passengers on the vessel. Once the passengers clarified that they would not cooperate and proceed to the Ashdod Port, it was decided to take over the vessel and sail it to the Ashdod port.”

The so-called “Freedom Flotilla 3”, which set sail from Crete on Friday, has been backed by the European Campaign to Break the Siege on Gaza. Members of the European Parliament, journalists, athletes, artists, as well as radical leftist Israelis will be on board.

Arutz Sheva has exclusively revealed that the flotilla is indirectly funded by the French government via a pro-Palestinian NGO.

The flotilla was the latest in a series of attempts by activists to break the naval blockade on Gaza, imposed by Israel after Hamas violently took control of Gaza from rival Fatah in 2006.

The most famous of the flotillas was the 2010 one involving the Turkish Mavi Marmara, which claimed to be providing "humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza."

The ship repeatedly defied orders to turn around and dock at the Ashdod port and ignored repeated warnings to change course, forcing IDF troops to board the vessel - only to be attacked by Islamist extremists on board wielding knives and metal bars. The wounded soldiers had no choice but to open fire, resulting in the deaths of ten of Islamists on board.

After an investigation, Israeli authorities discovered the vessel to be carrying no humanitarian aid - in fact, no aid supplies at all - indicating how the true goal of the provocative move was to open Gaza to free naval access, which it has consistently used to smuggle in weapons to be targeted against Israel.

ISIS Executed More than 3,000 People in 1 Year in Syria Alone

More than half of those executed by Islamic State group in Syria alone were civilians, including 74 children.

Poor Syrians must lament their fate... if even one Jew was involved, every NGO, every UN organization and every leftist in the Western world would be screaming to the high heavens. But since it's just Muslims killing Muslims (and occasional Christians), it's, well, no big deal.
(INN) The Islamic State group (ISIS or IS) has executed more than 3,000 people in Syria, including hundreds of civilians, in the year since it declared its self-described "caliphate," a monitor said on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group monitoring Syria's conflict, said it had documented 3,027 executions by IS since June 29, 2014.

Among those executed are 1,787 civilians, including 74 children, said the Observatory.

Members of Sunni Shaitat tribe account for around half of the civilians murdered.

IS killed 930 members of the clan in Deir Ezzor last year after they rose up against the extremist Sunni Muslim group.

The toll also includes recent mass killings by IS in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, which the jihadist group re-entered briefly this week after being expelled in January.

The monitor said it had counted at least 223 executions in the border town this week.

The Observatory also documented 216 IS executions of rival rebel factions and Kurdish fighters, as well as the executions of nearly 900 regime forces.

IS has also executed 143 of its own members it accused of crimes including spying, many of them captured as they were trying to desert the group, the Observatory said.

And at least 8,000 IS terrorists have been killed in battles and by US-led air strikes, added the monitor.

IS emerged in Syria in 2013, growing from Al Qaeda's one-time Iraq affiliate and initially seeking to merge with Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

When Al Nusra refused the merger, the two groups become rivals, and IS went on to announce its "caliphate" in territory in Syria and Iraq last year, proclaiming its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "Caliph Ibrahim".

A real life superman


German school tells pupils to dress modestly so as not to offend... asylum seekers

(Bavaria) In the town of Pockling, situated on the German/Austrian border, the authorities have decided to use the local school gym to house 200 Syrian asylum seekers. However, in order to accommodate them even further, the local authorities have sent out letters in which to inform parents of children at the school that in order not to offend these peaceful Muslims, they should ensure that their girls dress modestly.


The letter states:
"The Syrian citizens are mainly Muslims and speak Arabic. The refugees are marked by their own culture. Because our school is directly next to where they are staying, modest clothing should be adhered to, in order to avoid discrepancies. Revealing tops or blouses, short shorts or miniskirts could lead to misunderstandings."
Naturally, this hasn't gone down too well with the parents, but a local politician has defended it by saying:
"When Muslim teenage boys go to open air swimming pools, they are overwhelmed when they see girls in bikinis, these boys, who come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked skin, follow girls and bother them without realizing. Obviously this is concerning for us."
And to think that the EU is helping to ferry hundreds of thousands of people like this across the Mediterranean sea in which to dump them on the rest of us.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 28, 2015)

(Congo) Five civilians and three soldiers were killed in an attack by rebels on a Congolese army camp near Beni in the restive east of the country. The killings are the latest blamed on Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are accused of murdering around 400 people in nine months of massacres in and around the major eastern trading hub of Beni.

The ADF was formed by puritanical Muslim Ugandans of the Tabliq sect who merged with the remnants of another rebel group, the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.[citation needed] The main figure of the group was Jamil Mukulu, a former Protestant who converted to Islam. The members were largely from central Uganda, in particular Iganga, Masaka and Kampala, and portray themselves as religious crusaders.

(Pakistan) Drug dealer Fazal Husain, didn’t like how local property dealer Iqbal was dealing with his house purchase, so off he popped round to his house dragged him outside and started beating him up. Iqbals daughters on seeing this went out to protect their father, whereupon Fazel pulled out a gun shot four girls dead and wounded 2 others. Naturally as a Pakistani male, he did a runner.

Air-strikes by the Pakistani air force in the country's restive Northwest frontier saw at least 24 terrorists killed.

(Jordan) the bitter fighting inside Syria crossed over into Jordan yesterday when a stray shell impacted in the market of the border town of Ramtha killing one and injured 2 others.

(Afghanistan) Security operations across the country this past 24 hours saw 43 Taliban idiots and 2 soldiers killed

A bitter gun battle between the Taliban and ISIS in the province of Nangarhar resulted in the deaths of 13 terrorists and another 8 wounded.

(Nigeria) A suicide bomber who blown himself to pieces outside a leprosy hospital in the city of Maiduguri killed 5 people and wound 10 others.

(Syria) A push by the Syrian government into the rebel held town of Daraa has seen 30 terrorists killed.

(Yemen) A Saudi border guard was killed when his position came under attack by Yemeni terrorists loyal to Iran.

Saudi Air-stikes claimed the lives of 3 people yesterday.

(Somalia) Unfortunately the death toll amongst Burundi African Union peace keepers in Somalia who were attacked by Islamic terrorists has increased from 30 to 50. This death toll is set to rise as a large number were kidnapped and a larger number injured.

(Iraq) Gunmen shot dead a senior oil official working for Iraq's state-run North Oil Company (NOC) on Sunday, police and company officials said.

Ramadan death toll is now at 2,125.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Wal-Mart store refuses to bake Confederate battle flag cake, accepts request to bake ISIS battle flag cake

(TheDC) Wal-Mart is apologizing for a store in Slidell, La., which refused to bake a cake designed as the Confederate battle flag but accepted a request to bake a cake that looked like the ISIS battle flag.

Chuck Netzhammer, a local resident, presented his story in a YouTube video Friday, saying, “Alright, Wal-Mart, you’ve got some explaining to do. I went to go buy a cake from you all the other day with this image on it and y’all wouldn’t do it. I went back yesterday and managed to get the ISIS battle flag [cake instead].”

Netzhammer shows the ISIS battle flag cake to the camera as well as the rejection letter Wal-Mart gave him for the confederate flag cake request. Netzhammer also shows the receipt that went along with the ISIS battle flag cake that Wal-Mart agreed to bake.

“Wal-Mart, can you please explain why you’re alienating Southern Americans with this trash that you allow to be sold at your store, while at the same point Confederate flag memorabilia is not allowed?” Netzhammer asks.

The Daily caller was contacted by Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, who said in an email, “Our local store made a mistake. The cake in the video should not have been made and we apologize.”

Hargrove later explained to TheDC, “We made the decision to stop selling Confederate flag related items promoting the flag’s image. For that reason we did not make the cake. [Netzhammer] brought in the other image of ISIS and really, what happened, was our associate didn’t recognize what that image was and what it meant or it wouldn’t have been made.”

Merchandise that is associated with the Confederate flag was pulled off Wal-Mart and other retailers store shelves this past week following the Charleston, S.C., shooting massacre of nine parishioners at a black church. Photos later showed the gunman, Dylan Roof, posing with the Confederate flag.

Good News Spot

I've decided that with all the crap we are hit with on a daily basis that I will post one pleasant article a day. So on that note, we went to see these nice American fellows in concert in the UK the other week:

French PM: More Muslim terrorist attacks in France are coming

Special forces of France’s Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) leave the building housing the apartment of a man suspected of carrying out an attack in Saint-Priest near Lyon on June 26, 2015. (AFP PHOTO / PHILIPPE DESMAZES)
Valls says more terrorism in France not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when'; police interrogate suspected killer.
SAINT-QUENTIN-FALLAVIER, France (AFP) — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Saturday that France faced more attacks to come after a grisly killing in which a suspected Islamist pinned the severed head of his boss to the gates of a gas factory.

Valls said Friday’s attack would create tension in France — home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim population — that “will be exploited”.

“It’s difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack,” he told AFP on a flight back from Bogota, adding: “The question is not… if there will be another attack, but when.”

French police interrogated the man suspected of the killing on Saturday as they tried to piece together the attack.

“Jihad Nauseum” headlined France’s Liberation newspaper, warning of a new peak in the “global guerilla war launched by Islamist fanatics.”

The suspect, Yassin Salhi, 35, is being held by French police for causing an explosion by driving a delivery van into a warehouse containing bottles of dangerous gas and chemicals at the US-owned Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 25 miles from Lyon.

Firefighters overpowered Salhi before discovering the decapitated body of his 54-year-old boss — who ran a delivery firm — near the car, along with a knife. The victim’s head was pinned to a nearby fence. He was found with Islamic flags and Arabic inscriptions scrawled on him.

The grisly killing came on the same day as two other attacks claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, which left 38 people dead at a beach resort in Tunisia and 27 in a suicide bombing in Kuwait.

This is the first time someone in France has been found beheaded by a suspected Islamist, a method of killing that has become a trademark of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

It also came nearly six months after the Islamist attacks in and around Paris that left 17 people dead, starting with a shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Speaking in Brussels after cutting short an EU summit, French President Francois Hollande labelled the factory beheading “a terrorist attack,” adding that “the intent was without doubt to cause an explosion”.

Salhi had been known to security services for a number of years but did not have a criminal record, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

He had been investigated for links to radical Salafists but had never been identified as planning an attack.

A co-worker described him as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” to RTL radio, adding that Salhi had spoken to him about Islamic State — “not to try recruit me for anything but simply to ask my opinion.”

More...

Nigerian Sharia court sentences 9 people to death for blasphemy

(Kano) Nigeria is a country of 2 halves. The top half of the country is Islamic, the bottom half is Christian. For some strange reason, the top half is a lot poorer, beset by internal strife and run by Sharia law. Yes, that's right, since 1999, the northern Islamic states voted for and got the right to rule by Sharia law. Here's a break down of the current state of play in the country.

Sharia in Nigeria
The key reads as follows:

   Sharia plays no role in the judicial system
   Sharia applies in personal status issues only
   Sharia applies in full, including criminal law


Funny enough, the idiots in Boko Haram, who have been waging their murderous campaign for Sharia Law on all, have done so primarily in the yellow section above. Anyway, that is another story. In Kano, the largest city in the Islamic half of the country, an Islamic court has found 9 people guilty of blasphemy and sentenced them to death. So, just what happened for them all to receive such a severe sentence? Well, it turns out that these people are Muslims, albeit from a different strand than the ubiquitous violent Sunni lot. These people belong to the Tijaniya sect who apparently were heard to proclaim to anybody who could hear that the founder of their sect was bigger than Muhammed. Which is strange as the biggest event for these Muslims isn’t Ramadan but rather the birth of Mohammed. But hey, you know what its like living amongst Sunni Muslims in predominantly Islamic lands when they feel the need to whittle down the opposition? Out comes the blasphemy card and off with your head.

It appears that the sect was celebrating the birth of their founder when the local Muslims took umbrage and attacked them during a procession through Kano last month. In handing down the sentences the Sharia court explained:
"We are happy the Sharia court handed the death sentences to the nine people who made the blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet, the sentence should remind Muslims that blasphemy attracts the ultimate penalty.

"The concern is mobs would take extrajudicial action if these convicts are for whatever reason released because they would certainly kill them when they see them on the streets,"
Well, that’s alright them, kill the bastards because if you don’t the braying foaming at the mouth mob will. Funny enough a lot of these people who have seen their country ruined by Islamic law are moving on mass to Europe in which to enrich us all with their magnanimous nature.

Australia: 16-year-old Muslim faces terrorism charges after compiling list of people to behead

(NT News) A DARWIN teenager could be facing terrorism charges after he allegedly compiled a list of people he wanted to behead.

The 16-year-old was arrested Wednesday after a raid by a strike force of Northern Territory Police investigating property offences.

The list and other materials, including a personal communication device that is understood to contain material linking the boy to Islamic State, was discovered at that time.

It was not immediately clear if the list contained names of people the suspect knew or names of others.

NT Police’s Strike Force Trident raided the boy’s accommodation at Yirra House in Darwin and he was subsequently charged with property offences.

It is believed the AFP was already aware of the teen. The federal agency made the link when he was being booked by Territory police.

The personal communication device is considered contraband at the secure residential care facility that mostly holds troubled teens in government care.

The device is understood to also contain other information of concern to federal authorities.

The NT News understands the teen has been in the custody of the Northern Territory’s Department of Children and Family Services for years. He most recently resided at Yirra House.

The teen had also served time at Darwin’s Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre.

More...

200 party-goers burnt when spray paint ignites in Tawian

(Taipei) Party-goers at a waterpark music festival in Taiwan became engulfed in flames when the coloured powered paint sprayed all over them ignited and seriously burnt over 200 people. The incident happened at the Formosa Water Park near the island's capital, which thankfully was very quickly brought under control. More than 200 people were taken to a hospital after the blaze, with 80 in a serious condition. It is believed that 1,000 people were inside the amusement park when the powder was sprayed on the crowd as part of a colour party - a festival of dance and music where people cover themselves in bright paint.

Turk beats the crap out of girlfriend on first day of freedom

(Istanbul) Onur Özbizerdik was really glad to get out of prison the other day. You see, he was jailed for shooting at a group of people inside a restaurant where he had taken his girlfirend for a meal on the 20th of May this year (yes, a month a go). Anyway, on his release on probation, he took (now his ex) girlfriend for a nice walk into a forest in Sarıyer where he turned on her and beat the living crap out of her because he believed she had grassed him up to the police.


A nice fellow, Onur Özbizerdik has form where he has shot several people in the past, served jail time over a murder in Istanbul, but was always released in the end. He comes from a long criminal line following in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father. In fact, his father Alaattin Çakıcı was convicted of instigating the murder of his wife in front of their son, Onur Özbizerdik, in 1995.

Personally, I feel that Onur met the man of his dreams in prison and just wanted to get back to his warm loving embrace, hence the attack on a woman.

Analysis: The 21st century Middle East

(JPost) EVER SINCE the “Arab Spring,” the Middle East has been spinning in a giddy vortex.

Alongside major political and social upheavals, there has also been a dramatic shift in geo-political alignments. And although it is impossible to make a coherent forecast of what lies ahead, one thing is abundantly clear: the tried and trusted conceptual frameworks and modus operandi of the 20th century are no longer valid.

For one, the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, according to which the borders of the nation states of the Fertile Crescent were artificially drawn after World War I, is unraveling. The countries it created are breaking up into older pre-state sectarian and tribal formations. In this inchoate and as yet unmapped 21st century Middle East, Alawites, Sunnis and Kurds are fortifying regional strongholds in a disintegrating Syria; the ethnic divide in Lebanon is widening; and in Iraq the central government has failed to heal deep Shi’ite-Sunni wounds.

Nowhere is the breakdown of Sykes- Picot more evident than in the conduct of the large Kurdish tribe, who have created a de facto state in northern Iraq and are demanding similar swaths of self-determination in Syria and Turkey, too.

Indeed, religious, tribal and sectarian communities striving for new forms of self-determination is one of the key signs of the times. At the end of the 20th century, scholars marveled at the resilience of the territorial state. Strong-armed “iron dictators” stifled other voices and created the impression that they could impose a national culture that would supersede and even erase the aspirations and dreams of sub-national groups.

The opening decade of the 21st century and the four years that have elapsed since the eruption of the “Arab Spring” have shown the exact opposite: that in the emerging Middle East, pre-state identities – sects and tribes, religious and ethnic minorities – run far deeper than national affiliations.

The cracks that opened up in the state structures and the identity politics that ensued exacerbated existing divisions, especially between Sunnis and Shi’ites. The source of the conflict between the two major religious traditions goes back to the very origins of Islam. But in the opening decades of the 21st century it took on a new urgency. The American invasion of Iraq in April 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein brought the rule of the country’s Sunni minority to an end. It also led to a highly significant precedent: for the first time an Arab country headed by a Shi’ite regime.

For Shi’ite Iran the revolution in Iraq was very good news. It enabled Tehran to deepen its penetration of its western neighbor, increase its economic, military and diplomatic leverage and enhance its regional standing. The already loaded relations between Shi’ite Iran and the largely Sunni Arab world became a dominant issue on the regional agenda. Arab discourse was punctuated by references to the “Shi’ite wave” and the “Shi’ite revival.”

The Second Lebanon War in 2006, in which Iran’s Shi’ite proxy Hezbollah fired rockets and missiles into Israel for 34 consecutive days, reinforced the impression that the Shi’ite-led rejectionist axis was growing in strength and fueled Sunni fears. The “Arab Spring” uprisings further exacerbated the sectarian struggle.

The open involvement of the Shi’ite Hezbollah in the Syrian civil war from early 2013 dragged Lebanon into the crossfire.Street fighting in Tripoli and the bombing of Hezbollah bases south of Beirut blurred the border between the two countries. The situation was further complicated when radical Sunni Islamist organizations moved into Syria and Iraq, taking over large swaths of territory and intensifying a cruel and bloody conflict that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and created millions of refugees.

“The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” variously known as ISIL or ISIS, which established itself in western Iraq and then swallowed up parallel territory on the Syrian side of the border, is both symptomatic of the 21st century Middle East and reflects its new goals. It only gathered momentum because of the chronic weakness of the regimes in Baghdad and Damascus. But it draws inspiration from an idealized vision of the past, and strives for the establishment of a single Islamic Caliphate to replace the nation states, which it sees as perpetuating inter-Arab divisions and serving Western interests.

At the same time, ISIS stands at the center of a much wider struggle, a clash of civilizations on two parallel levels: Western civilization against the Muslim world and, within Islam, the Sunni majority against the Shi’ite renaissance led by Iran. Thus, in the heart of the 21st century Middle East, there is a sovereign space supported by the economic capabilities and ideological fervor of a terrorist organization intent on changing reality. That is a recipe for chronic regional instability and also poses a serious threat to global security.

These shifting Middle Eastern sands have also been affected by significant changes in great power attitudes to the region. Indeed, another key symptom of the 21st century Middle East is America’s hesitant and inconsistent policy. There have been many explanations for this, from forecasts of a significant reduction in American dependence on Middle East oil and gas to global power shifts, leading the US to prioritize southeast Asia over the Middle East.

Be that as it may, the Obama administration’s reliance on conciliatory diplomacy sent a loud message of weakness across the region and encouraged radical forces and states seeking hegemony to set the pace. The American decision in September 2013 not to take military action against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, after its flagrant use of chemical weapons, was a watershed moment: it violated a code of unwritten understandings and undermined America’s regional standing.

At the same time, Russia has unquestionably enhanced its standing in the region. Its involvement in Syria, its cooperation with Iran and the strengthening of its ties with Sunni states point to an assertive policy designed to restore its once dominant role. China’s slow and gradual penetration of regional geopolitical alignments is also having an effect. Even if it is premature to speak of a changing of the guard, it is clear that both state and non-state actors in the region are reevaluating their positions in a way that highlights the fragility of regional power structures and the ephemeral nature of political alliances.

The state best able to read the changes was the Islamic Republic of Iran. With a savvy new leadership under President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif since August 2013, it clearly identified the new trends and acted accordingly. It set as its chief goal saving Iran from the economic chaos left by the previous president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Within a short space of time, Iran was able to escape from crippling economic and diplomatic isolation and to become a much wooed player in the diplomatic arena.

This without giving any clear guarantees with regard to retreat from its military nuclear aspirations.

For all these reasons, the Middle East is deep in the throes of major geo-political transition. For all the main protagonists, this demands fresh thinking and a new set of policy tools.

For Israel, the 21st century Middle East poses a real challenge. Given the lack of a clear picture of the emerging balance of power, the multiple orientations and the shifting alliances, it seems that pragmatism based on the adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is gaining genuine traction. Israel could find a common denominator with countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco which, like Israel, view with deep concern Iran’s march toward nuclear power and are also declared foes of ISIS.

On the Palestinian question too, the 21st century Middle East demands decisions. On the one hand, it seems that under the pressure of events, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been shunted into a corner. Moreover, it is now clear that it does not provide the golden key to all the region’s problems, as many argued during the 20th century. On the other hand, the events of the past several weeks underscore that in this highly volatile 21st century Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could easily be drawn into the forefront of a religious-cultural struggle.

Israel needs to find the right tools to act to ensure that that does not happen.

Laws Are for Suckers: Obama Refuses to Follow Law Cutting Off Aid to PLO


There is no law that Obama cannot throw under the bus to help his jihadi friends.
(FPM) These days Obama following the law would be news. Obama not following the law is just business as usual. So this is another case of Obama doing what he can to help terrorists while ignoring the limits on his powers.

No wonder he likes the PLO. It too is run by an unelected dictator.

Here’s what the issue is
Two lawmakers are warning the Palestinian Authority (PA) that its economic assistance from the United States could be suspended because of its decision to initiate charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“By formally submitting allegations against Israeli forces to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, President [Mahmoud] Abbas has triggered a provision in U.S. law that suspends all economic assistance to the PA,” Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

Lowey said Congress crafted the law to prevent U.S. tax dollars from rewarding “purposely provocative, unilateral steps” that threaten peace negotiations.

“Not only do President Abbas’ actions indicate his abandonment of a two-state agreement, they reveal his willingness to try to discredit Israel in the international community at the expense of the economic and humanitarian wellbeing of the Palestinian people,” Lowey added.
But Abbas need not worry. Barack has got his back.
State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told Al-Monitor that while the United States doesn’t believe the Palestinians were eligible to accede to the Rome Statute and join the court, it will “continue to provide critical assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

“As you are aware, US law includes certain restrictions on assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” Vasquez said. “We evaluate all planned assistance to the PA to ensure we are in full compliance with relevant legislation. We do not consider the relevant restrictions on assistance to the Palestinians to have been triggered.”
Nor will they ever be triggered unless Abbas converts to Judaism, dances the Hora and begins fighting terrorism. Then suddenly there will be a reason to deny aid, just as Obama refused to stop aid to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist government in Egypt, but slammed the brakes when its leader was replaced by the anti-terrorist leader Al-Sisi.

Still Obama will condemn it in the mildest terms possible.
The White House said on Thursday that the Palestinians’ efforts to prosecute Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague are “counterproductive”, and stressed Washington’s strong opposition.

“The United States has made it clear that we oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive,” National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said.
It’s counterproductive… which is right between unhelpful and “Ah come on.”

Take it from the Counterproductive-in-Chief.

'Despicable' Gaza flotilla is a 'gang of terror supporters'

(JPost) Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid on Saturday denounced those taking part in the flotilla to Gaza as “a gang of supporters of terrorism” and a “despicable flotilla that needs to be stopped.”

The former finance minister spoke to a town hall meeting in Holon. He ridiculed the idea that the flotilla was aimed at highlighting the plight of Gaza and advancing Palestinian human rights.

“This flotilla is a kind of provocation against the State of Israel,” he said. “This is a provocation by people who are anything but defenders of human rights.”

Tunisian government says to close 80 mosques for inciting violence, after hotel attack

(Tunis) In response to the murderous attack yesterday in Tunisia, the Government has pushed through an edict to close down 80 mosques which are outside state control, which I can only presume are the hotbeds of radicalism behind the mindset of the idiot who murdered so many people yesterday.

Ramadan Death Count Round Up (June 27, 2015)

(Turkey) 2 weeks ago, Hakan Narlı was divorced by his wife Şerife Akkulak. Like most former married couples, he popped over to his ex's for a cha, and whilst there, he murdered her. This he followed up by murdering his ex-mother-in-law, ex-brother-in-law and his two children.

(Egypt) Security forces shelled different areas of North Sinai on Friday, killing 10 people believed to belong to the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis militant group. Clashes also occurred between security forces and armed men near the Rafah border crossing, the sources said, leaving one killed and two more injured.

(Iraq) 12 people have been killed after a slew of bombs were detonated in Baghdad today. The first targeted a street of shops which sold car parts, killing 5 injuring 13. The second was detonated inside a market which killed 3 and injured 8, while a third was set off outside shops killing 2 and wounding 8. It's as if these idiots have something against shoppers.

80 ISIS idiots were said to have been killed during air strikes on the city of Kirkuk today. Thirty-five terrorists were killed in Bashir district, 25 kilometres south of Kirkuk. Meanwhile, 45 terrorists, including one reported ISIS commander, were killed in Riyadh district and Rusuliyah town, both in the south-eastern part of the city.

3 terrorists were killed in the battle for Baiji yesterday by Iragi forces as they continue their push north from Tikrit.

A leading commander in ISIS (Abdullah Mohammed al-Huran) was killed during an airstrike in the city of Mosul.

(Syria) The death toll in Kobani has unfortunately increased from 164 to 206. Adding 42 to the total. 18 additional ISIS idiots can also be added making a total of 60 of the f-kers killed.

3 separate assaults by ISIS against Syrian government outposts Friday has resulted in the deaths of 40 soldiers.

Indiscriminate rocket attacks have killed 3 people in the city of Daraa these past 2 days (Friday/Saturday).

(Afghanistan) A couple of armed assaults on police checkpoints in northern Kunduz saw the attacks repelled, with 19 people killed and around a dozen wounded.

An attempted hijacking by Taliban terrorists in Nangarhar province saw 9 of them killed and another 3 wounded when the police caught them in the act.

A roadside bomb detonated as a police vehicle went by in Laghman province saw 2 people killed and another 2 injured.

(Pakistan) Police in Karachi killed 4 and arrested 2 more during a couple of gang related gun battles. Hand grenades and weapons were recovered from the scene.

(Yemen) 14 people were killed in clashes between the Houthis and Saudi-led forces near the southern port city. In northern Aden, eight civilians were killed, including a woman and her three children, in random shelling by Houthi fighters on residential areas in the al Mansoura and Sheikh Othman districts.

(Mali) Islamist terrorists attacked a town in western Mali near the border with neighbouring Mauritania before dawn on Saturday, leaving up to 11 people dead, including three soldiers and eight attackers.

(Niger) Government forces hunting down the Boko Haram idiots who murdered 5 people the other day, got their chance when they caught up with them and killed 15 Boko Haram Islamic terrorists, captured 20 others and destroyed ammunition cars and motorcycles.

Ramadan death toll is now at 1,970.

US Department of Defence reveals today's air strike targets in the Levant

(US) The US DoD revealed today the details behind their air strikes against ISIS for the past 24 hours. They are:


Airstrikes in Syria
Bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 airstrikes in Syria:
-- Near Raqqah, an airstrike struck an ISIL excavator.
-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, an airstrike destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Kobani, 10 airstrikes struck two large and six small ISIL tactical units, destroying six ISIL vehicles, three ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL mortar firing positions and two ISIL staging areas.
-- Near Tal Abyad, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying two ISIL fighting positions.
Airstrikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber and fighter aircraft conducted 14 airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Baghdadi, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and two ISIL vehicles, destroying an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Huwayjah, an airstrike struck an ISIL mortar firing position.
-- Near Qaim, an airstrike had inconclusive results.
-- Near Beiji, an airstrike struck land features, denying ISIL a tactical advantage.
-- Near Fallujah, an airstrike struck an ISIL large tactical unit, destroying two ISIL heavy machine guns, an ISIL structure, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Kirkuk, an airstrike destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Makhmur, an airstrike struck an ISIL mortar firing position.
-- Near Mosul, three airstrikes struck an ISIL checkpoint, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL mortar firing position.
-- Near Sinjar, an airstrike struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL mortar firing position.
-- Near Tal Afar, two airstrikes struck an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar firing position.