AFGHANISTAN - the blast in Kabul today was done by ISIS, they claim responsibility.
NYC - We had a scare Friday with rice cookers that looked like pressure cookers being left in the subways and one left in Chelsea above ground.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/rice-cooker-abandoned-nyc-subway-stop-led-bomb-scare-article-1.3838649
Essex and delancey streets Friday night
They want to tell people, oh don't worry, the guy who did it was just a homeless person who collects things and leaves them in places. Sure one at the bottom of the subway stairs, another in the mezzanine of the Fulton Street Station. Then Friday night another person leaving something at Exxex and Delancey Streets. Where are these stations, near City Hall and WTC.
NEW YORK -
With everything else going on, we still have people who want to do terror attacks for ISIS. One person was arrested recently, he planned to randomly stab people, and he also wanted to throw bucket bombs off pedestrian walkways over major highways, like the Grand Central Parkway near the World's Fair Marina and also at the time of the US Tennis Open. With construction ongoing on the GCP near LaGuardia Airport ongoing for TWO YEARS that wold really not only snarl traffic, but kill people.
Chudhary’s next hearing will be Sept. 13 at 11 a.m.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/08/30/queens-teen-arrested-in-alleged-isis-terror-plot/
AFGHANISTAN -
Yes the peace talks continue. Yes 6 journalists were "mistakenly kidnapped" while travelling from Paktika to Paktia to a attend a media workshop. They will be released when communication is established with the local Commander in the area.
In 2018, 13 journalists were killed per the Committee to protect Journalists. The International Federation of Journalists says is was 16 killed.
In 2016 a suicide bomber did ram his car into a bus of TOLO TV employees killing 7 journalists, TOLO supported the US being in Afghanistan and according to the Taliban they produced propaganda against them.
SEAL TEAM SEVEN members kicked out
https://www.businessinsider.sg/senior-leaders-sacked-after-seals-were-kicked-out-of-iraq-2019-9/
A deployed SEAL platoon, part of SEAL Team 7, was sent back to the States in July amid allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual assault.
https://www.businessinsider.com/seal-kicked-out-of-iraq-accused-rape-female-service-member-2019-7
https://news.yahoo.com/3-seal-team-7-leaders-fired-teams-alleged-011237651.html
In a rare move, the three senior leaders of the U.S. Navy's elite SEAL Team 7 have been removed from their positions due to a "loss of confidence" after allegations of misconduct among one of the platoons under their command that was sent home from Iraq.
The misconduct includes allegations that a member of the platoon committed a sexual assault and that platoon members drank alcohol during the deployment. "Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command Rear Adm. Collin Green relieved the three senior leaders of SEAL Team Seven from their positions Sept. 6," said a statement released by NSW Command.
Remarks: Does their training turn them into animals, or were they that way in the first place?
AFGHANISTAN - Trump says the Peace Treaty talks with the Afghan Taliban are dead. I think he is over reacting to recent events; and I don't think Americans want to stay over there fighting indefinitely. ISIS has a foothold, civil war can occur, and the elections there are always full of corruption. The common people want the war to stop.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-says-us-taliban-peace-talks-are-dead/ar-AAH2It0
There is a group called ArtLords, and while I think it is a bad title for what Omaid Shairifi is doing, the concept of what he is doing is peaceful.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/sidelined-young-afghans-pen-letters-of-pain-as-war-rages-2/
http://www.nationalpedia.com/tulips-national-flower-of-afghanistan/
https://twitter.com/ArtLordsWorld
For each person who dies they paint a red tulip.
They write notes about how much they want peace to share with the government and possibly even with the Taliban too. The solutions to the problems over there are not simple, but for Trump to just say, the deal is dead so close to the anniversary of 9-11-01 is just not the best thing to do.
Since this blog is about Domestic and foreign policies as well as terrorism (which is global), this is something relevant to domestic policy.
"Trump to open 16.7 million acres of Alaska rainforest for drilling"
I will say that the Quran states that God put stabilizers in the earth, and oil, gas which are being sucked out of the earth are endangering the stabilization of the earth. Then you also have nations who want to manipulate the weather for their own reasons.
Cloud Seeding is being done by 35 countries (that we know of). Each for their own purposes.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/meteorologists/cloud-seeding1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding
Why is your weather effed up? Many countries are altering what nature took care of.
Yes there can be side effects.
Some might say deliberately, others think they are still in a learning process. But we do know there are desires to weaponize the weather. We did it in Viet Nam so they oppositional forces could not run in the rain and fog, we did it in Iraq and other places.
One of the prophecies of the End Times is that at some point the world will not have rain for 3 years. The anti-Christ will tell you he can make it rain, restore your crops, end the worldwide famines. People will fall for it because he will be able to make it rain, not by supernatural methods, but by cloud seeding. Just give your allegiance to him and you will have food, water etc.
Man was never supposed to be up in the heavens doing anything, launching weapons, trying to gain superiority and conquer other nations. If the grid goes down it may very well be God saying he has had enough of man's interference in his realm. He left everything here on earth man could need, and what does man do? Rape, rob, kill, quarrel, covet, imprison, institute injustice upon other peoples. God utterly destroyed various civilizations and he can do that anything anywhere. He uses, wind, water and fire. If we keep fracking the land in the US, there will be fires. The climatologists already know the scientific changes that have occurred with the jet stream, the trade winds, all the layers of the atmosphere, and once again man is there manipulating the troposphere. If you have not seen the fake snow, you are not in an area where they are seeding the clouds, I have seen it, it doesn't look like it, feel like it, or melt like it.
If mankind thinks he can do all the things that God can do, mankind will learn a painful lesson. From IVF to weather modification there are things that should not be happening.
[Edited on 9/9/2019 by gina]
P.S. In case you did not know, the Nephilim are mentioned in the Bible and it is for this reason the flood was cast upon the earth during the days of Noah. The Nephilim were hybrids - offspring when the fallen angels mated with humans. God could not allow that evil to remain on the earth. They were giants.
There is also mention of the giants during times in Islam, the peoples of Ad and Thamud
http://beautifulislam.net/history/aad_thamud.htm
It is not just those civilizations that were destroyed. The Atlanteans, the Mayans etc. There were extinction level events to those tho gained knowledge and used it inappropriately - basically misused their power. The world needs to really look at the things it is doing - all God has to do is take the grid down of any country, then they are at the beck and call of any other country who still has one that is functioning. He can send any nation back to the stone age. These terrible storms causing people to lose their modern day electronics etc. It really should be something to reflect upon.
[Edited on 9/9/2019 by gina]
First something you did not know.
Wall Street's financial district was bombed before 9-11-01. No I am not referring to the 1993 garage bombing, we all know about that. It was bombed 9-16-1920 shortly before noon. A man in a horse drawn cart loaded with 100 pounds of explosives and 500 pounds of metal weights parked his cart across from J. P. Morgan Bank and walked away. As brokers, secretaries, messenger boys were heading to lunch the bomb detonated. Glass from upper stories of the building 12 floors up rained down upon the people.
The FBI and NYC Police had many suspects because after 1919 there was a czarist takeover of Communist Russia, and economic conditions after WWI fostered resentment in America towards wealthy people. 42,000 new millionaires were created, but that wealth did not trickle down to the laborers. People worked long hours for low pay. They joined radical groups, socialist groups, anarchists. The year before that blast in 1920, more than two dozen mail bombs were addressed to congressmen, cabinet members, business tycoons to arrive on May Day showing solidarity with leftist groups. They either did not reach their targets or did not detonate. There were picket lines in 1919, Seattle Washington had a strike that shut the city down for five days. People feared an American Bolshevik uprising.
President Woodrow Wilson's Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer conducted raids and did mass deportations from 1919 to 1920. Beverly Gage wrote a book called The Day Wall Street Exploded [2009]. The resolution to it led by the NYPD, and the Justice Department General Intelligence Division, led by J. Edgar Hoover did not come up with the prime suspect in the J. P. Morgan bank bombing. In 1944 the FBI revived it's investigation came up with Mario Buda, an anarchist. He had returned to Italy and did not speak of the blast till 1955 when interviewed in Italy by another Galleanist, and according to his nephew he admitted he built and detonated the blast. Buda died in 1963.
[this is from the Farmer's Almanac 2020 edition].
Remarks: Terrorism, political discontent, economic blight is really nothing new. 1920 and 2001 - both attacks done for politics, perceived injustices on certain groups of people, a desire to do change the way things are done. The response to the 2001 attack does not address the core problems of domestic and foreign policies. Simply put bombs beget bombs.
Is this going to stop the war on terror?
I don't think so. I have said it over and over. We need to make our country safe, shore up our borders, create and keep our own sovereignty and respect the sovereignty of other countries. Other countries do not have double digit thousands breaching their borders because they know they will be sent back if they do. We have to go through a court system? Why? They are NOT citizens, they do not have RIGHTS here. Just send them back. Those who want asylum can ask the correct way and have their cases considered.
We cannot be the world's policemen. Afghanistan has to solve it's own problems, probably with a two state solution. Pakistan already has this, the tribal areas are where the tribes and fundamentalists like to live. They stay there basically and the cities and the rest of the country lives in a modern way. That solution is what is needed for Afghanistan. The peace talks, ceasefires need to happen for that to eventually take place.
The fact that we used carpet bombing in Iraq after we declared victory there shows these lands will not be stable for quite some time. If we just left Saddam in charge, Isis would NOT have gotten a foothold there. There really was no reason to go to Iraq other than to appease W and make his Daddy proud of him for getting rid of big bad Saddam who was bothering nobody.
I hope this day begins a new chapter in domestic and foreign policy revisions that bring peace not only here but in the other lands as well. I read a report today the Russians think oil may go down to $25 a barrell by next year, the oil producing countries will suffer from inflation etc. We need to have responsible, good trade deals, create jobs here, secure our borders. I also read Trump wants to meet with the Iranian President for talks. I hope that happens. People should not make disparaging remarks about Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David for talks. They were not flying any planes, had no afghans on any planes, and they did not give Tora Bora to Osama, an Arab owned it and gave it to him, so they were not hosting him. They asked for evidence/proof of his involvement with 9-11-01 and NONE was ever provided to them. The narrative for this war on terror was skewed from the beginning. No I don't think we should forget. There were many lies and deceptions on that day. Bush gave himself and his staff immunity from prosecution for war crimes back dated to 9-11-01, we did not even start bombing Afghanistan till 9-29-01. No I will not rehash all the rest of it. It has been documented, by news media organizations, and here volumes and volumes of questions, the architechts, engineers, military people, pilots who KNOW scientifically the original narrative cannot be true as it was stated.
Those who did it and were complicit in it will not be called to account for it. We can however, ask our officials to make sure it does not happen again; the deceptions do not justify reviving the NSA spy on all Americans policy as recently desired by President Trump. Those involved were at the highest levels of multi-governmental states here and outside this country.
Our domestic and foreign policies must address the world we live in NOW so that people have a future. If they do not, then Ms. Ocasio Cortez's idea for a New Congress may be something that needs to be looked at.
Coverage on the Iranian situation later including news this week Hezbollah had at least one operative gathering Intel on places to attack in NYC as far back as 2003. If we attack Iran Hezbollah will not only attack Israel but possibly NYC as well. Also the Afghan Peace Process needs to be reconvened. They are very upset at the cessation evidenced by the increased suicide bombings over there. Get back to the table and negotiate.
9-19-19
Hezbollah Terrorist Scouted New York City Area Locations -By Ben Cohn, Emily Saul, Larry Celona and Laura Italiano
https://nypost.com/2019/09/19/hezbollah-terrorist-scouted-nyc-area-locations-feds
A New Jersey man has spent the past 22 years training with and scouting terror-attack locations for Hezbollah — and provided the group with intelligence on the Port Authority, Grand Central Terminal, the New York Stock Exchange and the city’s two airports, according to a new federal indictment against him.
Alexei Saab, 42, of Morristown — also known as Ali Hassan Saab, Alex Saab, or “Rachid” — was charged Thursday in a nine-count indictment for allegedly providing material support to the deadly organization.
As far back as in 2003, he gave Hezbollah photos and other detailed intel on New York City landmarks and transportation hubs.
Saab surveilled dozens of locations in New York City—including the United Nations headquarters, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the federal offices at 26 Federal Plaza, and local airports, tunnels, and bridges, including the George Washington Bridge.
The detailed information recovered from his computers included photographs and details on the structural weaknesses — or “soft spots” — of these locations, officials alleged. He has also surveilled sites in cities around the US — including the Washington Monument and Boston’s Fenway Park, The Post has learned.
The charges do not allege that Saab conducted any recent surveillance. He trained in the use of firearms, including AK-47s, and in 2000 he received extensive training in military tactics, including how to construct bombs and other explosive devices, the indictment alleges.
In 2000, Saab lawfully entered the United States using a Lebanese passport, and he became a naturalized US citizen in 2008, the indictment alleges.
REMARKS: What is disconcerting is that Hezbollah, not Al Qaida, Hezbollah are Shiites from Lebanon has been sending agents here since 2003 to scout out locations for attacks. Do they have reasons? Well they hate Israel for one, and now we learn that our sanctions are even closing at least one bank in Lebanon. This brings up something else for consideration, we know that if we attack Iran, Hezbollah will respond by sending missiles and rockets into Israel, but now we must also realize they may send or have people in the US to attack us here as well. This war may no longer be something that you just watch on tv and turn it off. When it comes to the streets in America it becomes REAL to America. Do we need that? Do we want that? Then we need to carefully look at our foreign policies and HOW they effect other nations and their people.
https://www.kataeb.org/economics/2019/09/20/lebanon-s-jammal-trust-bank-forced-to-close-by-us
Lebanon's Jammal Trust Bank has been forced to wind itself down after being hit last month by U.S. sanctions for allegedly helping to fund the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, the bank said on Thursday.
IRAN - Many nations are involved in the Saudi-Iranian conflict, including Lebanon, Russia and China, Turkey etc.
Sheikh Nasrullah of Hezbollah, Lebanon had this to say.
"The Hezbollah leader emphasized that if Saudi and UAE stop their war on Yemen, they will not be in need of squandering more money to fund it and buying the costly defense systems against the drone attacks which, in turn, will inflict heavy losses upon both of them.
Those who live in glass house must calm down and review their stance, Sayyed Nasrallah said in reference to the glass towers in several Gulf cities.
Sayyed Nasrallah also called on KSA and the United Arab Emirates to avoid betting on any US war on Yemen, stressing that President Donald Trump is blackmailing both of them to seize more of their financial fortune."
http://english.almanar.com.lb/832581
COMMENT: One of the things people may not know is that Netanyahu did NOT win in the Israeli election, yet he had not abdicated his office. Starting a war with a country that does not even have a verified leader right after an election is never a good strategy. In addition Iran is not sitting by, white knuckled worrying about what the US will do to them. They have been quietly been taking care of the business of securing their country. Russia and China are helping them in this regard. They will be holding joint military drills in the North Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman. They are playing nice and not doing it in the Persian Gulf.
http://english.almanar.com.lb/833087
This has been confirmed.
"Brigadier General Ghadir Nezami, head of the international and diplomatic affairs of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, made the announcement on Saturday, saying that the maritime exercises will be held trilaterally with navy forces of Russia and China in the north of the Indian Ocean and across the Sea of Oman.
“The drills pursue various objectives, namely sharing tactical and military experiences, but they can be political as well and are indicative of some kind of convergence among the participants,” Nezami added.
http://yalibnan.com/2019/09/20/lebanon-concerned-over-possible-hezbollah-engagement-in-regional-war/
[Edited on 9/21/2019 by gina]
CHINA and the TRADE WAR
http://yalibnan.com/2019/08/08/china-has-a-1-trillion-trade-war-weapon-will-it-ever-use-it/
China has said it is prepared to fight, if necessary. And it has one hugely powerful weapon up its sleeve: it’s the American government’s biggest creditor. In theory, Beijing could trigger a panic in bond markets by dumping some of the $1.1 trillion in US Treasuries that it owns. By releasing a flood of US Treasuries, the price would collapse, sending yields (or interest rates) soaring and causing American borrowing costs to rocket.
REMARKS: China funds our economy, sanctions hurt us more than them. There is no reason to be doing this to China.
Per Fars news in Iran
https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=1390628000806
The Government of the Central Bank of Iran, Abdel Nasser Hemmati and Russian Presidential Aide, Yury Ushakov confirm banks in both countries are now connected through the Russian SPFS - System for Transfer of Financial Messages via the SEPAN platform in Iran. The banking system is an alternative to the worldwide system of SWIFT - the Society Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications network, whereby countries transfer funds between each other. The SPFS was introducted by the Central Bank of Russia to ensure intermittent financial services among not just Iran but also other countries such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgzstan.
[So the sanctions we placed on the Central Bank of Iran mean little if anything. They are not playing tennis and volllying on our court].
Tehran has joined the Russian led FREE TRADE ZONE the Eurasian Economic Forum and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
China, Turkey, Moscow, Beijing are using the yuan and ruble for currency swaps. Delegates from Iran, China, Russia and the European Union publicly propose a banking mechanism for allowing exchanges of European goods for Iranian crude oil thru Russia. Turkey is also discussing with Iran ways to maintain trade thru similar banking mechanisms of
-Trading in local currencies.
-Ditching the dollar.
-Protecting banks from secondary sanctions.
Europe trades through Iran through the Special Purpose Vehicle [INSTEX}.
REMARKS:
Many nations are sick of our sanctioning them and hurting their peoples, and economies, so they find a way around this posturing. France has considerable trade deals with Iran. So does Germany. Our allies are allies IF it does not hurt their countries.
Simply put we do not run the world. Remember when OPEC was a big problem holding us hostage and we had those gas lines etc., then they developed the Gulf Cooperation Council of countries. Britain is exiting the European Union and cutting their losses. We are still playing the same old game, but the rest of the world is not. The stakes are they will stop trading in petro dollars, our financial system will suffer and we may be back to 2008 with a financial crash looming. Some know, some don't, some of the Saudis prop up our banking system; this idea crudely put that they should PAY US for protection of their lands is insulting to them. They went to South Korea and other countries to ask for help defending their lands against the Yemenis and others who may be wanting to take their regime down. We are not the only player in this game and we cannot run the world.
[Edited on 9/21/2019 by gina]
IRAN
Furthermore, Iran has displayed American and British drones seized over their territory.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/09/21/606754/IRGC-Iran-drone-US-UK
In an exhibition in Tehran on Saturday, the IRGC showcased a British unmanned aerial vehicle, named Phoenix, seized by its Aerospace Division.
Phoenix is an all-weather, day or night, real-time combat surveillance drone. The twin-boom UAV provides surveillance through its surveillance pod, from which the imagery is data linked to a ground control station (GCS) that also controls the aircraft in flight. It has also a maximum flight time of around five hours.
The drone, powered by a 20 kW (26 hp) piston engine, had a maximum speed of 166 km/h and a wingspan of 5.6 meters.
The IRGC also displayed the Aerosonde HQ vertical take-off and landing drone belonging to the US Army used for multi-intelligence payloads such as electronic warfare and communications relay in a single flight.
Aerosonde has been designed for expeditionary land- and sea-based operations and equipped for simultaneous day/night full-motion video. It is field-proven with more than 300,000 flight hours, including desert heat and Arctic cold.
It is equipped with an easy-to-use launch and recovery trailer for constrained land and shipboard operations.
Desert Hawk was another American drone showcased in the exhibition. It has a length of 0.86 meters with a weight of 3.2 kg. It has an endurance of about an hour with an electric motor driving a quiet pusher propeller.
In June, Iran shot down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.
he IRGC said in a statement that the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.
Back in 2015, Iran also downed a US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft with minimal damage. The drone was flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar, near the Afghan border, when it was brought down.
Known to be able to hack into enemy drones, Iran currently possesses the biggest collection of captured or downed American and Israeli drones, including the US' MQ1, MQ9, Shadow, ScanEagle, and RQ-170 as well as the Israeli regime's Hermes.
COMMENTS: Who sent the drones to Saudi? Blackwater running subterfuge for those who want to drag Iran into war?
TURKEY AND SYRIA
Turkey is prepared to pushback the Kurds in Syria.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is fully prepared for a possible operation on the border with Syria to push back militants from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in case the United States fails to create a so-called safe zone in the northeastern part of the Arab country this month.
“Our preparations along the border have been completed,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Saturday ahead of his flight to New York to attend a UN General Assembly meeting.
He roundly criticized the continued support of the US for the YPG, saying Washington was providing the Kurdish militants with arms.
“We have no desire to get into a confrontation with the US. But in a place where the United States is not invited, we cannot afford to ignore the support it has given to terrorist organizations. In other words, their support for terrorist organizations such as the YPG is obvious,” Erdogan noted.
The Turkish president then pointed to the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – to which the YPG plays as the backbone, saying he would discuss their presence in northern Syria as well as the withdrawal of US troops from the conflict-plagued Arab country with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.
Erdogan has given the US until the end of the current month for concrete results on the development of a purported safe zone on Turkey's border with Syria.
“The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the US administration and the Turkish regime for conducting joint patrols in the Syrian al-Jazirah region, which is in flagrant violation of the international law as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria,” an unnamed official source at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates told Syria’s official news agency SANA at the time.
“Syria stresses that this step represents (an act of) aggression in every sense of the word, and is meant to complicate and prolong the Syrian crisis in the wake of the Syrian Arab Army’s achievements in pursuit of remnants of terrorist groups.”
The source said the Syrian Arab Republic, while reiterating its rejection of the so-called safe area, dismisses all projects aimed at undermining the unity and territorial integrity of the country.
Turkey views the YPG as the Syria branch of the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Turkey expects the creation of a 32-kilometer (20-mile) safe zone in northern Syria, and has stressed that it wants the YPG cleared from the region.
REMARKS: But wasn't it those wonderful Kurds that really found Saddam when he was hiding in Iraq? That was the first reports coming out of Iraq.
[Edited on 9/21/2019 by gina]
SYRIA BLAMES IRAN FOR A DRONE CAPTURED rigged with cluster bombs near the Syrian Border and the Golan Heights. PHOTOS OF DRONE.
According to the report, the drone was downed after entering Syrian airspace from the west and passing over the village of Erneh, southwest of Damascus.
The report quoted a Syrian military source, who said that an investigation of the drone uncovered cluster bombs in addition explosive materials, to be used to detonate and destroy the drone in the event of capture.
No one claimed responsibility for the drones.
Israel frequently conducts airstrikes and missile attacks inside war-torn Syria but rarely confirms them. Israel says it targets mostly bases of Iranian forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Syria.
In neighboring Lebanon, a government investigation concluded Thursday that two Israeli drones were on an attack mission when they crashed in the capital last month, one of them armed with 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) of explosives.
In a separate report Saturday, SANA said Syrian authorities found weapons, ammunition, food and vehicles made in Israel in the village of Briqah, in southern Quneitra.
In addition to bullets and magazines, photos released by the state-run news agency show Hebrew-labeled packages of food.
ISRAEL and NETANYAHU
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Gantz-on-verge-of-getting-more-recommendations-602441
The Joint List will make a historic decision as to whether it will recommend Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for prime minister in its meeting with President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday. Rivlin is scheduled to meet with Blue and White, Likud, the Joint List, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu on Sunday, beginning at 5 p.m., to hear their recommendations for who should be the next prime minister. On Monday, Rivlin plans to meet with UTJ, Yamina, Labor-Gesher and the Democratic Union. The consultations will be broadcast live online.
In light of the stalemate in election results, by which neither the Right nor the Center-Left has a majority, making a national-unity government appear necessary to avoid a third election, Rivlin’s office said he may invite Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a meeting.
Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh shared his list’s considerations in a video in Arabic on Facebook: “Without the weight of the Arab citizens, Netanyahu cannot be defeated... but can we support Gantz without anything in return?”
Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi described a Saturday meeting of the Joint List’s 13 MKs as “in-depth and serious,” but said no decision was made. The leaders of the four parties making up the list plan to meet on Sunday and choose whether to recommend Gantz or no one at all.
Tibi said the decision will be for the entire faction, and not divided up by parties.
Arab parties have not recommended a candidate for prime minister since Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, but the Joint List is strongly considering backing Gantz because their votes would likely make the difference for him to receive the first chance to form a government, as opposed to Netanyahu.
Yisrael Beytenu, however, will likely play a far less decisive role in the process. The party called a press conference for 5 p.m. Sunday, three hours before its scheduled meeting with Rivlin. Party leader Avigdor Liberman is expected to announce that he will recommend no one to the president, as neither candidate has acceded to his demands and promised a coalition that would consist only of Blue and White, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu.
Blue and White, plus left-wing parties Labor-Gesher and Democratic Union, make up only 44 seats, whereas the Netanyahu-led right-wing bloc consists of 55 seats. Should Yisrael Beytenu recommend Gantz, Netanyahu would still have more endorsements, but the Joint List’s 13 seats would give Gantz more recommendations than Netanyahu even if Yisrael Beytenu chooses to abstain.
If Yisrael Beytenu were to recommend Netanyahu, then he would have a clear majority, but that scenario seems less likely after the party’s refusal to join a coalition with his haredi partners sparked the second election this year.
By law, Rivlin must consult with all the parties in the Knesset, but can choose any member of Knesset to try to form a government. He must wait until he receives official election results from Central Elections Committee chairman Judge Hanan Melcer on Wednesday before announcing his decision, but the President’s Residence said may consider a further round of consultations.
After Rivlin entrusts an MK with forming the next government, that person will have 28 days to do so, and the president may give the lawmaker an extension of up to 14 days. Should the first candidate fail, a second candidate would have 28 days to build a coalition.
REMARKS: Elections over there do not work the way they do here.
UN General Assembly meetings next week
US President Donald Trump will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday (September 23) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (September 24) in New York.
According to reports in the Indian media, the meetings with the Pakistani and Indian premiers would be held in New York on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, a senior US administration official said.
“The president is scheduled to meet with the following leaders. Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan, President (Andrzej Sebastian) Duda of Poland, Prime Minister (Jacinda) Arden of New Zealand, Prime Minister Lee (Hsien Loong) from Singapore, President al Sisi of Egypt and President Moon of S Korea," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On September 24, Trump will deliver his address to the UN General Assembly. After that, he will hold a number of bilateral meetings.
https://www.geo.tv/latest/248279-trump-to-meet-pm-imran-on-monday-modi-on-tuesday
https://www.samaa.tv/news/2019/09/cant-promise-there-wont-be-a-pak-india-war-foreign-minister/
[Edited on 9/21/2019 by gina]
THE DRONE ATTACKS INTO SAUDI OIL FIELDS - new
https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer-was-iran-behind-attacks-on-saudi-oil-installations-/30169724.html
Saudi Arabia said the weapons used for the attacks on the Abqaiq oil-processing facility and the expansive Khurais oil field "came from Iran," although it said it was probing "from where they were fired."
Unnamed U.S. officials said satellite photos showed 19 points of impact at several facilities that they said came from the north and northwest -- from the direction of Iran or Iraq -- not from Huthi-held territory in Yemen. But the satellite images did not appear clear cut. Some appeared to show damage on the western side of the facilities, not from the direction of Iran or Iraq, where pro-Iranian militias are present.
REMARKS: "19 points of impact from the north and northwest, from the direction of Iran or IRAQ. Iran would not have been sending anything from Iraq, who else could have?
AFGHANISTAN - elections will be coming soon, and while he is not running for office, Ahmad Shah Masood's son is starting his own political movement.
"Ahmad Massud, the son of slain Ahmad Shah Massud, starts a political movement, still with no name, in the Panjshir, aiming at setting up a new, anti-Taleban and pro-decentralisation “United” or “National Front” based on the old “Northern Alliance” – but it is unclear who is really supporting him so far". - combined news sources. More later on the candidates.
9-21-19 Saturday
Kabul [Afghanistan], Sept 21 (ANI): As many as 23 Taliban were killed in airstrikes carried out by Afghan security forces in the provinces of Kandahar, Ghazni, and Badghis, state media reported on Saturday.
Sputnik cited a report by Khaama Press news agency as saying that 10 were killed and 2 others injured in the airstrikes in the Arghistan District of Kandahar.
Three terrorists were killed in the Andar District of Ghazni Province, the strike in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis left 10 Taliban members dead. Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable political, social, and security situation due to the activity of various terrorist and radical groups, including the Taliban. (ANI)
COMMENT: Hellfire missiles are not really part of a peace process.
[Edited on 9/21/2019 by gina]
EGYPT - Again!
Hard to believe they want to hold protests in Tahrir Square once again.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1560566/middle-east
"CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Friday there was no cause for concern over protests against his rule that are planned for later in the day. “There are no reasons for concern. Egypt is a strong country thanks to Egyptians,” he told reporters with a smile, shortly after his return from the UN General Assembly in New York."
https://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2019/09/28/egyptian-army-officers-in-touch-with-dissident-ali
REMARKS: President Sisi should have some concern, since the ousting of his predecessor was due to a clandestine foreign interventionalist coup. How can anyone plausibly believe that 2 million people just went on Facebook and then showed up to to oust Hosni Mubarak? I think there is cause for concern.
[Edited on 9/27/2019 by gina]
SAUDI ARABIA - Wants to open itself up to tourism.
I think this could be quite interesting for foreign and domestic policy changes down the road for the US and other countries. Saudi does not want to be as isolated as it has been. They want their image to be better than it has been since 911 and the Kashoggi killing. Prince Salman is doing a special interview on October 1st on PBS where he will announce this new change in Saudi policy. Previously non-Saudis were not given Visas to come to Arabia, you could go to Dubai but not Saudi. The only people who could come to Saudi were those making their religious pilgrimage to Makkah. Even now, non-Muslims are not allowed in Makkah or Madinah.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/27/saudi-arabia-offer-tourist-visas-for-first-time
https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1560491/saudi-arabia
One of the problems Saudi has is it's own internal policy of executing dissidents. The world does not accept this. if they just exiled them or let them repatriate elsewhere, that would go a long way to improving the opinion of people of the world.
Additionally now there are new policies restricting travel abroad for princes "with questionable loyalties".
AND we are still helping with defense issues in Saudi Arabia.
The United States announced Thursday that it will send two missile defense devices and 200 troops to Saudi Arabia to aid its defense after airstrikes on Saudi oil fields earlier this month. Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Huffman said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced the United States will deploy one Army Patriot missile defense battery, four Sentinel RADAR units and 200 support personnel.
REMARKS: Reforms for any country do not come easily. I am not a fan of revolutions in any country. I think the laws should be laid out plainly for every citizen to understand. People anywhere should be able to migrate to another land that is more to their liking. Even in America, the recent Climate Strike protests were organized by groups such as a Democratic Fascist party, and the Black Lives Matter movement. These groups own agendas have nothing to do with climate change, but they are trying to hijack that movement and merge it with theirs.
[Edited on 9/27/2019 by gina]
[Edited on 9/27/2019 by gina]
AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN - Saturday is election day. The two major candidates are current President, Ashraf Ghani and competitor, Abdullah, Abdullah. What is new this time is they will be using "biometrics" during the voting process. They need official photo id and they will be fingerprinted to verify their identity.
The Taliban have vowed to disrupt and prevent people from voting because there are no Islamic candidates running. There will be attacks, roads closed etc.
“We intend to disrupt this fake process of the American invaders and their few servile slaves by attacking all security personnel that guard this process and by targeting offices and centers that operate for this staged show,” a spokesman said.
“All major and minor roads of the country will be closed by mujahideen on election day. We ask our fellow countrymen to refrain from venturing out of their homes on this day so that no one is harmed.”
https://www.tolonews.com/elections-2019/only-biometric-confirmed-votes-will-be-counted-iec
2,000 polling centers will remain closed due to security concerns -
Figures by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) indicate that almost 2,000 polling centers will remain closed on the election day due to security threats but more than 5,000 polling centers will be remain opened countrywide.
https://www.tolonews.com/elections-2019/over-2000-polling-centers-remain-closed-election-day-iec
Kabul’s police chief, Sayed Roshandil, said that 30,000 troops were providing security at polling centers in the capital. More than 40,000 additional security forces have been assigned to security in other parts of the country, officials said.
"Former President Hamid Karzai and a number of former government leaders this week called for the polls to be delayed again, saying the election lacks legitimacy and will deepen divisions in Afghanistan.
“We cannot conduct elections in a country that is going through a foreign-imposed conflict. We are in a war of foreign objectives and interests,” Karzai said.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1560386/world
9.6 million voters, there are 35 million people in the country of Afghanistan.
REMARKS: I remember during Hamid Karzai's tenure, one journalist asked Karzai if the Talliban could put a candidate on the ballot so that their supporters would have an Islamic candidate to vote for and he said YES, everyone, even Mullah Omar was entitled to run and be on the ballot and he meant it. Considering how Hamas and Hezbollah have political bases and candidates in government, the Taliban should re-consider doing that. Changes in Parliament can only happen from within. They must run some candidates, but that also raises some cultural concerns, most their women are not familiar with a woman voting or voicing her opinions on public issues. To change that dynamic could be unsettling to the village values norm that exists in their tribal areas.
Change can happen, but it must be with their support, input. They do not want a democratic system of governance or laws. The best thing for now would be a two state solution, much like Pakistan has, Taliban tribal areas where they can live in peace. Ceasefire in those areas. Other things can come later.
[Edited on 9/27/2019 by gina]
[Edited on 9/27/2019 by gina]
INDIA/ PAKISTAN
There is a situation brewing between Pakistan and India, over Kashmir, but there is a larger issue I have previously mentioned with the the water of the Indus River, and that water which India does not want to provide to Pakistan if a war breaks out will lead to a war between the countries. There is prophecy from 1,500 years ago that "jihad will be waged on India and will be successful". Kashmir has been a flashpoint for a long time. The Afghan Taliban trace their religious ideological roots back to the Deobondi's from Kashmir. I doubt Imran Khan can solve this problem.
The Indian government revoked the special status accorded to Indian-administered Kashmir in its constitution, the most far-reaching political move on the disputed region in nearly 70 years.
A presidential decree issued on August 5 revoked Article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including the right to its own constitution and autonomy to make laws on all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.
India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory. A rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir has been ongoing for 30 years.
YEMEN/ SAUDI ARABIA
There were reports that Yemen took down 3 brigades of Saudis at the port city of Najran. But many questioned that. Now they release evidence of their claim.
ALSO a US made bomb was found in Saudi led aiirstrike June 28th.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/bomb-deadly-saudi-led-air-strike-yemen-190925160601125.html
[Edited on 9/29/2019 by gina]
SAUDI ARABIA
The bodyguard of the Saudi King was killed. Major General Abdul Aziz al-Fagham. He was recently released from his job. He had been the bodyguard to the King since 2002.
"Saudi police said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday that Major General Abdul Aziz al-Fagham, who was frequently seen by the king’s side, died Saturday night in the western city of Jeddah. According to the statement, trouble broke out when Fagham was visiting a friend who was receiving guests at his home in Jeddah’s al-Shatee district, several kilometers north of the palace where the king usually spends much of the summer. The gunman was himself shot dead by security forces, but five officers were wounded in the melee, it said."
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/09/29/607444/Saudi-Arabia-king-bodyguard-Mohammed-crown-prince
Citing a police statement, SPA said a conversation between al-Fagham and Mamdouh bin Meshaal Al Ali - a third man present, described as a friend - grew heated and Al Ali retrieved a firearm from outside and opened fire.
[Edited on 9/29/2019 by gina]
SAUDI ARABIA
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did an interview with 60 minutes. It airs tonight.
The PBS Special on the Prince airs October 1st.
NORTH KOREA
I saw a video of this earlier in the week. Scary stuff. Another reason that we should NOT impeach our President. At least he has established dialogue with kim Jung Un.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-koreas-submarine-launched-missile-053000515.html
[Edited on 10/5/2019 by gina]
[Edited on 10/19/2019 by gina]
