Stop the Idiocracy: ISIS

Showing posts with label ISIS. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The most common variety of Russian war crimes, North Korea takes being a hermit kingdom to another level, and Elon Musk buys Twitter

Omar Marques/Getty Images

Rape: The war crime that goes mostly unpunished - Russian men are nearly all brutes, rarely to be trusted. Make no mistake, rape is a deliberate tactic and is sanctioned by the Kremlin itself. It is hardly the first time in history Russians have used rape as a weapon, nor are they the only nation that has done so to its enemies. Obviously, for the women of Ukraine. Quote: ‘What’s happening in Ukraine is one of the worst large-scale campaigns of sexual violence in war since Islamic State’s attacks on the Yezidi minority in Iraq in 2014.’ (Ruth Pollard, Bloomberg 4/19)

North Korea remains one of only two countries on earth not to have administered COVID-19 vaccines - The hermit kingdom was offered millions of doses by the UN and China, and turned them down. Information concerning current conditions there is spotty, but none of what is known or highly suspected is good. The small African nation of Eritrea is the only other country not to have administered vaccines to citizens. (Washington Post 4/24)

Getty Images/BBC

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion - As of right now, I’m not terribly concerned about this and am not leaving Twitter, but I’ll be among the many watching this guy like a hawk. ‘Free speech’ is fine, but he’d be well-advised not to give any more openings to liars, disinfo agents, and those engaging in hate speech. Yes, ‘hate speech,’ just as with ‘free speech,’ can be wrongly defined in a lot of ways; but blatant and open racism is really not at all hard to detect. Same goes for sedition. (BBC 4/26)

Andriy Khlyvnyuk/Pink Floyd

Hey Hey Rise Up - Dozed off sometime around 9 p.m. on Monday night, and woke up just before 11 p.m. out of a nightmare - that my neighborhood just outside of Boston was bombed. I do not have vivid, lifelike dreams too often, but they do happen and this one was a bit too much. I woke up sweating, and my head is still pounding as I write this (just after Midnight on Tuesday morning.) I have had visions of calamity come upon me in the past, and they are always physically and mentally exhausting. And, at those moments, I have to remind myself that it’s nothing next to the destruction we are seeing overseas. For the people of Ukraine, the nightmare is their daily reality. Please pray for the Ukrainian people. And continue to stream and download ‘Hey Hey Rise Up,’ as all proceeds go to relief efforts. Every click is meaningful, and may even save a life or two. Слава Україні

Thursday, February 3, 2022

The only good Islamist is a dead Islamist: ISIS leader killed by U.S. special operations forces in Syria

AP/Ghaith Alsayed

A hearty congratulations to the U.S. special operations forces involved, and to President Biden for authorizing the attack. America needed ‘a win’ of some sorts at this moment, not that I expect the ingrates that populate this country are going to give any credit where due. Nor is it likely that the vicious MSM – who twisted reality and turned the public against the president following the (successful, and necessary) withdrawal from Afghanistan – are going to give the president and the military any credit for anything. No matter, good prevailed for once in Syria. Via AP -

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — The leader of the violent Islamic State group was killed Thursday, blowing himself up along with members of his family during an overnight raid carried out by U.S. special operations forces in northwestern Syria, President Joe Biden said.
The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the militant group on Oct. 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid in the same area. Biden said al-Qurayshi died as al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached.
The operation came as IS has been trying for a resurgence, with a series of attacks in the region, including an assault late last month to seize a prison in northeast Syria holding at least 3,000 IS detainees, its boldest operation in years.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said. He said al-Qurayshi had been responsible for the prison strike, as well as genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.
About 50 U.S. special operations forces landed in helicopters and attacked a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war.
Biden said he ordered U.S. forces to “take every precaution available to minimize civilian casualties,” the reason they did not conduct an airstrike on the home.
First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said U.S. forces were able to evacuate 10 people from the building: a man, a woman and four children from the first floor and four children from the second floor. He said when al-Qurayshi detonated the bomb, he also killed his wife and two children. Kirby said that U.S. officials were conducting an assessment to determine whether American action resulted in any civilian deaths.
U.S. forces took fingerprints and DNA, which confirmed al-Qurayshi’s death, officials said.
Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and senior national security aides monitored a live-feed of the operation from the White House Situation Room according to an official. The president was kept abreast of the commandos’ long flight out of Syria by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan overnight.
The operation marked a military success for the United States at an important time after setbacks elsewhere — including the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal — had led allies and opponents to conclude U.S. power globally was weakening. (Read more)

Friday, September 3, 2021

U.S. Navy aircraft carriers likely to remain in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to patrol Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern hotspots

Politico -

The American military’s involvement in Afghanistan could soon become largely the Navy’s responsibility, an ironic twist for a counterterrorism mission in a landlocked country.
Although the Navy has long privately bristled at the requirement to deploy one or even two aircraft carriers at a time to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf to support the ground fights in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the lack of U.S.-controlled airfields near Afghanistan could mean more planes taking off from decks at sea.
And that could set off a fresh round of requests for more funding — and more hand-wringing among those who want the U.S. military to focus more on China.
“I think a lot of that mission is going to fall on the Navy,” said a Navy official who requested to speak on the condition of anonymity because the Pentagon’s plans have yet to be finalized. “This is a great example of why we need more money to operate forward — things like this are what we’re built to do, but we need the funding and support to keep doing it, and that hasn’t always been there.” (Read more)

Monday, August 30, 2021

American withdrawal from Afghanistan is complete. They're on their own, and they can rot

Reuters

Not our problem anymore. All of you who haven’t paid attention to Afghanistan for years but are now suddenly so concerned about the humanitarian situation there, and are so angry at President Biden for doing what everybody wanted him to do, go f**k yourselves! For real. That very much goes for the corporate, pro-war mainstream media, who continue to inundate us with one sob story after another and simply will not let it go. The nationalist populist right, merely seizing on an opportunity to denigrate President Biden, need to practice what they preach and really put ‘America first’ now. Terrible things are happening to people in terrible places all over the world, including in our own country. America is a dysfunctional basket case of a nation and we’re not even capable of taking care of ourselves, yet alone solving the world’s problems.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

President Biden warns more Afghanistan terror attacks ‘highly likely’ in next few days, vows more airstrikes against ISIS-K

AFP

There was never going to be a good or easy way out. -

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. Another terror attack, he said, is “highly likely” this weekend as the U.S. winds down its evacuation.
The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden’s deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.
After getting briefed on a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday, Biden said the extremists can expect more.
“This strike was not the last,” Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.” He paid tribute to the “bravery and selflessness” of the American troops executing the hurried airlift of tens of thousands from Kabul airport, including the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing at an airport gate.
The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another ISIS-K attack.
“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule. (Read more)

U.S. retaliates following Kabul airport attack, at least two ‘high-profile’ ISIS-K targets killed; names of dead American servicemen released

May our lost soldiers rest in peace. -

Two targets were killed and another person was injured in a drone strike against the Islamic State affiliate ISIS-K in retaliation for the Kabul airport attack, the Pentagon now says. And the Department of Defense has released the names of the U.S. troops killed in Thursday's attack.
Department officials announced Friday evening that a drone strike killed an ISIS-K target in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. On Saturday, officials updated that to say that two "high-profile" targets — described as "a planner and a facilitator" — were killed and one other person from the terrorist group was injured in the retaliatory strike.
Pentagon officials offered more information Saturday about continued operations in Afghanistan, including evacuation efforts and the drone strike.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the names of the drone strike targets would not be released. (Read more)

Thursday, August 26, 2021

United only in hatred for humanity: ISIS-K, offshoot of the world’s deadliest Islamist terror group, but also sworn enemy of the Taliban

NYT

Say, didn’t the former administration claim to have destroyed ISIS? What is ISIS-K? The terror group believed to be behind Kabul airport explosions -

Washington: Explosions outside the Kabul airport that have caused multiple casualties come as Biden administration officials have been alarmed in recent days by threats at Hamid Karzai International Airport by IS-K or ISIS-K, a terrorist group that is a sworn enemy of the Taliban.
A senior US intelligence official said while no formal attribution has been made, all signs — and recently gathered intelligence — point to IS-K, an offshoot of Islamic State, as the culprits.
US officials, including President Joe Biden, had been warning of the threat of Islamic State terror attacks at the Kabul airport, which is being guarded by the Taliban as Americans and Afghan allies seek to leave the country.
Douglas London, the CIA’s former top counterterrorism chief for the region, including Afghanistan, said the threat posed by IS-K is now higher because of the vacuum created after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government within a matter of days.
The Pentagon inspector-general, in a report released last week, noted IS-K had lashed out in the last months of the now-ousted Afghan government, seizing on its weakness.
“[IS-Khorasan] exploited the political instability and rise in violence during the quarter by attacking minority sectarian targets and infrastructure to spread fear and highlight the Afghan government’s inability to provide adequate security,” the report said. (Read more)