The Groundtruth from a combat veteran, backed up by independent research and historical study. Information beneficial to the Troops. And a touch of objective politics, as it relates to the subjects at hand.
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Children's Books
Ages 7 and up
Marjorie Haun relates the stories of Vietnamese children, and their escape from the invading Communist forces of the North, including the heroism of Fathers and Troops.
These books can be read to children by parents, teachers, or other role models and there are more to come in the series.
Beanies For Baghdad Putting Smiles on Faces of Soldiers by putting smiles on the faces of Iraqi & Afghani children and hence the faces of their parents.
Inside Gitmo: The True Story Behind the Myths of G
Guantanamo Bay - Montgomery Granger
Review by Ms Marti: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2010/11/saving-grace-at-guantanamo-bay-by-montgomery-j-granger.html
The Facts about what has happened at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and who is detained there. More here: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2009/02/the-unvarnished-truth-about-gitmo-long-overdue.html
Hitler's Panzers
WWII scholar, Professor of History, Colorado College, uses Soldier interviews, archives & other information to demonstrate effectiveness of Armored Warfare as developed by Nazi Germany and pertinent to future warfare.
French and Malian soldiers are on high alert in the northern town of Gao, a day after Islamist terrorists launched an assault to retake the city they were forced out of two weeks ago.
Residents who hid in their homes during the hours-long attack Sunday, cautiously entered the streets still littered with corpses.
Authorities report the crossfire killed three civilians and wounded at least 10 others, but it is still unclear how many soldiers or militants died.
Heavy gunfire and explosions resounded Sunday through the Saharan town, the largest in northern Mali, as the combined government force, complete with French helicopter gunships, fought the al-Qaeda affiliated "Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa."
Clashes were ongoing for days in areas just outside the city. On Saturday and Friday, suicide bombers attacked an army checkpoint near the entrance to Gao. The two suicide blasts were the first reported in Mali.
The Malian military said the bomber in Saturday's attack was a young Arab man and the "Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa" claimed responsibility.
The terrorist group seized control of Gao in April and had ruled the city until the arrival of French and Malian forces last month. Military officials have said some elements of the group remain in the Gao area, and other terrorists are hiding in the surrounding desert.
The group is a faction of al-Qaida's North African wing which, in loose alliance with the home-grown Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine, held Mali's main northern towns of Timbuktu and Gao for 10 months until the French-led offensive drove them out. VoA.
Islamist terrorists flooded into Mali from Libya, following the fall of Qaddaffi.
By Cheryl Pellerin, AFPS, WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2013 - A Defense Department inspector general investigation into allegations of professional misconduct has cleared Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said yesterday.
In a statement, Little said Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta was pleased to learn the investigation did not substantiate the allegations and that the inspector general has closed the investigation.
On Oct. 10, President Barack Obama nominated Allen to serve as NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command. Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, now in that position, is scheduled to retire.
In November, while Panetta was traveling in the Asia-Pacific region, the FBI referred a matter involving Allen to the Defense Department.
Panetta directed that the matter be referred to the DOD IG for investigation. He informed the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee.
The secretary also asked the ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to delay a confirmation hearing scheduled for Nov. 15 on Allen's pending NATO nomination until the matter was resolved.
On Dec. 3, the Senate confirmed Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., assistant Marine Corps commandant, as the next commander of ISAF and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Panetta, Little said in his statement, "has complete confidence in the continued leadership of General Allen, who is serving with distinction in Afghanistan."
By Karen Parrish, AFPS, LISBON, Portugal, Jan. 14, 2013 - U.S. and French defense leaders are hammering out details of intelligence, logistics and airlift assistance the United States will provide to French forces in Mali, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.
Speaking to reporters on the flight to the Portuguese capital, the secretary said such planned assistance demonstrates U.S. leaders' resolve that "we have a responsibility to go after al-Qaida wherever they are."
"We've gone after them in the FATA," Panetta said, referring to the federally administered tribal areas in Pakistan's northwest. "We're going after them in Yemen and Somalia. And we have a responsibility to make sure that al-Qaida does not establish a base for operations in North Africa and Mali."
French forces began airstrikes in Mali, a former French colony, four days ago. It has been widely reported France began its air campaign to halt the movement south of al-Qaida affiliated extremists, who have held Mali's northern area since April.
Panetta said the United States and its allies have been "very concerned" about AQIM, or al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb," (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic West) and their efforts to establish a very strong base in that area."
The secretary said DOD officials have been working with regional partners to try to develop plans to confront that threat. "I commend France for taking the steps that it has," he added. "And what we have promised them is that we will work with them to ... provide whatever assistance we can to try to help them in that effort."
Officials from the Stuttgart, Germany-based U.S. Africa Command also are discussing military support with France, the secretary said. A senior official traveling with the secretary told reporters that specific U.S. support to French forces in Mali has not yet been defined, but that Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, Africom commander, spoke by phone earlier today from the African continent with the secretary, who was flying to Portugal at the time.
"We'll continue to work with [the French] to ensure that ultimately we do stop AQIM and that the responsibility for assuring security in that region will be passed to the African nations to provide a more permanent security for the sake of the world," Panetta said.
While that longer-term solution develops, the secretary said, he will consult with allies on shorter-term support in France's fight.
"One of the discussions I'll have in Spain regards their concern about what's happening with AQIM in Mali, as well," he said. "And I'll get a better idea of what these other countries may be doing to assist."
The secretary said while al-Qaida members in Mali do not appear to pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies, "we're concerned any time al-Qaida establishes a base of operations that, while they might not have any immediate plans for attacks in the United States and in Europe, that ultimately ... still remains their objective. And it's for that reason that we have to take steps now to ensure that AQIM does not get that kind of traction."
President Barack Obama yesterday notified Congress, as required by the War Powers Act, that United States troops "provided limited technical support to the French forces" engaged in the attempted rescue of a French hostage in Somalia. French forces reported Denis Allex, who had been a hostage of al-Qaida-affiliated al Shabaab since 2009, was killed in the raid.
U.S. forces took no direct part in the assault on the compound where planners had concluded the French citizen was held hostage, the president wrote. U.S. combat aircraft briefly entered Somali airspace to support the rescue operation if needed, but did not employ weapons, he added.
All U.S. forces who supported the operation had left Somalia by about 8 p.m. EST Jan. 11, the president wrote.
"I directed U.S. forces to support this rescue operation in furtherance of U.S. national security interests," the president wrote, "and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive."
Panetta landed here today for the first leg of a weeklong trip that will also take him to Madrid, Rome and London.
French actor Gerard Depardieu traveled to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, in Russia, Saturday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and obtain Russian citizenship to escape excessive taxes in France.
Mr. Putin publicly granted Depardieu citizenship on Thursday after the actor expressed dismay over a new French millionaires' tax rate of 75 percent.
In Russia, taxpayers pay a flat 13 percent.
Depardieu recently bought a property in Belgium in hopes of escaping the French tax.
The French actor, star of movies such as “Green Card” and “Cyrano de Bergerac,” is popular in Russia, where he appears in some television commercials.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has called Depardieu's departure from the country “pathetic.” Depardieu, in turn, has professed his love of Russia and Russian culture.
By Ignacio Rubalcava, U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder
BAUMHOLDER, Germany, Jan. 3, 2013 - An early morning drive here turned into a nightmare for Heather Majorwitz and her two children, Kaitie and Bret.
They were on their way to school recently when their car hit a patch of ice and started to skid across the road toward an oncoming bus. Majorwitz, a librarian at a local elementary school, swerved to avoid the bus and slid off the road, rolling her car.
"One minute we were on the road and the next we were hanging from our seatbelts," Majorwitz recalled during a recent recognition ceremony held at U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder here.
Pictured: Heather Majorwitz thanks the Soldiers who rescued her and her children from an automobile accident at U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder, Germany. Courtesy photo
The car's wheels were still turning when a group of soldiers from the 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion came upon the scene. Without hesitation, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Vladimir Sequera and three other Soldiers stopped their Humvee and dashed out to help. The children were already making their way out of the car's shattered back window when the Soldiers approached.
Sequera and the other Soldiers, Sgt. 1st Class Winston Smith, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Lehman and Sgt. Cheryl Henneberry quickly brought the children to safety and wrapped them with their jackets to stay warm. By then, Majorwitz was trying to get out of the car and Sequera and the other Soldiers turned their attention to helping her.
"When we saw the vehicle we immediately pulled to the side. We all had the same thought. There's somebody in the vehicle," Sequera said. "We didn't know if they were American or German. We just wanted to help."
"I just remember the car rolling and lots of glass. I felt blessed to walk away from the wreck but I also felt really blessed that we had soldiers there that would go above and beyond and help us. You guys are my heroes," Majorwitz said.
"I'm glad that we were there to help out. I don't think it's a hero thing. I think it's a human behavior that we help each other out. It is part of what we do in the military," Sequera said.
Madeleine Dwoiakowski, public affairs officer for the Baumholder garrison, drives the same route on her way to work.
"I saw soldiers and hoped that none of our guys were injured, not knowing that the soldiers were actually assisting on the scene," Dwoiakowski said. "I then saw the car and it looked like it had gone through a press. They were extremely fortunate to walk away with no injuries and they were also equally fortunate that the Soldiers were there almost immediately to help."
For Majorwitz, it was the scariest moment she's experienced as a mother.
"I wasn't sure if the children were OK. Everybody said they were OK but even at the hospital I wasn't sure," she said. "My little boy gets anxious about things and I was worried that he'd have this anxiety and wouldn't want to ride in a car again." Majorwitz explained that they had a flat tire once and for the next year her son checked the tires before getting in the car.
But her son "was fine, he was a trooper," Majorwitz said. Turning to Sequera, she added, "I think he was fine because you guys were there immediately. There wasn't that second to even worry about it because we were taken care of right away."
Later, Majorwitz, called her 15-year-old daughter in the states and told her why she enjoys working with Soldiers and their families.
"This is why I do what I do to serve these guys, because they're there and they step in -- no matter what," Majorwitz said. "It's automatic, because that's who they are. This makes me even more proud to be able to teach the kids of our Soldiers because I know that they're out there taking care of everybody else."
Majorwitz expressed her gratitude to the Soldiers who rescued her and her children.
"I think that's why you are Soldiers," Majorwitz said, as she fought back tears. "We could have died but we didn't. We were very fortunate all around so I just want to thank you."
Majorwitz then embraced Sequera and repeated her appreciation for their help.
France's highest court has overturned the Socialist government's 75-percent income tax rate for the wealthy.
The Constitutional Council ruled Saturday that the upper tax rate on incomes above $1.32 million, set to go into effect next year, is unconstitutional because it represents a “breech of equality of taxes.”+
The decision is a huge blow to President Francois Hollande, who had made the 75 percent rate his flagship tax measure. However, the top tax rate would have been largely symbolic, affecting an estimated 1,500 people, and would have done little to reduce the budget deficit.
Earlier this month, renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu announced he would move to Belgium to seek tax exile status. The move confirmed opposition fears that the higher tax rate would trigger a mass exodus of the wealthy to other countries. VoA.
A court in Bosnia-Herzegovina has sentenced an Islamist terrorist to 18 years in prison for last year's gun attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.
The state court in Sarajevo Thursday found Mevlid Jasarevic guilty of a terrorist attack by shooting at the U.S. embassy from an automatic weapon in October 2011. Jasarevic's alleged accomplices were acquitted.
Judge Branko Peric, who presided over the panel of judges, said the harsh sentence should serve as a warning to others. He said Jasarevic told the court, “You can punish me but the attacks won't stop.” The 24-year-old cited the U.S. presence in Afghanistan as the motive for his attack.
U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Patrick Moon welcomed the ruling.
The United States also indicted Jasarevic after Bosnia did. Moon said the two nations have had close co-operation on the case and will continue to do so.
Jasarevic fired more than 100 bullets during the 50-minute shooting. One policeman was wounded before security forces shot Jasarevic in the leg and arrested him.
He is a citizen of neighboring Serbia who had joined an Islamist group in northeastern Bosnia. But the court rejected charges that he organized a terrorist group.
His lawyer said the prison sentence was too long and that his client will appeal. VoA.
France has ended its combat mission in Afghanistan, pulling its last troops from a province northeast of the capital, Kabul.
Tuesday's withdrawal of 500 combat troops from Kapisa province is part of President Francois Hollande's pledge to accelerate the country's exit from Afghanistan. Afghan security forces will now be in charge of maintaining security in the province.
France had been the fifth-largest contributor to the NATO-led coalition. It is keeping 1,500 troops in Afghanistan to help send equipment back home and to train Afghan forces.
Eighty-eight French troops have died in Afghanistan since France joined the fighting in late 2001.
Remaining international "combat" troops are set to leave the country by the end of 2014. VoA.
The Obama Administration has signed an agreement with Afghanistan to keep Troops in Afghanistan through at least 2024 as "trainers."
British authorities have released radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada from prison on bail, a day after he won his appeal against deportation to Jordan to face terrorism charges.
Qatada was transported Tuesday from a high-security prison in central Britain to his family home in London. A few protesters had gathered near his home, calling for continued efforts to deport him. Qatada, described by British officials as the top European deputy to former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has been detained in Britain for most of the past decade under Britain's anti-terrorism laws.
Qatada will be allowed to live at home, but he will be under curfew 16 hours a day. He will be allowed to leave his home only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Britain's Home Office says it strongly disagrees with Monday's ruling and will appeal.
Home Secretary Theresa May had ordered his extradition after being given assurances by Jordan that no information obtained through torture would be used against him.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission on Monday blocked Qatada's extradition order, saying it could not be guaranteed that he would get a fair trial in Jordan.
Jordan convicted Qatada of terrorism charges related to two bomb plots in 1998. He was tried in absentia.
Britain has been trying to deport Qatada since 2001, but its efforts have repeatedly been blocked by the courts. In January, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the deportation because evidence used against him in Jordan may have been obtained using torture. VoA.
France has become the first European country to recognize the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition and says it could consider arming the rebels.
French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that the newly united rebel coalition is the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and a future government of a democratic Syria.
Mr. Hollande said France will look at the question of selling weapons to the rebels as soon as the coalition forms a transitional government.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council recognized the rebel group Monday.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called the coalition a legitimate representative of the Syrian people. But he said the United States wants to see how it organizes itself and whether it proves to also be an effective representative.
Other European nations and the Arab League have also said they support the new coalition, but are not ready to give full recognition.
The United States and Europe have been reluctant to arm Syrian rebels, saying the rebels have been too disorganized. They also fear that weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist terrorists. The Obama Administration has instead armed the Syrian Islamists through Saudi Arabian middlemen.
Syrian opposition members agreed at a meeting Sunday in Doha to form the new coalition to unite the various opposition groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Human Rights Watch is calling on the new coalition to send a clear message to the rebels that they must follow human rights law. It also urges those sending money or weapons to the rebels express the same expectations.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting and shelling in and around Damascus killed at least 41 people Tuesday, mostly civilians. VoA.
French officials have expressed their support for the new, united, mullah led, Syrian opposition, but say it is too early to formally recognize the group.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday the group's formation is a “significant” step, but that the coalition does not yet constitute a provisional government the international community can recognize.
The Arab League gave similar support Monday, stopping short of giving the opposition group full recognition as the representative of the Syrian people.
Opposition members agreed at a meeting Sunday in Doha to create the umbrella group, which brings together the various opposition factions inside Syria and abroad seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday calling on the new coalition to send a “clear message” to opposition fighters that they must adhere to human rights law. The rights group also urged those financing the opposition or providing weapons to express the same expectations.
Meanwhile, a Syrian warplane bombed a rebel-held town along the border with Turkey which was struck for a second day Tuesday. The jet struck Ras al-Ain, where activists say at least 12 people were killed in Monday's attack.
Turkey has seen a surge in Syrian refugees, including 11,000 who crossed the border late last week to escape the fighting. VoA.
Islamist cleric Abu Qatada has won his appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan to face terror charges.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission on Monday blocked the extradition order, saying it could not be guaranteed that Qatada would get a fair trial. He is expected to be released from prison on bail on Tuesday but under tight restrictions.
In a statement, Britain's Home Office says it strongly disagrees with the ruling and is planning to appeal.
Qatada was convicted in Jordan in 1998 in absentia of terrorism charges related to two bomb plots.
Home Secretary Theresa May had ordered his extradition after being given assurances by Jordan that no information obtained through torture would be used against him.
British officials have described Qatada, who arrived in Britain in the 1990s, as Osama bin Laden's top European deputy for al-Qaeda terrorism. He has been detained in Britain for most of the past decade under the country's anti-terrorism laws.
Britain has been trying to deport Qatada since 2001, but its efforts have repeatedly been blocked by the courts. In January, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the deportation because evidence used against him in Jordan may have been obtained using torture.
Iraq has canceled a $4.2 billion weapons deal with Russia.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the cancellation Saturday, saying the prime minister had “suspicions of corruption” surrounding the deal.
The spokesman said an investigation in under way, but it was not immediately clear who or what was being investigated.
Baghdad and Moscow signed off on the weapons package in October. The deal would have made Russia Iraq's biggest arms supplier after the U.S.
Reports say 30 Mi-28 attack helicopters were to be included in the weapons package.
Russia has not commented on the cancellation. Moscow was the main supplier of arms to Iraq under Saddam Hussein. VoA.
Russia says it expects the United States will show more flexibility in a dispute over U.S. missile defense plans following the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Speaking Thursday at an international conference in Moscow, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin expressed hope that the U.S. president will take into account the opinions of Russia and others regarding the configuration of NATO's missile defense.
In March, Mr. Obama, unaware he was speaking on an open microphone, told then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more flexibility on the issue after the November election.
Russia and the United States have been deadlocked on negotiations on the missile defense plan, which the U.S. says is aimed at countering a possible missile threat from Iran.
Moscow says the missile shield would be capable of undermining Russia's nuclear deterrent. It is urging the U.S. to provide guarantees that any future configuration will not be aimed against Russia.
The U.S.- and NATO-backed plan calls for deploying a system of anti-missile interceptors based at sea on destroyers and cruisers and coupled with advanced land-based versions, some of which would be based in former Warsaw Pact countries. VoA.
A Muslim cleric in the Russian region of Dagestan has been shot dead on his way to morning prayers. His father and brother were also killed.
Russian police say Kalimulla Ibragimov and his relatives were killed in their car Tuesday in the city of Derbent. It is the latest in a series of attacks on clerics in the restive region in the Russian Caucasus. VoA.
French police have arrested a terrorist commander of the Spanish Basque separatist group ETA, in the latest blow to a movement that has seen its key members detained in Europe in recent years.
The Spanish government said an elite French police unit captured Izaskun Lesaka and her Spanish male companion, also an ETA member, in a raid Sunday at a hotel in the eastern French city of Macon. Both Lesaka and the man were armed. The two are aged in their 30s.
Spain's Interior Ministry said Lesaka is one of the three main leaders of ETA, branded a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States. She is suspected of commanding ETA's military wing.
ETA has been struggling for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France for decades. It pledged to abandon violence in October 2011, but has refused to give up its weapons and disband as the Spanish government has demanded. At least 800 people have been killed in the separatist conflict.
The European Parliament has awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights and freedom of thought to two Iranian dissidents.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz announced Friday in Strasbourg, France, that human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi received the annual prize.
Schulz said the award is a message of “solidarity and recognition to a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation.”
He said he hopes the two will be able to come to Strasbourg in December to receive their award, and he urged Iranian authorities to make that possible.
Sotoudeh was arrested in 2010 for spreading propaganda and for behavior deemed “detrimental to national security.” She is serving a six-year jail sentence and is banned from practicing law for 10 years.
Panahi, a winner of international awards for his films, supports Iran's opposition movement. He is under house arrest and has been banned from making movies or traveling abroad.
Jailed Belarusian dissident Ales Beliatsky and the anti-Kremlin Russian punk band Pussy Riot were also nominated for the Sakharov Prize this year.
Three members of the band were convicted in August on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” after bursting into an Orthodox cathedral to stage protest songs against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Two were sentenced to two-year prison terms.
The trio has argued their impromptu performance was political in nature and not an attack on religion.
The Sakharov prize is named for the late Soviet nuclear scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. VoA.
Three British Islamists are on trial in Britain, facing accusations of plotting terrorist attacks that could have been deadlier than the 2005 London transit bombings.
Prosecutor Brian Altman told a high-security London court Monday the three defendants planned to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack or set off timer bombs in crowded areas. He said the plot was “on a scale potentially greater” than the July 7, 2005 bombings that killed 52 people on London's underground train and bus networks.
Defendants Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. Authorities arrested the men in the city of Birmingham in September 2011.
Altman said the defendants were inspired to commit terrorism by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida loyalist killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last year.
The prosecutor said the plot began with Naseer and Khalid traveling to Pakistan for training, learning how to make poison and bombs and producing martyrdom videos. After returning to Britain, he said they worked with Ali to recruit others to the plot and to raise money fraudulently by posing as fundraisers for Muslim charities. VoA.
Russia says its security forces have killed 49 Islamist terrorists in an anti-terror operation in the North Caucasus region, home to a long-running Islamist insurgency.
In a videotaped statement released Sunday, a Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee spokesman (Nikolai Sintsov) said Russian forces also detained 30 terrorists, destroyed 90 terrorist bases and seized weapons caches throughout the region. The spokesman gave no time period for the operation, but he said it succeeded in suppressing the activities of what he called “notorious bandits” and disrupting their supply network.
Russia has struggled to contain violence in the predominantly-Muslim North Caucasus, where Islamist separatists have carried out sporadic bombings and other attacks on government targets this year. There was no immediate confirmation of the Russian anti-terror operation from insurgent groups.
In a meeting on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his security chiefs to do more to ensure that domestic terrorists do not threaten a series of major upcoming events, including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. He said it was a “matter of honor” that the events take place in a “normal, business-like and festive manner.”
The North Caucasus insurgency is rooted in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces crushed separatists in two wars in the 1990s and 2000s.
A German court has convicted 10 Somalis, in the country's first piracy trial in centuries.
The court in Hamburg sentenced the men to prison terms of between two and seven years each.
The Somalis were arrested by the Dutch navy in 2010 after they hijacked a German container ship off the Horn of Africa.
Defense attorneys had sought acquittals, saying the hijacking was an act of desperation by people living in a country ravaged by war.
Prosecutors had called for sentences of up to 12 years.
Somalia-based pirates have hijacked dozens of ships traveling near the Horn of Africa in recent years, and made hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom.
Attacks have declined sharply this year, as ships take more protective measures and international naval forces closely patrol the coastline, while African Union land forces push al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabab Islamist terrorists out of their strongholds. VoA.
Russian investigators have filed criminal charges against an assistant of opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov, as part of an ongoing crackdown against opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's Investigations Committee said Thursday it charged Left Front party member Konstantin Lebedev with plotting mass riots to overthrow the government. Authorities detained Lebedev and party leader Udaltsov on Wednesday and searched their homes in response to allegations that both men were involved in such a plot. Udaltsov was released a short time later and ordered to stay in Moscow, but Lebedev remained in custody.
Russian investigators said Lebedev refused to acknowledge guilt or provide any evidence. Udaltsov also denied wrongdoing and called the allegations a “monstrous outrage.”
Russian authorities said Wednesday they opened the investigation because of a documentary broadcast last week on a Putin-allied television channel. The program included purported hidden camera footage of Udaltsov meeting with Georgian officials to raise money for anti-Putin protests in Russia.
Udaltsov has said he met with many people recently as part of legal fundraising activities. He also has dismissed the footage in the documentary as doctored. But the Investigations Committee has said it studied the footage and concluded it was genuine. VoA.
A female suicide bomber posing as a Muslim pilgrim killed a leading moderate Islamic scholar and at least five others Tuesday in the restive southern Russian republic of Dagestan.
Dagestan's interior ministry says Said Atsayev, a widely respected Suffi Muslim spiritual leader who opposed radical Islam, was killed when the unidentified woman entered his home in disguise and detonated an explosives belt around her waist.
The Dagestan attack was reported as Russian President Vladimir Putin began delivering a keynote address related to a separate assassination attempt last month against another top moderate cleric in the republic of Tatarstan. It was not clear whether Mr. Putin knew of the Dagestan bombing as he began his address.
Elsewhere in Dagestan, a Russian border guard killed at least seven servicemen in a shooting spree at a border post Tuesday. The motivation for the attack is unknown, but authorities are quoted as saying they suspect the shooter also may have had ties to Islamist groups.
Moscow is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in its largely-Muslim North Caucasus region, nearly a decade after fighting two wars against Islamists in Chechnya. Russia claims the region is largely under control, but sporadic bombings, assassinations and attacks on government facilities and troops continue. VoA.
Three suspected members of the al-Qaida terror group are being questioned in a Spanish court, where a judge will decide whether they remain behind bars.
Armed police shut down streets in Madrid Friday as the three men were led into the Audiencia Nacional Court.
Spanish officials say the suspects are of Russian and Turkish origin, and that the Turkish suspect had enough explosives to blow up a bus.
The two suspects of Russian origin were arrested earlier this week as they were making their way toward the French border. Officials arrested the Turk in the southern part of the country.
Spanish media reported the suspects had been experimenting with ultra-light aircraft as a possible delivery mechanism for a bomb. VoA.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will wrap up his foreign trip Tuesday in Poland.
Romney arrived in Poland's Baltic port city of Gdansk Monday, after stops in Britain and Israel where he made televised remarks on how he would handle foreign affairs during difficult times.
On his first day in Poland he met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and former president and Solidarity movement leader Lech Walesa, who led the movement in 1980's Poland which helped bring down the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain of Communism.
In Israel earlier Monday, Romney raised more than $1 million at a fundraiser for his campaign. But he offended Palestinians when he called Jerusalem Israel's capital. Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state.
Earlier in the week, the British news media reacted angrily to Romney's questioning the quality of security at the London Olympic Games.
Romney is to meet with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski Tuesday before delivering his foreign policy speech. VoA.
Britain's Foreign Office says Syria's chief diplomat in London has defected, making him the latest top official to quit in protest of Syria's bloody crackdown against the opposition.
The foreign office said Monday that Charge D'affaires Khaled al-Ayoubi informed it that he would no longer represent President Assad's government.
Also Monday, Syrian troops and rebels continue to clash in the northern city of Aleppo, with each side claiming victory.
The government said it had overrun the district of Salahhedine and inflicted great losses against the rebels. But rebel forces said no government troops were in the neighborhood and that fighting is ongoing.
In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is extremely concerned about the impact the shelling and heavy weapons are having on civilians. He also called on Syria to promise not to use chemical weapons under any circumstances.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has vowed the rebels in Aleppo will be defeated.
Norway on Sunday marked the first anniversary of a bomb and gun massacre that left 77 people dead, with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg saying the nation responded to the tragedy by reaffirming its democratic and tolerant values.
During a wreath-laying ceremony at the bomb site, Mr. Stoltenberg said the bomb and the bullets were meant to change Norway, but that the perpetrator failed, as the Norwegian people responded by embracing their values.
On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb near an Oslo government building, killing eight people. Then he shot dead 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth camp on Utoeya Island.
Breivik, who was 32 at the time of the attacks, readily admitted responsibility for the massacre, saying he was justified because the victims had facilitated the “Islamization of Norway.”
Breivik's trial ended last month. The court is expected to issue a verdict in August.
While there is no doubt he carried out the attacks, the court must decide if Breivik should be considered criminally sane and sentenced to prison, as requested by his defense, or instead follow the prosecution's request to send him to a psychiatric ward. VoA.
A Muslim cleric from Russia's Tatarstan was shot dead and another was wounded in a bomb attack Thursday in the region's main city of Kazan.
The chief mufti (religious scholar) of Tatarstan, Ildus Faizov, was wounded in a car bomb attack, and his former deputy, Valiulla Yakupov, was shot dead outside his home in what appear to be coordinated attacks.
President Vladimir Putin called the attacks “a serious signal” of rising tensions in the region. He ordered the country's security service to find and punish those responsible.
Both men were known for promoting moderate Islamic practices and fighting the spread of radicalism to Tatarstan from the more volatile Caucasus region in southern Russia.
The attack took place just before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Faizov was hospitalized and is out of danger. He said he had just learned that his deputy was killed when an explosion rocked his car. He was able to get away before more blasts set his vehicle aflame. VoA.
An explosion on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria has killed at least seven six people and wounded about 30 others.
Wednesday's blast occurred in the Black Sea city of Burgas, about 400 kilometers from the capital, Sofia. Police say several other buses at the site were also damaged.
Israeli officials have blamed Iran for the explosion. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Bulgarian authorities informed the Ministry that the explosion was caused by a bomb placed on the bus.
No group has claimed responsibility. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that similar attacks on Israeli tourists in India, Thailand and other places point to Iran. He did not clarify.
"Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.... He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.... He was also reportedly among 12 foreigners captured trying to cross into Afghanistan in 2009."Times of Israel 19 July 2012
"Mehdi" is a term used by Iranian based jihadists, including Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Baghdad based terrorists were called the "Mehdi Militia."
An Afghan military court has sentenced an Afghan soldier to death for killing five French soldiers during a joint training operation earlier this year.
The defense ministry on Tuesday said the court ordered Adbul Sabor to be hanged for the January 20 attack.
The shooting in eastern Kapisa province killed four soldiers and wounded 15 others, including one who later died from his wounds.
The incident helped push France's new President Francois Hollande to accelerate the withdrawal of his country's combat troops from the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan.
The French force, which is the fifth largest in the coalition, is due to be out of the country by the end of this year. VoA.
The world's largest aircraft manufacturer, Europe-based Airbus, says it is planning to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant.
Airbus said Monday it intends to open an assembly plant in the southern U.S. city of Mobile, Alabama. The company said it plans to start producing A320 passenger jets by 2015 — a direct challenge to its American rival, Boeing Company.
Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, said it plans to build 40 to 50 airplanes a year at the U.S. factory by 2018. The company said it expects to hire 1,000 workers to build the $88 million jetliners, which are widely used by major airlines.
Last year, Airbus delivered 534 aircraft, compared to 477 for Boeing, the world's second biggest commercial jet manufacturer. VoA.
Iran has acknowledged that Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear program have reached their toughest level, as the European Union begins a total ban on Iranian oil imports.
In remarks published Sunday by Iranian state media, Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Western powers unfairly have imposed what he called the “most severe” sanctions on Iran to date. He appealed to the Iranian people to help the government fight the impact of those measures.
The EU ban on Iranian oil took full effect on Sunday, after being implemented gradually since the start of this year. The 27-nation bloc also began enforcing a ban on European insurance for Iranian oil shipments to other nations.
Britain, France, Germany and Sweden are urging United Nations members to support a “decisive effort” to regulate conventional weapons trade.
Delegates from more than 150 countries are gathering in New York Monday to begin a month-long meeting to draft a global arms trade treaty.
Ahead of the conference, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle published a joint statement saying illicit arms trafficking poses a “growing threat to humanity.”
They say each year millions of people around the world suffer the effects of poorly regulated arms trade.
The statement, also joined by Sweden's trade minister, calls for a “strong and comprehensive framework of common international standards” to prevent legitimate arms sales from being diverted to trafficking networks.
The diplomats note their countries are some of the largest arms exporters in Europe, and say that means they have a special responsibility to ensure the weapons are not used in a way that violates humanitarian aims or international law.
The process to create a legally binding pact regulating the sale of conventional arms has been under way since 2006. The agreement would set standards for importing, exporting and transferring a range of weapons, including tanks, fighter jets and machine guns.
Major arms exporters, including the United States and major importers, such as India, will participate in the conference. VoA.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth has engaged in an historic handshake with a former leader of the separatist group that waged a bloody decades-long fight for Northern Ireland's independence from British rule.
The handshake between the monarch and Martin McGuinness, a former leader of the Irish Republican Army-turned deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, took place Wednesday at the start of a private social event in a Belfast theater. The two were expected to exchange a public handshake after the event.
The Rock of Gibraltar has not only become a definition of permanence, it has also over the years been synonymous with UK military power.
It's name gives the Royal Marines their motto, after their role in establishing Britain's strong point at the gateway to the Mediterranean.
But like everywhere else in the defence world, the Rock is having to take its share of cutbacks.
Under a programme known as Project Euston, in five years the force deployed there from the UK will have fallen by a third and millions of pounds worth of real estate will be handed over.
Ecuador's foreign minister says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has asked for political asylum in the South American nation.
Ricardo Patino told reporters in Ecuador's capital, Quito, Tuesday that the country is considering the request.
The 40-year-old Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning about allegations he raped one woman and sexually assaulted another during a visit to Sweden in 2010.
Patino said Assange is currently taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
6/19/2012 By Sgt. Ray Lewis , Marine Forces Reserve
ADAZI, Latvia — Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment learned life-saving convoy operations tactics from the Estonian army during a two-week multi-national combined exercise during Saber Strike 2012.
"Today we practiced convoy-operations with our true allies, the American Marines,” said 1st Lt. Madis Koosa, an operations officer with the Estonian Army. “We tried different situations: contact drills, medical evacuation and interacting with the locals.”
The Pennsylvania-based unit also maneuvered armored vehicles through a forest battle space that was riddled with mock-improvised explosive devices and small arms fire from an unknown enemy role-played by the Estonians.
Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras will have three days to form a coalition government, after his pro-bailout party won the most seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Samaras met Monday with Greek President Carolos Papoulias, who gave him a mandate to pursue coalition talks.
The conservative New Democracy party won 30 percent of the vote to take 129 of the 300 seats in parliament, including the 50-seat bonus given to the party with the most votes.
The radical leftist, anti-bailout Syriza party came in second with 71 seats, while the pro-bailout PASOK Socialists won 33 seats – likely enough to help form a ruling coalition.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement the European Union looks forward to working with the new government and supporting efforts to put Greece's economy on “a sustainable path.”
Partial polling results show the Socialists' bloc taking up to 320 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, well above the 289 needed for a majority.
The conservative UMP party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to win at least 212 seats. The anti-immigration National Front party of Marine Le Pen, which placed third in the first round, took at least two seats.
Party leader Le Pen lost her own parliamentary race, by just 118 votes. But her niece, 22-year-old Marion Marechal-Le Pen won a seat for the party, which Le Pen called “an enormous success'.”
In an embarrassment for the Socialists, former presidential candidate Segolene Royal lost her bid, quashing her hopes of becoming speaker of the National Assembly.
Royal is Mr. Hollande's former partner and the mother of his four children. Her campaign became embroiled in controversy last week after the president's current partner, journalist Valerie Trierweiler, expressed support for Royal's opponent on Twitter.
Voter participation was reported at 21.4 percent by midday Sunday, in the election which was France's fourth in eight weeks.
Analysts say the expected win will allow Mr. Hollande to enact measures he hopes will help curb unemployment and kick-start the eurozone's second-largest economy.
Mr. Hollande unseated conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in a May 6 runoff presidential election. The new president needs lawmakers' support for him to try to persuade European Union leaders, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to focus on spurring economic growth rather than enforcing further austerity in struggling European economies.
French President Francois Hollande's Socialist party and its allies are on track to win a solid majority in parliament after winning the largest bloc of seats in the first round of voting for the country's lower house of parliament.
Official results for Sunday's vote show the left wing parties with about 46 percent of the vote in the 577-seat National Assembly.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party won around 34 percent of the vote, while the far right National Front received more than 13 percent.
The final makeup of the National Assembly will be determined after a second round of voting Sunday .
The Socialists and their allies already control the French Senate, the upper house of parliament.
Mr. Hollande wants to enact measures he hopes will help curb unemployment and kick-start the Eurozone's second largest economy.
First round winners include National Front leader Marie Le Pen, who will move on to next week's runoff for a seat from the northern town of Henin-Beaumont. Le Pen finished third in last month's presidential election. She boasted Sunday that the right-wing National Front is now France's third most powerful political party.
President Hollande beat Mr. Sarkozy in a May 6 presidential runoff. He needs lawmakers' support to persuade European Union leaders, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to focus on spurring economic growth rather than enforcing austerity in struggling European economies. VoA.
For a few bucks more you can get a signed copy from the author himself! http://www.deltabravosierra.us/2011/02/10/a-word-about-the-new-book/comment-page-1/#comment-3383
Get your copy of this legendary cartoon now (or wait a few days for the signed copy!)
The Man Who Declared War on America
A Comprehensive Work of OBL, his ties to Iran, Sudan, and the wide Islamist Terrorism networks, regardless of name.
SSgt Workman is featured in the Hall of Heroes and a book review on this from Marine Till Death that read it as it was written: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2008/12/shadow-of-the-sword-by-jeremiah-workman-w-john-bruning.html
http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2008/12/ssgt-jeremiah-workman-navy-cross-usmc-iraq-marion-oh.html and links to prior articles.
Go to War against the Nazis with SSG Smith of the 94th Infantry Division. Review: http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2010/04/everymans-war-vet.html.html
Ace Of Spades: Why Language Matters In this article, Ace of Spades demonstrates how the writing style of "journalists" and other writers is purposely used to influence the electorate. He explains this far better than I have been able to do, but this is the foundation of why I could no longer be silent.
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