Mega Thread News of the Day / Interesting Articles & Links

[Fire]

People seem unable the follow Rule 5a and just post a link with stuff all else as an OP. Given its just a link, it ends up here. There is no topic to discuss because the OP is too lazy to actually write an OP.

So the ongoing discussions occurring in the pages of responses are irrelevant when determining the value of a thread?

The rules exist to ensure a productive and civil discussion of a given topic. To kill such discussion for the sake of upholding rules is self defeating and the very definition of over moderation.

 

[MaddAdam]

IS has already established exclusive control of more than 240 kilometres of Mediterranean coastline near Sirt, from the town of Abugrein in the west to Nawfaliya in the east. The militias from the nearby city of Misrata that once vowed to expel the group completely have all retreated. Only a few checkpoints manned by one or two militiamen guard the edge of IS turf, where its fighters come and go as they please.

Militia leaders and Western officials estimate that the group's forces in Libya now include as many as 2000 fighters, with a few hundred in Sirt and many clustered to the east, around Nawfaliya. A flurry of recent bombings, assassinations and other attacks has raised fears that the city of Ajdabiya, farther to the east, is the group's next target. Its conquest could give IS control of a strategic crossroads, vital oil terminals and oil fields south of the city.

What is more, in the tangle of factions that have taken over whatever remains of the Libyan government, IS fighters have been receiving weapons and other support from the accumulated oil wealth that should belong to the Libyan state. And they are getting the weapons through an intermediary who himself played a peripheral role in the deadly attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012.

One of IS's most senior leaders, a former Iraqi army officer under Saddam Hussein now known as Abu Ali al-Anbari, recently arrived by boat from across the Mediterranean, residents and Western officials say. And Western officials say another senior Iraqi IS leader, Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, also known as Abu Nabil, may have recently served as the group's top commander in Libya until he was killed this month in a US air strike near the eastern Syrian city of Derna.

"A great exodus of the IS leadership in Syria and Iraq is now establishing itself in Libya," said Omar Adam, 34, the commander of a prominent militia based in Misrata.

The group in Sirt has also begun imposing the parent organisation's harsh version of Islamic law on the city, enforcing veils for all women, banning music and cigarettes, and closing shops during prayers, residents and recent visitors said. The group carried out at least four crucifixions in August.

Last month the group held its first two public beheadings, killing two men accused of sorcery, according to prison inmates who knew the men and a Sirt resident who said he had witnessed the killings.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/islamic-states-mediterranean-stronghold-in-libya-20151129-glb5wg.html#ixzz3swgAEw5C

 

[deltablues]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/islamic-states-mediterranean-stronghold-in-libya-20151129-glb5wg.html#ixzz3swgAEw5C

A tragedy for Libya - pre-Ghaddafi it was secular (altho a "dry" country"). It had the highest standard of living in Africa, and I spent 3 enjoyable years living there. Getting rid of Ghaddafi was an enormous blunder.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

I'd laugh and say "This is what everyone who criticised the removal of Muammar Gaddafi KNEW was gonna happen - a failed state ant the rise of hardline Islamists' but really, what would be the point?

And they think the removal of Bashar al-Assad would be different HOW?

 

[jumpinjimmy]

If we truly look at their 'modus-operandi' you would have to draw the conclusion that the USA government is Islamist. The government has 'sold it's soul' to the Petrodollar scam. If at any stage their 'permission slips' cease (followed by hyperinflation and a massive rise in interest rates) there will be a bloody revolt in the US and the traitors will be swinging from lampposts.

 

[MaddAdam]

Libya will be the big 2016 issue. The Caliphate know their guerilla textbooks.

 

[jumpinjimmy]

Libya will be the big 2016 issue. The Caliphate know their guerilla textbooks.

I wonder if the Russians might seek to set-up a base in Tobruk in order to support the legitimate (politically at least) and secular Government in domestic 'exile'.

 

[deltablues]

Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt - all secular Islamic states under a strong dictator. All tribal/fundamentalist hellholes post-dictators. The mindset and culture is governable only by dictators. Someone once said that removing a dictator from this type of culture is like removing the muzzle from a rabid dog.

 

[jumpinjimmy]

Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt - all secular Islamic states under a strong dictator. All tribal/fundamentalist hellholes post-dictators. The mindset and culture is governable only by dictators. Someone once said that removing a dictator from this type of culture is like removing the muzzle from a rabid dog.

History unfortunately supports your statement.

 

[MaddAdam]

I wonder if the Russians might seek to set-up a base in Tobruk in order to support the legitimate (politically at least) and secular Government in domestic 'exile'.

There is no government to even pretend exists.

Also, if anyone is setting up in Tobruk it should be us.

Send UPF scum who "hate Islam" there.

 

[MaddAdam]

Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt - all secular Islamic states under a strong dictator. All tribal/fundamentalist hellholes post-dictators. The mindset and culture is governable only by dictators. Someone once said that removing a dictator from this type of culture is like removing the muzzle from a rabid dog.

Or they were deliberately undermined to create the chaos.

 

[jumpinjimmy]

Send UPF scum who "hate Islam" there.

UPF are a 'Hegelian Dialectic' response.....we may need them one day.

 

[apparentlydead]

Hang on, wasn't this a stand alone thread before?

Considering the in-depth analysis and insight that MaddAdam provides the board on all things Middle East, it does seem rather churlish to revert his thread back to here simply because his OP didn't meet someone's particular criteria.

Things are getting out of hand.

 

[MaddAdam]

Hang on, wasn't this a stand alone thread before?

Considering the in-depth analysis and insight that MaddAdam provides the board on all things Middle East, it does seem rather churlish to revert his thread back to here simply because his OP didn't meet someone's particular criteria.

Things are getting out of hand.

Especially when I started similar "Syria 2012 - The Year Of Blood"

I shall start calling them the modbakharat.

 

[MaddAdam]

UPF are a 'Hegelian Dialectic' response.....we may need them one day.

An early UPF type is on record as saying he wants to model them on the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Needs be, we get the semtex and Armalites out on people saying that.

Peace reigns. But if pushed.

 

[MaddAdam]

Hang on, wasn't this a stand alone thread before?

Considering the in-depth analysis and insight that MaddAdam provides the board on all things Middle East, it does seem rather churlish to revert his thread back to here simply because his OP didn't meet someone's particular criteria.

Things are getting out of hand.

Also considering there will inevitably soon be a "WTF? Seventeen French and Brit special forces captured and killed in raid on Sirte??????" thread.

 

[apparentlydead]

Also considering there will inevitably soon be a "WTF? Seventeen French and Brit special forces captured and killed in raid on Sirte??????" thread.

Which will be chock full of the usual ignorant crap.

But hey, as long as the OP is ok...

 

[deltablues]

Or they were deliberately undermined to create the chaos.

It has always been a policy of the Great Power(s) du jour to keep the Middle East destabilized - it goes back well over 100 years. But on the other hand the Arabs are their own worst enemies - so it doesn't take lot of destabilizationing, like.

 

[deltablues]

Hang on, wasn't this a stand alone thread before?

Considering the in-depth analysis and insight that MaddAdam provides the board on all things Middle East, it does seem rather churlish to revert his thread back to here simply because his OP didn't meet someone's particular criteria.

Things are getting out of hand.

Particular agenda may be closer...

 

[MaddAdam]

It has always been a policy of the Great Power(s) du jour to keep the Middle East destabilized - it goes back well over 100 years. But on the other hand the Arabs are their own worst enemies - so it doesn't take lot of destabilizationing, like.

Very sensible Israeli self-defence posture.

Use the rich powerful dickhead you briefly have sway with to break your enemies.

Original plan was to break Tehran via Cairo, Tripoli and Damascus.

Obama ... no friend of the man in the hat ... stopped them in Al-Sham.

Still, game on.

blackcat

 

[medusala]

Or they were deliberately undermined to create the chaos.

Iraq yes but Libya and Egypt? US stuffed up badly with Arab Spring meme. Good old Rodham didn't miss a chance to try and rewrite history though.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...bama-administration-split-arab-spring-Mubarak

In her book Hard Choices, due for publication on Tuesday and a copy of which was purchased by the Associated Press, Clinton describes an administration split during the frantic days of Arab protests in 2011. She includes herself among an old guard of cautious realists such as vice-president Joe Biden, national security adviser Tom Donilon and defense secretary Robert Gates who were at odds with a younger generation of White House aides "swept up in the drama and idealism of the moment”.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

If we truly look at their 'modus-operandi' you would have to draw the conclusion that the USA government is Islamist. The government has 'sold it's soul' to the Petrodollar scam. If at any stage their 'permission slips' cease (followed by hyperinflation and a massive rise in interest rates) there will be a bloody revolt in the US and the traitors will be swinging from lampposts.

It's not Islamist - but it tries to take advantage of the phenomena of fundamentalism. Never forget the goal of the United States is to remain sole global hyperpower. It doesn't want rivals. It doesn't want friends. It doesn't need allies. Just vassals and markets to move into and dominate.

 

[medusala]

It's not Islamist - but it tries to take advantage of the phenomena of fundamentalism. Never forget the goal of the United States is to remain sole global hyperpower. It doesn't want rivals. It doesn't want friends. It doesn't need allies. Just vassals and markets to move into and dominate.

Trade bottleneck. Hardly a win for the US (and that comes after getting turfed out of central asia)

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/china-to-build-first-overseas-military-base-in-east-africa/

BEIJING — China said Thursday that it would establish its first overseas military outpost and unveiled a sweeping plan to reorganize its military into a more agile force capable of projecting power abroad.

The outpost, in the East African nation of Djibouti, breaks with China’s longstanding policy against emulating the United States in building military facilities abroad.

 

[MaddAdam]

Why do you think Obama is pivoting?

 

[medusala]

Tail between his legs. No doubt Disco Dave will roll over re Diego Garcia though, IIRC its up for renewal next year.

How much of this Chinese carrier killer weapon is rubbish or not I don't know.