KTFA:

Don961:  Play with Yakaka on your own .. News about Abdel-Mahdi's escape to Paris, and the appointment of Fouad Hussein, headed by the Prime Minister and the leadership of the armed forces!

Policy  ,   02/20/2020 00:10  Baghdad-Iraq today:

Private sources revealed the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to escape to Paris on Friday.

The sources confirmed that Abdel-Mahdi issued an order to Fouad Hussein to carry out his duties as prime minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, even though Thamer Al-Ghadban - the fugitive is also - is the first vice president!

Whoever guarantees that Fouad Hussain will not take sensitive and serious decisions in the interest of the region at the expense of Iraq as a whole, is not Allawi mandated to prevent Prime Minister Al-Mahdi and the rest of the ministers from traveling.

Especially since Adel Abdul-Mahdi occupies the position of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and there are serious bloody events During the empty and previous period, events in which people were killed, blooded and accused, occurred, in which arrest, investigation, corruption and accountability warrants are involved, including Abdul-Mahdi and Al-Ghadban before other wanted ministers, and the Iraqi judiciary may issue travel ban orders for them and their colleagues?   LINK

JaimieO:  And we are to believe nobody was watching his EVERY move.....and they would allow him to to stroll to the airport and "escape" to Paris???

ChrisC:  I told you this guy would be running.  This is the first big crack in the defense, and if he is truly gone, watch ALL the lower rats break and run. 

Iran's defense force will collapse like a frozen river thawing in Spring.  The new PM making a public statement with the people's beloved military leader saying "go after the ones that are responsible" was all that wuss could take. 

Maliki has some stones, I will give you that, but he is next. 

 If he stays, he will be lynched.  He and Obama formed ISIS and if anybody needs lynching it is those two, but they can't get Obama.  However, they can get Maliki and without protection, he is now vulnerable. 

I bet they strike the next layer in Hezbollah and some of the other militias and it will collapse like a dam bursting.  Bullies are cowards in the end and they know their time is up. 

I had hoped our new PM would be a good speaker and he apparently is.  The people have been yearning for someone to listen to them and care and now the next thing is to show it with an RV. 

I think he will announce his cabinet to the people and then follow that immediately with an RV. 

Once he galvanizes support from the people with these actions, it will be over for all the bad guys.  IMO. 

I don't know, maybe he RVs first.  Let's hope so.  I've always said Fri afternoon.

Samson:  Allawi is surprised by the "applied silence" of the Iraqi authorities in the face of killing the demonstrators

7/2/2020 2:19 PM

Iyad Allawi, head of the National Coalition, was surprised by the "silence applied" to the Iraqi authorities regarding the killing of the demonstrators.

Allawi said in a tweet to him on Twitter: "It is surprising that most countries of the world condemned the killing and brutal suppression of peaceful demonstrators, and demanded accountability for the killers

He added, "This was met with the utter suspicious silence of the Iraqi authorities, who failed to bring the perpetrators to justice

He said, "That is why I sent a letter to the United Nations calling for the protection of the honorable Iraqi people   LINK

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Samson:   Trump announces the killing of the al Qaeda leader in the Arabian Peninsula ... and revealed his identity

7/2/2020 9:40 AM

The American President, Donald Trump, announced, on Thursday, the killing of Qasim Al-Rimi, the leader of Al Qaeda in the "Arabian Peninsula", in a US military operation in Yemen.

"Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, under the leadership of Al-Rimi, practiced a tremendous amount of violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to execute and instruct numerous attacks against the United States and our forces," Trump said in a statement

Qassim al-Rimi was born in June 1978 in Yemen, and reports indicate that he joined the terrorist "Al Qaeda" organization, when he was fifteen years old

Al-Rimi traveled to Afghanistan where he was included in the leadership positions of extremist organization, before the US military operation in 2001

Al-Rimi was sentenced to prison in Yemen in 2005, for his conviction on charges of planning to assassinate the American ambassador to Yemen

He cooperated with the former al Qaeda leader in Yemen, Nasser al-Wahaishi, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2015, to announce the emergence of the militant group in Yemen in 2007

Al-Rimi was listed by the United States in May 2010, and his bank assets inside the United States were frozen

In May 2010, Al-Rimi was added to the United Nations sanctions list for individuals linked to al-Qaeda

In July 2007, the name Al-Rimi was associated with the attack that targeted a group with Spanish tourists, and killed 8 of them in Marib, central Yemen

Al-Rimi worked to recruit young men to join Al Qaeda, and his name was associated with a number of terrorist operations, such as an attempt to blow up a plane destined for America in 2009, and to send booby-trapped parcels to the United States in 2010

In 2013, Al-Rimi claimed, in a video, “Al-Qaeda’s responsibility” for the bloody attack on the Yemeni Ministry of Defense hospital, according to NBC News

In a June 2013 message to the American people, Al-Rimi warned that the Boston bombings had exposed the fragility of American security, and showed that making bombs was within anyone's reach

In the audio message, which was broadcast on sites close to al Qaeda and the YouTube website on the Internet, Al-Rimi urged Muslims in America to "fulfill their duty, defend their religion, and imitate those who preceded them

Al-Rimi took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, succeeding Al-Wahaishi in 2015, after the latter's death in Mukalla, eastern Yemen

In a 2017 video, Al-Rimi incited his supporters to launch attacks in European countries

In the same year, al-Rimi was targeted by the US Special Forces, but the attack that killed 14 leaders of al-Qaeda did not kill Rimi

In 2018, the US State Department announced that it would raise the value of the reward that will be granted to those who provide information leading to the arrest of Al-Rimi, from 5 to 10 million dollars

LINK

Samson:  The international coalition reveals a list of Iraqi personalities used by Iran to target American forces

7th February, 2020

A new report issued by the US-led international coalition today, Thursday, disclosed on a network of militia and political leaders in Iraq that Iran is using to maintain the momentum of targeting US forces in Iraq, in addition to increasing its influence.

The report, which was translated by "Al-Ikhbaria", said that it relied on information provided by the US Central Command, Military Intelligence and the State Department, that Iran is still training and supporting Iraqi militias to wage war against the United States, and to participate in repressions targeting popular protests in Iraq.

The report mentioned: The names of the most prominent Iraqi militia leaders with whom Iran is currently working and who were receiving orders directly from the Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in an American strike last month near Baghdad airport.

The report, consisting of 114 pages, places the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Authority, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in the same raid that targeted Qasim Soleimani, at the top of the list, where Abu Mahdi describes the engineer as the de facto leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces and also worked as an advisor to Qassem Soleimani and was a link between Al-Quds Force, which supports the PMF militia.

It also indicates that the engineer was a commander in the Badr Corps in the 1980s, returned to Iraq in 2005 and was subsequently elected to parliament and was an adviser to several prime ministers who ruled after 2003.

The second person, cited by the report, is the leader of the Iranian-backed Al-Fatah coalition Hadi al-Amiri, who was leading the Badr Corps militia in the 1980s.

The third person is Akram al-Kaabi, leader of the militia of the Hezbollah movement al-Nagaba, and according to the report, al-Kaabi defected from the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia led by Qais Khazali in 2012 to form his own militia.

The fourth person was Shibl al-Zaidi, commander of the Imam Ali Brigade militia, and the report says he defected from the Mahdi Army militia led by Muqtada al-Sadr and was arrested by US forces before 2011.

The fifth man is Abu Jihad al-Hashemi, whose real name is Muhammad al-Hashemi, the director of the office of the resigned prime minister, Abd al-Mahdi.

The report says that Hashemi has few appearances in the media, despite holding many leadership positions in pro-Iranian organizations, and that he has a major role in choosing Abdul-Mahdi as prime minister in Iraq. He adds that al-Hashemi was a prominent ally of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and was seen as a channel for influence of pro-Iranian militias on the prime minister's office.

According to the report, al-Hashemi resigned as director of the office of Abdul Mahdi in 2019, at the request of Soleimani.

As for the sixth and final person on the list, the leader of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia, Qais Khazali, which has a political wing known as the Sadikoun Alliance, has 15 seats in the Iraqi parliament within the Al-Fateh Alliance, led by Hadi al-Amiri.

According to the report, Khazali was one of Muqtada al-Sadr's aides at the start of the new millennium before he defected and formed his own militia in 2004.

The report notes that Iranian-backed militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the Hezbollah Brigades and the Badr Organization are also using "strict measures to suppress the demonstrators, including shooting at them."

The report shows a detailed picture of the Iran-backed militias and says their members are more loyal to Tehran than Baghdad, and they swore allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei.

And it confirms that Iran is financing, training and directing Shiite militia groups to wage a proxy war against the United States, as it is sending missiles and other ammunition to the militias and is strengthening its influence within the security infrastructure in Iraq as a way to pressure the United States to withdraw.   LINK

ChrisC:  Reminds me of a deck of cards that was distributed in Iraq a long time ago.  We got the Aces of Spades and Diamonds.  Now we just start working our way through the deck.