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Av loren adams - 15 augusti 2015 21:03

...you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, '
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!


*poem written in 1895 by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling


 

Av loren adams - 14 augusti 2015 06:20

 In this July 22, 2015 file photo, U.S Army Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner salutes at Kabul International Airport base in

Kabul, Afghanistan.

 



The Islamic State is making small inroads in Afghanistan and could grow into a more worrisome threat, a U.S Army general said Thursday.Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his offices in Kabul, Shoffner said the Islamic State, which rose to prominence by capturing large swaths of Syria and Iraq, is not yet capable of coordinating military operations in more than one part of Afghanistan at a time.

Av loren adams - 12 augusti 2015 21:54

One of those good news/bad news stories: good news is I was cleared by DODIG. Bad news is CID is still investigating me and the Army still pursuing charges. Points for tenacity I guess, says Lt Col Jason Amerine on his social media.

 

A Green Beret war hero whom the Army placed under investigation after he blew the whistle on the Obama administration’s hostage rescue failures did not disclose classified information when he filed a counter complaint, according to a Pentagon analysis.

The disclosure is a new twist in the fate of Army Lt Col Jason Amerine. The Army high command at the Pentagon sacked him from his hostage rescue job and placed him under criminal investigation on suspicion of providing classified information to Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republic.

Col. Amerine, one of the first Americans to land in Afghanistan in the 2001 invasion, filed a whistleblower retaliation Hotline complaint last January with the Defense Department inspector general.

In it, a Hunter aide says, he laid out everything he conveyed to Mr. Hunter’s office as he sought congressional intervention in how the FBI, State Department, Pentagon and other agencies try to win the freedom of Americans held by Muslim extremists.

The IG reported to Mr. Hunter’s office via email that the staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded his complaint “contained no classified information.”

A photo of Army Lt. Col. Jason Amerine and his team with Afghan freedom fighters in 2001. Col. Amerine is in the first row, second from the right. The turbaned man standing in the second row is Hamid Karzai, who later became Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.
A photo of Army Lt. Col. Jason Amerine and his team
 

The DoD IG has not completed its probe into whether Col. Amerinewas the victim of Army retaliation that violated the Military Whistleblower Protection Act.

An IG supervisory investigator for whistleblower reprisals sent a letter to Col. Amerine this month saying it will not meet the 180-day limit on such investigations because the final report “is currently undergoing administrative and legal sufficiency reviews.” The letter said the report should be completed in the next three months.

Also still pending is the investigation of Col. Amerine by the Army Criminal Investigation Command, commonly referred to as CID.

Joe Kasper, Mr. Hunter’s chief of staff, said that probe was pushed by Army general with whom the congressman has clashed on several issues, including a much-maligned intelligence collection computer network. The congressman views the Army investigation as a way to get back at him, Mr. Kasper said.

This is because it was Mr. Hunter to whom Col. Amerine went to blow the whistle on what he believed was a dysfunctional hostage rescue program. Mr. Hunter used the information to convinced the administration to appoint one official to coordinate all hostage rescue activities.

Mr. Hunter set up a meeting between Col. Amerine and the FBI. The FBI then went to the Army to complain the Green Beret was “outside his lane” and may have divulged classified information, Mr. Kasper said. The CID investigation ensued.

Mr. Kasper said the odd thing is, neither the IG nor CID has interviewed the congressman.

“The IG review won’t merit criticism as long as they are genuinely evaluating the facts, and we’ll know more upon their conclusion how much integrity their review process actually holds,” Mr. Kasper said. “But, so far, neither the IG nor the Army has approached Representative Hunter for a description of the extent of his involvement and conversations, so it’s impossible not to question both the IG or the Army.

He added, “There are no secrets or surprises here, and that includes the expectation that the Army will try to put the screws to Amerine. So it’s really up to the IG to show just how the system can respond when either the Aemyor an outside agency attempts to retaliate against a decorated war hero like Amerine, or anyone for that matter.”

A CID spokesman has said the agency is conducting a fair investigation, not a reprisal.

 
Av loren adams - 11 augusti 2015 16:01

yes love
my sweetheart

 my wife
 im here


 

Av loren adams - 10 augusti 2015 07:34

 

A trio of attacks Friday across the Afghan capital left at least 48 people dead, more than 300 injured, myriad businesses shuttered and people’s nerves shattered.

It was the deadliest day in Kabul since 2011, with the highest number of civilians killed and injured since the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan began systematically recording civilian casualties here in 2009.

“Those responsible for suicide and complex attacks in civilian-populated areas can no longer shrug off the disproportionate harm to the civilian population they cause,” said Nicholas Haysom, the secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan.

“The Afghan people are resilient, but the suffering caused by these tactics in terms of civilian deaths, injuries and the loss of family members is extreme, irreversible and unjustifiable in any terms.”

The third attack occurred late Friday when Taliban fighters tried to storm a U.S special forces base, detonating a car bomb and other blasts, followed by a firefight that lasted more than two hours.

Nine people were killed in the violence, in the Qasaba neighborhood, eight of them civilians working for international coalition forces. The other was a U.S military service member, according to officials.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for an evening attack in which a suicide bomber, dressed in a police uniform, detonated explosives near the gates of a police training academy. An Interior Ministry spokesman said that at least 24 people were believed dead and nearly 20 were wounded, including police and civilians.

The two attacks constituted the first Taliban-claimed incidents in Afghanistan after an announcement late last month that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the group’s founder and longtime leader, had died in 2013.

The July 29 announcement, confirmed by the Kabul government, led to the abrupt postponement of a meeting between representatives of the government of Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, and a Taliban delegation. The talks were aimed at moving forward with peace talks.

The first attack Friday, in which at least 15 civilians were killed and nearly 300 wounded, according to Afghan officials, involved a truck laden with explosives that was detonated near an outpost of the Afghan national security forces in the east Kabul neighborhood of Shah Shahid.

The explosives were set off near a busy road, home to hundreds of houses and shops. Dozens of businesses lay in ruins after the explosion, for which no group immediately claimed responsibility.

Friday’s attacks resulted in the highest civilian death toll in Kabul since at least 70 died in December 2011 violence on the Muslim holy day of Ashura.

Av loren adams - 9 augusti 2015 13:28

There are no room for mistakes in my command. (Col Loren Adams)

 

Av loren adams - 8 augusti 2015 21:35

 
An Afghan policeman keeps watch at the site of a truck bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan August 7, 2015. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
 
 

* First attacks in Kabul since new Taliban leader named

* Taliban claim responsibility for police academy attack

* Insurgents hit area close to U.S special forces base (Adds detail on fighting)

By Mirwais Harooni and Jessica Donati

KABUL, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed dozens of cadets at a Kabul police academy and insurgents struck an area near a U.S special forces base on Friday in a wave of attacks in the Afghan capital that began with a huge early morning truck bomb explosion.

The attacks came just over a week after the Taliban announced a new leader and appeared to dash any hope of a swift return to peace talks between the insurgent movement and the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on the police academy, in which security sources said at least 50 or 60 people had been killed or wounded.

"The bomber was wearing a police uniform and detonated his explosives among students who had just returned from a break," a police official said.

Shortly afterwards, two explosions hit an area north of Kabul airport close to a U.S special forces base and insurgent fighters followed up with gunfire, with fighting continuing into the early hours of the morning.

Details were still unclear but the explosions took place near several potential targets, including a counternarcotics police camp near a base for U.S security contractors and a U.S special forces base known as Camp Integrity.

"Anti-government elements launched a complex attack against Camp Integrity, initiated with a vehicle-borne bomb and followed by small arms fire and further explosions," one Western security source said.

Shortly after the explosions, military jets roared over the centre of Kabul and helicopters flew overhead as the fighting continued.

The evening attacks came less than 24 hours after a huge truck bomb exploded near an army compound in a residential area of Kabul, killing at least 15 people and wounding 248.

Unlike the attack on the police station, the Taliban did not claim responsibility for the truck bombing, which caused mainly civilian casualties, killing and wounding people in their sleep and wrecking shops and homes.

"Last night's attack was a cowardly terrorist attack against civilians," presidential spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi told reporters.


NEW TALIBAN LEADER

The bombings were the first in Kabul since Mullah Akhtar Mansour took charge of the Taliban last week, and followed a rare truck bomb attack in an eastern province on Thursday.

The compound targeted on Friday morning was used by Afghan intelligence officials, said a Western security source who declined to be identified, because the topic is a sensitive one.

The truck bomb left a hole 10 metres (33 ft) deep in the heavily populated Shah Shadid district, shattering windows and damaging cars and reducing some buildings to rubble, a Reuters witness said.

The blast was an unusually powerful one in a city often targeted by the Taliban and other militants seeking to destabilise the troubled unity government led by Ghani.

Smaller bombs or suicide attacks are a weekly occurrence in the heavily fortified capital, but large truck bombs are rare.

An official at the Emergency Hospital in Kabul said it had been flooded with almost 100 patients, including many women and children, seeking treatment for minor wounds caused by debris.

The Afghan war between the foreign-backed government and the Taliban has intensified since the NATO combat mission ended last year and most foreign troops were withdrawn.

Afghan security forces have been battling the Taliban with only limited support from coalition forces this year. About 4,000 soldiers and police are lost each month to casualties and desertions, the U.S general in command has said.

Efforts to restart the peace process with the Taliban have stalled since the movement's reclusive founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was revealed last week to have died two years ago.

A peace official and former senior Taliban member said there were still plans to continue the dialogue, but the timing and location of talks had yet to be decided.

Attention is now focused on internal tension in the Taliban over the question of succession, as Mansour's swift appointment by a small council of leaders in the Pakistani city of Quetta has angered others in the group.

Mansour is widely considered a pragmatist who backs peace talks but his first public message was a pledge to continue the insurgency, which has caused civilian casualties of almost 5,000 in the first half of the year, according to U.N figures. 

Av loren adams - 6 augusti 2015 21:20

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are both taking a big gamble as they agree to work together against the Islamic State group militants in Syria.

 

Their goals, while overlapping in some ways, are far different in others, mainly on the question of how to handle Kurdish militants battling Islamic State fighters in Syria. And that's the problem.

Erdogan wants to combat Islamic State militants in his country who have flowed freely across the border with Syria. But his biggest priority is one that's driven by domestic politics: curtailing growing Kurdish power along Turkey's southern border. Ankara is worried that Kurdish gains in Iraq and in Syria will encourage a revival of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey in pursuit of an independent state.

To that end, Erdogan used the start of Turkish air strikes against Islamic State forces in Syria to also attack Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in northern Iraq. And on July 27, the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the People's Protection Unit, known as the YPG, claimed that it had been shelled by Turkish troops. A Turkish official said the military was only returning fire, and that the military campaign does not include the YPG.

Since the U.S.-Turkey agreement was announced late last month, Turkish warplanes have attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq and its forces in southeastern Turkey on an almost daily basis.

The U.S has gained access to Turkey's Incerlik air base near Syria's northern border, as well as Turkey's participation in attacks on Islamic state fighters from the air.

But what the U.S stands to lose could be even greater: Washington's most effective allies and ground forces in the battle against the Islamic State in Syria are the Kurds, ever wary of being targeted by Turkey, despite Ankara's promise not to attack them.

"It's no secret that Turkey has been less interested in fighting ISIL (the Islamic State) than suppressing the Kurds," said Stephen Tankel, professor at American University. "That's still true. Bringing Turkey further into the fight against ISIL is a positive thing depending on the cost. Turkey has said it won't strike the Syrian Kurdish militias, which are one of the most effective U.S partners on the ground. "

The Kurds, an ethnic group with their own language and customs, have long sought a homeland. Nearly 25 million Kurds live mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia.

The Kurds have made unprecedented gains since Syria's civil war began, carving out territory where they declared their own civil administration. With the help of U.S.-led airstrikes against the IS group, Kurdish fighters expelled the militants in Kobani, a Syrian village on the Turkish border in January after a long battle. In June, the Kurds pushed the Islamic State group from its stronghold of Tal Abyad also along the border with Turkey, robbing IS of a key avenue for smuggling oil and foreign fighters.

Until about two years ago, Kurds had fought a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey and from bases in northern Iraq. That fighting has taken at least 37,000 lives.

Peace talks begun in 2013 have broken down with the renewed Turkish bombing in northern Iraq and PKK counterattacks inside Turkey.

That is bound to have put the Obama administration in a tough spot with its Kurdish allies fighting the Islamic State in Syria. The White House is reported to have cautioned the Turks about military action in northern Iraq, where Kurds claim civilian casualties.

But counterattacks by the PKK have escalated violence between Turkish government forces and Kurdish insurgents. At least 24 people have been killed in the renewed violence in Turkey, most of them soldiers.

Erdogan has been struggling since elections in June resulted in a hung parliament, when the pro-Kurdish party made huge gains in Parliament. Erdogan, critics and Kurdish activists claim, is reigniting the conflict in a bid to win nationalist votes and undermine support for Kurdish politicians in possible new elections in the coming months.

Anthony Cordesman, a CSIS military expert, said the deal with Turkey was likely good for overall U.S strategy in the Middle East. But, he said: "One of the problems is we keep trying to describe this as if it were black and white, and what you're really watching again is three-dimensional chess with something like 9 players and no rules."

 
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