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'ISIS' claims mortar attack on high-profile Shiite memorial service in Kabul, killing three

Sayed Salahuddin & Pamela Constable
Washington Post
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 22:17 UTC
kabul attack ISIS
An outdoor memorial service attended by numerous Afghan politicians and officials, including Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai, was attacked by mortar fire Thursday in the Afghan capital, killing three people, police and health officials said.

The attack, which also wounded 20 people, was claimed by the Islamic State extremist group through its affiliated website.


Comment: That site wouldn't happen to belong to Israeli SITE Intelligence, would it?


The midmorning gathering, which drew several thousand mourners, was being held in a public arena to mark the anniversary of the death of a minority Shiite and ethnic Hazara leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, who was killed in 1995 by the Taliban.

A year ago this week, a memorial service here for Mazari was attacked by a suicide bomber outside a mosque, killing 10 and injuring 22.

Both attacks took place in southwestern Kabul, the heart of the capital's large Shiite and Hazara community, which has been the target of dozens of bombings and other attacks in recent years. The 2018 bombing was also claimed by the Islamic State, a radical Sunni group that views Shiites as heretics and has claimed most terrorist attacks on Shiite targets.


Comment: That is also possible. The two are not mutually exclusive. Some in the Afghan government are undoubtedly traitors working for American/Western interests.

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Caesar

Assad's Tehran Visit Signals Iran's Victory in Syria

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 21:52 UTC
assad tehran
For the first time since war broke out in Syria in 2011, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has travelled to Iran to meet Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

President Assad had only travelled outside of Syria on two other occasions during the war - both times to Russia.

The significance of the trip cannot be understated - it was a message sent to those who orchestrated the proxy war against Syria that Damascus has prevailed and instead of driving a wedge between it and its allies in Moscow and Tehran - it has only drawn these regional powers closer together.

The symbol of solidarity between Syria and Iran comes at a time when Washington finds itself vacillating between a full withdrawal from Syria, a redeployment to Iraq, or an attempt to drag out the conclusion of the Syrian conflict for as long as possible by keeping US forces there indefinitely.

The Washington Post in its article, "Syria's Assad visits Iran in rare trip abroad," would admit:
U.S. officials said Trump's decision authorizing a small number of U.S. troops to stay is a key step in creating a larger multinational observer force that would monitor a so-called safe zone along Syria's border with Turkey. The buffer zone is meant to prevent clashes between Turkey and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. It is also aimed at preventing Assad's forces and Iran-backed fighters from seizing more territory.
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Cell Phone

Beijing vows protection amid Huawei row - calls on Chinese firms not to be 'silent lambs'


RT
Fri, 08 Mar 2019 20:37 UTC
Huawei
© Reuters / Aly Song
Beijing has promised to take "all necessary measures" to defend Chinese companies and citizens who are under "deliberate political suppression" abroad amid legal clashes between tech giant Huawei and Washington.

"We support the company and individual in question in seeking legal redress to protect their own interests and refusing to be victimized like silent lambs," China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated on Friday. He referred to the ongoing Huawei row in the US and Canada's arrest of a Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

Comment:

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Yoda

Venezuelan FM Arreaza holds UN marathon for peace while usurper Guaido urges military intervention and war

Carla Stea
Global Research
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 19:44 UTC
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
© United Nations/Screenshot
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
In a herculean effort to prevent war, and protect the integrity of his country, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza held a breathtaking schedule of events at the United Nations, including a meeting with the Secretary-General, consultations with the envoys of 60 member states supporting Venezuela's sovereignty, a press conference the evening of February 22, speaking at a Security Council meeting February 26, and presenting an address at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 27.

Arreaza's encyclopedic knowledge of history is one of his powerful assets, as he patiently clarified to reporters, at last Friday's press conference, the reality of US instigated economic warfare underlying Venezuela's current crisis. At one bizarre moment, a European reporter, asked, Mussolini-style, about a report that Venezuelan armed forces shot an unarmed indigenous person, and compared the incident to "what happened in China." Arreaza asked whether the reporter had seen the incident, and, evading Arreaza's question the reporter continued: "Is your government giving specific orders to shoot unarmed people, and what will happen to those who refuse to comply with these orders?" The stupefying question, less a query, and more unsubstantiated innuendo, was asked with such arrogance and grandiosity that Arriaza, fully aware of the insinuation intended, replied:
"Your question is full of venom and very poisonous. The army of Bolivar has never had orders to fire on the civilian population, and you should be the first to assess the reliability of false 'reports,' and false flag operations. It is your responsibility as a reporter to be smart, astute, and delve into the truth, and recognize propaganda."
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People

China's National People's Congress: One country, two sessions, multiple tweaks

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Chinese National People's Congress
© AFP/The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Chinese National People’s Congress begins at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 5, 2019.
Contrary to Western doom and gloom interpretations, China's two sessions now taking place in Beijing offer a fascinating mix of realpolitik and soft power. Every year, the two sessions involve the National People's Congress (NPC) - the legislative body - and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) - the political advisory body - laying down the Chinese equivalent of the state of the union.

Premier Li Keqiang's report acknowledged that Beijing foresees "graver and more complex" risks and "both predictable and unpredictable" challenges, with the conclusion that China must be "prepared to fight tough battles" in 2019. It was undiluted realpolitik.

An economic growth target in the range of 6.0% to 6.5% is still massive in terms of the expansion of global capitalism - irrespective of the usual suspects carping on about China "stalling" or mired "in deep crisis." A deficit-to-GDP ratio set at 2.8% - slightly higher than the 2.6% last year - is not exactly a problem for such a huge economy.

What's quite intriguing is how "Made in China 2025" - the full designation - simply vanished from the 2019 Government Work Report.

Yet the policy remains - transmuted in the report on the expansion of "smart plus." By extending tax cuts for manufacturers and small-business taxpayers, Beijing will keep driving no holds barred toward what Li defined as "building up a powerful manufacturing country" - from industrial development to tech innovation.
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Padlock

Manafort's sentence: Four years in prison for financial crimes unrelated to Russia


RT
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 23:44 UTC
Manafort
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Paul Manafort
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison for fraud and other financial crimes entirely unrelated to Russia, in the only trial so far to emerge from Robert Mueller's 'Russiagate' probe.

Manafort found himself in special counsel's crosshairs as the manager of President Donald Trump's campaign between March and August 2016, but the bank fraud, tax fraud and failure to declare a foreign bank account - the eight charges on which he was found guilty last August in a federal court in Virginia - have nothing to do with the 2016 presidential election, and everything to do with Manafort's lobbying activities in Ukraine.

"He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government," Judge T.S. Ellis III told the courtroom on Thursday.

After lengthy consultations with both prosecutors and defense, Ellis said that Manafort "lived an otherwise blameless life," so the sentence requested by prosecutors was "excessive." His final verdict, which came around 7 pm local time, was 47 months - just short of four years - and a $50,000 fine. Manafort was also told to pay $24.8 million in restitution.
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Pirates

Syrian War report: Army delivers massive strike on terrorist infrastructure as ISIS cells re-emerge


South Front
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
TIP TurkistanIslamicParty
© People's Daily Online
East Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) Turkistan Islamic Party is a separatist organization founded in 1989 by Uygur militants in western China.
On March 6, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) delivered a massive rocket strike on positions of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Jisr al-Shughur in the northwestern part of Idlib province. This was the first such strike in this area in five months. The strike reportedly came in response to the recent increase in militant shelling of government-held areas in northwestern Hama, which has been causing civilian casualties on a regular basis.

Separately, the SAA carried out a rocket strike on the headquarters of Jaysh al-Izza near the town of Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib. The HQ was fully destroyed and 7 militants, including the group's prominent field commander Majid al-Said, were eliminated.

Jaysh al-Izza is one of the key allies of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) in northern Hama and southern Idlib. Despite this, mainstream media outlets describe it as a moderate opposition group. At various different times during the war, Jaysh al-Izza was receiving supports from the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

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Airplane

Suspected: US deploys Avenger drones to Syria for mystery missions


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 12:59 UTC
DroneMoon
© P Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Earlier, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed to have hacked into over half a dozen US drones flying over Syria and Iraq in recent years.

"A certain government agency" has been flying missions in Syria using the Q-11, a variant of the General Atomics Avenger drone also known as the Predator C, The Drive has reported, citing statements by the drone's manufacturer.

"We know for a fact that a handful of Avengers are flying under some classified umbrella for a certain government agency and that they have been active in the Middle East, and Syria, in particular," the outlet alleged.


Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

Treacherous Mike Cohen is suing Trump Organization, wants it to pay legal fees

Jim Mustian
Yahoo
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
M. Cohen
© Getty Images
Michael Cohen arriving to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.
President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming the Trump Organization broke a promise to pay his legal bills and owes at least $1.9 million to cover the cost of his defense.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York state court, claims the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen's mounting legal fees after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Trump's business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life. It alleges breach of contract and seeks damages on Cohen's behalf.

Messages seeking comment have been left with the Trump Organization.


Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Netanyahu: Israeli Navy prepared to 'block' Iranian oil transit

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:05 UTC
Iranian tanker
© Kuwait Times
Iranian oil tanker
Short of last month's incident wherein Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared via Twitter that he's seeking "war with Iran", new comments issued this week represent the most aggressive declaration of how far Israel is willing to go to thwart Iran in the region.

Echoing the Trump administration's desire to bring Iranian exports to zero through sanctions, Netatyahu said on Wednesday that he's considering ordering Israel's Navy to target Iranian oil tankers to prevent them from selling oil abroad. This as a number of other signatories to the P5+1 nuclear deal have vowed to continue buying despite US sanctions and threatened repercussions from Washington.

"Iran is trying to circumvent the sanctions through covert oil smuggling over maritime routes, and to the extent that these attempts widen, the navy will have a more important role in blocking these Iranian actions," Netanyahu said.

Of course what the Israeli prime minister calls "covert oil smuggling" Iran would see simply as its right to conduct valid and legal shipping as a sovereign economic power. But given the tightening economic noose and expansive US naval presence in international waters, Iran has reportedly been switching off location transponders on its ships as well as other measures to conceal its maritime traffic (using "ghost ships" to flout US sanctions), including even altering names of ships or flag registries.

Comment: See also:

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