If these fools want to continue the fight they will be turned into hamburger.

Am I concerned about the innocent civilians? 

Not in the least, it’s a matter of killing them now or killing them later. 

File photo: United States Air Force

As long as they follow the cult of Islam they will continue to die.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

The Long War Journal

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

To be filed under: Once you saw them now you don’t.  Israel bombs Syrian chemical weapons factories.

You have to love the ignorant followers of Mohammed.  When they aren’t busy killing Christians and Jews, the keep their skills sharp by killing each other.

In this case chemical weapons against fellow Jihadists, all in the name of love and peace.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

The Long War Journal

Threat Matrix

By David Barnett

It’s not often you can find a ten second tutorial that can get the essence of a language down at one sitting.   I’m very happy to have found this for you.

I’ve always gotten a charge when people wax on about Islams contributions to the sciences in modern-day.

It appears in Dubai they have blown it big time.

Could there be no better example that their engineers have shit for brains than displayed in the video below?

In  Dubai, they forgot one “LITTLE”  thing…!!!

 
The two-minute  video below passes a line of poop trucks and never gets to  the end of the line. What were these  people thinking?

 
An unbelievable  amount of sewage is generated by the new high-rises and  there is no place to dispose of it. Camel sense seems  about right!
 
Dubai doesn’t have  a sewage system for all those big new buildings so they  haul it all away in tank trucks.

Look at the number  of tank trucks that are waiting to dump their  load.

This is  amazing. They wait for days  to dump their load.

You would have  thought that by building all those huge skyscrapers they would have enough sense to put in a sufficient sewage  system to haul away all that crap.
 
You would imagine  that those building that look amazingly beautiful were  built on a well-planned system of utilities.

That’s why I guess some call them sheet heads?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

It matters not what the label is, Islam as practiced in  “Sand lands,” of the third world in the Middle East and Africa is but a cult. 

It’s followers have been so brainwashed that the take the rantings of Mohammed a man who could nether read nor write as their gospel.

Suppose anything may have been lost in the translation?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

What motives lay behind last month’s Boston Marathon bombing and the would-be attack on a VIA Rail Canada train?

Daniel Pipes

National Review

Leftists and establishmentarians variously offer imprecise and tired replies – such as “violent extremism” or anger at Western imperialism – unworthy of serious discussion. Conservatives, in contrast, engage in a lively and serious debate among themselves: some say Islam the religion provides motive, others say it’s a modern extremist variant of the religion, known as radical Islam or Islamism.

As a participant in the latter debate, here’s my argument for focusing on Islamism.

Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, completed in 972, represents one height of Muslim culture.

Those focusing on Islam itself as the problem (such as ex-Muslims like Wafa Sultan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali) point to the consistency from Muhammad’s life and the contents of the Koran and Hadith to current Muslim practice. Agreeing with Geert Wilders’ film Fitna, they point to striking continuities between Koranic verses and jihad actions. They quote Islamic scriptures to establish the centrality of Muslim supremacism, jihad, and misogyny, concluding that a moderate form of Islam is impossible. They point to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan‘s deriding the very idea of a moderate Islam. Their killer question is, “Was Muhammad a Muslim or an Islamist?” They contend that we who blame Islamism do so out of political correctness or cowardliness.

To which, we reply: Yes, certain continuities do exist; and Islamists definitely follow the Koran and Hadith literally. Moderate Muslims exist but lack Islamists’ near-hegemonic power. Erdoğan’s denial of moderate Islam points to a curious overlap between Islamism and the anti-Islam viewpoint. Muhammad was a plain Muslim, not an Islamist, for the latter concept dates back only to the 1920s. And no, we are not cowardly but offer our true analysis.

And that analysis goes like this:

Islam is the fourteen-century-old faith of a billion-plus believers that includes everyone from quietist Sufis to violent jihadis. Muslims achieved remarkable military, economic, and cultural success between roughly 600 and 1200 c.e. Being a Muslim then meant belonging to a winning team, a fact that broadly inspired Muslims to associate their faith with mundane success. Those memories of medieval glory remain not just alive but central to believers’ confidence in Islam and in themselves as Muslims.

The modern Muslim trauma begins: Napoleon at the Battle of the Pyramids, 1798, as imagined by Antoine-Jean Gros.

Major dissonance began around 1800, when Muslims unexpectedly lost wars, markets, and cultural leadership to Western Europeans. It continues today, as Muslims bunch toward the bottom of nearly every index of achievement. This shift has caused massive confusion and anger. What went wrong, why did God seemingly abandon His faithful? The unbearable divergence between premodern accomplishment and modern failure brought about trauma.

Muslims have responded to this crisis in three main ways. Secularists want Muslims to ditch the Shari’a (Islamic law) and emulate the West. Apologists also emulate the West but pretend that in doing so they are following the Shari’a. Islamists reject the West in favor of a retrograde and full application of the Shari’a. (Entire Article Below)

Bernard Lewis published a book in 2001 titled What Went Wrong.

Islamists loathe the West because of its being tantamount to Christendom, the historic archenemy, and its vast influence over Muslims. Islamism inspires a drive to reject, defeat, and subjugate Western civilization. Despite this urge, Islamists absorb Western influences, including the concept of ideology. Indeed, Islamism represents the transformation of Islamic faith into a political ideology. Islamism accurately indicates an Islamic-flavored version of radical utopianism, an -ism like other -isms, comparable to fascism and communism. Aping those two movements, for example, Islamism relies heavily on conspiracy theories to interpret the world, on the state to advance its ambitions, and on brutal means to attain its goals.

Supported by 10-15 percent of Muslims, Islamism draws on devoted and skilled cadres who have an impact far beyond their limited numbers. It poses the threat to civilized life in Iran, Egypt, and not just on the streets of Boston but also in Western schools, parliaments, and courtrooms.

Our killer question is “How do you propose to defeat Islamism?” Those who make all Islam their enemy not only succumb to a simplistic and essentialist illusion but they lack any mechanism to defeat it. We who focus on Islamism see World War II and the Cold War as models for subduing the third totalitarianism. We understand that radical Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution. We work with anti-Islamist Muslims to vanquish a common scourge. We will triumph over this new variant of barbarism so that a modern form of Islam can emerge.

Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum.

Related Topics:  Islam, Radical Islam receive the latest by email: subscribe to daniel pipes’ free mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

It’s clearly impossible to make fun of Muslim who have been brainwashed by a seventh-century pedophile who went by the name of MO.

You have to be pretty twisted to blow yourself up in the hope of getting it on with Helen Thomas and her 71 twin sisters.
 
Subject: Investment Opportunity
       
 
A British Engineer just started a business in Afghanistan.

He’s making land mines that look like prayer mats.

It’s doing well. He says prophets are going through the roof.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.
 

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

Slavery  and the sex trade has been no stranger to Arab/Muslim countries.  Though it was outlawed internationally it still persists today. 

Alicia Gali

“Abandoned” (her story and video here)

With Dubai emerging as a major stopover point for long haul journeys, five hundred flights a month will deliver over one million of us to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the next year.
Dubai is being promoted as a luxury high-class paradise in the desert, but the reality is brutally different, as Australian Alicia Gali discovered. Gali took a job in the UAE with one of the world’s biggest hotel chains, Starwood. What happened next makes this story a must-watch for every Australian planning on travelling through the region.

Gali was using her laptop in the hotel’s staff bar when her drink was spiked. She awoke to a nightmare beyond belief: she had been savagely raped by three of her colleagues.

Alone and frightened, she took herself to hospital. What Alicia didn’t know is that under the UAE’s strict sharia laws, if the perpetrator does not confess, a rape cannot be convicted without four adult Muslim male witnesses. She was charged with having illicit sex outside marriage, and thrown in a filthy jail cell for eight months. Entire article below.

In fact, David Livingstone wrote of the slave trades:

“To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility…. We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. [Onlookers] said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer.

We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead…. We came upon a man dead from starvation…. The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves.”

Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the slave markets of Zanzibar.^] Zanzibar was once East Africa’s main slave-trading port, and under Omani Arabs in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the city each year.

Prior to the 16th century, the bulk of slaves exported from Africa were shipped from East Africa to the Arabian peninsula. Zanzibar became a leading port in this trade. Arab slave traders differed from European ones in that they would often conduct raiding expeditions themselves, sometimes penetrating deep into the continent. They also differed in that their market greatly preferred the purchase of female slaves over male ones.

As the West’s power diminishes and the sharia spreads, expect these horrible stories to become even more frequent. Any Western girl who goes to a Muslim country is taking her life in her hands. This happened in the moderate UAE.

Countries as twisted as those who believe in the cult of Islam would not find it difficult to enter into the sex trafficking business.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I ‘m J.C. and I approve this message.

Comments by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

Followers of Islam in the third world are typically Muslims who have been brain washed into believing there is but one law, the will of Allah.

Perhaps these followers of the 7th Century pedophile might ask themselves, if Allah is so wonderful and merciful why do we live in the dung holes of the world?

Are Muslim women treated lower that animals because this is the religion of truth and love and forgiveness or is it nothing more that a  cult.

Remember, Only false prophets feel the need to kill in order to spread their faith.

1389 Blog The Counter Jihad Bl0g

One of the best blogs at uncovering the evils of Islam

What’s behind the burqa? Too often—as British law enforcement and other international authorities have had to find out the hard way—it isn’t even a woman. Burqas have been worn to facilitate violent robberies, jail escapes, evade airport security checks and numerous other legal dodges.

It’s not just men who have purposefully employed this ruse. The case of Carnita Matthews centered on her false accusations that, during a routine traffic stop, an Australian police officer attempted to tear off the burqa she was wearing.

Vehicle-based video camera recordings supported the officer’s denial of her charges. After being convicted of making a deliberately false statement, Matthews successfully appealed by claiming that the court could not prove whether she was the person who appeared in full burqa during the hearing.

This appeal went through, despite the existence of a written statement that was shown to be in her hand. This cynical manipulation of Western legal systems by Muslims is emblematic of how Islam “weaponizes” the benign traditions and practices of civilized societies.

Some Western nations are catching on to this chicanery. Canada now requires that women must remove any facial coverings when reciting their oath of citizenship. Ostensibly, this is to make sure that they are actually speaking the words.

Not much ink is devoted to concerns about someone else showing up in full burqa and falsely receiving naturalization. Equally disappointing is how Canada’s high court recently ruled in favor of Muslim women being able to testify in court while keeping their faces covered.

Most ironic of all is that Muslim women pay the biggest price for wearing such coverings. Not only is there a resurgence of rickets—a bone disease related to vitamin D deficiency that is linked with inadequate exposure to sunlight which allows the skin to synthesize this vital nutrient—but shari’a law that mandates the equivalent of body bags for Muslim women can get them killed.

This was what happened in Saudi Arabia where the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice fields “religious police” known as the mutawa or (plural) mutaween (or, mutawwa’in). They patrol the streets with whips and rods looking for women who are wearing excessive eyeliner or displaying too much ankle. Transgressors are beaten or whipped on the spot. Do not underestimate the power of the mutaween. They were at the center of a major scandal in 2002 involving a devastating fire at the Mecca Intermediate School No. 31 for girls. In this case, young girls fleeing the all-woman staffed facility—a unique feature that allowed the pupils to uncover during classes—had not donned their head scarves and were pushed back into the burning building by the mutaween, who then interfered with desperate parents, local residents and even responding emergency services personnel. Evidently, the risk of having men’s minds being polluted by the sight of uncovered female flesh far outweighed any need for a speedy rescue. Those who did manage to flee the blaze were beaten on the spot for being uncovered. Some 15 young women perished, five of them died of burns while ten others were crushed to death in the chaotic evacuation and another 50 were injured.

In a ground breaking and unprecedented move, the mutaween were criticized. Yes, you read that correctly. No charges of involuntary manslaughter or child endangerment were filed, these sanctimonious prigs were merely criticized.

So, Muslim women can end up paying the ultimate price for this prudish nonsense. To give some perspective with regard to just how warped the mutaween can be, consider this recent case. Omar Borkan Al Gala, a poet, actor and internet personality from the UAE (United Arab Emirates), was forcibly removed from a Riyadh culture festival and deported for being “too handsome”. Evidently, the religious police felt that his good looks would “drive women to distraction”.

There immediately springs to mind two separate issues, both involving psychological projection. The first impression being that there is a distinct undercurrent of homoerotic transposition involved. Despite it’s reputation for being violently anti-gay, Islam’s policy of purdah—the confinement of women—is responsible for a large portion of homosexual activity in Muslim nations. Afghanistan’s bacha bazi boys.Y

Fast forward to 3.54 to see this nonsense.  Homosexuality is a violation of Islam, those how chose this life style must be hung or burned to death after digging their own grave.

The adult male is “certainly not a homosexual, he must return the young boy from age 7 before he is 18 so he can receive his just demise.

oung males dressed as girl dancers that are auctioned off to the viewing audience afterwards—and the Taliban’s set of thirty rules of which number nineteen prohibits fighters from taking young boys without facial hair into their private quarters are prime examples of the unadmitted homosexuality that goes on, even in the most puritanical Islamic nations.

The second issue of psychological projection lies in how Muslim women must go about covered lest Muslim men become inflamed by their exposed flesh and be led into wrongdoing. First of all, this presumes that all Muslim men have such inadequate impulse control that they will commit sexual assault at the slightest temptation. To likewise map such moral weakness onto Muslim women who are subject to far greater behavioral constraints is a serious instance of projection.

Finally, there is a significant question that arises from Muslim women who wear the niqab or burqa in Western countries. The wearing of such garb is a tacit, yet overt, protest to other women going about uncovered. If Muslims find skimpy attire so objectionable, why on earth have they come to a place where it is so widespread? Likewise with so many other common Western practices like public displays of affection or coed swimming, dancing and education. What is the meaning of taking up residence where a vast majority of the local population will be one endless source of affront?

The only context in which this makes any sense is the same one that explains why Muslims come to countries where they have absolutely no intention of integrating into the surrounding society. People who settle in foreign countries and yet adamantly refuse to assimilate into that nation’s culture are not immigrants, they are colonists.

That is what lies behind the burqa.

Muslims in the West who insist upon wearing body coverings are making an unmistakable statement that they are here to supplant our dominant culture. Out of respect for our own hard won heritage and traditions, such people should not be allowed to set foot on Western soil.

Bummer, these fools were seeking martyrdom?

Some one should have told them.

The only good jihadist is a dead jihadist.

The Long War Journal

Members of al Qaeda’s Shumukh al Islam forum announced on May 4 that four Egyptian jihadists died in a “martyrdom-seeking” operation in Mali, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. One of the Egyptians, Abu Obeida Sharif Khattab, had previously appeared in videos with Mohammed al Zawahiri, the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri.

Abu Obeida al-Maghribi, here today gone tomorrow.  They just seem to “blow up” so quickly don’ they?

The Shumukh al Islam forum participants apparently did not provide any details of the attack. The same day as their announcement, however, four terrorists were killed during an attack near Gao, which is where Khattab died. Two Malian soldiers were killed and several others were wounded.

The Malian army said that a suspicious individual riding a motorcycle was at first stopped. Three militants in a car then opened fire on the Malian soldiers, according to the Associated Press. “That was when the jihadist on the motorcycle set off the bomb that he was wearing,” explained Lieutenant Colonel Souleymane Maiga, who heads public relations for the Malian army.

Sharif Khattab was a member of Shumukh al Islam who posted as “Abu Obeida al-Maghribi,” according to his fellow forum members. Khattab had tried to join the jihad in the Sinai, Yemen, and Iraq, but was unsuccessful. One member of the forum said that Khattab did make his way to Libya after being released from prison. It is not clear why Khattab was imprisoned.

“After Allah graced him with coming out of the apostate prisons, and the market of jihad opened in Libya, he quickly went there, and Allah did not will that he complete his journey there,” a forum member posted. “Then he returned with his determination higher and his longing for jihad increased, until Allah destined him to emigrate.”

“After the French invasion of the new home of Islam in Azawad, our brother fought a fight deserving of praise from his brothers, until he was granted martyrdom,” another forum member wrote, according to SITE’s translation.

Two videos with Mohammed al Zawahiri

Before achieving his “martyrdom” in Mali, Sharif Khattab appeared in at least two videos with Mohammed al Zawahiri, who leads the Salafi Jihadist Movement in Egypt. One of the videos was posted as part of a montage on Shumukh al Islam. The other video was produced by Al Faroq Media, an Egyptian jihadist propaganda outlet that is openly pro-al Qaeda and regularly promotes the younger Zawahiri’s work.

The video montage spliced together images of Khattab with pictures of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s black flag. The video shows Khattab after he was released from prison. Mohammed al Zawahiri is standing behind him with a hand on Khattab’s shoulder.

Abu Obeida Sharif Khattab is in the middle, squatting. The man in grey with his hand on Khattab’s right shoulder is Mohammed al Zawahiri. This photo was taken after Khattab was released from prison. Courtesy of the SITE Intelligence Group.

The Al Faroq Media video shows several shots of Khattab with Mohammed al Zawahiri and Zawahiri’s inner circle. One shot, captured by SITE, shows Khattab standing in front of Zawahiri as he walks arm and arm with Sheikh Adel Shehato. Like Mohammed al Zawahiri, Shehato was an Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) leader who was imprisoned by Hosni Mubarak.

Abu Obeida Sharif Khattab can be seen in the lower left foreground of this photo. Mohammed al Zawahiri is in the middle. To Zawahiri’s left is Sheikh Adel Shehato.

After Mubarak’s fall from power, both the younger Zawahiri and Shehato were released from prison. Shehato was subsequently arrested by Egyptian authorities and charged with being a leader of the so-called Nasr City cell, which has numerous ties to al Qaeda. The Nasr City cell was reportedly planning terrorist attacks inside Egypt and also had ties to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. [For more on Shehato, see LWJ reports, Egypt arrests pro-al Qaeda jihadist tied to Benghazi suspect and Old school Egyptian jihadists linked to 9/11 Cairo protest, Benghazi suspect.]

Another scene from the Al Faroq video shows Khattab sitting with Zawahiri, Shehato and Murjan Salim, who also served in the EIJ. Salim was the head of the EIJ’s Sharia committee and reportedly served in other roles as well.

Mohammed al Zawahiri is in the middle of this screen shot. To Zawahiri’s left is Murjan Salim, who can only be partially seen because Khattab is kneeling in front of him.

The longtime head of the EIJ is Ayman al Zawahiri, who merged his organization with al Qaeda and succeeded bin Laden as the terror network’s head after the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In post-Mubarak Egypt, many of Ayman al Zawahiri’s EIJ subordinates, who are brazenly pro-al Qaeda, operate in the open. More below.

The Al Faroq video featuring the EIJ leaders and Khattab has been used by As Sahab, al Qaeda’s official media arm, in its video productions.Mohammed al Zawahiri and his compatriots have repeatedly denounced France’s intervention in Mali. In January, Zawahiri led a protest in front of the French Embassy in Cairo. Pictures of Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden were featured on banners hung outside the embassy. [See LWJ report, Mohammed al Zawahiri threatens West, condemns Mali intervention.]During the protest, Mohammed al Zawahiri threatened the West and called on Muslims to support the jihadists in Mali.

“As Muslims, and not only Salafist Jihadists, we must do everything we can. He among us who can speak will speak, he who can act with his hands will also,” Zawahiri said. “This is aggression. Will I stay quiet as someone comes to attack and kill me? That is unreasonable and unacceptable. France lit the fire, it started the war and if this continues the first to burn will be Western people.”

Abu Obeida Sharif Khattab heeded Zawahiri’s call to action.

Let’s be very clear, Muslims in the third world have been hijacked by Islam. 

Those who follow the teachings of Mohammed the Seventh Century prophet who could neither read or write and among other things was a pedophile need a serious debriefing.  

Another thing I find absurd, is the fact when Muslims come to their host countries  most refuse to assimilate and they begin demanding the host accommodate their traditions. 

Let Pakistan have all the democratic elections they like. In the end Islam and Sharia are incompatible with a 21st Century and culture.

You may purchase here.

Written by my good friend Mano Bakh, who escaped Iran with his immediate family during Jimmy Carter’s Iranian Revolution. 

Remember, “Only false prophets feel the need to kill in order to spread their faith.”~ Mano Bakh and where Islam spreads freedom dies.

It’s the very nature of the beast.

Summary

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif listen to his address during an election campaign meeting on May 7 in Rawalpindi

Pakistan will hold parliamentary elections May 11 – the first vote held after a democratically elected government completed its five-year constitutional term. This democratic consolidation comes as the country faces the worst crisis since the secession of East Pakistan in the form of a ferocious jihadist insurgency. The vote comes amid economic difficulties and a major wave of jihadist attacks designed to undermine the democratic process targeting both secular and Islamist politicians campaigning for office. It is also the first election in which the emergence of a third national force, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, is seen as highly likely.

To the extent that opinion polls can be relied upon, the election will produce a much more fragmented legislature than the outgoing one, but conservative right-wing nationalist forces will dominate the new legislature. Regardless of its composition, the next coalition government will be tackling two core issues: security and the economy. Its policies will be greatly influenced by the regional security environment being shaped by the drawdown of NATO troops from neighboring Afghanistan.

Analysis

Pakistan was founded as a sovereign nation-state in 1947 when British-ruled India was partitioned. Its first years were marred by unstable civilian governments manipulated by civilian bureaucrats — a period that ended in 1958 when the country’s first coup established the military regime led by Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who remained in power until 1969. The state as it exists today, however, was the result of its first free and fair elections held by the country’s second military regime in 1970.  Complete analysis below.

The outcome of that election polarized the country’s eastern and western regions geographically separated by India. The Bengali ethno-nationalist party, the Awami League, based in East Pakistan, swept the polls but was not allowed to form a government by the West Pakistan-based military regime, which opposed the party’s separatist agenda. The political struggle quickly turned into a civil war, which in late 1971 turned into the third Indo-Pakistani war after New Delhi intervened militarily on the side of the Bengali separatists. Less than a month later, the eastern wing seceded to become the independent country of Bangladesh after the defeat of Pakistani troops.

Image: Pakistan with Islamabad, Quetta, Lahore, Multan and Karachi

Within days of the end of the war, Pakistan’s military ruler, Gen. Yahya Khan, resigned and handed power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party, which had come in second place in the 1970 election. Three years later, the Bhutto government crafted the country’s first constitution, which has been the basis for the eight elections held since then.

Past Elections

The elections held in 1977, which gave the ruling Pakistan People’s Party an overwhelming majority, were marred by allegations of systematic electoral fraud and mass unrest organized by the opposition, which allowed the army to reassert itself through the third military regime led by Gen. Muhammud Zia-ul-Haq. The Zia regime — which also lasted 11 years — organized the second election in 1985, in which only individuals — not parties — were allowed to run. The opposition boycotted this election, and in May 1988 the military dictator dismissed the legislature that resulted from the vote after he developed differences with the elected officials. Zia’s death in a mysterious plane crash three months later ushered in an era of civilian governance during which three elections were held in quick succession (1988, 1990 and 1993) that produced short-lived weak coalition governments led either by the Pakistan People’s Party or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

The government that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz formed after the sixth election in 1997 was the first one to have a two-thirds majority but was overthrown by the country’s last military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the country’s fourth military coup in 1999. The Musharraf regime organized the seventh election in 2002 after considerable constitutional engineering, which resulted in the newly formed pro-military faction of the Pakistan Muslim League and an Islamist alliance taking the bulk of the seats (with the exception of the manipulated 2002 vote, Islamist parties have never managed to win more than a handful of seats).

The last election was held in early 2008, less than three months after Musharraf was forced to step down as army chief in the wake of a democratic uprising. Once again the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won the largest number of seats, with the former leading a coalition government at the federal level and the latter taking control of the government in the core province of Punjab. This arrangement proved to be durable — marking the first time in Pakistan’s history that a parliament completed its full five-year constitutional term.

First Democratic Transition and Beyond

The 2013 parliamentary elections thus represent the first time that the country will undergo a democratic transition of power. This consolidation comes amid Pakistan’s largest crisis in decades. In the nearly 12 years since the United States invaded neighboring Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks, Islamabad has seen its writ being eroded by an insurgency waged by Pakistani Taliban rebels who, unlike their Afghan counterparts, subscribe to the transnational jihadism of al Qaeda.

The security situation has compounded the country’s chronic economic problems caused by instability, rampant corruption and political economic mismanagement. Making matters worse is the near collapse of the country’s power and energy sectors, which has eroded industrial output and other commercial activity to dangerous levels. In turn, these economic conditions continue to fuel lawlessness and public dissatisfaction, especially with the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party government, which despite being able to complete its five-year term, has been unable to deliver on issues of governance.

It is this national disillusionment with the traditional political parties that has allowed for the recent rise of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as a potential third force. Though it has made huge waves among the public in the past 18 months, the May 11 election will be a litmus test of the party’s ability to make inroads into the rural areas, where the bulk of Pakistanis live and which are traditional strongholds of the national and regional parties.

As the leader of the previous coalition government, the Pakistan People’s Party is expected to suffer major losses in the elections. Its traditional rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (which governed the country’s core Punjab province during the last five years), as several recent opinion polls show, is expected to make a strong showing. In many ways, the contest is between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf — both right-wing forces. While Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf supporters see it as the harbinger of genuine change, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has the benefit of experience. During its previous stints in power, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was seen as having managed the economy better than the Pakistan People’s Party, given that its leadership, the Sharif clan, is a major entrepreneurial family.

Adding to the uncertainty of the outcome is the fact that several regional parties based in the other three provinces — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan — will also win seats. The other and more unusual factor is the wave of attacks from jihadists (political violence is not unheard of in Pakistan, but this is the first time that jihadists have tried to sabotage an election in such an organized manner). The jihadists are trying to prevent the maturing of Pakistani democracy, which is a threat to their plans to turn the country into a launchpad for a global caliphate. They are eyeing the NATO drawdown as an opportunity to enhance their regional influence, and political stability in Pakistan would hamper their ambitions.

Security and Economy

In fact, the biggest item on the next government’s agenda will be how to deal with the domestic insurgency and manage the drawdown of Western forces, especially since talks between Washington and the Afghan Taliban have failed to make headway. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf have said that they will focus on negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban rebels. It is not clear how that can be accomplished, since the Pakistani jihadists have an agenda that contradicts the constitution of the country.

At best, such negotiations could lead to a cease-fire, because both the jihadists and the government have an interest in a truce. This could give the government a much-needed respite to focus on the economy, which former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party has identified as its main tool for tackling religious extremism and terrorism. A top Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz leader, Pervaiz Rashid, was quoted in a May 3 Wall Street Journal report as saying that his party’s first priority is to fast-track the country toward economic development, without which security issues cannot be handled.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf has also promised to implement policies that would overhaul the political system in a revolutionary way. Both Khan and Sharif in their own ways have been pushing a “Save Pakistan” mantra. There is a realization within the country that if democracy does not lead to economic revival, circumstances would feed the growing public disillusionment with democratic governance, especially given the performance of the democratically elected Pakistan People’s Party-led government during the past five years.

It is this latent sentiment that the Taliban hope to exploit to further their radical Islamist agenda. Therefore, the next government will be under pressure to deliver for reasons beyond self-interest and re-election. There is a considerable danger that without economic revival the country’s fragile democratic system could be undermined, leading to revolutionary conditions that the jihadists would be able to exploit and thereby undermine an already weakened state.

In the immediate term, though, the Taliban rebels will want to take advantage of a pause in military offensives in order to rebuild themselves. This means that any truce will be short-lived because the Pakistani government cannot allow the Taliban rebels to revive themselves, especially in the wake of the post-2014 security environment in Afghanistan that Islamabad needs to manage and the jihadists would like to use as strategic depth against the state.

What makes a policy of negotiating with the jihadists even more difficult to implement is that the next parliament will be even more fragmented than the current one. Furthermore, the next government, despite the electoral rhetoric, will still need to negotiate its counter-jihadist plans with the United States. The next government will also preside over the appointment of a new army leadership, given that the current chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and many of his top three-star generals are due to retire in October. This complicates security policy, because both right-wing parties would like to see greater civilian control over the military. Thus, it is unlikely that the new government will be able to make much progress on the issue of domestic and regional security anytime soon.

Their rhetoric notwithstanding, both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf realize that tackling the security situation, especially as NATO is drawing down in Afghanistan, is at best a long-term effort. Therefore, the next government will likely try to focus on economic revival to the extent that the security circumstances will allow it. There is only so much economic activity that can take place in a country dealing with an insurgency, especially considering that the counterinsurgency efforts of the last seven years have been a huge drain on Pakistan’s existing financial resources.

I don’t know about you but I’m finding it difficult to get all emotional over this.

You just have to love rag head on rag head justice.

Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed and Sayed Mansour Mousavi

That being said I love to see it when rag heads take it out on themselves, being the natural born and bred killers that the are.

The Long War Journal

Threat Matrix

By David Barnett

They choose to mess with Israel, they will get their clock cleaned.

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

FoxNews

The Pentagon’s biggest bunker-busting bomb has been upgraded with one task in mind: taking out suspected Iranian nuclear facilities built deep under the mountains of the Islamic Republic’s northern region.

At 30,000 pounds, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator packs brute force and advanced features meant to enable it to destroy Iran’s most fortified nuclear site. The bomb is nearly a third bigger than the MOAB, or so-called “Mother of all Bombs,” the 22,000-pound previous generation of bunker busters first built in 2003 but never used outside of tests. Officials are confident the newest bunker-buster can dismantle even the deepest and most fortified nuclear facility.

“Hopefully we never have to use it.” a senior U.S. official familiar

“Hopefully we never have to use it,” a senior U.S. official familiar with the development of the new version told The Wall Street Journal. “But if we had to, it would work.”

The Pentagon redesigned the bomb with more advanced features intended to enable it to penetrate even deeper, giving it the ability to destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified and defended nuclear site. U.S. officials see development of the weapon as critical to convincing Israel that the U.S. has the ability to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb if diplomacy fails, and also that Israel’s military can’t do that on its own.

Entire article below.

American officials have shown Israeli military and civilian leaders secret Air Force video of an earlier version of the bomb hitting its target, according to diplomats who spoke to the newspaper. In the video, the weapon penetrating the ground within inches of its target, then detonates underground, according to people who have seen the footage.

The new and improved MOP, has adjusted fuses to maximize its burrowing power, upgraded guidance systems to improve its precision and high-tech equipment intended to allow it to evade Iranian air defenses in order to reach and destroy the Fordow nuclear enrichment complex, which is buried under a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom.

The upgraded MOP designed for Fordow hasn’t been dropped from a plane yet.

Iran’s Fordow Uranium Enrichment Facility, built under a mountain near the city of Qom, has long been seen as a nearly impenetrable target using conventional weapons. In January 2012, U.S. officials said didn’t think their largest bomb could penetrate the bunker where centrifuges enrich the material needed for nuclear bombs.

According to the website of defense contractor and maker Boeing, the MOP includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. It measures 20 feet long and is “designed specifically to attack hardened concrete bunkers and tunnel facilities.”

In March, Pentagon officials are spoke publicly about the MOP bombs, which are from Boeing and designed to fit exclusively with the B-2 and B-52 bombers, for the first time. The paper reports U.S. officials have demonstrated an earlier version of the bomb’s capabilities to Israeli leaders several times recently by showing them a video of the bomb hitting its target in high-altitude testing.

Pentagon officials view the development of the weapon as critical to convincing Israel it can rely on the U.S. to stop Iran from developing nukes, and that the Israeli military cannot do so on its own.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new version of the MOP has advanced components that would allow it to evade Iranian defense systems to reach the Fordow nuclear complex, which is by numerous accounts buried under a mountain in Iran. This upgraded version has not yet been dropped from a plane.

“It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy’s weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities… to a magnitude far greater than we have now,” Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said.

Kirby denied the bombs are designed to target Iran, even though it is the only country known to have buried its nuclear weapons program.

“The system is not aimed at any one country, it’s to develop a capability we believe we need,” Kirby said. That remark was met by audible groans and various comments of disbelief from the Pentagon press corps.

Boeing successfully tested the bomb on March 17, 2007 at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

Pentagon Spokesman George Little says the MOP is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-109. Some estimate it’s as much as 10 times more powerful.

The Pentagon says it has contracted for a total of 20 bombs from Boeing, some of which were delivered in the fall. But, for purposes of operational security it won’t disclose how many.

On August 2, 2011 the Air Force signed a contract for eight more, meaning it’s unlikely it has more than 12 bombs.

It may be the Muslim Way but they had best not mess with Israel.

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.

As Israel strikes the first allegedly male occupant of the Oval Office without testicles sits idly by wondering what to do.

Obama is a disgrace to America and the world.  Both will be better off when he is back in Kenya where he belongs. 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

The Long War Journal

By David Barnett

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck at least one target inside Syria between Thursday evening and Friday morning. US officials told NBC News on Friday that the target was likely “related to delivery systems for chemical weapons” that were destined for Hezbollah. On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles from Iran were struck at an airport in Damascus.

Press reports had originally suggested that a “building” or “warehouse,” and not a chemical weapons facility, was hit. According to the Wall Street Journal, “the US doesn’t believe Israel would target one of the Syrian regime’s many chemical weapons facilities” as “[t]here could be unintended consequences in hitting such a facility, including unleashing poisonous gas, or by allowing others to raid the damaged facility and steal the weapons.”

An attack on delivery systems is not surprising, however. As former Mossad operations officer Michael Ross noted in February, “The chemical weapons issue is important,” but “it is tangential to the overall issue of Israel’s enemies possessing long range missile capability and other advanced technological weapons systems. Stemming the flow and technological upgrade of these rockets and missiles is a top priority for Israel’s military and intelligence community.”

While Israeli officials have not taken official responsibility for the alleged strike, prior to the news breaking late on Friday evening, Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told CNN: “If the Syrian regime tries to transfer chemical weapons, or what we call game changing weaponry, to terrorist organizations, particularly to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel will not remain passive.” In addition, anonymous Israeli officials on Saturday said a raid had targeted a shipment of advanced missiles, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Entire article below.

Senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad denied the confirmation, however. “I don’t know what or who confirmed what, who are these sources? In my book only the IDF’s spokesperson unit is official,” Gilad said.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja’afari, denied knowledge of the attack, as he told Reuters, “I’m not aware of any attack right now.”

On Saturday evening, Damascus was rocked by a series of explosions [see video above]. Sources told Al Jazeera that “an Israeli jet broke the sound barrier and hit several military posts.” Reuters reported that Syrian state television claimed the target was the same research facility in Jamraya that Israel struck near to in late January. A senior US official confirmed Israel carried out the strike to NBC News.

The latest reported airstrikes are at least the second and third by the IAF in Syria since the start of the uprising against the regime of Bashar al Assad.

In late January, the IAF reportedly struck targets near the Scientific Studies and Research Center (Centre D’Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques) in Jamraya. According to reports, the IAF targeted a weapons convoy, which included Russian-made SA-17 antiaircraft missiles, near the facility.

Like the strike that occurred between Thursday and Friday, the January attack was reportedly carried out by Israeli aircraft that never actually entered Syrian air space.

While some reports of the January strike suggested that the SSRC facility itself was targeted and “flattened,” satellite imagery released on Feb. 6 revealed that the facility was relatively unscathed. The images did show a burnt road near the facility, possibly indicating the location of the Syrian weapons convoy when it was hit, however.

While Israel has not taken official responsibility for the January strike, then Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a conference in Munich on Feb. 3 that “I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago …. But I keep telling frankly that we said, and that is another proof that when we say something we mean it.” More recently, current Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon hinted that Israel was behind the January strike. “We have a clear red line with the Syrian regime and that is not to allow advanced weapons to be passed on to Hezbollah and other militant groups …. When they crossed a red line, we have acted,” Ya’alon said on April 22.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that they are prepared to act in Syria to prevent Hezbollah and other terror groups from obtaining advanced weaponry. In a recent interview with the BBC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We are prepared to defend ourselves if the need arises and I think people know that what I say is both measured and serious.”