Afghanistan Threat Assessment: The Taliban and ISIS as of November 22, 2016

Afghanistan Partial Threat Assessment: November 22, 2016 By Caitlin Forrest Taliban militants' military successes during their 2016 campaign, Operation Omari demonstrate requirements for U.S. policy in Afghanistan. The ANSF is incapable of securing major population centers like Lashkar Gah or Kunduz cities or increasing government-controlled territory without significant U.S. support. The ANSF remains highly dependent on current levels of U.S. support to regenerate units and secure government-controlled territory. Resolute Support Commander General John Nicholson stated on September 23 that the Afghan government controls or heavily influences 68- 70% of the population, and Taliban militants control 10% of the population, leaving roughly a quarter of the country contested. The continued expansion of ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan allows global extremist networks like al Qaeda and ISIS and their allies to carve out sanctuaries from which to target the U.S. and its national security interests.  The ANSF is incapable of recapturing significant swaths of Taliban-controlled territory at current levels of U.S. support. The Taliban offensive, Operation Omari is still underway as of November 23. The summer offensive transitioned into a new phase in September that ended when Taliban militants launched multiple concurrent offensives to seize four provincial capitals in October. The ANSF, with vital U.S. support, successfully prevented Taliban militants from capturing the provincial capitals of Helmand, Kunduz, Farah, and Uruzgan during this phase. Taliban militant offensives nevertheless subverted the ANSF's ability to seize territory from militants, allowing militants to expand their territorial control and threaten remote districts outside of major population centers. Operation Omari did not culminate in October and is continuing into its third phase. Militants have expanded control in remote areas of northern Sar-e Pul Province and threatened a district center in western Farah Province in November while the ANSF prepared to launch the second phase of their 2016 counteroffensive in the eastern provinces. Taliban militants will attempt to besiege provincial capitals in order to pin down the ANSF there through the winter.     U.S. training, assistance, and funding are essential to helping the ANSF weather the loss of combat effectiveness from high operational tempo, significant casualties, and degradation of unit cohesion. The ANSF will reportedly undergo a U.S.-led force regeneration during the upcoming 2016-2017 winter season after incurring high casualties and defections. This regeneration will limit the ANSF's ability to go on the offensive during this winter season. Taliban militants will take advantage of the ANSF's pause during regeneration to expand territorial control and launch ground offensives against district centers. Taliban militants previously launched an aggressive offensive over the 2015-2016 winter season in which they made significant gains in Helmand Province. They will likely attempt to repeat similar successes during the upcoming 2016-2017 winter season while the ANSF rests and refits units.  Meanwhile, spoilers are undermining the U.S.-backed Afghan National Unity Government, weakening its ability to secure the country. Northern warlord and First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum is attempting to integrate his personal militias with the ANSF, which would impede U.S. operations in northern Afghanistan. Separately, the lower house of Parliament has dismissed several cabinet members in votes of no confidence between November 12 and November 23, which followed the missed deadlines for a Constitutional Loya Jirga and Parliamentary elections in September and October. The National Unity Government is incapable of closing the readiness gaps of the ANSF in the face of these compounding challenges despite continued U.S. support. Taliban militants and extremist networks like al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Haqqani Network will exploit the security gaps created by the volatile political environment in Afghanistan in order to reconstitute sanctuaries from which to target the U.S., its allies, and its interests.        Read this update online    ISW will continue updating on the situation at www.understandingwar.org  as well as on our Twitter handle @TheStudyofWar ### The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization. ISW advances an informed understanding of military affairs through reliable research, trusted analysis, and innovative education. We are committed to improving the nation's ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve U.S. strategic objectives. Visit us at www.understandingwar.org.

Shameful Blindness

Shameful Blindness By Erick Erickson | Monday, November 28, 2016 It is impossible to take seriously any person who thinks Donald Trump is a threat to freedom and democracy when that same person mourns the loss of Fidel Castro. But that is what we are seeing from the American left. Read More...

Leading Pro-Palestine Communist Trains Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

Leading Pro-Palestine Communist Trains Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

Posted: 27 Nov 2016 06:14 AM PST

Trevor Loudon, New Zeal A seasoned Communist Party USA activist has been lending her revolutionary expertise to the often violent “peaceful protesters” seeking to permanently shut down the nearly completed and highly strategic...

Summary Only: Visit ConservativeRead.com for Full Story!

Obama Classified Number of Illegal Alien Muslim Migrants

Obama Classified Number of Illegal Alien Muslim Migrants

Posted: 27 Nov 2016 06:20 AM PST

Daniel Greenfield, Obama is big on making up his own laws and rules. He rules by executive order and he’s gotten into the truly illegal habit of unilaterally signing treaties with foreign governments. This is a very basic problem....

Summary Only: Visit ConservativeRead.com for Full Story!

Soeren Kern: A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Germany: October 2016 Burak Bekdil: Turkey: Child Rapists to Go Free, Journalists Not?

In this mailing: Soeren Kern: A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Germany: October 2016 Burak Bekdil: Turkey: Child Rapists to Go Free, Journalists Not? A Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Germany: October 2016 Child Marriage, No-go Zones, Gang Rapes by Soeren Kern  •  November 27, 2016 at 5:00 am Residents of Essen complained that police often refuse to respond to calls for help and begged city officials to restore order. One resident said: "I was born here and I do not feel safe anymore." City officials flatly rejected the complaints. The Sarah Nußbaum Haus, a kindergarten in Kassel, said that "because of the high proportion of Muslim children," and because of the different cultures of the children, the school was "renouncing" Christian rituals. During the first six months of 2016, more than 2,000 migrants who requested asylum were found to be carrying false passports, but German border control officers allowed them into the country anyway. Migrants with false papers could be linked to the Islamic State, security analysts warned. German President Joachim Gauck said he believed that Germany will eventually have a Muslim president. Muslims are attacking Christians at refugee shelters throughout Germany. "The religious minorities in refugee accommodations are now experiencing the same oppression prevalent in their countries of origin," according to the NGO Open Doors. The Federal Statistics Office reported that the birthrate in Germany reached the highest level in 33 years in 2015, boosted mainly by babies born to migrant women. A 49-year-old Syrian refugee in Rhineland-Palatinate is seeking social welfare benefits in Germany for his four wives and 23 children. This year's Munich Oktoberfest recorded its lowest turnout since 2001. Visitors reportedly stayed away due to concerns about terrorism and migrant-related sexual assaults. (Image source: Flickr/Sergey Zhaffsky) October 1. Two migrants raped a 23-year-old woman in Lüneburg as she was walking in a park with her young child. The men, who remain at large, forced the child to watch while they took turns assaulting the woman. October 2. A 19-year-old migrant raped a 90-year-old woman as she was leaving a church in downtown Düsseldorf. Police initially described the suspect as "a Southern European with North African roots." It later emerged that the man is a Moroccan with a Spanish passport. October 2. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble called for the development of a "German Islam" to help integrate Muslims in the country. In an opinion article published by Welt am Sonntag, he wrote: Continue Reading Article Turkey: Child Rapists to Go Free, Journalists Not? by Burak Bekdil  •  November 27, 2016 at 4:00 am The ruling Islamist party drafted a bill -- and then suspended it -- that would release about 3,000 men who married children, including men who raped them. In 2011, Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married "even if they are in the cradle." A senior Turkish judge mentioned a particular case in which three men kidnapped and raped a girl, then one of them married her and the sentences for all three were lifted. In 2015 alone, 18,033 female children gave birth, including 244 girls under 15. The number of recorded child abuse cases rose from 5,730 in 2005 to 16,957 in 2015. If the government had gone ahead with its plans, a 60-year-old man who married a 12-year-old girl through religious procedures, would benefit from the amnesty. Turkey's former President Abdullah Gul and his wife Hayrunnisa, pictured standing front and center at an August 2014 reception, married when she was 15 years old and he was 30. Turkey, officially, is the world's biggest jailer of journalists. But its ruling Islamist party has drafted a bill that would release about 3,000 men who married children, including men who raped them. Public uproar has only convinced the ruling conservative Muslim lawmakers to consider revising the bill. Continue Reading Article

Radioactive Nuclear Device Goes Missing From Iran’s Bushehr Reactor Sparking Concern

New post on Now The End Begins Radioactive Nuclear Device Goes Missing From Iran’s Bushehr Reactor Sparking Concern by Geoffrey Grider The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is concerned over a missing radioactive device from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor, Saudi-owned Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday. EDITOR'S NOTE: Remember all those interviews Obama gave bragging about how the nuclear treaty his administration negotiated with Iran "locked Iran" into "international scrutiny and control"? How he had all these things in place to "make sure Iran wouldn't have a nuclear weapon for 10 years"? On Thursday, a live, radioactive device was "stolen" from Iran's Bushehr Nuclear facility, and what "security measures" were activated as a result? None at all. They're not even talking about.  Aside from the security concerns, at the forefront in the GCC’s mind is what impact the radioactive device—wherever it may be today—could have on water supplies. According to the newspaper, the device went missing after the car transporting it was stolen. Thankfully, the vehicle was recovered, but the radioactive nuclear device was not so lucky. Iran's nuclear-powered era began on Obama's watch 6 years ago: The GCC has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the incident—both organizations are concerned that Iran’s nuclear program may pollute the waters in the Gulf, Asharq al-Awsat quoted GCC Emergency Management Center chairman, Adnan al-Tamimi, as saying. Most members of the GCC – which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman – desalinate sea water from the Gulf. If contamination from the device were to reach desalination stations, an already critical situation becomes even more critical. The missing device is set to lose half of its power after 74 days of inactivity, Tamimi said, noting that it still should be handled with care even after that period. Speaking to Asharq al-Awsat, the Arab official criticized Iran’s low security and safety levels at the Bushehr reactor, adding that the lack of Iranian transparency about its nuclear program adds further concerns and anxiousness for the Arab Gulf states. source Geoffrey Grider | November 27, 2016 at 10:34 am | Tags: bushehr, iran | URL: http://wp.me/p1kFP6-cit Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Now The End Begins. Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:  http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/radioactive-nuclear-device-goes-missing-irans-bushehr-reactor/

For those who served and/or died. . NEVER FORGIVE A TRAITOR. SHE REALLY WAS A TRAITOR!! And now President Obama wants to honor her!!!!

 

 

 

Jane Fonda was on 3 times this week talking about her new book. . .
And how good she feels in her 70's. She still does not know what she did wrong. . . Her book just may not make the bestseller list if more people knew. 

 

Barbara Walters said :
Thank you all.  Many died in Vietnam for our freedoms.  I did not like Jane Fonda then and I don't like her now.  She can lead her present life the way she wants and perhaps SHE can forget the past, but we DO NOT have to stand by without comment and see her "honored" as a "Woman of the Century." 
 
(I remember this well.)
 
For those who served and/or died. . NEVER FORGIVE A TRAITOR. SHE REALLY WAS A TRAITOR!!

 

And now President Obama wants to honor her!!!! 

In Memory of Lt. C. Thomsen Wieland, who spent 100 days at the Hanoi Hilton [infamous North Vietnam prison] -- IF YOU NEVER FORWARDED ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE. FORWARD THIS SO THAT EVERYONE WILL KNOW!
                       
A TRAITOR IS ABOUT TO BE H ONORED . 

 

This is for all the kids born in the 70's and after who do not remember, and didn't have to bear the burden that our fathers, mothers and older brothers and sisters had to bear. Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the "100 Women of the Century." 

 

Barbara Walters writes:
Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War. 
 
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat.  In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho LoPrison, the  "Hanoi Hilton."        
 
Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ's, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American "peace activist" the "lenient and humane treatment" he'd received. He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away.  During the subsequent beating, he fell forward onto the camp commandant 's feet, which sent that officer berserk. In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying career) from the Commandant's frenzied application of a wooden baton.

 

>From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E's). He spent 6 years in the "Hanoi   Hilton". . . The first three of which his family only knew he was "missing in action." His wife lived on faith that he was still alive.  His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and clothed routine in preparation for a "peace delegation" visit.They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they were alive and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of his hand.  When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: "Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?" and "Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?" Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.            

 

She took them all without missing a beat. . . At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of paper... Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that day. 

 

I was a civilian economic development adviser in Vietnam, and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years. I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia; and one year in a 'black box' in Hanoi.   My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Banme Thuot, South Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border.  At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.)

 

We were Jane Fonda's "war  criminals." When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her.  I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received. . . and how different it was from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as "humane and lenient." Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my arms outstretched with a large steel weight placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane. I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released.  I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV.  She never did answer me.

 

These first-hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of "100 Years of Great Women." Lest we forget. . . "100 Years of Great Women" should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots.There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them. Please take the time to forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up on her computer, and she needs to know that we will never forget.

 

RONALD D. SAMPSON, CMSgt,
USAF 716 Maintenance Squadron,     
Chief of Maintenance DSN: 875-6431 COMM: 883-6343
 
 
PLEASE HELP BY SENDING THIS TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.  IF ENOUGH PEOPLE SEE THIS MAYBE HER STATUS WILL CHANGE.

 

A lot of people are too young to remember the Jane Fonda debacle and may wonder why Obama is honoring her.