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What will it take to go after ISWAP enclaves in the Lake Chad region? These guys are building a freaking army !!. If we seriously want this war to end we have to create a buffer, isolate Boko Haram and keep them from having outside reinforcement of any kind.

 No amount of appeasement will force the Chadian government or their French overlords from denying ISWAP the use of their territory as a staging ground. They are just not interested in doing that. Not because they cant, but because it goes against their interest,
Think about it. In February 2019 a series of French airstrikes targeted a group of “mercenaries and terrorists” from Libya. French Mirage fighters struck a column of 40 vehicles that crossed into Chad from southern Libya.
French military said it got involved at the Chadian government’s request. Think about this for a minute. They obliterated a convoy of 40 pickup trucks of an armed group that had travelled from Libya and was “penetrating deep into Chadian territory.
I implore you to look up a map and see the incredible amount of distance required to carry out such an undertaken. The fighter jets, based at the N’Djamena, first carried out a “show of force” flying low over the convoy. The awestruck militants would have been wondering
where the hell they came from. However, the column continued despite the warning, and the French fighter jets carried out two airstrikes. FORTY convoys wiped out by Mirage jets. So here's the paradox. They destabilize Libya,
There’s instability in Libya. it’s full of terrorists. The terrorists are allowed to traverse the Sahel into northern Nigeria unmolested. But try that with Chad the French air force will come for you. The Union of Forces of Resistance (UFR) rebel group probably dont get it.
They cried after the strikes saying the French government must stop meddling in Chad’s “internal problems”, saying the strike had targeted its men. This guys are wasting their time. The French are there to protect the Derby regime at all cost. Democracy will not be tolerated.
Remember the Maskirovska pulled by Chad early this year where a group of Boko Haram fighters supposedly attacked a Chadian army base few kilometers away from French and American bases for NINE HOURS !! unmolested. 100 Chadian troops were killed. After which they took their time
carting away weapons, stacked them unto boats. Not speed boats. Paddle boats (canoes) and paddled away to safety to their sanctuaries in the Lac Province. And we we are all supposed to believe that is remotely possible. The French could stop rebels from Southern Libya,
pound the crap out of them for 3 consecutive days..but could only watch helpless as Boko Haram attacked an army base for nine straight hours. Idris Derby declared war. Dorned his army uniform. Called in tv crew to capture him leading his men. You cannot make this up lol
and embarked on a campaign of lies to embarrass the Nigerian government in the most undiplomatic of fashion. Calling press conferences complaining Chadian forces have occupied territory in Nigeria and asking the media to beg Nigeria to come occupy liberated territory so
they can leave. Drawing a fierce rebuttal from the usually silent Nigerian army. Remember the ''Whose champion are you'' phrase used by Army spokes man John Eneche.
Nigerians may have a hard time understanding the fact that Boko Harams stronghold is around Lake Chad, which lies primarily within Chadian territory. The area combines rich agriculture, pastoralism and fishing that helps the jihadi groups engage in commerce.
I can confidently say that until ISWAP/Boko Haram fighters are uprooted from the Lake Chad and denied sanctuary, it will be virtually impossible to end this war. No matter how much losses they suffer. They retire to their enclaves, restrartegize, re-arm and bounce back.
They can do this forever if they have to. The Chadian authorities can easily restrict economic activities of ISWAP on the territory. French and American forces can turn those enclaves into ashes. Its never going to happen. The onus is on Nigeria to say enough is enough.
In 2015, after scamming President Jonathan of $22 million dollars in a sham ceasefire and going into hiding, Boko Haram apparently went rogue on Chad and carried out two suicide bombings in the Chadian capital. The Chadian military carried out retaliatory airstrikes in Nigeria.
Without notifying Abuja the Chadian air force carried out air strikes on Boko Haram targets in Nigeria to avenge the twin suicide bombing. Citing the "cowardly and barbaric acts perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists", which killed 33 people in N'Djamena
....the Chadian government said that it had "carried out reprisal airstrikes on the terrorists' positions in Nigerian territory" . Six Boko Haram bases were destroyed in the air raids, which caused "considerable human and material losses. It didnt end there. When army spokesman
Olukolade came out and said the strike was part of an agreed framework between both countries, Idris Derby publicly denied notifying Abuja. He said the decision to strike was unilateral and Chad would continue its "merciless" pursuit of the insurgents "so that no drop of
Chadian blood spilt goes unpunished". Listen folks. What will give a man the confidence of, after sabotaging Nigeria's final offensive against BHT. Scam Abuja $22 million for the sham ceasefire, and run into hiding when Shekau resurfaced and denied talks of any ceasefire
France was privy of the fake ceasefire deal and said nothing..and then months later the Chadian military carry out unauthorize airstrikes on Nigerian soil and not only brag about it but threaten to do more.
But here we are years later. We know of ISWAP sanctuaries on Chadian territory. We know terrorist from all over converge on those islands to strategize. We know they smuggle arms into Nigeria from those bases. We have documented evidence of ISWAP running a mini republic.
We know they both turn a blind eye because a destabilized Nigeria is in their best interest. For Chad, access to oil rich Nigerian islands. For France, complete control of West Africa. We have the assets to carry out strikes on those enclaves. Yet we do NOTHING.
We have drones that fly higher and faster and can be used to perform surgical strikes on predetermined targets. The Nigerian army itself can occupy the entire Lake Chad island and create a buffer. We can use our economic leverage to force them to act. We do nothing.

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I have for the past one week been forced to put off tweets about weapons systems and focus instead on the international conspiracy. I thought today would be different. Apparently not. Media outlets are saying its time for Peace Talks with Boko Haram. Are these people for real?


If this is coming from some mediocre outlet one can easily disregarded. But when mainstream media is saying things like

''With options limited for fighting terrorists negotiations may be the best remaining alternative. How stupid of an idea is that? First of all Boko Haram

is not winning. Their goal of Islamizing Nigeria or set up a caliphate has clearly failed. The more cowardly attacks they mount against civilians the more obvious their desperation. They know they cannot hope to win. The number of jihadi groups fighting to overthrow

national governments and setup a state has grown steadily over the past decade. Sitting down with a murderous jihadi group that does not recognize or abide by the Geneva Convention is as good as recognizing and legitimizing them. Its that simple. I sincerely hope the Nigerian

government do not yield to these carefully planted ideas. Yesterday Amnesty received a $750,000 warchest. Today Nigerian media is talking about negotiating peace talks with a non state entity. Lemme try and explain the dynamic implications of sitting down with terrorist groups.
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Defense News Nigeria
Defense News Nigeria
@DefenseNigeria
Can anyone fathom out how weapons like this make their way into the hands of terrorists in Nigeria?


These weapons are in boxes marked with serial numbers. Where there are serial numbers there are invoices or receipts. Which means it was imported. This is worrisome and raise questions about where the terror groups are sourcing their heavy weapons.

Weapons proliferation was once linked to the fall of Gadaffi. Libya was at one point the main source of arms to terror groups on the continent. For those unaware of the dynamics ill give a brief explanation:

When NATO bombed the crap out of the Gadaffi regime in 2011, Libya lost control of a large part of the stockpile it had amassed in over 40 years. The CIA made several calls for ground troops to be deployed to secure Gadaffi's amoury from falling into the hand of rebel groups.

The French kicked against sending ground troops, saying it will give the impression Libya was under a NATO occupation, Its just not worth the political capital to do so. The CIA made this call TWICE and TWICE it was shut down. The logic was securing those sites
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Defense News Nigeria
Defense News Nigeria
@DefenseNigeria
ISWAP’s rapid rise, defying the military of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon is still poorly understood. Know why? Because it makes no sense. It defies logic. Boko Haram was on the verge of collapse. factions were killing each other. Fighters were surrendering en mass.


Suddenly we hear on TV ISIS now has a foothold in West Africa. How? In June 2014, when Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared a caliphate in the Levant, jihadist camps in Nigeria were abuzz with the news. Abubakar Shekau declared his own caliphate two months later in August.

At first communications challenge. This was when the Nigeria media was not in the business of broadcasting terrorist propaganda. Boko Haram lacked a stable internet connection. At that point, ISIS began giving Shekau advice on how to manage its communications, suggesting that it

use the messaging app Telegram, popular among jihadists due to heavy encryption instead of WhatsApp. So Boko Haram and ISIS began exchanged audios, videos, photos and documents about recent battles, internal organisation on a daily basis.

The back andforth was probably monitored by the CIA, because it was reported that Information gleamed from this back and forth chatter allowed the US to track him down and kill him in 2016 in an air strike in Syria.
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Defense News Nigeria
Defense News Nigeria
@DefenseNigeria
The army is doing a better job of fighting Boko Haram in the northeast, especially Borno state. The Islamic terrorists continue disrupting commerce in Borno state by attacking road traffic and occasionally even army bases. The army has set up a convoy system and even these


escorted convoys are attacked. Boko Haram continues to raid rural towns and villages for supplies and prisoners. The captured civilians are either convinced (if they are teenage boys) to join the fight or used as slaves. This was especially the case when Boko Haram took large

numbers of teenagers from rural boarding schools. Criminal gangs are now trying mass kidnapping and demanding ransoms.

Despite the heavy losses, the two major Boko Haram factions continue to operate, raise money and attract new recruits.

The larger faction is also called ISWAP and it is the cause of most of the violence near Lake Chad. The two factions have fought each other in the past but in the last two years appear to have established some form of ceasefire and an effort to stay out of each other’s way.

But there seem to be growing competition between various criminal groups. Boko Haram released a video showing some kidnapped boys and offered to negotiate. It turned out that Boko Haram was not involved but was trying to benefit from the incident before it was resolved.
WAR
Defense News Nigeria
Defense News Nigeria
@DefenseNigeria
Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day.


In Nigeria, Armed Forces Day, also known as Remembrance Day, is celebrated on January 15th. The day is marked with a Remembrance Day parade at the Cenotaph in Abuja and in the 36 state capitals. The ceremony includes a 21 gun salute, playing of the Last Post,


a minute's silence, laying of wreaths and release of pigeons to symbolise peace.

Officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces have fought in various wars and taken part in many peace keeping operations, defensive duties and internal security duties. These include

Wars including:

The First World War
The Second World War
The Nigerian Civil War

Peace keeping/enforcement operations in

The Congo
Tanzania
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Lebanon
Darfur
The former Yugoslavia
Mali

Defensive duties including

The Bamileke Rebellion
Chadian Invasion (1982/83)
The Bakassi Peninsula Territorial Dispute with Cameroon

Internal Security duties including

The Tiv Rebellion
The Western Region Crisis
The Niger Delta Crisis (1992-2009)
The Boko Haram Insurgency.
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Ahab Bdaiwi \u05d0\u05d9\u05d4\u05d0\u05d1\u05bc \u0710\u071d\u0717\u0710\u0712
Ahab Bdaiwi איהאבּ ܐܝܗ...
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Did the Prophet Muḥammad follow an Arabian religion or religiosity before Islam, that is, before what Muslim accounts label the "Call to Prophecy"? A short thread based on notes for an article preparation 1/

Biographical information about the life of Muḥammad before the Call to Prophecy is seriously lacking - even in the literary imaginations of later Muslim sources. But there are useful and relevant starting points which, if read critically, can add to our existing knowledge 2/

The best clue is found in the famous accounts recorded in the Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (Biography of the Messenger of God ) by the famous biographer Ibn Isḥāq (d. 767) - translated with additional notes (from Ibn Hishām; died 883) by Alfred Guillaume 3/


Ibn Isḥāq (in Ibn Hishām's recension) informs the reader that before the Call to Prophecy, Muḥammad used to sojourn (يُجَاوِرُ) on Mount Ḥirāʾ for a period of 30 days every year. During his meditative seclusion, Muḥammad would feed the poor & needy when they called on him 4/


The operative word in Ibn Hishām's biography is taḥannuth (تحنث). The term remains contentious both among medieval Muslim authorities and Western Islamicists. I decided to prepare an article on the term and its links to Late Antique religiosities largely because...5/
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1 So, today we turn to early Islamic Beirut. what do we know of the earliest times of #Beirut under early Islamic rule, starting with the #conquest. How and when did Beirut enter the emerging Muslim empire? -rm


2 Let’s start with traditional sources for the early Islamic period. Of those, only al-Balādhurī (d. ca. 892), the Abbasid scholar, is informative. Other Muslim and non-Muslim sources including al-Ṭabarī's Tārīkh are silent on the matter.-rm


3 In his small tome, Futūḥ al-Buldān, al-Balādhurī tells his readers: “After the conquest of Damascus, Yazīd came to Sidon, ʿArqa, Byblos, and Beirut which lie on the sea coast with his brother Muʿāwiya leading the van of the army.”-rm

4 Hence, the men who conquered Beirut were Yazīd b. Abī Sufyān (d. 639) and his half-brother and future caliph Mu‘āwiya (r. 661-680). The date of the conquest of the coast falls between 636 and 639 at the latest, the date of the death of Yazīd in the plague of Emmaus. -rm


5 Yazīd and the Muslim army likely took the coastal road to Beirut, a path taken by numerous armies before. They would have either swung from Damascus to Baalbek through the Hims gap to ‘Arqa, then Byblos, crossed the Dog River, and arrived at the eastern side of Beirut.
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Elijah J. Magnier
Elijah J. Magnier
@ejmalrai
13 years ago, Imad Mughnieh was unlawfully assassinated in #Damascus. Both the CIA and the Mossad claimed credit. Haj Imad managed to survive for 25 years away from his killers (incl some Arab States) and transformed #Hezbollah to another level of deterrence against #Israel.+


He introduced changes within #Hezbollah structure and was known to be fair with all militants. He has created an innovation sector within Hezbollah and handsomely paid for any qualified person to materialise new ideas related to science, health and military fields.+

During the last year, around 2006-2007, Haj Imad became more visible domestically and regionally. He was the one meeting political and military leaders, including allies and his name became more known as the "assistant of the Jihadi council Leader (Sayyed Nasrallah) +

#Hezbollah has lost an important leader and a very close friend and companion to Sayyed Nasrallah. However, Hezbollah moved from domestic to regional power, operating in #Lebanon to defend the country from #Israel's intentions and imposed deterrence that Israel has lost. +

#Hezbollah moved to #Syria to the request of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad & to #Iraq when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked the help of Hezbollah against #ISIS and to #Yemen to the request of Sanaa' government to stand against a very large coalition led by US and Saudi.
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Why should we be careful when talking about a “jobs bounce-back” in South Africa? - A THREAD.

You don’t get better labour market economists in South Africa than the @NIDS_CRAM team, but the main finding of an “employment bounce-back” seems counterintuitive. What’s going on? 1/n

NIDS-CRAM does NOT show a rebound to pre-COVID employment levels. They report 700,000 job lost between Feb and Oct 2020, this is massive = 3.85% fall (broad definition). The authors of the employment paper say this could be as high as 5.3% or 960,000 jobs.

The authors @joshbudlender @ihsaanbassier (+ Rocco) also show that Oct employment is normally higher than Feb employment, super roughly Oct is plausibly around 102% of Feb. This means it’s plausible 360,000 jobs would have been gained between Feb-Oct *anyway*.


This would mean - within the study parameters - it’s possible COVID has caused up to (an outer outer limit) of 1.32 million job losses when comparing Oct 2020 with what we would have expected it to be in normal times. This is a total disaster in the context of the SA economy.

This is roughly what we should expect from the StatsSA QLFS. This showed 2.2 million jobs lost in first half of 2020, and 543,000 regained in Q3, meaning a loss of just under 1.7 million jobs in first 9 months. We’d definitely expect some more jobs regained in Oct-Dec.
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Iranian Reformist Front (Jebheye Eslathalabane Iran) was officially founded yesterday in Jamaran, Khomeini's historic house near Tehran.

The founding meeting elected Behzad Nabavi as an interim head since he is oldest.

And also 5 people as a committee to draft the IRF's by-laws


The five are:

1- Outspoken Tehran MP @mah_sadeghi
2- Faraj Komijani, politician with a base in an official teachers union
3- Ali Bagheri (low-key politician)
4- @MansooriAzar , noted reformist politician
5- Rouhani's ex-VP @mowlaverdi

Some more pictures of the meeting.

The next meeting of the group is on Wednesday and will be held virtually.

The top question remains whether and who (and how many candidates) to run for the coming #IranElections2021


The founding statement says the reformists will run a single candidate agreed by all reformist parties but only if elections are to be "free, legal, competitive, just and constitutional"... which is obviously not what's going to happen!

The founding statement also includes big demands like call for a referendum to revise the constitution. But as usual these big words aren't followed by any actions.
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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


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Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


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After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

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In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
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1 of 16: WE ARE ALL JEWS HERE: THE STORY OF RODDIE EDMONDS

One of the most moving and relevant stories of the Battle of the Bulge, or any American Soldier in any war, is that of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a Knoxville, Tennessee native, who served with the 106th Infantry.


2 of 16:

Roddie was captured early on in the Battle of the Bulge, on December 19th, when Panzer forces plowed through his unit.

He, along with almost his entire regiment, was forced to surrender.


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The men were transported to the Stalag IX-A POW camp in Ziegenhain, Germany.

Roddie was the senior enlisted American Soldier at the site. As such, he was the conduit between all American Soldiers and their German captors.


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In late January, the camp’s commandant, Major Siegmann [pictured here], ordered Roddie, a Christian, to identify all Jewish Soldiers and order them to stand in formation by themselves the next day.

[Jewish Soldiers were a minority within American units]


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Throughout WWII, captured Jewish Soldiers were often tortured and then killed by their German captors.

In fact, Jewish Soldiers had been told to bury their dog tags before capture. The dog tag identified Jews with the letter “H” for Hebrew.
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#DoYouKnow -The place where
Lalitha Sahasranamam -1000 names of Devi originated.

It is in Lalithambigai temple -Thirumeeyachur,Near Mayiladuthurai,TN

There is a Legend #story & it is related to this beautiful #sculpture of Kshetrapuraneswarar & Ambal Lalithambigai #Thread 👇


#Legend #story
It is believed that this is birth place of Kashyapa Maharishi’s sons, Arunan& Garudan. Arunan(charioteer of Surya)was physically handicapped.He was a Shiva devotee.Arunan wanted to visit Kailash to have Shiva Darshan,but Surya Dev denied permission.

So Arunan disguised as a girl & was on his way to Kailash.On the way Surya Dev saw this girl & outraged her modesty.Shiva was very angry with Suryan for misbehaviour & cursed him to get darkened. Whole world plunged into darkness.Surya Dev pleaded to Bhagwan Shiv to forgive him.

Shiva Bhagwan asked him to go to Thirumiyachur & worship him there. As advised, Surya Dev performed rigorous penance, placed murthi of Shiva& Parvathy on an elephant & took them to the clouds.Shiva in this temple is known as Meganathaswamy,Devi is known as Lalithambigai


Even after severe penance,Shiva does appear,so Surya Dev cries out in agony.Disturbed by his call, Parvathy protests.Siva pacifies her & offers relief to Surya Dev.The sculpture of Shiva pacifying Ambal shows her sullen from one angle &smiling from another.
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Have you ever wondered why the sons and daughters of the colonial chiefs and guards who were collaborators live a good life while those of the MAU MAU fighters live in abject poverty?

***THREAD***


It should be known that the colonialists reached a point that they knew they had 2 leave Kenya since they couldn't handle the Mau Mau war & the world was moving toward accepting independent Africa.However,the colonialists devised an evil scheme that still eats Kenya upto this day

Under this scheme, the colonial state came up with a plan that saw the first crop of chiefly “big men” being empowered financially to take their children to schools and eventually have those children go to England for further studies...

...and eventually providing a ready-made socio-economic & political class whom state power could be entrusted in the post-colonial era.This explains why their children & grandchildren still hold majority of important positions in govt or in the private sector supported by state.

This also explains why children and grandchildren of these homeguards are always given preferential treatment when it comes to government appointments. Wewe na masomo yako you are always asking why you can never get a job in government...yet you're qualified..now you know.
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And here they are...

THE WINNERS OF THE 24 HOUR STARTUP CHALLENGE

Remember, this money is just fun. If you launched a product (or even attempted a launch) - you did something worth MUCH more than $1,000.

#24hrstartup

The winners 👇

#10

Lattes For Change - Skip a latte and save a life.

https://t.co/M75RAirZzs

@frantzfries built a platform where you can see how skipping your morning latte could do for the world.

A great product for a great cause.

Congrats Chris on winning $250!


#9

Instaland - Create amazing landing pages for your followers.

https://t.co/5KkveJTAsy

A team project! @bpmct and @BaileyPumfleet built a tool for social media influencers to create simple "swipe up" landing pages for followers.

Really impressive for 24 hours. Congrats!


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SayHenlo - Chat without distractions

https://t.co/og0B7gmkW6

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Dalton is a beast. I'm so excited he placed in the top 10.


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I wish this existed when I learned to code! Congrats on $250!!
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