Morning update
Pakistan/India
Pakistan has closed its airspace to commercial planes again. No announcement of reasons.
Venezuela
Power remain out for most of the country. This will be precipating a serious food crisis as frozen products thaw and soon spoil. Additional word is that the rest of the food supply chain is not functional and the country may run out in a week or so. Still hearing of planned protests this weekend.
N Korea
In addition to activation of missile launch facility and uranium enrichment there are reports that NK reactivated an icbm construction facility near the capital last month. More evidence Kim thought he could roll trump.
Israel
Standard anti terror counter strikes against Gaza. National elections pending.
Thanks very much. Update BUMP.
Former Bin Laden family home at center of Central Florida land dispute
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Where is Hamza Osama Bin Laden?
The 15th son of Al-Qaeda former leader Osama Bin Laden has been dealt three painful blows in the past few days. The US State Department has offered one million dollars as reward for any information on Hamza Bin Laden’s whereabouts, the United Nations has named him a global dangerous terrorist, and the Saudi Arabian Official Gazette Umm Al-Qura announced last Friday that he has been stripped of his Saudi citizenship. Apparently, all three parties share the same viewpoint when it comes to Hamza’s role in the international terrorist organization, which he, as it seems, will lead, following in the footsteps of his father.
The UN’s Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee has added the name of Hamza Osama Bin Laden, born in Jeddah on May 9, 1989, to the list of individuals subject to its assets freeze and travel ban. The current leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman Al-Zawahiri presented Hamza in August 2015 as an official member of Al-Qaeda and described him as his most probable successor. On the same day, the State Department issued a statement describing Hamza as a political leader in the terrorist organization, founded by his father. The statement said Hamza’s name was put on the US blacklist of global terrorists. The steps the Kingdom has taken will enhance international efforts to arrest him because he was raised, since he was a child, to follow in his infamous father’s footsteps. He accompanied his father before September 11, 2001 and learned how to shoot weapons.
A report by the Combatting Terrorism Center of the US Military Academy, West Point, said Hamza is being groomed for a leadership role in the organization founded by his father and he has become the most likely candidate to reunite the global jihadi movement.
In fact, Hamza Bin Laden has called upon jihadists around the world to strike from Kabul to Baghdad and from Gaza to Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv. He is dangerous because he leads Ansar Al-Furqan, a militant group that recruits the most militant and extremist fighters of Al-Qaeda and Daesh and sends them to Syria. Daesh has been on its last legs in Syria, its last strongholds, and its members must be searching for new leadership. The Academy’s report concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Hamza could be the next leader.
There is no doubt that Hamza will serve the malicious interests of the mullah’s regime and Qatari financing, which is given to extreme and narrow-minded persons in all terrorist organizations, foremost among them the Muslim Brotherhood, the founder of Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The Saudi, US and UN steps taken with regard to Hamza Bin Laden make it clear that they are determined to prevent the return of the terrorist attacks carried out by Al-Qadea from the end of the 1970s to the beginning of the new millennium, attacks that appalled the world, especially the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It is hoped that more states will join the 41-state Islamic military coalition, led by the Kingdom, fighting terrorism.
All states should give more support to the international coalition fighting Daesh, which is led by the United States to root out terrorism. It must be stressed that Hamza was raised in Iran, thanks to the coordination between his father and Iran, and that Iran has been waiting for the right opportunity to recruit Daesh and Al-Qaeda members who fled from the areas where they lost battles in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran wants to use them to ensure the continuity of nonstop bloody terrorism, financed openly by Qatar, a state that finances all takfiri, extremist and terrorist groups.
This requires larger and more united international blocks that can ensure a more secure, prosperous and safer world where all peoples live in peace and harmony. Saudis should be proud that their country is at the forefront of the states working to achieve this goal through the sacrifices of its men and the use of state-of-the-art technology. Many states have testified to this fact.
Jameel Al Theyabi is a Saudi writer. Follow him on Twitter: @JameelAlTheyabi
Israel/Gaza.
Last few hours has seen heavy air strikes against hamas targets in Gaza in response to rocket attacks. This has the potential to spiral up over the next few days as previous events.
India/Pakistan
Hope towards peace as Indian envoy is returning to Pakistan. Still tense.
Venezuela
Power outage now 24+ hours old. Frozen produce/meats in danger of loss. Some usaf followers note a higher than normal number of flights south towards s america. Not an airborne attack, probably more logistics and intel craft.
Hamza bin Laden is know to have spent many years after the attacks in Iran, where he and dozens of other family members of the 9/11 plotters were guarded by senior Iranian intelligence and military officials. The group was at times in effect under house arrest and other times free to move around. Hamza was mentored in Iran by Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, who was deputy to al-Zawahiri after the death of Osama bin Laden. Al-Masri was released by Iran and taken to the Turkish border, from where he crossed into Syria. He was killed by a US drone in Idlib province in February 2017.
Some reports at the time suggested Hamza had also travelled to Syria. However, he is believed to have instead made his way to the tribal territories between Afghanistan and Pakistan.