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Secret U.S.-Russia Deal Calls for No Targeting, Close Flybys

October 22, 2015

Secret U.S.-Russia Deal Calls for No Targeting, Close Flybys McCain calls deal immoral for legitimizing Russian strikes on anti-Assad rebels

BY:
October 22, 2015 5:00 am

Source: Secret U.S.-Russia Deal Calls for No Targeting, Close Flybys – Washington Free Beacon

The moral of the morality 

The secret deal between Moscow and Washington aimed at preventing aerial accidents calls for U.S. and Russian pilots to avoid targeting or shooting at aircraft engaged in military strikes, according to defense officials.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that details of the agreement, reached this week, are being kept secret at the request of the Russians.

According to other defense officials, the accord states that aircraft, including both jets and unmanned drone aircraft, will not illuminate aircraft from other countries with targeting radar or fire upon them.

Also, the agreement bans aerobatic maneuvers, such as barrel rolls, or what pilots call “thumps”—close passes by aircraft that involve gunning engines and causing target aircraft to be shaken by jet wash.

The agreement also covers any other unsafe aerial encounters, the officials said.

In addition to U.S. aircraft, coalition nations that are conducting airstrikes and will be covered by the accord include Australia, Canada, Denmark (which suspended operations in August), France, Jordan, the Netherlands, and Britain.

The agreement also sets up a communications mechanism on the ground that will permit officials in U.S. and Russian operations centers to talk, should other electronic communications prove insufficient.

Since Russian jets began conducting bombing missions in Syria, mainly against Syrian rebels and in support of the military forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, there have been what Cook said were “a handful” of unsafe aerial encounters between Russian and U.S. aircraft, involving both piloted jets and unmanned drones.

In one case, a Russian jet came with 1,500 feet of U.S. aircraft in an unprofessional encounter. Russian jets have also flown close to U.S. Predator drones engaged in surveillance missions.

Cook, the Pentagon spokesman, said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) covering what the military calls the “deconfliction” of air operations, was not intended to legitimize Russia’s military operations in support of the Assad regime.

“The MOU does not establish zones of cooperation, intelligence sharing, or any sharing of target information in Syria,” Cook said. “The discussions through which this MOU has developed do not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria. In fact, far from it, we continue to believe that Russia’s strategy in Syria is counterproductive and their support for the Assad regime will only make Syria’s civil war worse.”

In Moscow, however, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said the memorandum was an important step toward joint cooperation between the two militaries against what he said were terrorist elements, the Associated Press reported.

“The memorandum contains a complex of rules and restrictions aimed at preventing incidents between Russian and U.S. aircraft,” Antonov said.

The communications between the two militaries will include 24-hour channels and “mutual assistance in crisis situations.”

“The Americans have promised to get the agreed rules to all participants of the anti-[Islamic State] coalition they lead, so that their pilots proceed from those agreements,” Antonov said.

According to the Russian official, the memorandum promises “a big potential for cooperation between Russia and the U.S., including in the fight against terrorism, which we are ready to expand and deepen.”

On Capitol Hill, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) harshly criticized the agreement, calling it “immoral.”

“This ‘de-confliction’ agreement with Russia means that the United States will now be watching and moving out of the way while Russian aircraft, together with Syrian, Iranian, and Hezbollah ground forces, attack and kill brave young Syrians, many of whom our country has supported and encouraged to fight back against a brutal dictator who has slaughtered nearly 250,000 Syrians and driven half the population from their homes,” McCain said.

“This is not only self-defeating and harmful to our national interests; it is immoral.”

McCain said Syrian rebels had placed their trust in the United States in hopes U.S. backing would help them succeed in the civil war.

“Now we are breaking those promises in our haste to give [Russian President] Vladimir Putin clearer skies from which to bomb our partners,” he said.

Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30 using jet fighters and attack helicopters. It then launched a series of long-range cruise missile strikes, firing 26 SS-N-30 Kalibr missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea.

Russian military intervention in Syria followed Moscow’s complaints that U.S. military efforts to stop the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq were failing to stem the terrorist group’s advance.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Iraq that he has secured assurances from the Iraqi government that Baghdad will not seek Russian airstrikes against Islamic State-controlled regions of that country.

“I said it would make it very difficult for us to be able to provide the kind of support that you need if the Russians were here conducting operations as well,” Dunford told reporters, according to a Reuters account.

“Both the minister of defense and the prime minister said: ‘Absolutely.’ There is no request right now for the Russians to support them, there’s no consideration for the Russians to support them, and the Russians haven’t asked them to come in and conduct operations.”

Dunford said the air safety accord will permit the U.S. and allied forces to continue airstrikes.

“I’m not going to tell you there’s not going to be friction,” Dunford said, noting possible course changes for U.S. jets in response to Russian flights.

“What I’m telling you is the basic execution of the plan is going to continue.”

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The Mufti, Hitler and the Palestinians: The Facts

October 22, 2015

The Mufti, Hitler and the Palestinians: The Facts The father of the modern Palestinian movement and his role in the Final Solution.

October 22, 2015

David Bedein

Source: The Mufti, Hitler and the Palestinians: The Facts | Frontpage Mag

The following article is excerpted from a paper delivered at an Israeli Knesset Forum on Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2012.

The titular leader of the Palestinian Arab community in the previous generation, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, forged a pact with Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941, one week before the Wannasee conference, originally scheduled for December 7, 1941, yet was postponed by one month, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor on that very day.

The protocols of the Hitler-Mufti pact that were presented as evidence against the Mufti in the Nuremberg war crimes trials explicitly state that Hitler would exterminate the Jews in Europe, while the Mufti would enlist Nazi aid to exterminate Jews in Palestine, so as to establish a “Judenrein” state of Palestine.

To that end, the Mufti ensconced himself in Hitler’s bunker, from where he recruited an Islamic unit of the Waffen SS, which actively engaged in the mass murder of Jews, while issuing Arabic language appeals on Nazi radio which incited Moslems to join the Nazi cause and to prepare for mass murder of Jews in Palestine.

The Protocols of the Nuremberg conviction of the Mufti were published in the 1946 book, Mufti of Jerusalem, authored by Journalist Maurice Pearlman, who was appointed in 1948 as the first director of the Israel Government Press Office.

Pearlman cited affidavits of senior SS prosecution witnesses who testified that the Mufti, working directly under Eichmann and Himmler, identified the Mufti’s instrumental role in making sure that millions of Jews were murdered, and not ransomed.

Added by JK

In April 1943, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, was invited by Berger to assist in organising and recruiting Muslims into the Waffen-SS and other units. He was escorted by von Krempler, who spoke Turkish.[20] The Mufti successfully convinced the Muslims to ignore the declarations of the Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka Ulama (Islamic clerics), who in 1941 forbade them from collaborating with the Ustaše.[21]

The Germans emphasised that al-Husayni had flown from Berlin to Sarajevo in order to bless and inspect the division. During his visit to Bosnia al-Husayni also convinced some important Muslim leaders that the formation of the division was in the interests of Islam.[22]

The Mufti insisted, “The most important task of this division must be to protect the homeland and families [of the Bosnian volunteers]; the division must not be permitted to leave Bosnia”, but the Germans paid no attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Waffen_Mountain_Division_of_the_SS_Handschar_%281st_Croatian%29

No one denies the Mufti’s Arabic language radio broadcasts, his recruitment of the Islamic SS unit, and his active involvement in SS round-ups of Jews in Yugosolvia.

And there is no doubt that the Mufti was aware of the Final Solution, fully supported it, and sought to extend it to the Arab world.

The affidavit of one of Eichmann’s subordinates, SS Hampsturmfuerer Dieter Wisliceny, who appeared as a witness for the Nuremberg prosecution, speaks for itself:

The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry for the Germans and had been the permanent collaborator and advisor of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of the plan…According to my opinion, the Grand Mufti, who had been in Berlin since 1941, played a role in the decision of the German government to exterminate the European Jews, the importance of which must not be disregarded. He had repeatedly suggested to the various authorities with who[m he] had been in contact, above all before Hitler, Ribbentrop and Himmler, the extermination of European Jewry. He considered this as a comfortable solution of the Palestinian problem. In his messages broadcast from Berlin, he surpassed us in anti-Jewish attacks. He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures…

In 1961, when Eichmann was brought to justice in Jerusalem, Israel’s then foreign minister, Golda Meir, called for the Mossad to apprehend the Mufti and to sit him alongside Eichmann on trial in Jerusalem.

Maurice Pearlman traces the Mufti’s escape to Cairo, where Pearlman reported how the Mufti influenced the newly formed Arab League to spawn the charter of the Arab League, with an explicit statement that its purpose was to wipe out any Zionist entity that would soon come about.

Indeed, the Mufti-inspired charter of the Arab League would soon form the basis of the Arab league declaration of war to destroy the nascent state of Israel in 1948.

The refusal of the UK to arrest the Mufti in Cairo, described by Pearlman, caused the head of the Zionist revisionists in the United States at the time, Ben Zion Netanyahu, father of Israel’s current Prime Minister, to launch an unsuccessful campaign to push the US to demand the arrest of the Mufti in Cairo.

A little known fact concerns the Mufti’s special relationship with a young relative in Cairo, to whom the Mufti would affectionately give the name “Yassir Arafat.” In December 1996, Haaretz interviewed Yassir Arafat’s younger brother and sister, who said that the Mufti performed the role of a surrogate father figure and mentor to the young Arafat.

The failure of the Arab League, in 1948, to mobilize the Arabs of Palestine into an active war against the newly formed Jewish state led the Mufti to urge the Arab League, in 1964, to launch the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose stated covenant of purpose was almost identical in language to the charter of the Arab League: to exterminate the new state of Israel. Yet the focus of the PLO was to organize Arabs who remained in Israel along with the Arab refugees who languished in UNRWA refugee camps to organize an effective grass roots effort to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine, from Jewish rule.

Today, the new curriculum of the Palestinian Authority is imbued with the legacy of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Husseini, whose vision of a Jew-free Palestine is taught in every educational institution of the Palestinian Authority, together with the armed struggle to liberate Palestine, as an ideal for Palestinian Arab students.

On January 4, 2013, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke glowingly of the legacy of the Godfather of the PLO, the Mufti of Jerusalem, via video link on a wide screen to the masses in Gaza, who gathered to celebrate the founding of Fatah (Arabic word for “conquest”), otherwise known as the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Abbas praised the Mufti as a man whose ways should be emulated by all Palestinian Arabs. “We must remember the pioneers, the Grand Mufti of Palestine, Hajj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini, as well as Ahmad Al-Shukeiri, the founder of the PLO,” Abbas said, according to a translation of the speech made by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

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Kerry urges Benjamin Netanyahu to ‘move beyond rhetoric’

October 22, 2015

Kerry urges Netanyahu to ‘move beyond rhetoric’ and take steps to end wave of violence

By Raphael Ahren and AFP

October 22, 2015, 9:50 am

Source: Kerry urges Benjamin Netanyahu to ‘move beyond rhetoric’ and take steps to end wave of violence – Israel News – Jerusalem Post

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday, saying that the time had come for Israel and the Palestinians to agree on the steps that must be taken to “move beyond condemnations and rhetoric” and stop the current round of terror attacks plaguing Israeli cities.

Kerry was beginning a four-day trip to Europe and the Middle East aimed at deescalating the violence which has seen ten Israelis killed in terror attacks and dozens of Palestinian attackers and rioters killed by Israeli forces.

Netanyahu reiterated his assertion that the current wave of terror is “driven directly” by incitement from Hamas, the Islamic Movement of Israel, and the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas.

Added by JK

Attacks on Israelis will go on, Hamas chief says in South Africa
At Cape Town rally organized by ruling African National Congress party, Khaled Mashaal urges continued terror attacks
http://www.timesofisrael.com/attacks-on-israelis-will-go-on-hamas-chief-says-in-south-africa/

“

I want to thank you and the US for condemning the terrorist attacks against Israel, for standing up for our right of self defense,” the prime minister told Kerry.

“We remain committed to the status quo. We’re the ones that protect all the holy sites,” Netanyahu said, refuting Palestinian claims that Israel is seeking to change the status quo at the Temple Mount.

“Israel is acting to protect its citizens as any democracy would in the face of such wanton and relentless attacks,” he said in response to charges that Israel has used excessive force in stopping the attacks.

“To generate hope, we have to stop terrorism. To stop terrorism, we have to stop the incitement,” he stated.

“It’s time that the international community told President Abbas to stop the incitement and hold him accountable for his words and his deeds,” he added.

Kerry said that “it is absolutely critical to end all incitement, to end all violence and to find a road forward to build the possibility which is not there today for a larger process.”

“So we have to go steps, but today you and I can really rekindle that process,” he added.

Kerry said that he had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah and Abbas, and had received the impression that “everyone wants this to deescalate.”

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An Open Letter to The Guardian About Netanyahu’s Comments on the Mufti and Hitler

October 22, 2015

An Open Letter to The Guardian About Netanyahu’s Comments on the Mufti and Hitler, Algemeiner, Maurice Ostroff, October 21, 2015

I believe you owe your readers an explanation for referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement about the Mufti as “incendiary,” while barely noticing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ truly incendiary statements praising the murderers of Jewish civilians, including children, and his use of hateful rhetoric, including calling for Jews “with their filthy feet” to be banned from entering the Temple Mount.

While Netanyahu’s statement may have been unnecessary and undiplomatic, it was not as absurd as the Guardian and other mainstream media make out. Editors are supposed to check their facts before rushing to publish.

There is no excuse for the Guardian to be ignorant of the Madagascar Plan, which confirms the PM’s assertion that Hitler initially wanted to expel, not exterminate, the Jews.

In 1938, the notorious Adolf Eichmann prepared a report advocating an evacuation plan for 4 million Jews to be shipped to Madagascar. In his paper, “Madagascar Plan,” Christopher Browning quotes Heinrich Himmler in May 1940 stating: “However cruel and tragic each individual case may be, this method is still the mildest and best, if one rejects the Bolshevik method of physical extermination of a people out of inner conviction as un-German and impossible.”

The plan was endorsed by the Third Reich in August 1940.

Damming evidence of the Mufti’s exhortations to exterminate the Jews was presented at the Nurenberg trials by none other than senior Nazi official Dieter Wisliczeny. On September 15, 1947, Drew Pearson, one of the best-known American columnists of his day, quoted Wisliczeny’s evidence in his column, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” as follows:

In my opinion, the grand mufti, who has been in Berlin since 1941 played a role in the decision of the German government to exterminate the European Jews, the importance of which must not be disregarded. He had repeatedly suggested to the various authorities with whom he had been in contact, above all before Hitler, Ribbentrop and Himmler, the extermination of European Jewry. He considered this as a comfortable solution to the Palestinian problem. In is messages broadcast from Berlin, he surpassed us in anti-Jewish attacks. He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say that, accompanied by Eichmann, he has visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz.

Categories: Abbas, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Netanyahu, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians and Jews, Western media
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Mufti Advised Hitler on Holocaust, Says Middle East Forum Scholar

October 22, 2015

Mufti Advised Hitler on Holocaust, Says Middle East Forum Scholar, Middle East Forum,  October 21, 2015

Noted Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz responds to criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Schwanitz, a leading expert on ties between Nazis and Islamists, says al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini was instrumental in the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

Philadelphia, PA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn criticism for comments about the role of al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in conceiving and perpetrating the Holocaust. Indeed, leading Nazi aides testified that al-Husaini was one of the instigators of the genocide. In his 1999 autobiography, a senior Nazi official admitted how he advised Hitler and other leading Nazis, and that he acquired full knowledge of the ongoing mass murder.

Middle East Forum scholar, historian, and author Wolfgang G. Schwanitz added, “It is a historical fact that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini was an accomplice whose collaboration with Adolf Hitler played an important role in the Holocaust. He was the foremost extra-European adviser in the process to destroy the Jews of Europe.”

Although Schwanitz hadn’t previously heard the dialogue between Hitler and al-Husaini as told by Netanyahu, he says it is absurd to ignore the role played by al-Hajj Amin al-Husaini, a war criminal, in encouraging and urging Hitler and other leading Nazis to exterminate European Jewry.

According to the foremost expert on the ties between Nazis and Islamists, there is much evidence that al-Husaini’s primary goal was blocking all of the ways out of Europe. He pushed Hitler to slam the last doors of a burning house shut.

In their 2014 book Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East, published by Yale University Press, Schwanitz and co-author Barry Rubin delve into the deep ties between Hitler and the Grand Mufti:

At their meeting [on November 28, 1941, Hitler and al-Husaini] concluded the pact of Jewish genocide in Europe and the Middle East, and immediately afterward, Hitler gave the order to prepare for the Holocaust. The next day invitations went out to thirteen Nazis for the Wannsee Conference to begin organizing the logistics of this mass murder.

The highly acclaimed book also examined the Grand Mufti’s efforts to prevent Europe’s Jews from finding refuge in the land that would become Israel:

And since any European Jews let out of Europe might later go to Palestine, al-Husaini made it clear that if Hitler wanted Muslims and Arabs as allies he must close Europe’s exits to Jews. At the same time, al-Husaini and Arab rulers also told Britain that if it wanted to keep Arabs and Muslims from being enemies, it must close entrance to Palestine to all Jews. By succeeding on both fronts, al-Husaini contributed to the Holocaust doubly, directly, and from the start.

Categories: Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler, Holocaust, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Netanyahu
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Cartoons of the day

October 21, 2015

H/t The Jewish Press

Diverting-Attention

H/t Dry Bones

D15A20_1

Categories: Abbas, Humor, Israel, Palestinian heroes
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Netanyahu – Mufti Kerfuffle: Ask Yourself Why Doves are Enraged

October 21, 2015

Netanyahu – Mufti Kerfuffle: Ask Yourself Why Doves are Enraged, UK Media Watch, Elliott Jager, October 21, 2015

(A video of PM Netanyahu’s remarks at the Zionist World Congress is available here. The portions quoted below, and the context in which they were made, are at 4:50 – 6:20. — DM)

Here is what you need to know about Amin Husseini.

He was born in 1895 and died in 1974. He was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the British Mandate authorities.

And, he is infamous in Jewish history as a collaborator with the Nazis.

He was a proponent of militant violence against Jews and against any Arabs who were willing to make peace with the Zionist enterprise.

When WWII broke out he made his headquarters in Iraq and tried to establish a pro-Nazi regime there. When that didn’t work out, he moved to Italy (an Axis power) and then to Germany.

He openly supported the Final Solution – this is not in doubt.

He helped the Nazis set up Bosnian-Muslim Waffen-SS battalions. He lobbied the Nazis to bomb Tel Aviv and to extend the net of the Holocaust to Sephardi Jews in Arab lands.

He vehemently opposed any tactical deals (“trucks for Jews,” etc) that would have even temporarily spared Jewish lives.

After the war he was welcomed and given refuge by Nasser in Egypt.

Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the World Zionist  Congress in Jerusalem yesterday (Oct. 20) garnered criticism for supposedly misstating the Mufti’s role in the Shoah.

Here’s what the PM said:

“…And this attack and other attacks on the Jewish community in 1920, 1921, 1929, were instigated by a call of the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was later sought for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials because he had a central role in fomenting the final solution.

“He flew to Berlin. Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews.

And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, “If you expel them, they’ll all come here.” “So what should I do with them?” he asked. He said, “Burn them.”

****

Now, the point of the reference to the Mufti is that he was among the first to claim that the Jews wanted to destroy al-Aksa mosque.

Netanyahu did not say that the Mufti convinced Hitler to annihilate the Jews.

It is simply true that as the destruction of European Jewry evolved from 1933 until 1945 the Nazis tried different approaches to solving the “Jewish problem.”

And yes, there was a stage when in parallel to killing Jews haphazardly (clubbing, shooting, etc) and well before the industrial destruction had been perfected, the Nazis did consider expulsion.

According to Joseph Schechtman’s The Mufti and the Fuehrer, the mufti began his outreach to the Nazis on July 21, 1937 via the German consul in Jerusalem.

Keep in mind that at the time, the Nazis still had hopes to keep Britain out of any war so didn’t want to rock the boat in British-controlled Palestine.

Nonetheless, the mufti sent an agent to Berlin to lobby the Nazis.

In fact, Adolph Eichmann was dispatched to Palestine to study the situation in response to the Mufti’s lobbying efforts.  He was also in contact with Husseini.

Actually, there is some evidence that already in 1936, the Nazis were helping the Arabs in Palestine.

Obviously, there is much more to be said about the Mufti and the Nazis.

But what matters in 2015 is this:

(1) The claim that the Jews want to change the status quo on the Temple Mount dates back at least to the Mufti’s days.

(2) The fierce criticism by dovish Jewish journalists, pundits, and politicians (and of course the foreign media and the Arabs) of Netanyahu is intended to undermine his not-so-subtle implication that Arab intentions then and now are much the same.

That is the crux of the issue.

If you believe the conflict is about boundaries and settlements then you want to play down the extraordinary consistency of Arab intentions.

Why? Because it is almost too painful to imagine that the Palestinian Arabs today really want what the Palestinian Arabs of 1933 or 1929 wanted.

So if you think that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah are not disciples of the mufti’s values then you need to be offended by Netanyahu’s efforts to link the Nazis to the Palestinian cause. Of course, you also need to keep your eyes tightly closed.

Categories: Al-Aqsa Mosque, Antisemitism, Death to Israel, Fatah, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hamas, Hitler, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Jews, Nazis, Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Temple Mount
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Israel’s “Knock on the Keyboard” campaign spies on and subverts terrorist social networks

October 21, 2015

Israel’s “Knock on the Keyboard” campaign spies on and subverts terrorist social networks DEBKAfile, October 21, 2015

Keyboard_Brigades

With this fuel constantly on tap to keep the flames high, diplomatic efforts underway to calm the conflict, such as visits by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon or US Secretary of State John Kerry, are no more effective than a small glass of water. The best hope of curbing the violence rests with the new modes of operation which Israeli intelligence has switched into high gear.

*******************

The newest type of Israeli intelligence officer does not require expertise in hand-to-hand combat, shooting or the ability to survive in enemy territory, but rather a keyboard, screen, internet connection and a complete command of Arabic, including idioms, jargon and expressions. The officer goes online under a false name and uses social networks to connect with those about to stab, run down or shoot Israelis. Along with the undercover agents in the field, there is a new generation of Israeli “digital HUMINT” officers who are updated on the latest trends among the Arab youth and spread out in the same digital space as the users in the back alleys of Palestinian refugee camps. Posing as terrorists, they use their fluent Arabic on Facebook or Twitter to request instructions, assistance, information and direction to “carry out attacks.”  

Israeli policymakers and security chiefs have different views on the existence of a central figure or group at the head of the current wave of terror that began with the murder of Na’ama and Itam Henkin on October 1. and for which no end is in sight. But they all agree on the means used to disseminate and scale up the knife attacks, stone throwing, gunfire and hit-and-run attacks, which have killed 11 Israelis and wounded dozens until now.

Those means consist largely of Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging services such as Skype and Whatsapp, which communicate instructions to the terror operatives.

They also serve as mass media for publicizing and glorifying acts of terror, relaying training methods, spreading propaganda, marking targets and post mortems on operations performed.

The social media and instant messaging provide the masters of terror with endless services, such as the transfer of private data, video and images and even chitchat between “friends.” Encrypted information carried thereby can’t be decoded.

The causes of Palestinian terror have not changed fundamentally over the years from one outbreak to the next. The “soldiers of terror” have the same motivations today as yesterday. The only difference is the mode of communication between the rank-and-file terrorists and their handlers.

Land-line and cellular communication, which until a few years ago served security organizations as their primary tools for forestalling terror, are now old hat. Almost extinct too are the costly technological engineering and SIGINT (signal intelligence) equipment and information systems, once used for disrupting and thwarting terror.

The contemporary emphasis on OSINT (open source intelligence), which monitors the mass media, such as television and radio stations, internet sites and newspapers, has given birth to a new branch of intelligence, which harvests critical operational and tactical data from the social networks.   ,

The present-day Israeli intelligence officer is not trained in hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship or methods of surviving in enemy territory. He is armed with a keyboard, screen, internet connection and a complete command of Arabic, including idioms, jargon and expressions. This officer goes online using a false name and accesses the right social networks to connect with those about to stab, run down or shoot Israelis.

HUMINT (human intelligence), classic field intelligence, is taking on a new form. Besides the field commanders and the undercover agents, there is a new generation of Israeli “digital HUMINT” officers, who are updated on the latest trends among young Arabs by invading their digital space. Posing as terrorists, they use their fluent Arabic on Facebook or Twitter to request instructions, assistance, information and direction to “carry out attacks”,

It is an established fact that social networks are a key operational medium in the service fo terrorists for transferring orders and instructions. Israeli intelligence is well prepared to move in on this chink in the terrorists’ defenses, better than their Western counterparts.

Hundreds of male and female soldiers with fluent Arabic, using false names to mingle among Arab web surfers, were first used to good purpose at the outset of the Arab Spring. The project picked up steam as the trend of terror in the Arab and Muslim world grew.

For terrorists, the social networks have both advantages and disadvantages. A young man in Beit Hanina or Issawiyeh, who uploads to Facebook a video praising a Palestinian driver who ran down Jewish pedestrians, or offering guidance on where to thrust a knife to kill a Jew, also gives away his IP address, his e-mail address, and the visitors who post comments and likes.

The vast amount of data garnered from social networks is a gold mine for analysts to draw conclusions, delineate the web of ties among terrorists and home in on orders and instructions passed out to fuel the current wave of terror.

With this fuel constantly on tap to keep the flames high, diplomatic efforts underway to calm the conflict, such as visits by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon or US Secretary of State John Kerry, are no more effective than a small glass of water. The best hope of curbing the violence rests with the new modes of operation which Israeli intelligence has switched into high gear.

Even in the midst of serial terror, these cyber warriors are busily sifting through an ocean of information from open sources and making headway towards identifying the chains of command orchestrating the wave of violence, as well as individuals, pairs or groups responsible for carrying out the attacks.

Equally important, they are using the social networks to sow panic and confusion among the terrorists, thus rendering them almost useless as means of furthering terror.

Even as you are reading this article, the Israeli security and law enforcement agencies have been able to pinpoint and make personal calls to the parents or acquaintances of identified rioters and potential terrorists, to warn them in Arabic that they are in for serious consequences – a variety on the “knock on roof” warnings the IDF gave to Gaza households during the last Gaza campaign against terror.

Categories: Defense of Israel, IDF, Intelligence, Islamic jihad, Israel, Palestinian heroes
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U.S., Russia sign Syria air safety deal but keep quarreling over war aims

October 21, 2015

U.S., Russia sign Syria air safety deal but keep quarreling over war aims

James Rosen

October 20, 2015

Source: U.S., Russia sign Syria air safety deal but keep quarreling over war aims | McClatchy DC

High Lights

Pilots will communicate on protected radio frequencies

Russian, American jets have flown as close as 500 feet in last three weeks

Pentagon rejects Kremlin proposals for closer cooperation against Islamic State

A Syrian army tank fired during fighting in Jobar near Damascus last week after the Syrian army, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched an offensive.
A Syrian army tank fired during fighting in Jobar near Damascus last week after the Syrian army, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched an offensive. Alexander Kots AP

BY JAMES ROSEN

jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON

American and Russian senior military officials signed an agreement Tuesday spelling out safety rules their nations’ aircraft are to follow in the contested skies over Syria, but the two governments continued to snipe at each other’s goals in the Middle East country.

Pentagon officials said the accord was a narrow, technical “memorandum of understanding” that in no way signals U.S. approval of the new Russian air campaign to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled army.

“We don’t agree with what they’re doing,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said of the Russian airstrikes in Syria that began three weeks ago. “And that has not changed. We can agree, on this limited basis, to try and promote the safety of our air crews over Syria.”

Kremlin leaders, for their part, said that Pentagon negotiators had rejected opportunities to share intelligence, exchange targeting information and take other more robust steps to attack Islamic State militants from the air in Syria.

“The Russian side was seeking a more substantial agreement,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. “That is why a number of specific proposals aimed at deepening cooperation between the Russian and U.S. militaries in countering international terrorism were put forward.”

In addition to Russian and American aircraft, the accord covers the planes of eight other countries that have joined the U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria: France, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More than 90 percent of the raids have been conducted by American bombers.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly said that most of the Russian airstrikes since Sept. 30 have not targeted the Islamic State or other radical Muslim groups, but rather moderate opposition forces that are fighting the Assad government and are backed by the United States.

In the last two weeks, there have been what Cook described as “a handful of incidents” when American and Russian aircraft flew as close as 500 feet to each other. Pentagon officials first expressed concern two weeks ago when a Russian bomber flew within 20 miles of a U.S. jet.

While that distance seems far enough for safe passage, an American F-16 and a Russian Tu-95 hurtling toward each other at more than 500 miles an hour could traverse 20 miles in 60 seconds or less.

The agreement signed Tuesday covers both piloted planes and unmanned surveillance drones. The Pentagon has complained in recent weeks that Russian planes have flown close to U.S. drones in apparent attempts to get close-up views of their composition and equipment.

Our military forces in Syria are operating at the request of the legitimate authorities of that country.

Russian Defense Ministry

While cooperating in the name of air safety, Washington and Moscow continued to criticize the legitimacy of each other’s air campaigns in Syria.

Stressing that the aviation protocols “do not constitute U.S. cooperation or support for Russia’s policy or actions in Syria,” Cook added: “In fact, far from it, we continue to believe that Russia’s strategy in Syria is counterproductive and their support for the Assad regime will only make Syria’s civil war worse.”

The rhetoric from Moscow was just as dismissive.

“The signing of the document in no way changes the Russian principled position,” the Defense Ministry said. “Our military forces in Syria are operating at the request of the legitimate authorities of that country, while the projection of force by the United States and the counter-ISIL (a common acronym for the Islamic State) coalition led by Washington on the territory of Syria is without the consent of Damascus and, in the absence of any relevant U.N. Security Council resolution, represents negligence of international law.”

The Kremlin provided the full Russian-language title of the agreement: “A Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Department of Defense of the United States of American on the Prevention of Flight Safety Incidents in the Course of Operations in the Syrian Arab Republic.”

The possibility of air conflict escalating over Syria is far from just theoretical.

Turkey has scrambled fighter jets at least twice this month in response to Russian planes that it said had crossed or come close to its border with Syria. And Turkey on Monday said it had shot down an unidentified drone after it flew along the border.

Analysts said the drone was Russian, but the Russian Defense Ministry denied that claim.

“If it was a (piloted) plane, we’d do the same,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday. “Our rules of engagement are known. Whoever violates our borders, we will give them the necessary answer.”

60 The number of Islamist targets the Russian Defense Ministry said its planes struck in 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday.

For all the differences between Washington and Moscow, their air accord includes some sweeping provisions that will see the American and Russian militaries cooperating more closely than at any time since they were allied against Nazi Germany in World War II.

Among the accord’s provisions, specific radio frequencies will be maintained by both sides so that American and Russian pilots can communicate directly with one another.

Should those communications fail to prevent a possible conflict or other potentially dangerous situation, a special phone line will be set up on the ground for military leaders from the two countries to have urgent conversations.

Cook stopped short of likening the new phone line to the two countries’ existing “nuclear hotline,” which was established Aug. 30, 1963, at the urging of President John F. Kennedy after Moscow and Washington narrowly averted nuclear warfare during the Cuban Missile Crisis 10 months earlier.

“We have a line of communication on the ground that serves as a backup and provides the opportunity to have real-time conversations if necessary,” Cook said.

Asked whether American pilots would have the right to fire at Russian aircraft that violate the new air protocols, Cook declined to respond directly.

“Our air crews always have the right to defend themselves,” he said.

He quickly added: “Our hope, with the memorandum of understanding, is that the risk of any sort of incident in the air over Syria is reduced, at a minimum, and hopefully eliminated.”

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Iraqi Parliament to Vote on Request for Russian Airstrikes

October 21, 2015

Iraqi Parliament to Vote on Request for Russian Airstrikes

10:37 21.10.2015 (updated 13:31 21.10.2015)

Source: Iraqi Parliament to Vote on Request for Russian Airstrikes

According to a member of the State of Law Coalition, Iraq’s parliament is planning to vote whether or not the country will request the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces in fighting the Islamic State militant group by the end of this month.

Iraq’s parliament is planning to vote to request support from Russia in fighting the Islamic State (ISIL) by the end of the month, a member of the State of Law Coalition told Sputnik on Wednesday.

The State of Law Coalition is Iraq’s largest political party, led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and is part of the ruling coalition. The legislator also told Sputnik that the vote is expected to pass with majority support. The US has been increasingly concerned about Russian influence in Iraq, and has sent envoys to the country to dissuade further cooperation.

“It doesn’t matter if the request is supported by Sunni and Kurdish factions or not, it changes nothing. We have enough strength in the parliament,” legislator Mowaffak Rubaie said.

Iraqi security forces
© AP Photo
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Rubaie is also a former national security adviser in Nouri al-Maliki’s government. Iraq has spent over $20 billion on US military training since the 2003 US invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein. The new army has been unable to counter ISIL and has a dire lack of heavy equipment, such as artillery and helicopters.Iraq has recently purchased TOS-1 multiple rocket launcher systems and Mi-28 helicopter gunships from Russia to strengthen its army in the fight against the notorious terrorist group. At the same time, US airstrikes in the country have failed to help the Iraqi government mount an offensive against ISIL.

US Demand

The United States’ top-ranking general Joseph Dunford visited Iraq on Tuesday to seek assurances that Iraq would not request Russian aid in its operation against ISIL.

“Both the minister of defense and the prime minister said: ‘Absolutely.’ There is no request right now for the Russians to support them, there’s no consideration for the Russians to support them, and the Russians haven’t asked them to come in and conduct operations,” Dunford said as quoted by Reuters.

A week prior to Dunford’s visit, the US State Department envoy for the US-led anti-ISIL coalition also visited Iraq, telling Iraqi Prime Minister that the US is “disturbed” by Russian-Iraqi cooperation, according to leaks reported in regional media.

Justin Trudeau, MP
© Flickr/ Alex Guibord
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The new vote would alter these assurances, as Iraq’s government is obligated to follow decisions made by its legislature, Rubaie told Sputnik.Internal Divide

Aside from the parliamentary factions, Iraq’s Shiite militias have also pressured Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government to request Russian airstrikes, according to Reuters. However, Abadi appears to remain committed to maintaining Iraq’s alliance with the US.

“Abadi told the meeting parties that it wasn’t the right time to include the Russians in the fight because that would only complicate the situation with the Americans and could have undesired consequences even on long-term future relations with America,” a senior Iraqi politician closer to al-Abadi told Reuters.

Iraq’s powerful Badr Brigade militia has also demanded Russian airstrikes, saying that they have been decisive in Syria, unlike the US airstrikes in Iraq.

“I am positive that the government will respond to pressures, especially after the official mandate of the National Alliance for prime minister Abadi to request Russia’s participation,” a senior aide to the Badr Brigade’s leader told Reuters.

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