Posted tagged ‘Middle East War’

Campaign to Destroy ISIS Could Take Years

September 8, 2014

Campaign to Destroy ISIS Could Take Years

via Campaign to Destroy ISIS Could Take Years.

 

Islamic State fighters in Syria’s northern Raqqa province. (Stringer/Reuters/Landov)

Monday, 08 Sep 2014 08:02 AM

By Melanie Batley

This can not be just plain stupidity

The Obama administration is gearing up for a campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) that is expected to take up to three years to complete, The New York Times reported.

According to senior officials, the operation will be conducted in three phases, continuing past the end of President Barack Obama’s term in office, but as the president has previously stressed, there are no plans to use ground troops.

“What I want people to understand is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum” of ISIS. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities; we’re going to shrink the territory that they control; and, ultimately, we’re going to defeat them,” Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The first phase of the mission, currently underway, has consisted of air strikes to halt the advance of the extremist group and protect religious minorities as well as American diplomatic, intelligence, and military personnel.

Phase two will be intended to train, advise, and equip the Iraqi military, Kurdish fighters, and possibly members of Sunni tribes, and is expected to begin after Iraq forms a more inclusive government which is scheduled for this week.

The last part of the offensive would destroy the group’s military capabilities inside Syria, with a campaign lasting at least 36 months. This part of the operation is expected to be the most politically controversial, according to the Times.

Meanwhile, the administration is working to solidify an international coalition to join the effort. Officials say that the countries committed to varying levels of help include Britain, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also working to secure the support of Turkey, whose location is seen as strategically crucial to stopping foreign fighters from joining ISIS and allowing the American military to launch operations from bases in the country.

Differences, however, are expected to emerge on the issue of airstrikes in Syria.

“Everybody is on board Iraq,” one administration official told the Times. “But when it comes to Syria, there’s more concern” about where airstrikes could lead.

At the same time, the official said that the administration expects countries to ultimately agree to the plan because “there’s really no other alternative.”

Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says

August 25, 2014

Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says

By HERB KEINON 08/25/2014 18:14

The Israeli official’s comments came a day after the “New York Times” published an op-ed piece by Israel’s ambassador to the UN calling Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”

via Qatar’s ties with US deterring Israel from all-out diplomatic offensive, official says | JPost | Israel News.

 A MUST READ !

President Mahmoud Abbas, Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal arrive for a meeting in Doha. Photo: REUTERS
 Israel has not launched a full-court diplomatic campaign against Qatar for aiding and abetting terrorism because of concern that the closeness of US-Qatar ties would render such a campaign futile, according to a senior diplomatic official.

The official’s comments came a day after the New York Times published an op-ed piece by Israel’s ambassador to the UN calling Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”

“In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza,” Prosor wrote. “Every one of Hamas’s tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read ‘Made possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar’.”

Even though that is the case, and even as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to raise Qatar’s negative role in private meetings with US Congressman and world leaders, the senior diplomatic official said that there is no concerted campaign that has been accompanied by directives to Israel’s representatives abroad to underline Qatar’s singularly negative role in supporting terrorism and in the Gaza crisis.

Prosor’s piece, he said, was the envoy’s own “improvisation” and not part of a bigger Israeli diplomatic push against the Persian Gulf country.

Qatar is too big an ally of the US and the West, the official said, and any such campaign would be tantamount to “banging our heads on the wall.” He said Jerusalem is not interested in going “toe-to-toe “with Washington over the issue.

Qatar is the home of the US Central Command’s Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center, and is the location of three US air bases, including its largest one in the Middle East. It also recently signed contracts to purchase some $11 billion in US arms and weapons systems.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu – in a meeting last week with US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) – did raise the subject of Qatar’s support of Hamas. As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa is in a prime position to put Qatar’s role high on the agenda in Washington.

However, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, in an interview earlier this month with The Post, cautioned against exaggerating the leverage Qatar has over the terrorist organization.

Qatar was hosting Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Doha, and funding them handsomely, to ensure that they only operate outside Qatar, Liberman said. He characterized this as Qatar paying “protection money” to the terrorist organization.

“It is paying protection money in order to ensure security and quiet and calm inside Qatar, so they would work only outside,” he said. “I don’t know how much they are able to influence Hamas. I think Hamas has more influence on Qatar, than Qatar does on Hamas.”

Prosor, known for his sarcasm, wrote in the Times, after mentioning the tiny country’s petrol billions, that “it is time for the world to wake up and smell the gas fumes. Qatar has spared no cost to dress up its country as a liberal, progressive society, yet at its core, the micro monarchy is aggressively financing radical Islamist movements.”

He said that the “petite petrol kingdom” needed to be isolated internationally.

“In light of the emirate’s unabashed support for terrorism, one has to question FIFA’s decision to reward Qatar with the 2022 World Cup,” he said, stopping just short of launching a campaign to strip Qatar of the right to host the marquee soccer event.

Given Qatar’s alliances and influence, Prosor wrote, the prospect for many western countries of isolating Qatar is “uncomfortable.” Yet, he added, “they must recognize that Qatar is not a part of the solution but a significant part of the problem. To bring about a sustained calm, the message to Qatar should be clear: Stop financing Hamas.”

GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS

August 25, 2014

GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS

via GOP Demands Obama Take Action on ISIS.

 


Rep. Mike Rogers. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Monday, 25 Aug 2014 09:16 AM

By Sandy Fitzgerald

 

President Barack Obama returned from his two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday night to a rising chorus of demands from Republicans wanting to know what strategy he plans to use for defeating the Islamic State before more American lives are lost to the terrorist group.

Republicans have been demanding answers about the IS situation for some time, but after the president’s much-maligned response to the beheading of American journalist James Foley, the questions dominated most of the Sunday morning news programs.

While Obama has been roundly criticized for being on vacation during the Foley murder and the rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting death of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown, many lawmakers commenting Sunday said they didn’t really begrudge the president taking some time off.

New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is from Foley’s home state, told CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer  that she does not mind that the president took a vacation with his family, but said he needs to examine the perception he caused when he went golfing the day after he addressed the nation about Foley’s killing.

“What I want from him is a strategy to defeat ISIS,” Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said of the terrorist group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “A containment strategy is not going to cut it: we need a strategy to defeat ISIS.”

And South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham  told CNN “State of the Union” host Candy Crowley that Obama and lawmakers should be looking at ISIS “as a direct threat to the United States, a threat to the region that cannot be accommodated. The strategy has to meet the threat.”

But still, Graham said that he wants a full explanation from Obama if he decides to spread the U.S. action to Syria.

“My concern is that the president’s strategy of leading from behind and [having a] light footprint has failed,” Graham told Crowley. “He has to realize, as President George W. Bush did, that his strategy is not working. President Bush adjusted his strategy when it was failing, and he brought about a surge that worked. President Obama has to admit to himself, if no one else, that what he’s doing is not working.”

Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers,  who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, called ISIS a “a very real threat” that is “one plane ticket away from U.S. shores.”

“One of the problems is it’s gone unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain to across Europe, even the United States, to go and join the fight,” Rogers said on NBC’d “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“They see that as a winning ideology, a winning strategy, and they want to be a part of it,” he explained to NBC’s Senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing. “And that’s what makes it so dangerous.”

Meanwhile, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also on “Face the Nation,” said that he gets the sense that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey “understand the gravity of the situation,” reports The Hill.

However, the onetime vice presidential nominee said that he doesn’t necessarily want to hear the president’s response to victories such as the retaking of the Mosul Dam, which had been captured by ISIS earlier this month.

“What I want to hear from our commander in chief is that he has a strategy to finish ISIS off. To defeat ISIS,” Ryan said. “If we don’t deal with this threat now thoroughly and convincingly, it’s going to come home to roost.”

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain also demanded Sunday that Obama expand his airstrike plan to Syria, so that ISIS will not have a base of operation, reports The Hill.

“There is no boundary between Syria and Iraq,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday,” telling host Chris Wallace that “one of the key decisions the president is going to have to make is air power in Syria. We cannot give them a base of operations. And we have got to help the Free Syrian Army.”

He said Foley’s killing would hopefully push the Obama administration to define its strategy not only for Iraq, but other parts of the world.

“This is an administration, which the kindest word I can use is ‘feckless,’ where they have not outlined a role that the United States has to play. And that is a leadership role,” he said. “No more ‘leading from behind,’ no more ‘don’t do stupid stuff,'” he added.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, now a CBS national security analyst, said the ISIS threat is “the most complex terrorism problem that I have ever seen,” but “there are no magic bullets,” CBS News reports.

“We have to take away their safe haven, their territory. That requires a political solution in Iraq, which is going to require us to continue to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, our Gulf Arab allies to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, Iran to press the Iraqis to do the right thing, and then we need to get a solution in Syria to take that territory away,” Morell said. “The other thing we need to do is take the leadership off the battlefield. We need to identify them through intelligence and then either capture or kill them.”

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the Obama administration has “been watching this group for quite a long time.”

The White House has been “assessing its strength and working with partners on the ground, particularly in Syria, the moderate opposition, to help them develop capabilities to go against ISIS … we are actively looking at what other options we have, what other tools we can use now to try to degrade this terrorist group’s capability,” Harf said.

Meanwhile, House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that should Obama decided to expand the United States’ attacks against ISIS into Syria, he should consult with Congress. House here has been a call to expand the United States’ efforts against ISIS, and McCaul said that if President Barack Obama is considering that action, his administrations should be in consultation with Congress.

“So far, they have, under the War Powers Act,” said McCaul. “Once that period of time expires, we believe it’s necessary to come back to Congress to get additional authorities and to update, if you will, the authorized use of military force.”

Whatever Obama’s strategy is, McCaul said, the United States should not try to act alone when it comes to defeating ISIS, as “we have allies that can bring a lot of pressure.”

Meanwhile, the ISIS fight can’t be won with Obama’s containment plans.

“His administration, thus far, has only dealt with containment,” said McCaul. “We need to expand strikes to ultimately defeat ISIS. I would rather eliminate them there than in the United States.”

Washington Post correspondent Bob Woodward, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,”  said nobody knows just what Obama plans to do.

“One key point about Obama is he doesn’t like war, and he’s trying to avoid the next one,” said Woodward. “But let’s not kid ourselves. There’s an inconsistency here. I mean, Hagel and the chairman of the joint chiefs have said — and [John] Kerry, the secretary of state, made it very clear, all options are on the table, and the president has said no boots on the ground.”

Syria could work with West against ‘terror’

August 25, 2014

Syria could work with West against ‘terror’

Syrian FM says Damascus open to co-operation at both regional and international level to combat Islamic State fighters.

Last updated: 25 Aug 2014 13:34

via Syria could work with West against ‘terror’ – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

 

Muallem said Syria must be involved in co-ordinating any air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria [AP]
 

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said that his country is ready to work with the international community to battle against “terrorists” within the framework of a recent UN resolution.

In a news conference in Damascus on Monday, he also warned that Syria must be involved in co-ordinating any air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, after the US said it was considering extending operations into Syrian territory.

“Syria is ready for co-operation and co-ordination at the regional and international level to fight terrorism and implement UN Security Council resolution 2170,” Muallem said.

He confirmed, in response to a question, that the country’s willingness to do so would extend to co-operating with the US and the UK.

Muallem added that Syria was willing to participate in such efforts as part of a regional or international coalition, or on the basis of bilateral cooperation.

However, he noted: “We must feel that the co-operation is serious and not double standards.

“Any violation of Syria’s sovereignty would be an act of aggression.”

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Akkar, in neighbouring Lebanon said the successes of the Islamic State group were pushing old rivals into allies.

The self-declared jihadist Islamic State group has made advances in several parts of Syria, including most recently Raqqa province, where it seized the army’s last provincial outpost on Sunday.

The UN Security Council passed a rare unanimous resolution on August 15 intended to weaken armed groups in Iraq and Syria by choking off their funding and stemming the flow of foreign fighters.

The resolution targeted both the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Syria’s government considers not only these two groups, but all those fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad to be “terrorists”.

Meanwhile on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged Western and Arab governments to overcome their distaste for Assad and engage with him to fight the Islamic State.

“I think Western politicians are already realising the growing and fast-spreading threat of terrorism,” Lavrov said, referring to Islamic State advances in Syria and Iraq.

“And they will soon have to choose what is more important: a [Syrian] regime change to satisfy personal antipathies, risking deterioration of the situation beyond any control, or finding pragmatic ways to unite efforts against the common threat.”

Russia has been Assad’s most prominent international backer in the civil war that broke out in early 2011 and in which the US and the West, as well as many Gulf and Arab states, backed the rebels seeking to oust him

UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State”

August 25, 2014

UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State”

Robert Spencer Aug 25, 2014 at 7:42am

via UK and US special forces form hunter killer unit to “smash the Islamic State” : Jihad Watch.

 

 

This will be interesting. Will these forces actually do what they have to do to topple the Islamic State, or will they be hampered by impossible politically correct rules of engagement that hamstring their ability to do much of anything beyond act as a shooting gallery for local jihadis, as in Afghanistan?

And will Muslim Brotherhood groups in the U.S. such as Hamas-linked CAIR that have issued vague and pro-forma denunciations of the Islamic State applaud this attempt to “smash” it, or will they start whining about the victimization of Iraqi civilians and disproportionate force?

“SAS and US special forces forming hunter killer unit to ‘smash Islamic State,’” by Aaron Sharp, Mirror, August 23, 2014:

Elite British and US special forces troops are forming a hunter killer unit called Task Force Black – its orders: “Smash the Islamic State.”

The undercover warriors will aim to “cut the head off the snake” by hitting the command structure of the Islamist terror group responsible for a trail of atrocities across Iraq and Syria, reports the Sunday People.

PM David Cameron has told the SAS and UK spy agencies to direct all their ­resources at defeating IS after a video of US journalist James Foley being beheaded shocked the world.

British special forces will work with America’s Delta Force and Seal Team 6. The move sees a rebirth of top secret Task Force Black, which helped defeat al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq .

This time the counter-terrorist ­experts will be targeting Abu Bakr ­al-Baghdadi, leader of IS and now the world’s most wanted terrorist.

A source said: “We need to go into Syria and Iraq and kill as many IS members as we can. You can’t ­negotiate with these people.

“This is not a war of choice. They are cash rich and have a plentiful ­supply of arms. If we don’t go after them, they will soon come after us.

“In Iraq, Task Force Black was carrying out strike operations every night.

“It was an unrelenting, intelligence-led assault on al-Qaeda. It took a lot of hard work and no small amount of sacrifice – but it worked.

“Defeating IS cannot be done by air strikes alone. You have to get on the ground and take out the commanders – cut off the snake’s head.

“The organisation will then begin to collapse. IS targets civilians and has yet to get into a real fight with a ­modern Western military.

“The SAS and US special forces will do untold damage to them.

“They’ll focus on the high command. This is going to be a long campaign, probably lasting years.

“And it will be like nothing the West has ever had to confront before.”

The new task force will comprise a squadron of the SAS, special forces aircrews from the RAF and agents from MI5 and MI6.

The operation will be led by America’s CIA spy agency….

Islamic State captures key Syrian air base

August 25, 2014

Islamic State captures key Syrian air base

Hundreds reportedly killed as fighters storm the Tabqa base in northeast Syria, the army’s last foothold in the area.

Last updated: 25 Aug 2014 10:03

via Islamic State captures key Syrian air base – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

 Watch the innocent civilians !!

 

Fighters from the Islamic State group have taken over an airbase in northeast Syria, capturing it from government forces after fighting that cost more than 500 lives, a monitoring group and state media have said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based rights group, said at least 346 Islamic State fighters and more than 170 government forces had been killed since Tuesday in the fight over the Tabqa base, which was captured by fighters on Sunday.

The SOHR, which monitors violence in Syria through sources on the ground, said fighting raged inside the air base throughout Sunday.

Syria’s official news agency said the military had withdrawn from the base after pitched battles and was still carrying out strikes.

The base was the Syrian army’s last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by the self-declared jihadist Islamic State group, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq.

It is one of the most significant government military facilities in the area, containing several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery and ammunition.

In nearby Raqqa city, an Islamic State stronghold, there was celebratory gunfire and the development was announced by several mosques through their loudspeakers, a witness told the Reuters news agency.

Fighters displayed the severed heads of Syrian army soldiers in the city square, the witness reportedly said, adding that Syrian warplanes were heard over Raqqa following the air base attack.

Earlier on Sunday the Syrian air force had bombed areas around the base.

The Observatory said that the base was strewn with bodies of “dozens” of soldiers.

Army forces ‘regrouping’

“After heavy fighting by the forces defending the Tabqa airport, our forces implemented a regrouping operation after the evacuation of the airport,” Syrian state television said on Sunday.

It added that army troops were launching “precision strikes” against “terrorist groups in the area, inflicting heavy losses”.

Syrian state media gave no figure for the number of people killed in the clashes.

Regime forces had repelled three previous attacks on the base in the previous week.

The Syrian army sent reinforcements to the base overnight on Friday to fight the Islamic State, which controls roughly a third of northern and eastern Syria, the Reuters news agency said.

The Islamic State also trapped around 150 retreating Syrian soldiers in an area near the base and was believed to be holding them captive, the Observatory said.

Many Islamic State fighters died after Syrian warplanes bombarded the area, the rights group added.

The Islamic State has taken three Syrian military bases in the area in recent weeks, boosted by arms seized in Iraq.

Tabqa is the last army stronghold in the Raqqa, after fighters captured Brigade 93 and Division 17 in the northern province, killing dozens of soldiers, many of whom were beheaded.

Raqqa province has become the stronghold of the Islamic State, which controls the provincial capital and has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in territory it holds in Syria and Iraq.

The group initially fought alongside Syrian opposition groups, but its abuses sparked a backlash from rebels who pushed it out of parts of northern Syria.

Jihadi cancer thrives in London

August 25, 2014

Comment: Jihadi cancer thrives in London

By BEN CASPITLAST UPDATED: 08/25/2014 13:46

We’ve been told that if given welfare, education and comfortable lives that the bog of hatred from Islamic terror will dry, however in London this does not appear to be true.

via Comment: Jihadi cancer thrives in London | JPost | Israel News.

 

ISIS fighter Photo: REUTERS A Hummer at the background how comes ?

To British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond: I read what you wrote when you learned that “Jihadist John,” who decapitated American journalist James Foley, is London-born Majd Abed el-Bary, a British citizen.

According to you, Mr. Foreign Secretary, “sooner or later they will try to attack us on our own land” and you accused that same jihadist of “an utter betrayal of everything the British people stand for.” You added: “It is horrifying to think that the perpetrator of this heinous act could have been brought up in Britain.”

Tell me, Mr. Foreign Secretary, do you live in Britain? And if you do, are you deaf, blind and dumb? Because if you are not, I have to ask myself, what is it that so amazes and horrifies you? If you are indeed familiar with the UK, and take the occasional walk in London and try to walk through the neighborhoods and boroughs that Islamists have occupied in recent years, and try to understand what they are preaching to their congregations in those same mosques that are springing up like mushrooms after the rain, you really shouldn’t be surprised. Incidentally, Mr. Hammond, try doing it dressed like an Orthodox Jew.

I wonder if you’ll survive, and in what condition.

I don’t mean to mock you, Mr. Foreign Secretary, or the UK. Here in Israel we have enormous respect for Britain; because its leadership still knows how to discern between good and bad and I am sure that, in an anonymous poll, both Prime Minister David Cameron and yourself would vote for Israel in its war against Hamas. It would have to be anonymous because otherwise you are liable to pay too heavy a political price in your constituencies.

We can all count and we all know the number of Muslim citizens there are in the UK these days and how influential they are. Here in Israel there are quite a few staunch supporters of Britain; me included. We consider you to be among the more enlightened nations in the world. Not only were you a military and political empire, but you are also responsible for most of the cultural treasures, music, theater, art, innovation, humor and creativity known to man.

Only two months ago the Rolling Stones performed in Tel Aviv (it seems as if it was 20 years ago) and, despite the exorbitant price of tickets, they managed to draw an audience of 50,000 excited fans to Yarkon Park.

But, Mr. Foreign Secretary, the UK has not only cultural heroes, but a surplus of ordinary heroes.

We shall never forget that Britain was the first and only country to step up and look Hitler in the eye and not turn away; to fight Hitler against all odds and to beat him.

Then you had Winston Churchill, a highly admired leader to this day, even among the best of our own leaders. Britain has known strength, determination and survivability.

I wonder if you still have those traits, Mr. Hammond? I refer mainly to survivability. I am not sure.

Medically, there are still signs of life. What then are your chances of surviving the Islamic tsunami and preserving your culture, your character, your personality? I don’t know.

Your spirit lives, still, here and there. For example, a few weeks ago Hamas rockets threatened our international airport and caused panic that resulted in many airlines (led by the US, oddly enough) to cancel flights to and from Israel. It lasted a day-and-ahalf, until everyone realized that Ben-Gurion Airport is the safest in the world.

But in that time, British Airways proved that it is made of the same stern stuff as before and continued flying, did not delay or cancel a single flight, and rightly so. We salute them.

We visit London frequently, Mr. Hammond. Nothing beats British football, nothing like British music, theater, art, humor or the British spirit.

But these visits are becoming increasingly hard. Your streets have changed. You don’t need to be much of a researcher to know how dangerous the penetration of radical Islam is to Europe’s capitals; how overbearing Islam can be; how alien it is to tolerance, to acceptance of the other, to integrate into the existing culture.

Thirty minutes of surfing the Internet, Mr. Foreign Secretary, will reveal to you the horrifying worlds that are flourishing in your backyard.

You’ll see religious preachers, seeped in hatred for everything Western, for everything Jewish, for everything Christian, for everything that does not identify with them.

You’ll see fury in the streets, violence toward everyone who comes to demand the freedom to live as they wish. I especially recommend a video of an ostensibly moderate Muslim preaching his creed to a congregation of seemingly moderate Muslims and, after they have all finished defining themselves “moderate Muslims” he asks all those who support the Islamic laws of punishment – in which women are stoned to death for adultery, for example – to raise their arms. All the hundreds of men present raise their arms as one. And these are moderates.

For decades, we have been told that Islamic terror is the result of ignorance and poverty. Give them welfare, education, comfortable lives and you’ll dry the bog of hatred. Well, that’s not quite true. The al-Qaida terrorists who attacked America 13 years ago were immigrants who enjoyed very comfortable lives in the American democracy. Your own British citizen, Mr. Hammond, who beheaded the American journalist, came from an elegant Maida Vale home and a life of comfort.

It is hate, Philip, and nothing else; education to hate, to hate the other, to intolerance, to a thirst for blood and murder. And here we come to our mutual interests, Mr. Foreign Secretary.

Soon you will understand, for good or for bad, that Israel is not a burden on the West. Israel is not stuck here like a bone in a Muslim throat. Getting rid of Israel will solve nothing. I think you may have already understood that. All you need do is listen to radical Islam. It talks; sometimes in English. It is exact; it is accurate.

It declares and reiterates its real objective – to annihilate the West. To annihilate the infidels.

Not only in Syria, or Iraq, or the Middle East, but everywhere.

There is no need to chart the map of extremism and distinguish between Hamas and Islamic State, for example. They are arms of the same octopus. For 14 years, Hamas has been shooting rockets on women and children, even after Israel withdrew unilaterally from every last inch of the Gaza Strip. Why? Because they want to drive us out of here. How do I know this? They say so every day, explicitly, repeatedly.

So why is the world silent? Good question, Mr. Hammond.

You know that one day your own jihadists will come back home, don’t you? And it’s time to start doing something, isn’t it? To say something. Maybe, next time an incited mob demonstrates in the streets of London and calls for “Murder to Israel,” some brave British politician will stand up and tell these people the truth, in his voice, in his language.

Or, alternatively, imagine, Mr. Hammond, what would have happened if the next generation of Hitler’s murder machine had grown up in your own country, in your London?

Syrian civil war death toll rises to more than 191,300, according to UN

August 22, 2014

Syrian civil war death toll rises to more than 191,300, according to UN Human rights office says figure includes additional killings from earlier periods as well as deaths since last report in July 2013

Associated Press in Geneva theguardian.com, Friday 22 August 2014 11.22 BST

via Syrian civil war death toll rises to more than 191,300, according to UN | World news | theguardian.com.

 

A Syrian man cries as he sits oamong the rubble of a building
following a reported barrel-bomb attack by Assad forces in Aleppo
earlier this month Photograph: Baraa Al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images
 

The death toll from Syria‘s civil war has risen to more than 191,300 people, the United Nations has said.

The figures for March 2011 to April 2014 are the first to issued by the UN’s human rights office since July 2013, when it documented more than 100,000 killed.

The UN’s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, who oversees the Geneva-based office, said the figures are so much higher because they include additional killings from earlier periods, as well as deaths since the last report. The exact figure of confirmed deaths is 191,369, Pillay said.

“As the report explains, tragically it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” she said.

Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, criticised what she described as the world’s “paralysis” over the fighting in Syria, which “has dropped off the international radar” in the face of so many other armed conflicts.

In January, her office said it had stopped updating the death toll, blaming a lack of access in Syria and its inability to verify source material. It was unclear why it has released new figures now.

The UN also would not endorse anyone else’s count, including the widely quoted figures from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has closely counted the deaths since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011. On Thursday, the observatory said the number of deaths has reached 180,000.

Gen. Dempsey: ISIS Cannot be Defeated Without Going Into Syria

August 22, 2014

Gen. Dempsey: ISIS Cannot be Defeated Without Going Into Syria

Friday, 22 Aug 2014 08:38 AM

By Melissa Clyne

via Gen. Dempsey: ISIS Cannot be Defeated Without Going Into Syria.

 

And for hamas  is it different ?

 

Without confronting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) inside Syria, the United States cannot defeat the militant terror organization that recently beheaded kidnapped American journalist James Foley,  says Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin E. Dempsey.

“This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated,” said Dempsey, who spoke alongside Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at press conference, according to the New York Times.

“Can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization that resides in Syria? The answer is no.”

Thus far, President Barack Obama has restricted airstrikes and military action to Iraq but there are growing concerns about ISIS’ ability to maintain a safe haven inside Syria, which borders Iraq. And the calls to act against ISIS militarily are growing.

Hagel indicated that strategy could be changing course, saying the administration is “looking at all options” concerning airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria.

Dempsey characterized the border between Iraq and Syria as “nonexistent” and noted that that the battle to root ISIS out will be a lengthy one that must be fought by “a coalition in the region,” according to the Associated Press.

“ISIS will only truly be defeated when it’s rejected by the 20 million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad,” Dempsey said.

With the use of captured American equipment, including Humvees, at least one heavily armored troop transport vehicle, and 20 Russian tanks in Syria, ISIS is well-equipped to wreak havoc on the region, according to the Times. The group, an offshoot of al-Qaida, is operating with a “decentralized command and control,” and has the ability to seamlessly replenish its ranking members with experienced militants, according to the Times.

“They are beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess,” Hagel said. “…This is beyond anything we have seen, and we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is that you take a cold, steely hard look at it and get ready.”

“If there is anything (ISIS) has learned from its previous iterations as al-Qaida in Iraq, it is that they need succession plans because losing leaders to counterterrorism operations is to be expected,” an intelligence official told the Times. “Their command and control is quite flexible as a result.”

Obama may have to authorize an expanded military action against, ISIS, the Associated Press reported.

The president may continue helping Iraqi forces try to reverse the group’s land grabs in northern Iraq by providing more arms and American military advisers and by using U.S. warplanes to support Iraqi ground operations.

But what if the militants pull back, even partially, into Syria and regroup, as Hagel on Thursday predicted they would, followed by a renewed offensive?

“In a sense, you’re just sort of back to where you were” before they swept into Iraq, said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who quit in February in disillusionment over Obama’s unwillingness to arm moderate Syrian rebels.

“I don’t see how you can contain the Islamic State over the medium term if you don’t address their base of operations in Syria,” he said in an interview before an intensified round of U.S. airstrikes this week helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces recapture a Tigris River dam near Mosul that had fallen under control of Islamic State militants.

On the other hand, Obama has been leery of getting drawn into the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011.

More immediately perhaps, Obama faces choices in Iraq, whose sectarian divisions and political dysfunction created the opening that allowed Islamic State fighters to sweep across northern Iraq in June almost unopposed. They captured U.S.-supplied weapons that Iraqi forces left behind when they fled without a fight.

Among his options:

—Sending more troops to Baghdad to strengthen security for the U.S. Embassy, as requested by the State Department. Officials said the number under consideration is fewer than 300. They would be in addition to the several hundred U.S. troops already in the capital to help protect U.S. facilities and personnel.

—Speeding up the arming of Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The administration has been supplying Iraqi government forces with Hellfire missiles, small arms and ammunition, but critics say the pace has been too slow. The administration has been reluctant to openly arm the Kurds, since their militia, known as the peshmerga, is a semi-autonomous force seen in Baghdad as a threat to central government authority.

—Increasing the number and expanding the role of the dozens of U.S. military advisers who are in Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Irbil to coordinate with Iraqi forces. They could be given more direct roles in assisting the Iraqis on the ground by embedding with Iraqi or Kurdish units in the field or scouting targets for U.S. airstrikes.

—Committing U.S. ground troops in Iraq. Obama has said repeatedly he would not do this. “We’re not the Iraqi military. We’re not even the Iraqi air force,” Obama said Monday. “I am the commander in chief of the United States armed forces, and Iraq is going to have to ultimately provide for its own security.”

—Extending the Iraq air campaign to Islamic State targets in Syria. Stretches of eastern Syria are a sanctuary for the group, also known by the acronyms ISIL or ISIS. The U.S. has warplanes available in the Middle East and Europe that could vastly increase the number and intensity of strikes in eastern Syria if Obama chose.

At a Pentagon news conference Thursday, Hagel appeared to leave the door open to extending U.S. strikes into Syria.

“We’re looking at all options,” he said when asked whether airstrikes inside Syria were a possibility.

This is hardly the first time Obama has faced options for military action in Syria.

The White House on Wednesday disclosed that Obama authorized a covert mission this summer to rescue American hostages in Syria, including journalist James Foley. The mission failed because the hostages had been moved before the rescuers arrived, officials said. On Tuesday, the militants released a video showing the beheading of Foley and threatened to kill a second hostage if U.S. airstrikes in Iraq continued.

A year ago, Obama put on hold a plan to attack Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, arguing that he would not act until Congress had a chance to vote on the use of military force. The vote never came, however, because the government of President Bashar Assad accepted a U.S.-Russian brokered deal to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iran tells UN nuclear chief no talks on missiles

August 17, 2014

Iran tells UN nuclear chief no talks on missiles

Head of IAEA meet with Iranian FM Zarif, President Rouhani to push for progress in a long-running investigation into suspected atomic bomb research

by Tehran.News Agencies Latest Update: 08.17.14, 16:19 / Israel News

via Iran tells UN nuclear chief no talks on missiles – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog on Sunday that Tehran will not discuss its long-range missile program as part of talks aimed at resolving a decade-long nuclear dispute, official media reported.

UN nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano said Sunday’s visit to Tehran was useful and that he was very glad to hear a firm commitment from Iran to resolve all outstanding issues through cooperation between the two sides.

Amano’s trip came ahead of an Aug. 25 deadline for Iran to provide information relevant to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inquiry into what it calls the possible military dimensions of the country’s disputed nuclear programme.

“Iran’s missile power is not negotiable in any level under any pretext,” Rouhani told Amano, the official IRNA news service reported.

The president added, however, that Iran is prepared to cooperate with the IAEA’s probe into whether its civilian nuclear program has a military component, “since there is no room for using a weapon of mass destruction in Iran’s defense doctrine.”

“This has been a short visit, but a useful one,” Amano said in Tehran after talks with President Hassan Rouhani and other senior Iranian officials, according to a statement issued by the IAEA in Vienna.

The state TV report Sunday said Amano landed in Tehran late Saturday. It said Amano also will visit with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the head of its own nuclear agency.

Amano’s visit comes as world powers continue to negotiate with the Islamic Republic for a permanent deal over its contested nuclear program. Those talks face a November deadline after an interim deal was struck last year.

The West fears Iran’s nuclear program could allow it to build nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

The visit – announced by the IAEA on Friday – will be Amano’s first to Iran this year and the third since 2012.

Western officials say Iranian clarifications of the IAEA’s concerns would also advance efforts by six world powers to negotiate an end to a decade-old standoff over Tehran’s atomic activities, suggesting some sanctions relief may depend on it.

With major gaps remaining over the permissible future scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, the talks between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, China, Britain and Russia were in mid-July extended until Nov. 24.

Iran says it is enriching uranium to generate electricity, and not to accumulate fissile material for a potential atomic bomb, as the West suspects.

Tehran rejects such suspicions as based on false and fabricated information from its enemies but has promised, since pragmatist Hassan Rouhani became president in mid-2013, to work with the Vienna-based UN agency to clear them up.

Under a phased cooperation pact hammered out late last year, an attempt to jumpstart the long-stalled IAEA investigation, Iran agreed in May to implement five nuclear transparency measures by Aug. 25, two of which directly dealt with the nuclear bomb inquiry.

However, so far there have been no public indications of any movement by Iran on the agreed steps.

A brief statement issued by the U.N. agency on Friday said, without elaborating: “The director general of the IAEA … will visit Iran for meetings on Aug. 17 with Iranian leaders and senior officials. The visit is part of the efforts to advance dialogue and cooperation between the agency and Iran.”

Nuclear intelligence

Diplomatic sources told Reuters in late July that the IAEA – which is tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the world – was concerned about Iran’s lack of engagement with the investigation.

They said there was still time for Iran to meet its commitments, noting that Tehran had occasionally waited until the last minute to make concessions in the past.

But the slow pace of cooperation may reinforce an impression in the West about continuing Iranian reluctance to give the IAEA the information and access to sites and people that it says it needs for its investigation.

“Unless Iran addresses the IAEA’s concerns … the chance is reduced of successfully negotiating a long term nuclear agreement between the (six powers) and Iran,” the Institute for Science and International Security think-tank said this month.

After years of what the West saw as Iranian stonewalling, Iran as a first step in May gave the IAEA information it had requested about its reasons for developing Exploding Bridge Wire detonators. These can be used to set off an atomic explosive device but Iran says they are for civilian use.

Tehran agreed to clarify two other issues by late August – concerning alleged work on explosives and computer studies related to calculating nuclear explosive yields.

They were among 12 specific areas listed in an IAEA report issued in 2011 with a trove of intelligence indicating a concerted weapons programme that was halted in 2003 – when Iran came under increased international pressure. The intelligence also suggested some activities may later have resumed.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report