Posted tagged ‘Terrorism’

Iran Bans U.S. Inspectors from All Nuclear Sites

July 17, 2015

Iran Bans U.S. Inspectors from All Nuclear Sites

No Americans permitted under final nuclear deal

BY:
July 16, 2015 4:20 pm

via Iran Bans U.S. Inspectors from All Nuclear Sites | Washington Free Beacon.

U.S. and Iranian officials confirmed Thursday that no American nuclear inspectors will be permitted to enter the country’s contested nuclear site under the parameters of a deal reached with world powers this week, according to multiple statements by American and Iranian officials.

Under the tenants of the final nuclear deal reached this week in Vienna, only countries with normal diplomatic relations with Iran will be permitted to participate in inspections teams organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The revelation of this caveat has attracted concern from some analysts who maintain that only American experts can be trusted to verify that Iran is not cheating on the deal and operating clandestine nuclear facilities.

The admission is the latest in a series of apparent concessions made by the United States to Iran under the deal. Other portions of the agreement include a promise by the United States to help Iran combat nuclear sabotage and threats to its program.

“Iran will increase the number of designated IAEA inspectors to the range of 130-150 within 9 months from the date of the implementation of the JCPOA, and will generally allow the designation of inspectors from nations that have diplomatic relations with Iran, consistent with its laws and regulations,” the deal states, according to text released by the Russians and Iranians.

Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, confirmed this in an interview with CNN.

“There are not going to be independent American inspectors separate from the IAEA” on the ground in Iran, Rice said. “The IAEA will be doing the inspections on behalf of the U.S. and the rest of the international community.”

Rice said that the Obama administration trusts those countries whose relations with Iran are normalized to carry out inspections of the Islamic Republic’s sensitive nuclear sites.

“The IAEA, which is a highly respected international organization will field an international team of inspectors, and those inspectors will in all likelihood come from IAEA member states, most of whom have diplomatic relations with Iran,” Rice said. “We of course are a rare exception.”

Elliott Abrams, a former White House National Security Council director under George W. Bush, criticized the administration for consenting to Iranian demands.

“It’s ironic that after Wendy Sherman told us about how Kerry and Zarif had tears in their eyes thinking about all they had accomplished together, we learn that the Islamic Republic won’t allow one single American inspector,” Abrams said, referring to John Kerry and Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister. “No member of the P5+1 [negotiating team] should be barred, and this is another example of how badly the administration negotiated.”

“We should have insisted that the ‘no Americans’ rule was simply unacceptable,” Abrams said. “But there was no end to U.S. concessions.”

One American source who was present in Vienna for the talks said the ban on all U.S. inspectors is the result of Iranian demands in the negotiating room.

“The administration promised the American people and their lawmakers that we would be implementing the most robust inspection regime in the history of the world and that we would know what’s happening on the ground,” the source said. “Now they tell us America can’t have anything to do with the inspection regime because we don’t have diplomatic relations with Iran. I guess we should be grateful they’re not solving this problem by opening up a U.S. embassy in Tehran.”

Obama administration officials also admitted recently that promises for “anytime, anywhere” inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites were a rhetorical flight of fancy.

“I think this is one of those circumstance where we have all been rhetorical from time to time,” lead U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman told reporters this week. “That phrase, ‘anytime, anywhere,’ is something that became popular rhetoric, but I think people understood that if the IAEA felt it had to have access, and had a justification for that access, that it would be guaranteed, and that is what happened.”

U.S. concessions on the structure of the inspections regime have allowed Iran to delay inspections of sensitive sites for at least 24 days.

Huge blast hits Italian consulate in Cairo, 1 dead

July 11, 2015

Huge blast hits Italian consulate in Cairo, 1 dead

Published time: July 11, 2015 05:09

Edited time: July 11, 2015 11:35

via Huge blast hits Italian consulate in Cairo, 1 dead — RT News.

 

Update :

Published time: July 11, 2015 05:09
Edited time: July 11, 2015 16:06

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on Saturday at the Italian consulate in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in which at least one person was killed.

http://rt.com/news/273082-egypt-blast-cairo-blast/

A general view shows the destroyed facade of the Italian consulate building following a powerful bomb explosion, killing one person, in the capital, Cairo, on July 11, 2015. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

A general view shows the destroyed facade of the Italian consulate building following a powerful bomb explosion, killing one person, in the capital, Cairo, on July 11, 2015. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

 At least person was killed in a powerful explosion outside the Italian consulate in downtown Cairo, according to health ministry spokesman, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar.

Earlier reports said two police officers and three passers-by were among those injured in the blast on Saturday morning.

The consulate was closed at the time of the explosion (06:30 local time, 04:30 GMT) and none of its staff were injured, an Italian embassy official told AP.

The explosion partially destroyed the facade of the consulate building, photos from the scene showed. It was caused by a car bomb, a security official told Reuters.

A bomb might have been placed under a car and remotely detonated, according to preliminary investigation results, cited by Egypt’s official MENA news agency.

The nearby Supreme Court was shaken by the blast, AFP reported.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast at the Italian consulate.

Egypt has seen a number of bomb attacks over the past months.

The Egyptian military-imposed government is fighting against Islamist groups after a 2013 coup that ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. The violence is mostly localized in the turbulent Sinai Peninsula, but bombings and attacks on security checkpoints occasionally happen in other parts of the country.

At least four journalists have been detained by Egyptian police at the scene of the explosion.

Hamas Restates Demands for Kidnapped Israelis

July 10, 2015

Hamas Reiterates Demands for Talks on Kidnapped Israelis

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar says as far as he is concerned the matter is ‘closed’ until Israeli frees dozens of terrorists.

By Dalit Halevi

First Publish: 7/10/2015, 3:44 PM

via Hamas Restates Demands for Kidnapped Israelis – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar

Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar
Flash 90

Hamas is continuing to demand massive concessions from Israel as a precondition for even starting talks over two Israeli citizens held captive in Gaza.

In an interview Thursday with Turkish media, senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar reiterated conditions set by the terrorist group Thursday for opening talks over 26-year-old Avraham Mengistu and another as-yet unnamed Israeli civilian it is holding hostage, as well as the remains of two soldiers still held by Hamas since last year’s Operation Protective Edge.

Chief among those conditions is the release of dozens of terrorists who were released from Israeli prisons under the 2011 prisoner swap to release IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and were later rearrested after returning to terrorist activities.

More than 1,000 terrorists were released – many of them convicted murderers – in exchange for just one Israeli soldier in the lopsided Shalit Deal. Analysts warned that enormous price would merely encourage further kidnappings.

As part of the deal released terrorists had to sign a written guarantee they would not resume terrorist activity, and that if they did they would be rearrested and forced to serve the rest of their previous sentences.

Among the 71 rearrested Shalit Deal terrorists are a number serving life sentences.

Al-Zahar emphasized that Hamas would not issue any responses or open negotiations concerning the fate of the two kidnapped Israelis, and that the matter was “closed” until its conditions were met.

Mengistu – who has a history of mental illness – has been held by Hamas for 10 months, after reportedly crossing the border into Gaza, where he was immediately detained by terrorists.

However, details of his case were only revealed yesterday (Thursday), when a gag order was lifted after his family appealed.

Another Israel citizen – believed to be a Bedouin from the Arab town of Hura in the Negev – is also being held captive, although a gag order is still in place vis-a-vis his identity and the circumstances surrounding his capture.

Hamas is also holding the remains of IDF Sergeant Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, who were killed during last summer’s war with Gazan terrorists.

Yes We Can’t Defeat ISIS

July 8, 2015

Yes We Can’t Defeat ISIS

Obama wants to fight ISIS in a battle of wits.

July 8, 2015

Daniel Greenfield

via Yes We Can’t Defeat ISIS | Frontpage Mag.

 

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

On the anniversary of the Battle of Heliopolis, Barack Hussein Obama stopped by the Pentagon to tell everyone there that their big guns couldn’t beat ISIS because “Ideologies are not defeated with guns”.

This would be news to the American GIs that beat Nazism, not with hashtags, but with bullets. WW2 propaganda, much of it of a crude nature that would make a modern sophisticated progressive turn up his nose, helped boost morale, but it was the firepower that took down Adolf’s armies.

On a July 6th, long ago, the Muslim hordes that were the ISIS of the day defeated Byzantium in the Battle of Heliopolis. Since this was the 7th century, it is safe to say that there were no hashtags involved. The outcome of that battle however is the reason why Obama’s middle name is Hussein instead of Harry.

The Battle of Heliopolis gave the Caliphate control of Egypt and opened the gates to Africa. Islam was the last man standing among the ruins of empires and it proceeded to enslave, oppress and convert by force to expand its ranks in a manner quite similar to its modern ISIS successor.

Obama isn’t wrong when he suggests that ideas need to be defeated with ideas. But they’re not the ideas that he has in mind. ISIS’ idea is that its enemies are subhuman cretins and that its victories are inevitable. Obama’s idea is that we are a deeply flawed and racist nation, but still sorta better than ISIS.

The only people inspired by that idea are the Americans converting to Islam and joining ISIS.

The uncertainty of the Byzantine Empire doomed it to defeat at the Battle of Heliopolis. The Muslim invaders benefited once again from a united front while their enemies were divided and quarreling among themselves. Without these divisions among Christians, between Christians and Jews, and the various pagan tribes, Islam would never have become anything other than an obscure silly cult.

At the Pentagon, Obama stated, “Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they are defeated by better ideas. We will never be at war with Islam.” He isn’t talking about uniting us behind a better idea. Instead he would like Muslims to unite behind some sort of better idea. It’s not clear what that idea is, but he can tell us that it doesn’t involve accepting the reality that we are being attacked in the name of Islam.

Obama wants to fight ISIS in a battle of ideas without having any ideas. It’s like being unarmed in a battle of wits, except it’s more like the witless trying to fight a battle of ideas while being shot at.

Like the Byzantine Empire, we’re a divided people wearied by war and burdened with poor leaders. The 7th century ISIS that beat them wasn’t so much tactically brilliant as it used daring and deception to exploit opportunities created by the incompetence and demoralization of a falling empire.

Obama is speaking in terms of an ideological thirty years war, saying, “This larger battle for hearts and minds is going to be a generational struggle.” But like the armies of the Caliph pouring through the porous borders of a retreating empire, ISIS is moving far too quickly to wait around that long.

Liberal foreign policy experts give a great deal of credit to its social media presence while misunderstanding its significance. The Islamic State’s use of social media to message, recruit and gloat is part of its larger tactical strength as a mobile and adaptable organization. ISIS isn’t winning the war on Twitter. It’s using Twitter the way that it adapts and uses everything else that it comes across.

ISIS is not winning because it has the better hashtags. It’s winning because it’s utterly ruthless. Arguing about its ideology on social media not only misses the point about ISIS, it misses the point about Islam.

Islam did not build a worldwide empire by winning theological arguments. It won by winning. Islam is not an empire of faith. It is an empire of war that divides the world up into the Dar-al-Islam and the Dar-al-Harb; the House of Islam and the House of War. Harb originally meant sword. When ISIS beheads prisoners, it is meting out the same treatment that Mohammed did to those in the House of War.

Indeed Mohammed’s sword, one of them at any rate as he had quite a few, was named Dhu al-Faqar or “Cleaver of Vertebrae”. This is the same sword that appeared on the war flags of the Ottoman Caliphate which, like Obama’s middle name, would never have existed if the Byzantine Empire hadn’t lost the war.

The Cleaver of Vertebrae, like the House of War, is one of those dividing elements of Islamic ideology. It divides the world between Islam and everyone else and divides heads from bodies. It is the central idea of Islam that we need a better idea to fight if we intend to keep our own heads.

Islamic ideas are simple, rather than sophisticated. They depend on tribalism and terror to mobilize force. They rely on honor and shame to mark defeats and victories. The only way to argue with them is on those same terms. Islam’s only big idea is that power is religion and victory is proof of its rightness.

The theological counterargument to the Islamic State is crushing it on the battlefield.

Obama’s Hearts and Minds strategy tries to win the war by losing it, putting us at a strategic disadvantage with restrictive rules of engagement on the battlefield to win over Muslims while potential ISIS recruits are shipped into the United States by the hundreds of thousands as Muslim immigrants.

If this “generational struggle” for “hearts and minds” fails, as it must, then we will be in the same position as the old Byzantine Empire, exhausted, weary of war, fighting among ourselves and ready for defeat after having filled our countries with enemies while turning our soldiers into social workers.

Not even the worst leaders of the Byzantine Empire were as foolish as that.

Even now the war is on again for Egypt as ISIS fights in the Sinai. The Islamic Caliphate forces that defeated Byzantium passed through the Sinai. Their armies were invigorated by Sinai Bedouins joining them. Today the Islamic State once again wages war in the Sinai using the Bedouin.

Obama speaks of offering “a more attractive, more compelling vision”, but what does he have to offer that can compete with the reunification of the lands of Islam and the dominance of a Caliph? He has already tried offering his ideas in Cairo. Today Egyptians hate both him and his ideas.

The Battle of Heliopolis on a July 6th long ago shows us that the best way to defeat an enemy is not by appeasing it, but by fighting it with a united front. It was the Democrats who shattered the nation’s unity after September 11 by standing up for terrorists. Obama continues that tradition today as he tells us that we can’t win because our enemies are our friends and that we disgusting intolerant bigots.

America does not need to win the hearts and minds of Muslims. It needs to win the hearts and minds of its own people. We do not need the goodwill of those who believe that we are less than human. What we need is confidence in our nation, our values and ourselves. The best antidote to July 6th is July 4th.

A strong and united nation can see off any number of barbarian raiders. A divided civilization struggling over bitter grudges can easily be divided and conquered even by bands of worthless murderous savages.

The ideas for defeating ISIS are those which unite us, which make us stronger and which resist foreign invasion. The ideas that make it easier for ISIS to defeat us can be found in any Obama speech.

Reality versus Fantasy – Obama’s Proxy War In Syria

July 2, 2015

Reality versus Fantasy – Obama’s Proxy War In Syria

Author

By Eddie Pedersen — Bio and Archives July 2, 2015

via Reality versus Fantasy – Obama’s Proxy War In Syria.

Funding alleged Freedom Fighters aka Magical Fighters who historically fall prey to swapping allegiances increase the risk of genocide to astronomical proportions, unwarranted

The Kurdish people are fighting our terrorist enemies and losing their lives in the process, and it’s not just men, 30% of Kurdish fighters are now female fighters, who can never be captured alive.  Think about that the next time you can’t find a shopping cart at the local grocery store.  Think about it when you’re grilling hot dogs and burgers this Fourth of July, or when you hear the national anthem this weekend.  These men and women fight in your place.  Think about what you have done for them.

Of course Turkey is making a bundle off of this Syrian proxy war, monies from the USA and concerned European nations are pouring into Turkish President Erdogan’s hands, and Ankara’s political big wigs don’t want the cash to stop flowing.  But for now, the Kurds have warned Erdogan to stay the hell out of their Syrian affairs, because they are too busy killing the real terrorists to be bothered with Erdogan’s vendetta against Assad.  And the Kurds should get away with saying it too.  Not surprisingly, Turkey is upset because the Kurds are expanding their grip on the border, therefore they are able to secure and shut down supply routes from Turkey to the alleged freedom fighters in Syria, while strengthening Kurdish power in Syria.

Arresting the flow of enemy arms into a hot shooting war is a good idea.  If our administration was really interested in human rights and human suffering they would be compelled to stop funneling arms into the hands of Syria’s alleged freedom fighters.  Remember how the libs always love to say, ‘oh, if it just saved one life, just one single life then it would all be worth it’.  Remember that about Iraq?  Now the tables are turned and our administration is funneling in arms to alleged Freedom Fighters.  Funneling arms and monies into the hands of alleged Freedom Fighters who have pledged allegiances to the same terrorists the Kurds are fighting.  And it’s killing their Kurdish brethren not to mention Syrian civilians who are dying by the thousands.

Freedom fighters aka Magical fighters

On to the Magical Fighters!  First, to contrast things, we have two articles, just released into cyberspace: First one is titled Syria’s Kurds Warn Turkey Not to Intervene Militarily, and then there is example B, the Obama administration, U.S. Defense Secretary says, that he won’t speed up the training of Syrian Freedom Fighters thereby lowering their abilities.  Freedom fighters who have sworn allegiances to known terrorist factions in Syria we ask?  They don’t shoot at the terrorists yet sometimes they do?  But of course they always shoot at Assad, who protects the Syrian Christians plus other rare and interesting people endemic to this quaint region of the globe.  Come on, what is that?  Freedom from reality?  Are these magical fighters who operate in total submission to an administration in a far away distant capitol?  Yet we’re all supposed to believe these magical fighters will somehow make a significant difference.  A difference worth losing Kurdish fighters to bullets and arms American tax dollars paid for?  At some point we must say, this has gone on long enough, put an end to the lunacy.

To further pontificate.  The world’s population see the Kurdish people making startlingly significant gains in an anti terror war by cutting enemy supply lines; and their “reward” is they are now being threatened by a thug, Turkey’s Erdogan, because the Kurds dare cutting off highly profitable supply lines to these alleged Magical Fighters who attack Assad in conjunction with the enemies that they (the Kurds) are fighting right now, aka Islamic terror!  See the problem here?  The reality is this self destructive Kurdish self sacrifice is being demanded because of this administration’s pipe dream fantasies.  Thusly the Kurds, who are actually killing the enemies of humanity (Islamic terror), are being threatened by a Muslim brotherhood thug (Erdogan) because they (the Kurds) are cutting off supply lines for Erdogan and our administration’s outlandish fanatical obsession with killing Assad.

So somehow the Kurds are supposed to allow arms into the hands of alleged Freedom Fighters who have sworn allegiances with the terrorists because these alleged Magical Fighters say they will only shoot in Assad’s direction?  And not let their arms fall into the hands of terrorists who would definitely turn the gun barrels and rocket launchers towards Kurdish held areas?  These are all the assurances we get?  Remember, real people are fighting these terrorist monsters and dying, Kurdish men and women die daily, and to make matters worse this is a hideously ugly Islamic war being fought against Daesh monsters who do the most horrific things to the people they capture.  This isn’t a nice squeaky clean Geneva convention conflict.  Kurdish women really do carry the last bullet for themselves and in some cases have had to actually use it.  This particular war will be long remembered as an incredibly ugly and notoriously dark chapter in human history.  You can rest assured of that.

Arresting the flow of enemy arms into a hot shooting war is a good idea

Once again, in a hot shooting war it’s a good idea to starve the bad guys of weapons while funneling superior weaponry into the hands of those who are fighting in our stead.  Our Administration has let their ambition get the better of them in that weapons being funneled into a region known for factions allegiances changing overnight puts thousands of civilians at risk and could case the loss of Kurdish fighting men and women.  Let us be crystal clear about Assad.  Yes, Assad has done some really bad things, everybody knows that.  Yet he protects Syria’s Christians who are just one faction amongst many rare and unique peoples in Syria, and Assad supports a secular society, yet he has used gas in the past.  And it is here where we come down to the hard realities of this whole nightmare.  Hard realities beget hard problems that demand the harshest remedies.  And the realities in the region aren’t this Zinn and Chomsky blame-America-First alternate reality, but the one true reality,  which is that Assad, like him or not, his Syrian dilemma is incredibly similar to Muammar Gadhafi and the collapse of Libya.  It is a dramatically yet eerily similar situation, only it is happening in a completely different country.  So hear our warning now, pull the keystone out of this particular arch and an entire nation comes crashing down in genocidal ruins.  This is the reality, not some alternate reality, where the Freedom Fighters turn into Magical Fighters and defeat Assad then plant their magical flag in Damascus and the Terrorists all go away!  Just like the comic books!  Please, Washington, get a grip, come on, people. This isn’t that hard a thing to figure out, if we can do it, then our government should be able to do it too.

We are subjected to an endless Assad obsession

Time and time again we think ‘what the heck is it with the obsession to oust Assad’.  Is it that Obama once said he would (and like his promise to pull out of Iraq) topple Assad regardless of the consequences?  Is that it?  Is it petro dollars being fueled into this horrible specter shooting war to oust Assad and build the Islamic pipeline?  Is that it?  Is it oil rich checkerboard Arabic states?  Is it them?  Are they the ones fueling the west’s fantasy that they can oust Assad and then become billionaires by investing in the mega Islamic oil and natural gas pipeline that would surely be constructed?  Is it being done to further cripple Russia by breaking their grip on European fossil fuel markets?  Is it a vendetta, pure hatred or blind ambition and greed?  What compels one to funnel in vast amounts of arms and money into the hands of deserters and insurrectionists who can change allegiances overnight?  Many put it up to man’s vanity.  Some say it’s being done because it serves the egos that fuel their oppositional defiant disorder.  But the overarching reality remains, people are needlessly dying because of it.  This policy could touch off the worst genocide of the new millennium.  With America’s Magical Fighters being the catalyst, all   preventable.

Israeli army says Hamas helping Islamic State in Sinai

July 2, 2015

Israeli army says Hamas helping Islamic State in Sinai

Top officer claims Gaza providing military, medical support to the IS offshoot behind Wednesday’s massive attack that killed dozens

By Times of Israel staff July 2, 2015, 8:28 pm

via Israeli army says Hamas helping Islamic State in Sinai | The Times of Israel.

Smoke rises in Egypt's northern Sinai, as seen from the border of the Gaza Strip, on July 1, 2015, amid fierce clashes between government forces and Islamic State-affiliated gunmen. (Abed Rahim Khatib /Flash90)

Smoke rises in Egypt’s northern Sinai, as seen from the border of the Gaza Strip, on July 1, 2015, amid fierce clashes between government forces and Islamic State-affiliated gunmen. (Abed Rahim Khatib /Flash90)

 

The IDF has acquired intelligence that Hamas is providing weaponry and other support to the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate, Wilayat Sinai, the group thought to be behind Wednesday’s deadly attack on Egyptian security services, a top Israeli officer said Thursday.

The coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, told the Arabic-language news network al-Jazeera that along with military support, Hamas has also been providing medical support to injured IS operatives.

Wednesday’s attack, which included a wave of suicide bombings and assaults on security installations by dozens of militants, saw Sinai’s deadliest fighting in decades. Security officials said dozens of troops were killed, along with nearly 100 attackers.

Mordechai claimed a high-ranking officer in Hamas’s military wing, named as Wa’al Faraj, has been smuggling injured Islamic State fighters into the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

COGAT commander Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, left, at the Bitunya Crossing near Ramallah (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/ Flash 90)

COGAT commander Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, left, at the Bitunya Crossing near Ramallah (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/ Flash 90)

 

Another top Hamas commander involved in training fighters, Abdullah Kishta, had been lending his expertise to Islamic State jihadists in Sinai, Mordechai said, adding that the IDF has “proof” of these direct ties.

Wilayat Sinai (Province of Sinai) was known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis before it pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State.

The IDF on Thursday beefed up its presence along the border with the Sinai Peninsula following the attacks, as security officials cautioned that the IS-affiliated group could attempt to overrun the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army deployed additional troops and was monitoring the fighting across the border using UAVs, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

“We see in front of our eyes IS acting with extraordinary cruelty both on our northern border and at our southern border,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, referring to operatives of the group who have been fighting in the Syrian civil war.

“Our hearts are with the Egyptian people, we send our condolences to the Egyptian government and the families of those who were killed in battle by cruel terror.”

Egyptian officials said the military killed 23 extremists in dawn raids Thursday in northern Sinai, just south of the border town of Rafah, near the Gaza Strip.

They said the army was also seeking out militants house to house in the town of Sheikh Zuweid — where the militants attacked at least five army checkpoints the previous day — and de-mining roads in and around the area that extremists had booby trapped with mines and improvised explosives devices.

A photo shared by the Egyptian military shows a weapons cache seized from IS-linked jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula (Facebook/Egyptian army)

A photo shared by the Egyptian military shows a weapons cache seized from IS-linked jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula (Facebook/Egyptian army)

 

The Sinai attacks were the most brazen in their scope since jihadists launched an insurgency in 2013 following the army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Militants took over rooftops and fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in Sheikh Zuweid after mining its exits to block reinforcements, a police colonel said.

“This is war,” a senior military officer told AFP. “It’s unprecedented in the number of terrorists involved and the type of weapons they are using.”

One car bomb attack against a checkpoint south of Sheikh Zuweid killed 15 soldiers.

The Islamic State group said its jihadists surrounded the police station after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using suicide car bombers and rockets.

Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where jihadists have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi’s overthrow.

IS said the assault had involved three suicide bombers. “In a blessed raid enabled by God, the lions of the caliphate have simultaneously attacked more than 15 checkpoints belonging to the apostate army,” it said in a statement.

AP and AFP contributed to this report.

Designating Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Immigration Enforcement

July 2, 2015

Designating Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Immigration Enforcement, Center for Immigration StudiesDan Cadman, July 2, 2015

During . . . (2009-2014 . . .  half of a decade), ICE agents have removed exactly three aliens. Three. And yet the FBI director, the director of national intelligence, and others tell us that the nation is peppered with Islamic State supporters, not to mention the plethora of other terrorist groups one can choose to affiliate with.

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

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just issued a public report on the process used to designate foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which assigns lead responsibility to the Secretary of State. It is called “Combating Terrorism: Foreign Terrorist Organization Designation Process and U.S. Agency Enforcement Actions”.

GAO initially prepared and distributed the report to the Department of State (DOS) and other government parties in April, but withheld it publicly until material that DOS identified as “sensitive but unclassified” (SBU) was redacted from the public version just released.

Even with the SBU redactions, one finds some interesting and suggestive factoids buried in the report in typically dry bureaucratic language.

Among them is that, under the designation process developed by DOS, various agencies participating in the targeting and review can put “holds” on designation. Section 219 of the INA, which outlines the legal basis for designation of FTOs contains no such proviso.

The reasons described for placing “holds” are just a wee bit fuzzy and this arouses my suspicious nature because, in addition to the other government agencies one would expect to participate (such as the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Justice and Homeland Security Departments, etc.), one finds mentioned the DOS regional bureaus (see note 16 in the report). These are the folks that look out for the political angles of inter-governmental relationships between the United States and other countries. Could it be that bilateral politics are involved in FTO designation? One fears so, because it is suggestive that, although various other statistics are scattered throughout the GAO report, the number of holds and who placed them is nowhere to be found. Could this be the “sensitive” data that DOS didn’t want revealed to the public? If so, under which secretaries of State did such regional bureaus exercise this extra-statutory ability? And how many such holds have been placed, and for how long?

Another interesting factoid is that between 2009 and 2014 Customs and Border Protection inspectors denied entry to over 1,000 alien applicants for admission based on terrorism grounds, including membership in or affiliation with designated FTOs. We can reasonably assume that some portion of these aliens were applying for admission under the visa waiver program (VWP) and that a significant number were granted multiple entry visas by DOS consular officers before the terrorist connection was known, but that their visas were not revoked by DOS after the connection was made.

Then there is the abysmally low number of aliens taken into custody within the United States on terrorism-related removal grounds, presumably by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the same date range used to calculate CBP figures, (2009-2014 — half of a decade), ICE agents have removed exactly three aliens. Three. And yet the FBI director, the director of national intelligence, and others tell us that the nation is peppered with Islamic State supporters, not to mention the plethora of other terrorist groups one can choose to affiliate with.

The shockingly low number comports with remarks I made in a prior posting when I commented that since the formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose mission is obviously to protect the homeland, we Americans — and most particularly the leaders in this administration — seem to have forgotten the important lesson about the nexus between safe communities and using the deportation laws to remove foreign threats.

Two other noteworthy items that merit their own examinations in full, but not here: that waivers have been granted to individuals with terrorist connections, apparently both to enter the United States, and to gain various immigration benefits administered by one of DHS’s subordinate agencies; and that of the 69 FTOs designated since 1997 when the law authorizing designation took effect, 10 (nearly 15 percent of total designations) have been removed from the list by the Secretary of State.

Pulling down the slaver flags of Islam and Africa

July 2, 2015

Pulling down the slaver flags of Islam and Africa, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, July 2, 2015

flag_of_muslim_league_1

In our incredibly tolerant culture, it has become politically incorrect to watch the General Lee jump a fence or a barn, but paying tribute to the culture that sent the slaves here and that still practices slavery is the culturally sensitive thing to do.

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The return of the Confederacy was averted in the summer of 2015 when major retailers frantically scoured through their vast offerings to purge any images of a car from the Dukes of Hazzard. If not for their quick thinking, armies of men in gray might have come marching down the streets of New York and San Francisco to stop off for an Iced Mocha Frappucino ™ at a local Starbucks before restoring slavery.

History will little note nor long remember the tired wage slaves making $7.25 an hour while checking Amazon and eBay databases for tin models of an orange car with a Confederate flag on top. During this courageous defense of the homeland from the scourge of a mildly politically incorrect 80s show, Hillary Clinton committed her own unpardonable racist hate crime by saying, “All lives matter”.

The politically correct term is, “Black lives matter.”

Even while our own Boss Hoggs in DC and SF are locking up the Duke boys as a symbol of racism, they are loudly arguing that black lives matter, all lives don’t. The proportion that the weight of a life should be measured by race is the sort of idea that we might have associated with slavery. Today it’s an idea that we associate with racial tolerance as we heal our nation’s racial wounds one race riot at a time.

Romanticizing the South means a whipping from our cultural elite. Instead of romanticizing the culture that bought slaves, they romanticize the Middle Eastern and African cultures that sold them the slaves.

When Obama condemned Christianity for the Crusades, only a thousand years too late, in attendance was the Foreign Minister of Sudan; a country that practices slavery and genocide. Obama could have taken time out from his rigorous denunciation of the Middle Ages to speak truth to the emissary of a Muslim Brotherhood regime whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But our moral liberals spend too much time romanticizing actual slaver cultures.

It’s a lot easier for Obama to get in his million dollar Cadillac with its 5-inch thick bulletproof windows, a ride Boss Hogg could only envy, and chase down a couple of good ole boys than it is to condemn a culture that committed genocide in our own time, not in 1099, and that keeps slaves today, not in 1815.

Even while the Duke boys were being chased through Georgia, Obama appeared at an Iftar dinner; an event at which Muslims emulate Mohammed, who had more slaves than Robert E. Lee. There are no slaves in Arlington House today, but in the heartlands of Islam, from Saudi mansions to ISIS dungeons, there are still slaves, laboring, beaten, bought, sold, raped and disposed of in Mohammed’s name.

Slavery does not exist under the Confederate flag eagerly being pulled down. It does exist under the black and green flags of Islam rising over mosques in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and America today.

In our incredibly tolerant culture, it has become politically incorrect to watch the General Lee jump a fence or a barn, but paying tribute to the culture that sent the slaves here and that still practices slavery is the culturally sensitive thing to do. In 2015, slavery is no longer freedom, but it certainly is tolerance.

And it’s not just about Islam.

If romanticizing Dixie is wrong, so is romanticizing those ancient African cultures so beloved by amateur anthropologists and professional sociologists with more plastic tribal jewelry than sense. Slavery was an indigenous African and Middle Eastern practice. Not to mention an indigenous practice in America among indigenous cultures.

If justice demands that we pull down the Confederate flag everywhere, even from the top of the orange car sailing through the air in the freeze frame of an old television show, then what possible justification is there for all the faux Aztec knickknacks? Even the worst Southern plantation owners didn’t tear out the hearts of their slaves on top of pyramids. The romanticization of Aztec brutality plays a crucial role in the mythology of Mexican nationalist groups like La Raza promoting the Reconquista of America today.

Black nationalists romanticize the slave-holding civilization of Egypt despite the fact that the narrative of the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from bondage played a crucial role in the end of slavery in America. The endless stories about the “Amazons” of the African kingdom of Dahomey neatly fit into the leftist myth of a peaceful matriarchal Africa disrupted by European colonialism, but Dahomey ran on slavery.

The “Amazons” helped capture slaves for the Atlantic slave trade. White and black liberals are romanticizing the very culture that captured and sold their forefathers into slavery. “In Dahomey,” the first major mainstream black musical was about African-Americans moving to Dahomey. By then the French had taken over old Dahomey and together with the British had put an end to the slave trade.

The French dismantled the “Amazons” and freed many of Dahomey’s slaves only for the idiot descendants of both groups to romanticize the noble last stand of Dahomey fighting for the right to export black slaves to Cuba and condemn the European liberators who put a stop to that atrocity.

If we crack down on romanticizing Dixie, how can we possibly justify romanticizing Dahomey or the Aztecs or Mohammed? If slavery and racism are wrong, then they are wrong across the board.

Even by the miserably racist standard under which all lives don’t matter, only black lives matter, Dahomey and Mohammed had bought, sold and killed enough black lives to be frowned upon.

If we go back far enough in time, most cultures kept slaves. The Romans and Greeks certainly did. That’s why the meaningful standard is not whether a culture ever had slaves, but whether it has slaves today. If we are going to eradicate the symbols of every culture that ever traded in slaves, there will be few cultural symbols that will escape unscathed. But the academics who insist on cultural relativism in 19th century Africa, reject it in 19th century South Carolina thereby revealing their own racism.

And so instead of fighting actual modern day slavery in Africa and the Middle East, social justice warriors are swarming to invade Hazzard County.

As Ben Carson pointed out, we will not get rid of racism by banning the Confederate flag. Even when it is used at its worst, by the likes of Dylann Storm Roof, it is a symptom, not the problem. Roof was not radicalized by the dead Confederacy, but by the racial tensions kicked off by the Trayvon Martin case.

The same racial tensions that led to the murder of two police officers by a #BlackLivesMatter protester in New York City led to the massacre of nine black congregants in a church in Charleston. This surge of violence has its roots in racist activism by Obama and his supporters seeking power and political gain, but feeding racial tensions for political purposes eventually risks leading to actual violence.

The Confederate flag is a matter of history. The racial tensions stirred up by Obama have actually gotten people killed. Slavery is not making a comeback and Robert E. Lee will not come riding into San Francisco any time soon. The Civil War ended long ago. The country would be a better place if modern racists who believe that some lives, whether black or white, matter more than others would stop trying to start one.

Iran Threatens to Go Nuclear If Talks Fail

July 1, 2015

Iran Threatens to Go Nuclear If Talks Fail

BY:
July 1, 2015 2:35 pm

via Iran Threatens to Go Nuclear If Talks Fail | Washington Free Beacon.

Slap around the ears obama ? , you didn’t see that coming , did you ?

 

VIENNA—Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hinted this week that Iran would decide to fully pursue its nuclear program in a way “harsher than what they [the United States can] imagine” if Western powers fail to uphold any nuclear agreement expected to be finalized in the coming days.

Rouhani’s comments come as negotiators in Vienna struggle to solve disagreements over a range of issues concerning the future of Tehran’s nuclear program. The ongoing disputes prevented the sides from finalizing the agreement before a self-imposed June 30 deadline.

Talks are now expected to continue through July 9.

“If they [the P5+1 negotiating countries] breach the [nuclear] agreement, we immediately go back to the old path, harsher than what they imagine,” Rouhani was quoted as saying this week in Persian language media reports that were independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.

Some have interpreted these comments as Rouhani threatening to boost a range of nuclear efforts that Western powers suspect have been used to construct a nuclear weapon.

Iran continues to insist in the talks that it be allowed to continue enriching uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, and also renew efforts to research ballistic weapons, which could be used to carry a nuclear payload.

The Islamic Republic also continues to receive billions of dollars in sanctions relief, which has helped to reinvigorate the country’s economy and potentially dissuade it from inking a comprehensive deal that U.S. leaders view as helpful.

Iranian officials claimed on Wednesday that the country’s central bank had repatriated 13 tons of gold that had been frozen in South Africa.

Speaking about the extension in talks, Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted as saying, “We have our own sense of deadline.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Kerry continued to hold one-on-one meetings with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, according to the State Department.

Palestinians: Why Salam Fayyad Lacks Popular Support

July 1, 2015

Palestinians: Why Salam Fayyad Lacks Popular Support, The Gatestone InstituteKhaled Abu Toameh, June 30, 2015

  • It is no secret that several senior Palestinian officials see themselves as potential successors to Abbas. Like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, Abbas has stubbornly refused to share power with anyone. And like Arafat, he continues to run the Palestinian Authority as if it were his private fiefdom.
  • In Palestinian culture, it is more important if one graduates from an Israeli prison than from the University of Texas in Austin. A Palestinian who carries out an attack on Israel has more credentials among his people than one who studied at Harvard or Oxford universities.
  • It took Salam Fayyad too long to realize that no matter how many good things he does for his people, in the end he will be judged on the basis of his contribution to the fight against Israel, and not how much humanitarian and financial aid he provides.

In a surprise move, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has frozen the bank account of a non-profit organization headed by former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The decision is seen in the context of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s effort to undermine and discredit Fayyad. Abbas believes that Fayyad, who resigned in 2013, is seeking to replace or succeed him as president.

Following his resignation, the US-educated Fayyad established a Ramallah-based group called Future For Palestine. According to Fayyad, the group’s mission is to “enhance the resilience of Palestinian citizens in their homeland, especially in marginalized and severely impacted areas, by providing the basic development requirements.”

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership did not like the idea from the beginning. Ever since Future For Palestine was established in August 2013, they have been working toward undermining the group and its founder, Fayyad.

The PA leadership is convinced that Fayyad is using the group to advance his own political goals and establish bases of power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

During the military confrontation between Israel and Hamas last year, Fayyad’s group launched acampaign to aid the residents of the Gaza Strip. The campaign included the purchase of tens of thousands of bottles of mineral water that were supposed to be dispatched to the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority thwarted the campaign.

To justify the crackdown on Fayyad back then, the PA said that the former prime minister was part of a “conspiracy” to overthrow the Abbas regime. Some reports even suggested that Abbas had ordered his security forces to detain Fayyad for interrogation, but backtracked after threats from the US and several European governments.

Later, Abbas sent security officers to raid the offices of Future For Palestine and conduct a thorough search of its files. Some of Fayyad’s top aides were taken into custody and questioned about the sources of the group’s funding.

Last week, the campaign against Fayyad reached its peak when the Palestinian Authority announced that it has seized the assets of Future For Palestine, and accused the former prime minister of “money laundering.”

PA officials claimed that Fayyad’s group had received $10 million from the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf country that supports Abbas’s political enemy, ousted Fatah leader Mohamed Dahlan. The officials accused Dahlan and Fayyad of working together to topple the Abbas regime. Dahlan fled the West Bank several years ago after falling out with Abbas, who accused him of attempting to stage a coup against the Palestinian Authority leadership.

1135Former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, pictured on January 25, 2013 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (Image source: World Economic Forum)

Fayyad said this week that he is planning to take legal measures to cancel the decision to freeze his group’s assets. Denying the charge of “money laundering,” Fayyad added that Future For Palestine was operating within the framework of the law and did not commit any offense.

The decision to freeze the bank account of Future For Palestine came in the wake of increased talk about a behind-the-scenes power struggle to succeed the 80-year-old Abbas. The name of Fayyad has repeatedly surfaced as a potential successor to Abbas — a suggestion that has clearly enraged the Palestinian leader and his senior officials in Ramallah.

It is no secret that several senior Palestinian officials see themselves as potential successors to Abbas. These include, besides Dahlan, the chief of the PA’s General Intelligence Security Force in the West Bank, Majed Faraj, Palestinian Football Association Chairman Jibril Rajoub and Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Abbas believes that he has thus far succeeded in sidelining and discrediting at least two candidates: Fayyad and Dahlan. The charges made by Abbas against the two men are designed to depict them as agents of foreign countries who are plotting against him and the entire Palestinian people.

Like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, Abbas has stubbornly refused to share power with anyone. And like Arafat, he continues to run the Palestinian Authority as if it were his private fiefdom.

Fayyad’s chances of succeeding Abbas are, anyway, very slim, if not non-existent. Fayyad is an independent figure who does not belong to Fatah, Hamas or any other political group. When he ran in the January 2006 parliamentary election at the head of the Third Way list, his group received two seats out of 132.

The reason most Palestinians did not vote for Fayyad is because he had not played any role in the “revolution” against Israel. In this culture, it is more important if one graduates from an Israeli prison than from the University of Texas in Austin. Fayyad did not participate in any armed attack on Jews and never supported the armed struggle against Israel. Nor did he send his son to throw stones or firebombs at Israelis. That is the real reason why people like Fayyad lack popular support.

If and when Abbas steps down, the only candidate who has a good chance of replacing him is one who was part of the “revolution.” A Palestinian who carries out an attack on Israel has more credentials among his people than one who studied at Harvard or Oxford universities. It took Salam Fayyad too long to realize that no matter how many good things he does for his people, in the end he will be judged on the basis of his contribution to the fight against Israel, and not how much humanitarian and financial aid he provides.