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ISIS-terror rooted in Islamic culture

June 30, 2014

ISIS-terreur geworteld in islamitische cultuur

Leon de Winter op 30 juni, 2014 – 10:14

via ISIS-terreur geworteld in islamitische cultuur | www.dagelijksestandaard.nl.

Bing translation from Dutch

Why fight thousands of young European Muslim men for the Foundation of a Caliphate, or a religious tyranny? For the ideologues that the problems of those young men want to see in socio-economic terms, is that a great puzzle.

In their progressive worldview are the problems of migrants and their children provided by the social context within which these groups must survive. But time and time again goes to show that the culture – either: to the agricultural and religious traditions that those migrants have taken away from the country of departure.

Why not all children of migrants from Islamic countries take part in the progress of Netherlands? Why hooks so many Moroccan and Turkish young men off and they end up in crime? What goes wrong with these children at a young age making them, like their parents, not the move on from the poverty and ignorance of life from before the migration to the new life in Europe with knowledge, understanding, prosperity?

Enmity

In many immigrant families, children with distaste and hatred towards their new environment brought up. They get from their parents and by the Arab media to hear that they are entitled to much more than what they possess. That children grow up with frustration and enmity.

On the internet is swarming with young Moroccan Dutch people who applaud ISIS, the terror movement to gruesome mass murders makes guilty. Young Moroccans who identify themselves with the fury of the ISIS–fighters.

They too are furious – why? They get too little training, too little cell phones? Or the following plays: their status as Muslim, says their culture, is elevated above that of non-Muslim Dutchman, and yet their subordinate social position and relatively frugal?

On the micro level we see here what happens on a macro level between Arab countries and Israel. The small country is in every way better developed than any Arabic country. More prosperity, more freedom, more science. And that is unacceptable for Arabs. According to their tradition is the Jew an inferior human being who has rejected the message of Mohammed the perfect man and therefore subject to the Muslim.

And precisely this despicable people has managed to each Arab country. The successful existence of Israel makes the message of islam – that is the final message of Allah – ridiculous. And because this message can be not ridiculous, says Israel must be destroyed, the believer, at all costs. It Was Golda Meir who once said: the Arabs hate us more than they love their own children?

Mechanisms

I have the impression that migrants have taken this kind of mental mechanisms to Netherlands. Fortunately, there are many who let not stifle personal opportunities by rigid beliefs, but when believers encounter the alleged superiority of the faith and the archaic gender roles and parenting methods constantly on the wicked and yet rich and powerful environment.

So these believers continually demands more space on for their god. Their minarets are visible and their wives should be apparent. And for their sons around the non-believer is part of the Dar al-Harb, the world of war, where they sanctioned by their culture to your heart’s content – because – Rob and steal, as may those gay assassins of ISIS.

The problems of their religious culture, which the Arab (and other Muslim) peoples in backwardness and ignorance keep hostage, are no longer limited to the areas where islam traditionally the predominant culture is. Migration has brought to Europe these problems. And it is worrying that migrants the crippling forces of the culture of the country of origin is not neutralize with the unprecedented opportunities that exist in Europe.

France, land of liberty, equality, fraternity, has immense problems with Islamic criminal and radicalized young men. It’s not about access to food, education, clothing, no, it comes to intangibles that define self-esteem of many angry young Muslims. They want a form of respect, and a related pattern of consumption, that society their not slavishly on the basis of their superior origin offers.

Their embittered aggrieved parents, their spiritual leaders, their hate spewing sends the same message: television channels, all the power in the world are not and its not like our holy book promises us, and so we must fights such as the infidels and Mohammed fought with the sword topics.

May it be said: the germ to radicalisation is in the general cultural values of these migrants? The Koran is built on three contrasts; male-female, believer–infidel, master-slave. In the West, these three getechnologiseerde and individualized contrasts as good as raised.

Infallible

The West is, just like Israel, a negation of what islam follower promises: reign of the true believer on Earth and eternal life in heaven. The negation is not other than temporary, thus the believer, because islam is infallible.

The young men who are now in the Middle East are experiencing the adventures of their lives and robbing and raping and beheading, legitimised may one day come back. They are not radicalized because they were pathetic or too little, no, they are radicalized opportunities because their cultural traditions have made impossible integration and offer young men the concept of the Holy struggle, an idea that many young men to fine brings excitement.

Israel and Jordan are in the same period. They have about the same population. No raw materials. They belong to the same historical world. Why one country came to fruition and it became an open democracy, and why was the other hardly a dictatorship that contributes to the progress of humanity?

Possessed

A famous rabbi was once asked to the Torah in one phrase to sum up. He replied: ‘ what you don’t want others do you shall rest; This is the whole Torah – now go home and study. ‘ This is the reason why Israel prospers, and not Jordan. This is the reason why the West knows prosperity and freedom, and the Arab world. It is tragic and dangerous that the ideology of ISIS, and of the possessed young men of colluding, that exactly the opposite values. It’s the culture, stupid.

Categories: Off Topic
Tags: EU, France, Iraq, Isil, Isis, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Middle East War, USA

Comments: 1 Comment

The Islamist Plague

June 30, 2014

The Islamist Plague

By Rachel Ehrenfeld
Monday, June 30th, 2014 @ 3:56AM

via The Islamist Plague.

Many Western commentators have adopted the narrative that al Qaeda and its ilk are the exception to the “religion of peace” — Islam.

However, the rise of “political Islam,” the brainchild of the Muslim Brotherhood, is more akin to a highly infectious disease. No vaccine is available; its spread can only be halted by identifying and eliminating the sources of infection. Yet, despite the mortal danger posed by the increasingly violent global jihadist movement, willful blindness persists in the United States and the West.

Once the Soviet Union imploded and Islamist fundamentalism exploded, Muhammad replaced Marx and Lenin, and radical Islam replaced the socialist-nationalist doctrines of the Arab revolutionaries. The collapse of the Soviet Union served as the catalyst for an alliance between radical Sunni and Shiite movements that helped to revive Islamist fundamentalism. The spread of the Islamist ideology was paid for by the oil-rich Arab/Muslim states, which also used their money to buy Western “opinion makers,” including businessmen, politicians, the media, and academics.

New communication technologies allowed the increasingly vitriolic Islamist rhetoric to spread instantaneously. Instead of taking measures to stop the instructive incitement for murder, the West sank further into appeasement, thus encouraging the spread of the jihadist agenda.

While the bloody attacks of ISIS and Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria are portrayed as a Sunni vs. Shiite struggle, the role of Ayatollah Khomeini, as the leader of the “Islamic Revolution,” should not be forgotten.

After successfully taking over Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini began calling for the unification of Muslims throughout the world, and for exporting his Muslim Revolution to wherever Muslims live so that Muslim domination could be achieved. “We are at war against Infidels,” the Ayatollah told a large group of Pakistani military officers on a pilgrimage to Qom in January 1980. “Take this message with you … I ask all Muslims [emphasis added] … to join the Holy War. There are many enemies to be killed or destroyed. Jihad must triumph.” He stressed that the “Iranian Experiment” should be followed, and that the realization of the true Islamic State should be carried out forcibly and without compromise.

These plans for Islamic unification were accelerated by the Gulf War. The war helped the leaders of Islamist groups throughout the globe to enforce their vision that jihad, holy war, is the only formula for protecting Islam from extinction by the West — led by the U.S. This opinion was and is repeatedly voiced by every Islamist leader. “Bush and Thatcher have revived in the Muslims the spirit of Jihad and martyrdom,” wrote the Palestinian leader of the Islamic Jihad, Sheikh As’ad Bayyud al-Tamimi. He promised that all Muslims “will fight a comprehensive war and ruthlessly transfer the battle to the heart of America and Europe.” Despite the advancement of the ISIS, many in the West continue to dismiss such statements as pure rhetoric. Instead, they are hanging on to statements, made by Muslim and Arab leaders and politicians, that ISIS and the other jihadists are aberrations that should be eliminated.

Yet, the U.S. and other Western countries are trying, again, to negotiate, i.e., submit to demands of their mortal enemies, supposedly to avoid further escalation, often accepting statements the like of which were made by Egyptian Sunni theologian Mahmud Shaltut (1893-1963), in his al-Qur’an wal-Qitāl:

“Muhammad revealed a book [the Quran] containing the principles of happiness. It commands to judge by reason, it propagate science and knowledge, it gives clear rules, it proclaims mercy, it urges to do good, it preaches peace, it gives firm principles concerning politics and society, it fights injustice and corruption.”

He also declared, “The Islamic community is commanded to do only what is good and are forbidden to do what is reprehensible and evil. The Islamic mission is clear and evident, easy and uncomplicated. It is digestible and intelligible for any mind. It is a call of natural reason, and therefore not alien to human intellect. This is the mission of Muhammad to humanity.”

While Shaltut’s argument that “it is the interest of humanity to gather enthusiastically under Islamic rule,” has not been accepted, yet, the U.S. efforts to ignore the Islamic plague and its sources, only help to spread it.

Categories: Off Topic
Tags: Anti Semitism, EU, Iran Scam, Iraq, Israel, Jihad, Middle East War, USA

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‘Amman may ask Israel, US to help it fight ISIL’

June 28, 2014

‘Amman may ask Israel, US to help it fight ISIL’

With the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group already boasting of conquests in Jordan, Jerusalem may be drawn into the fray

By Yifa Yaakov June 28, 2014, 12:31 pm

via ‘Amman may ask Israel, US to help it fight ISIL’ | The Times of Israel.

Fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching in Raqqa, Syria (photo credit: AP/Militant Website, File)

Jordan may ask Israel and the United States to help it fight the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group that threatens Syria and Iraq if it threatens Amman as well, according to senior Obama administration officials.

According to a Friday report by The Daily Beast, the officials told senators in a classified briefing earlier this week that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is eyeing Jordan as well as its war-torn neighbors, and that some of its jihadists have already tweeted out photos and messages saying they have seized a key Jordanian town.

The Daily Beast quoted one of the Senate staff members who attended the briefing as saying that if Jordan were to face a military onslaught from ISIL, it would “ask Israel and the United States for as much help as they can get.”

Another senator said the main “concern” voiced during the briefing was that “Jordan could not repel a full assault from ISIL on its own at this point.”

On Thursday, the US met with its top Sunni state allies in the Mideast to consider how to confront the region’s growing turmoil that has been spawned by a Sunni Muslim insurgency group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant reaches beyond the two countries — Iraq and Syria — where it is currently based.

“The move of ISIL concerns every single country here,” Kerry said at the start of the meeting held at the US ambassador’s residence in Paris.

If Israel were to join regional efforts to fight ISIL, it would effectively be joining forces with the likes of Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces have been fighting together in Syria and Iraq to overpower the jihadi group.

An image allegedly showing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border, June 9, 2014 . (photo credit: AFP/HO/ALBARAKA NEWS)

However, according to The Daily Beast, Israel has indicated behind the scenes that it would be willing to give military assistance to its ally Jordan, with which it signed a peace treaty in 1994.

“I think Israel and the United States would identify a substantial threat to Jordan as a threat to themselves and would offer all appropriate assets to the Jordanians,” the media outlet quoted Thomas Sanderson, the co-director for transnational threats at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as saying.

In Washington, Jordanian embassy spokeswoman Dana Daoud sounded more optimistic regarding her country’s ability to face the jihadi threat.

“We are in full control of our borders and our Jordanian Armed Forces are being very vigilant. We have taken all the precautionary measures. So far, we have not detected any abnormal movement. however, if anything threatens our security or gets near our borders it will face the full strength of our Jordanian Armed Forces,” Daoud reportedly said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and is a co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Jordan Caucus, told The Daily Beast that the Jordanian army was “more than a match” for ISIL.

“I don’t think there is any sense that the rank and file Jordanian forces will melt away the way the Iraqis did,” he said.

Since its formation in April 2013 out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, ISIL has become one of the main forces fighting against Assad in Syria and gaining military control of parts of Iraq. Emboldened by these victories, the burgeoning jihadi group may set its sights on Jordan next.

Mainstream Syrian rebels and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front accuse the jihadists of ISIL of responsibility for a string of atrocities.

On Friday, a watchdog and jihadist sites said it had executed and crucified one of its own men for corruption in Syria.

Photographs posted on websites showed the body and bloodied head of a bearded man with a placard reading: “Guilty: Abu Adnan al-Anadali. Sentence: execution and three days of crucifixion. Motive: extorting money at checkpoints by accusing drivers of apostasy.”

For Israel, an ISIL assault on Jordan would mean it faces a jihadi threat on two fronts. On Friday, a senior Israeli military commander announced that almost the entire Syrian side of the Golan Heights is now under the control of rebel forces, including radical Islamist groups such as ISIL.

The Israeli officer said that the dramatic gains made by the rebel forces in the area appeared to explain why Syrian troops fired a missile on Sunday that killed a 15-year-old boy on the Israeli side of the border.

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau on the Israeli-Syrian border. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 war, having been attacked from the Golan over the previous 20 years, and extended Israeli law to the area in 1981. Unsuccessful peace efforts over the years have seen Israel ready to trade most of the Golan for a permanent accord with Damascus, but the notion of Israeli-Syrian peace has all but disappeared as Syria collapsed into anarchy over the past three years of civil war.

Times of Israel staff, AP and AFP contributed to this report.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Iraq war, Isil, Isis, Israel, Middle East War, USA

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Syria crisis: Obama asks Congress for $500m for rebels

June 27, 2014

GMTSyria crisis: Obama asks Congress for $500m for rebels

26 June 2014 Last updated at 20:41

via BBC News – Syria crisis: Obama asks Congress for $500m for rebels.

Syrian rebels have been fighting forces loyal to the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad

President Barack Obama has asked the US Congress to approve $500m (£294m) to train and equip what he described as “moderate” Syrian opposition forces.

The funds would help Syrians defend against forces aligned with President Bashar al-Assad, the White House said.

The aid would also counter Islamist militants such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), it added.

Isis’s advance in neighbouring Iraq has led some in Congress to press Mr Obama to take action.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions more have been displaced in three years of civil war in Syria, as rebels fight troops loyal to Mr Assad.
‘Increase our support’

“This funding request would build on the administration’s longstanding efforts to empower the moderate Syrian opposition, both civilian and armed,” the White House said.

It will also “enable the Department of Defense to increase our support to vetted elements of the armed opposition”.

The money will help stabilise areas under opposition control and counter terrorist threats, the White House said.

The rebels that would receive the funds would be vetted beforehand in order to alleviate concerns of equipment falling into the hands of militants hostile to the US and its allies, the White House said.

Mr Obama has been under strong pressure from some members of Congress to increase assistance in the area, although it is unclear whether and when Congress would act on his request.

Last month Mr Obama hinted at increased help for the Syrian opposition in a speech at the military academy at West Point.

He said he would work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and a brutal dictator”.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Middle East War, Syria, USA

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New Palestinian Poll Shows Hardline Views, But Some Pragmatism Too

June 26, 2014

New Palestinian Poll Shows Hardline Views, But Some Pragmatism TooDavid PollockJune 25, 2014

via New Palestinian Poll Shows Hardline Views, But Some Pragmatism Too – The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

New survey results show that violence is not a popular option among Palestinians and that Hamas is not benefiting from the current troubles, giving U.S. policymakers some breathing room to concentrate on more urgent crises in Iraq and Syria while backing practical steps to cool tensions.

A reliable new West Bank/Gaza public opinion survey conducted on June 15-17 — the only such poll since the current kidnapping crisis began — shows that Palestinian popular attitudes have hardened considerably on long-term issues of peace with Israel. Commissioned by The Washington Institute and conducted by a leading Palestinian pollster, the poll comprised face-to-face interviews with a standard random geographic probability sample of 1,200 adult Palestinians, yielding results with a 3% statistical margin of error. The responses indicate that fewer than 30% of Palestinians now support a “two-state solution”: a West Bank/Gaza Palestinian state in lasting peace with Israel. At the same time, some surprising signs of short-term pragmatism emerged — especially, and even more surprisingly, in Gaza.

Download a slideshow of poll data (PDF)

TWO-STATE SOLUTION SUDDENLY A MINORITY POSITION

Regarding the longer-term, fundamental issue of a two-state solution, Palestinian public opinion has clearly taken a maximalist turn. Other recent polls, even after the collapse of the latest peace talks, showed a majority or plurality still favoring the goal of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel (though the numbers were gradually declining). But now, a clear majority (60% overall, including 55% in the West Bank and 68% in Gaza) say that the five-year goal “should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

On this key question, just 31% of West Bankers and 22% of Gazans would opt instead “to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to achieve a two-state solution.” And even fewer, contrary to other recent findings, pick a “one-state solution,” in which “Arabs and Jews will have equal rights in one country, from the river to the sea.” That is the preferred option of a mere 11% in the West Bank and 8% in Gaza.

This pattern is confirmed by other questions in the survey. For example, just one-third said that a two-state solution “should be the end of the conflict.” Nearly two-thirds said “resistance should continue until all of historic Palestine is liberated.” And only a third said that “it might be necessary to give up some of our claims so that our people and our children can have a better life.

Similarly, only a third said that a two-state solution would be their leadership’s final goal. Instead, almost two-thirds said it would be “part of a ‘program of stages,’ to liberate all of historic Palestine later.” This remarkable finding helps explain how a plurality or more of Palestinians can support President Mahmoud Abbas and reject a two-state solution at the same time.

BUT THE PUBLIC WANTS “POPULAR RESISTANCE,” NOT VIOLENCE

Despite continuing tensions over the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and Israel’s resulting intensive searches and arrests, the Palestinian public is not turning toward large-scale violence. Rather, on tactical questions of relations with Israel, respondents broadly supported a nonviolent approach. The survey did not ask specifically about the latest kidnapping, which does appear fairly popular among Palestinians judging from traditional and social media content and anecdotal evidence.

In this survey, when asked whether Hamas “should maintain a ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and the West Bank,” a majority (56%) of West Bank respondents and a remarkable 70% of Gazans said yes. Similarly, asked if Hamas should accept Abbas’s position that the new unity government renounce violence against Israel, West Bankers were evenly divided, but a majority (57%) of Gazans answered in the affirmative.

Nevertheless, “popular resistance against the occupation” — such as demonstrations, strikes, marches, mass refusals to cooperate with Israel, and the like — was seen as having a positive impact by most respondents in both territories: 62% in the West Bank and 73% in Gaza. And in the week since the survey was completed, Israel’s shooting of several Palestinians and arrest of hundreds more in the course of searching for the kidnap victims may be turning the Palestinian public in a more actively hostile direction.

Both the kidnapping and a Palestinian hunger strike in Israeli jails have also maintained public attention on the prisoner issue. Asked what Israel could do “to convince Palestinians that it really wants peace,” a large plurality picked “release more Palestinian prisoners.” That option far outranked the others, each in the 15-20% range: “share Jerusalem as a joint capital,” “stop building in settlements beyond the security barrier,” or “grant Palestinians greater freedom of movement and crack down on settler attacks.”

HAMAS IS NOT GAINING POLITICAL GROUND FROM THE CRISIS

Most striking, and contrary to common misperception, Hamas is not gaining politically from the kidnapping. Asked who should be the president of Palestine in the next two years, a solid plurality in both the West Bank and Gaza named Abbas (30%) or other Fatah-affiliated leaders: Marwan Barghouti (12%), Muhammad Dahlan (10%), Rami Hamdallah (6%), Mustafa Barghouti (4%), Salam Fayyad (2%), or Mahmoud al-Aloul (1%). These findings strongly suggest that the Palestinian public as a whole has little or no desire to carry out any threats to “dissolve” the Palestinian Authority.

In stark contrast, Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal rated a combined total of just 9% support in the West Bank and 15% in Gaza. Another intriguing finding is that Dahlan has significant popular support among Gazans, at 20%. Also notable is that not one of the other old-guard Fatah figures, such as Abu Ala, Nabil Shaath, or Jibril Rajoub, attracted even 1% support in either the West Bank or Gaza.

MAJORITY WANT ISRAEL TO OFFER JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Some additional and unexpected signs of short-term pragmatism showed up concerning bread-and-butter issues. Over 80% said they would “definitely” or “probably” want Israel to allow more Palestinians to work there. Around half said they would personally take “a good, high-paying job” inside Israel.

Moreover, despite narrow majority support for boycotting Israel, a larger majority said they would also like Israeli firms to offer more jobs inside the West Bank and Gaza. Nearly half said they would take such a position if available. This kind of pragmatism was particularly pronounced among the younger generation of adult Palestinians, those in the 18-to-35-year-old cohort. In a similar vein, among West Bankers in that group, more than three-quarters said they would like a new north-south highway bypassing Israeli checkpoints around Jerusalem. Among older West Bankers, that figure was somewhat lower, at around two-thirds.

DECRYING ISRAELI PRESSURE, BUT ALSO LOCAL CRIME AND CORRUPTION

As Israel continues its search for the kidnap victims, Palestinian respondents voiced widespread concern about Israeli behavior in the territories — but also about unrelated Palestinian behavior. In the West Bank, three-quarters see a “significant problem” with “threats and intimidation from Israeli soldiers and border guards,” and with “delays and restrictions at checkpoints.” Somewhat fewer West Bankers, but still a majority (63%), see “threats and intimidation from Jewish settlers” as a significant problem. These figures were all a bit lower in Gaza, where Israel’s presence on the ground is much less intrusive.

Yet putting those numbers in perspective is the widespread negative perception of some Palestinian behavior. Among West Bankers, 72% view “corruption by Palestinian government officials” as a major problem; among Gazans, the proportion is 66%. Similarly, 77% of West Bankers and 71% of Gazans see local crime as a significant problem.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

These counterintuitive findings — demonstrating that violence is not a popular option among Palestinians, and that Hamas is not benefiting from current troubles — should give U.S. policymakers some needed breathing space to let the dust settle in this arena while concentrating on more urgent crises in Iraq and Syria. Indeed, the unexpected combination of short-term Palestinian popular pragmatism and long-term maximalism revealed by this survey suggests that U.S. policy should seriously consider abandoning all hope of a near-term, permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. In its place, Washington should focus on immediate steps to lower tensions, improve practical conditions, and perhaps set the stage for more moderate attitudes and more fruitful diplomatic discussions at some later date.

David Pollock is the Kaufman Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of Fikra Forum.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Anti Semitism, Disputed Territory, Hamas, IDF, Israel, PA, Palestinians, Settlements, USA

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After Syria bombs Iraq, growing fears of regional conflict

June 26, 2014

After Syria bombs Iraq, growing fears of regional conflictJordan,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey all said to be bolstering recon flights inside their airspace;
Kerry warns against exacerbating tensions

By Hamza Hendawi and Lara Jakes June 26, 2014, 2:11 pm

via After Syria bombs Iraq, growing fears of regional conflict | The Times of Israel.

Fleeing Iraqi citizens from Mosul and other northern towns sit on a truck as they cross to secure areas at a Kurdish security forces checkpoint, in the Khazer area between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Kurdish city of Irbil, northern Iraq, Wednesday June 25, 2014. (photo credit: AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BAGHDAD (AP) — Syrian warplanes bombed Sunni militants’ positions inside Iraq, military officials confirmed Wednesday, deepening the concerns that the extremist insurgency that spans the two neighboring countries could morph into an even wider regional conflict. US Secretary of State John Kerry warned against the threat and said other nations should stay out.

Meanwhile, a new insurgent artillery offensive against Christian villages in the north of Iraq sent thousands of Christians fleeing from their homes, seeking sanctuary in Kurdish-controlled territory, Associated Press reporters who witnessed the scene said.

The United States government and a senior Iraqi military official confirmed that Syrian warplanes bombed militants’ positions Tuesday in and near the border crossing in the town of Qaim. Iraq’s other neighbors — Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — were all bolstering flights just inside their airspace to monitor the situation, said the Iraqi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

American officials said the target was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Sunni extremist group that has seized large swaths of Iraq and seeks to carve out a purist Islamic enclave across both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.

“We’ve made it clear to everyone in the region that we don’t need anything to take place that might exacerbate the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of tension,” Kerry said, speaking in Brussels at a meeting of diplomats from NATO nations. “It’s already important that nothing take place that contributes to the extremism or could act as a flash point with respect to the sectarian divide.”

Meanwhile, two US officials said Iran has been flying surveillance drones in Iraq, controlling them from an airfield in Baghdad. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said they believe the drones are surveillance aircraft only, but they could not rule out that they may be armed.

A top Iraqi intelligence official said Iran was secretly supplying the Iraqi security forces with weapons, including rockets, heavy machine guns and multiple rocket launchers. “Iraq is in a grave crisis and the sword is on its neck, so is it even conceivable that we turn down the hand outstretched to us?” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The intelligence-gathering and arms supplies come on the heels of a visit to Baghdad this month by one of Iran’s most powerful generals, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, to help bolster the defenses of the Iraqi military and the Shiite militias that he has armed and trained.

The involvement of Syria and Iran in Iraq suggests a growing cooperation among the three Shiite-led governments in response to the raging Sunni insurgency. And in an unusual twist, the U.S., Iran and Syria now find themselves with an overlapping interest in stabilizing Iraq’s government.

None-Arab and mostly Shiite, Iran has been playing the role of guarantor of Shiites in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It has maintained close ties with successive Shiite-led governments since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who oppressed the Shiites, and is also the main backer of Syria’s Assad, a follower of Shiism’s Alawite sect.

In a reflection of how intertwined the Syria and Iraq conflicts have become, thousands of Shiite Iraqi militiamen helping President Bashar Assad crush the Sunni-led uprising against him are returning home, putting a strain on the overstretched Syrian military as it struggles to retain territory recaptured in recent months from rebels.

Anthony Cordesman, a prominent foreign policy analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that with Syria’s apparent willingness to now take on the Islamic State directly, “the real problem is how will Iran, the Iraqi Shiites and the Alawites in Syria coordinate their overall pressure on the Sunni forces?”

Qaim, where the Syrian airstrikes took place Tuesday, is located in vast and mostly Sunni Anbar province. Its provincial government spokesman, Dhari al-Rishawi, said 17 people were killed in an air raid there.

Reports that the Sunni militants have captured advanced weapons, tanks and Humvees from the Iraq military that have made their way into Syria, and that fighters are crossing freely from one side to the other have alarmed the Syrian government, which fears the developments could shift the balance of power in the largely stalemated fight between Assad’s forces and the Sunni rebels fighting to topple him.

Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, said Assad’s immediate priority is to fight the rebels inside his own country.

“His army is already overstretched and every bullet that doesn’t hit enemy targets at home can be a bullet wasted,” he said. “Going after ISIL along border areas could serve tactical goals but is more a luxury than anything else.”

In Brussels, Kerry said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears to be standing by his commitment to start building a new government that fully represents its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations.

However, al-Maliki, in his first public statement since President Barack Obama challenged him last week to create a more inclusive leadership or risk a sectarian civil war, rejected calls for an interim “national salvation government .”

Al-Maliki has faced pressure, including from his onetime Shiite allies, to step down and form an interim government that could provide leadership until a more permanent solution can be found.

Al-Maliki, however, insisted the political process must be allowed to proceed following April elections in which his bloc won the largest share of parliament seats.

“The call to form a national salvation government represents a coup against the constitution and the political process,” he said. He added that “rebels against the constitution” — a thinly veiled reference to Sunni rivals — posed a more serious danger to Iraq than the militants.

Al-Maliki’s coalition, the State of the Law, won 92 seats in the 328-member parliament in the election, but he needs the support of a simple majority to hold on to the job for another four-year term. The legislature is expected to meet before the end of the month, when it will elect a speaker. It has 30 days to elect a new president, who in turn will select the leader of the majority bloc in parliament to form the next government.

More of Iraq’s sectarian tensions boiled over into violence on Wednesday, with Sunni militants shelling a Christian village 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the frontier of the self-ruled Kurdish region, which has so far escaped the deadly turmoil unscathed.

The shelling of the village of Hamdaniya sparked a flight by thousands of Christians from it and other nearby villages toward the Kurdish region. Hundreds of cars, many with crucifixes swinging from their rear-view mirrors, waited to cross into the relatively safe northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil.

Others were forced to walk, including 28-year-old Rasha, who was nine months pregnant and carried her 3-year-old son on her hip. After her husband’s car broke down, the woman, who would give only her first name for fear of militant reprisals, and her mother-in-law walked for miles toward the checkpoint, fearful she would give birth before reaching safety.

Like most others, the women said they had nowhere to go, but hoped strangers would take them in in the Christian-dominated area.

“Otherwise we will sleep in a park,” Rasha said, shrugging.

Meanwhile, pro-government forces battled Sunni militants, threatening a major military air base in Balad, north of Baghdad, military officials said. The militants had advanced into the nearby town of Yathrib, just five kilometers (three miles) from the former U.S. base, which was known as Camp Anaconda. The officials insisted the base was not in immediate danger of falling into the hands of the militants.

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Tags: Iran, Iraq war, Israel, Middle East War, Turkey, USA

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PM fears US hatching bad deal with Iran, summons his DC envoy, calls Putin

June 26, 2014

PM fears US hatching bad deal with Iran, summons his DC envoy, calls Putin
Netanyahu also to dispatch top officials to try to prevent accord that would turn Tehran into a threshold nuclear power

By Times of Israel staff June 26, 2014, 2:31 am

via PM fears US hatching bad deal with Iran, summons his DC envoy, calls Putin | The Times of Israel.

US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 3, 2014 (photo credit: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday summoned home his ambassador to the US for emergency consultations, spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and prepared to dispatch a delegation of top officials in a bid to thwart what he reportedly fears is a dangerous deal being prepared by US-led negotiators over Iran’s rogue nuclear program.“There is growing concern in Jerusalem that a deal is being hatched,” Israel’s Channel 2 news reported.Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States and one of Netanyahu’s closest advisers, who was on hand in DC Wednesday to greet the visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres, was called home later in the day for two days of urgent consultations with the prime minister, the TV report said.Netanyahu also selected a team of officials, led by his Minister of Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz, and his National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen, who are set to leave Israel on Sunday for urgent talks with representatives of the P5+1 nations negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program. Those negotiations are set to resume next Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin at Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on June 25, 2012. (Photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL/FLASH90)

In Netanyahu’s phone conversation with Putin, the TV report said, the message conveyed was that any deal with Iran must leave it years away from a potential breakout to the bomb. Netanyahu’s concern is that the deal being hatched would turn Iran into a threshold nuclear state, capable of breaking out to the bomb in a matter of months.

The White House is well aware of Israel’s worries, the TV report said, but evidently does not share them.

Last November, taken by surprise as the P5+1 negotiators reached an interim agreement with Iran, Netanyahu publicly slammed it as a “historic mistake” and urged the US in vain not to approve it.

President Barack Obama greets President Shimon Peres at the White House on June 25 (photo credit: Kobi Gidon/GPO)

During their talks at the White House on Wednesday, President Barack Obama told Peres — who steps down as president next month — that the US would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Netanyahu, however, has been demanding that Iran be denied the capacity to build nuclear weapons — which would entail the dismantling of Iran’s entire “military nuclear program,” the prime minister says, notably including its uranium enrichment capabilities. Obama has indicated that Iran could retain an enrichment capacity, if subject to intrusive inspections.

Obama told Peres that there were still gaps between the sides in the P5+1 talks with Iran, which are being held in the hopes of reaching a permanent agreement with Tehran by July 20 to curb its nuclear program. Briefing Peres on the current state of the negotiations, Obama promised that the US position would not change on Iran’s breakout potential or on key aspects of its technological development, and said that the US will not compromise on Israel’s security.

After the meeting, Peres told journalists that he hoped the final agreement with Iran would be similar to the agreement by which Syria was forced to part with its entire chemical weapons stockpile and the dismantling of its related infrastructure earlier this year. With such a deal in place, Peres said, Israel would consider supporting the removal of some of the sanctions against Tehran.

Peres also underlined that no deal with Tehran would be better than a bad deal that turned Iran into a threshold state.

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Tags: Iran, Israel, Middle East War, USA

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John Boehner to Sue Obama Over Abuse of Executive Powers

June 25, 2014

John Boehner to Sue Obama Over Abuse of Executive Powers

via John Boehner to Sue Obama Over Abuse of Executive Powers.

Wednesday, 25 Jun 2014 01:23 PM

The House will vote next month on legislation authorizing a campaign-season lawsuit accusing President Barack Obama of failing to carry out the laws passed by Congress, Speaker John Boehner announced on Wednesday.

In a memo distributed to House members, Boehner accused Obama of “aggressive unilateralism” and said if left unchecked, it would give the president “king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest dismissed any suggestion that the president has failed to act within the law in issuing executive orders or taking other actions. “We feel completely confident that the president was operating within his authority as the president of the United States to take these steps on behalf of the American people,” he told reporters.

Whatever the outcome of the suit in the courts, Boehner’s announcement guarantees creation of yet another political struggle between Republicans and Obama and his Democratic allies in a campaign already full of them.

“On matters ranging from healthcare and energy to foreign policy and education, President Obama has repeatedly run an end-around” on the public and Congress, the speaker wrote. He accused him of “ignoring some statutes completely, selectively enforcing others and at times, creating laws of his own.”

At a news conference, Boehner strongly brushed aside a question of whether impeachment proceedings could result from the suit.

In his memo, he stopped short of accusing the president of violating his oath of office. Instead, he said Obama was “straining the boundaries of the solemn oath he took on Inauguration Day.”

Other Republicans have been less restrained. Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania said recently the House probably has the votes to impeach Obama, although he said he wasn’t calling for it. One former tea party-backed lawmaker, ex-Rep. Allen West of Florida, has called for the House to vote to remove the president from office.

Boehner also rejected a suggestion that the suit was a political move designed to give traditional Republican voters an added impetus for going to the polls this fall when control of Congress will be at stake.

But Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who chairs the Democratic campaign committee, said Boehner planned a politically motivated lawsuit,” and predicted the voters would punish Republicans for it.

He accused the speaker of a “reprehensible waste of taxpayers’ money and a desperate political stunt meant to gin up the Republican base at a time when House Republicans are historically unpopular.”

Disputes about the balance of power between the executive branch and the Congress are as old as the Constitution under a system in which lawmakers pass laws and the president carries them out.

Boehner said the House “must act as an institution to defend the constitutional principles at stake.”

Categories: Off Topic
Tags: USA

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Official: Intelligence community warned about ‘growing’ ISIS threat in Iraq

June 25, 2014

Official: Intelligence community warned about ‘growing’ ISIS threat in Iraq

Fox News’ James Rosen and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
Published June 24, 2014FoxNews.com

via Official: Intelligence community warned about ‘growing’ ISIS threat in Iraq | Fox News.

The U.S. intelligence community warned about the “growing threat” from Sunni militants in Iraq since the beginning of the year, a senior intelligence official said Tuesday — a claim that challenges assertions by top administration officials that they were caught off guard by the capture of key Iraqi cities.

Earlier Tuesday, in an interview with Fox News, Secretary of State John Kerry said “nobody expected” Iraqi security forces to be decisively driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, as they were earlier this month in Mosul.

But in a separate briefing with reporters Tuesday afternoon, the senior intelligence official said the intelligence community had warned about the ISIS threat.

“During the past year, the intelligence community has provided strategic warning of Iraq’s deteriorating security situation,” the official said. “We routinely highlighted (ISIS’) growing threat in Iraq, the increasing difficulties Iraq’s security forced faced in combating (ISIS), and the political strains that were contributing to Iraq’s declining stability.”

Asked who failed to act, the official did not explain.

Offering a grave warning about the current strength of the group — which is a State Department-designated terror organization — the official also said that barring a major counteroffensive, the intelligence community assesses that ISIS is “well-positioned to keep the territory it has gained.”The official said the ISIS “strike force” now has between 3,000 and 5,000 members.

Further, the official said ISIS, as a former Al Qaeda affiliate, has the “aspiration and intent” to target U.S. interests. Asked if Americans have joined, the intelligence official said it “stands to reason that Americans have joined.”

The information from the intelligence community adds to the picture of what is known about the ISIS threat, and what might have been known in the weeks and months before its militants seized Mosul and other northern cities and towns.

Kerry, speaking with Fox News on Tuesday in the middle of a multi-country swing through the Middle East and Europe as he tries to calm the sectarian crisis in Iraq, pushed back on the notion that more could have been done from a Washington perspective to prevent the takeovers. Pressed on whether the fall of Mosul and other cities to Sunni militants marks an intelligence failure, Kerry said nobody could have predicted Iraqi security forces would have deserted.

“We don’t have people embedded in those units, and so obviously nobody knew that. I think everybody in Iraq was surprised. People were surprised everywhere,” he said.

The secretary noted that the U.S. and Iraq did not sign a formal agreement allowing troops to stay in the country past 2011, so “we didn’t have eyes in there.”

“But the Iraqis didn’t even have a sense of what was happening,” Kerry said.

When asked what the U.S. did to shore up Mosul, after seeing other Iraqi cities fall earlier this year, Kerry added: “In the end, the Iraqis are responsible for their defense, and nobody expected wholesale desertion and wholesale betrayal, in a sense, by some leaders who literally either signed up with the guys who came in or walked away from their posts and put on their civilian clothes.

“No, nobody expected that.”

But aside from the apparent warnings from the U.S. intelligence community, reports in The Telegraph and Daily Beast claim that Kurdish sources did warn American and British officials that ISIS was gaining strength and ready to advance, but it “fell on deaf ears.”

A senior lieutenant to Lahur Talabani, head of Kurdish intelligence, reportedly told The Daily Beast that the Kurds passed on warnings about a possible takeover of Mosul to British and U.S. government officials.

“We knew exactly what strategy they were going to use, we knew the military planners,” the official said.

The Telegraph reported that Washington and London got warnings months ago about Sunni militant plans to try and take over the northwestern region of Iraq. The Kurds reportedly had been monitoring developments on their own.

At this stage, though, the question for Kerry and the Obama administration is how far they are willing to go to shore up the embattled Iraqi government. Kerry, in Baghdad a day earlier, pressed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to proceed with the formation of a new government — Iraq’s parliament is set to begin this process next week.

In the meantime, President Obama has committed up to 300 U.S. military advisers to help Iraq’s government fend off ISIS forces. The administration continues to weigh whether to authorize airstrikes.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Iraq war, Isis, Middle East War, USA

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Iraq’s Leader Besieged by Obama

June 25, 2014

Iraq’s Leader Besieged by ObamaPres.
Obama did the same to Egypt, Syria, Libya and Yemen. Look where they are now. Is this good?

By: Hana Levi JulianPublished: June 25th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Iraq’s Leader Besieged by Obama.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on June 22.
Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of State

We’ve seen this scenario before.

Iraq is falling apart, with a major terrorist organization threatening the stability of the nation and murdering civilians and soldiers right and left. The current government, which once was “firmly” supported by its “friend” in Washington is wobbling, its military force unable to cope with the threat it faces.

And now the United States is calling on Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to “rise above” the country’s sectarian divisions and step down or form a national unity government.

Secretary of State John Kerry is attending a meeting of NATO leaders in Brussels after spending two days in Baghdad and Irbil, trying to re-shape the Iraqi government.

The besieged Iraqi prime minister, meanwhile, on Wednesday fought back, issuing a statement warning that calls for him to step down or form a national government really mean a “coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience.”

Hm. Now, where have we seen this scenario before?

Let’s see. . . was it . . . Egypt? Libya? Syria? Yemen?

Gee. Nearly every single Arab nation for which the United States has professed unswerving assistance and support, and has in the past provided strong foreign aid. And which has crashed in the wake of the Arab Spring, launched courtesy of President Barack Obama’s oh-so-helpful “Let there be change” Speech From Cairo.

Could there be an emerging pattern here?

And now Washington has set its sights on Iraq.

Al Qaeda has already swallowed a fair amount of territory in Libya, Syria and Yemen, and the Muslim Brotherhood is giving the government a good run for its money in Egypt.

And at last we return to Iraq, a situation which has even given the Iranians pause, believe it or not. Now that’s something, a situation that could make even the Saudi Arabians fear God.

Because when Al Qaeda is finished with Iraq, the horde will probably invade Jordan next, and after that, perhaps the Sinai Peninsula and/or Gaza.

Eventually, maybe even Israel. Yet the Pentagon is upset because Israel will not agree to U.S. General John Allen’s plan to replace Israel’s army in the Jordan Valley with an international force.

Since Saudi Arabia is directly south of Iraq, it is entirely possible they may instead move to take Mecca first, the holiest city in Islam. As wealthy as the Saudis are, they are unlikely to be able to ward off that kind of attack on their own.

Will Saudi Arabia be able to rely on its “friend and ally,” U.S. President Barack Obama?

Maybe – as did those who led Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: Iraq war, Middle East War, USA

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