LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 15/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.august15.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
Martha, Martha, you are worried and
distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the
better part, which will not be taken away from her
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10/38-42/:"Now as they went
on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed
him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and
listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so
she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to
do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’But the Lord answered her,
‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of
only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away
from her.’".
We speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts
First Letter to the Thessalonians 02/01-13/:"You yourselves know, brothers and
sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already
suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage
in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For
our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just
as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel,
even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.
As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or
with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you
or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we
were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So
deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the
gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day,
so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of
God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our
conduct was towards you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you
like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that
you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and
glory. We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received
the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but
as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.".
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 14-15/16
Go back to Moussa al-Sadr’s legacy/Nadim Koteich/Al Arabiya/August
14/16
Iran: Sunni execution proves human rights sanctions are necessary/By Shahriar
Kia/The Hill/August 14/16
War of attrition: The Syrian rebellion grinds on into its 6th year, with no end
in sight/Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/August 14/16
Reducing ISIS terrorist attacks in Europe: Is it possible, and if so, at what
cost/Liram Koblentz-Stenzler/Jerusalem Post/August 14/16
Calling on America’s Republicans/Trisha de Borchgrave/Al Arabiya/August 14/16
Should we be suspicious of Washington’s Mideast policies/Jamal Khashoggi/Al
Arabiya/August 14/16
On astonishment and the importance of questions/Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/August
14/16
Islamic Islamophobia: When Muslims Are Not Muslim Enough, What Does It Promise
for the Rest of Us/Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/August 14/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on
on August 14-15/16
LF Says 'Real Progress' in
Presidency Talks with Mustaqbal, Kataeb
Report: Vatican Initiative to Secure Election of President in Late September
2 Hurt as Wildfire Renews in Mount Akroum's Heights
Berri Categorically Rejects Vacancy of Army Chief Post
Former Mossad deputy director duped into Hezbollah interview
Nasrallah hides in a bunker while Israeli children play outside'
Hezbollah leader endorses Trump’s claim that US created IS
Go back to Moussa al-Sadr’s legacy
Fneish : Lebanon plunged into political crisis
Fayyad: Approving Aoun candidacy not concession
Abou Faour: We are facing national crisis
Hashem: To quickly find solutions for national crises
Zahle Deputies Bloc: Dialogue sessions a waste of time, Presidential elections
the sole required solution
Enemy reconnaissance plane circles over Marjeyoun
Khalil calls for unity to face terrorism
Arsal Municipality head receives threat
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
on August 14-15/16
Dozens Dead as Warplanes Pound
Rebel-Held North Syria
Russia Destroys IS Arms Stores around Syria's Deir Ezzor
German far-right leader wants to send refugees to islands outside Europe
Italy warned about Milan-based ISIS cell, expels imam
Kurdish forces in fresh push to capture Mosul
Iran’s Quds Force Announces Latest Aleppo Deaths
Yemeni Missile Kills Six Saudi Civilians in Najran
Yemeni official: ‘Zinjibar retaken from Qaeda’
Liberation of Manjib Revives “Syrian Federalism”
Syrian girl shot by sniper evacuated to hospital
Kuwait says it arrests 10 Iranians who are ‘infiltrators’
Egyptian Olympic will open an investigation into Egyptian Judoka Islam el-Shehaby
Can't ask me to shake the hand of someone from this State,' says Egyptian judoka
Imam killed execution-style walking from Queens mosque
US police search for suspect in killing of imam
Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion concerned by heightened
tensions between Russia and Ukraine
Canada welcomes UN Security Council decision to strengthen UN Mission in South
Sudan
Youths in Ardabil condemn 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran
South Sudan fighting sparks fears of return to civil war
Thai police say wave of attacks connected, one arrested
Fidel Castro thanks Cuba, criticizes Obama, on 90th birthday
Links From Jihad Watch Site for
on August 14-15/16
Police in Canada decry closing of bomb data center now needed in
jihadi case of Aaron Driver
Corsica: Muslims riot, burn cars, attack non-Muslims with harpoons over tourist
photo
Hugh Fitzgerald: Howard “Dizzy” Dean and “The Farthest Thing From an Islamic
Republic”
USDA ignores AFDI petition to require halal meat be labeled as such
Kentucky: Firefighter placed on leave, retires after video surfaces of him
burning Qur’an
Islamic scholar: Muslim migrants want Islamization of Europe
Olympic: Networks champion US Muslim fencer, ignore Muslim abuse of Israel
Germany: Sharia Police with Islamic State logo patrolling in Hamburg
Dr. Sebastian Gorka on “Defeating Jihad” — on The Glazov Gang
Muslims murder at least 13 Christians in ongoing war “by Islam to eliminate
Christianity” in Nigeria
Oklahoma: Muslim who beheaded coworker “justified his actions based on his
reading of the Quran”
Ohio: Muslims videotaping Catholic mass prompt probe
Iran propaganda video hits Obama for dissembling about
ransom-for-hostages deal, crows about humiliating US
on August 14-15/16
LF Says 'Real Progress' in
Presidency Talks with Mustaqbal, Kataeb
Naharnet/August 14/16/There
is “real progress” in the ongoing efforts to end the presidential vacuum and
talks are “serious” with al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Kataeb Party in this
regard, a top Lebanese Forces official announced on Sunday. “Hizbullah is
required to practically support General Michel Aoun's presidential nomination
through convincing the March 8 camp to secure quorum” at the parliament, LF
media officer Melhem Riachi said in an interview on MTV. “We have communicated
with Saudi Arabia regarding Aoun's nomination and we were informed that it does
not have a veto on any presidential candidate,” Riachi added. He also noted that
the LF does not have any disputes with Mustaqbal and that there is “daily”
communication between the two parties. As for the so-called “package deal” that
has been proposed by Speaker Nabih Berri, Riachi stressed that “for the LF,
there is no package deal, but rather the priority of electing a president and
committing to the democratic process.”“It is normal that our candidate for the
premiership is ex-PM Saad Hariri,” he added. He noted, however, that Mustaqbal
“has the right to reject Aoun's presidential nomination” while pointing out that
“Aoun has a larger popular base than (Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman)
Franjieh in the Christian arena.”“LF leader Samir Geagea contacted former
president Amin Gemayel two weeks ago and I met with Kataeb chief Sami Gemayel
after the phone call,” Riachi revealed, stressing that “there is continuous
communication with Kataeb” and that LF deputy chief MP George Adwan is
discussing the issue of the electoral law with Kataeb's leader. Lebanon has been
without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and
Hizbullah, Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and some of their allies have been
boycotting the parliament's electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed
quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia,
launched an initiative in late 2015 to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but
his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main Christian parties
as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Geagea to endorse the nomination of
Aoun, his long-time Christian rival. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid
argue that he is more eligible than Franjieh to become president due to the size
of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
Report: Vatican Initiative to Secure Election of President in Late September
Naharnet/August 14/16/The
Vatican is seeking to find a solution to Lebanon's presidential crisis and it is
preparing a “major” initiative to help the country elect a president in late
September, a media report said on Sunday. “A major Vatican initiative is
currently in the making and it is being discussed through some contacts and
meetings inside and outside Lebanon,” the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper quoted a
senior Christian spiritual leader as saying. There are hopes that this
initiative could lead to the election of a president in late September, the
daily added. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has recently mentioned the possibility
of finding a “compromise candidate” who would not be one of the country's top
four Maronite leaders. Lebanon has been without a president since the term of
Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and Hizbullah, MP Michel Aoun's Change and
Reform bloc and some of their allies have been boycotting the parliament's
electoral sessions, stripping them of the needed quorum. Al-Mustaqbal Movement
leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who is close to Saudi Arabia, launched an initiative
in late 2015 to nominate Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh for the
presidency but his proposal was met with reservations from the country's main
Christian parties as well as Hizbullah. Hariri's move prompted Lebanese Forces
leader Samir Geagea to endorse the nomination of Aoun, his long-time Christian
rival. The supporters of Aoun's presidential bid argue that he is more eligible
than Franjieh to become president due to the size of his parliamentary bloc and
his bigger influence in the Christian community.
2 Hurt as Wildfire Renews in Mount Akroum's Heights
Naharnet/August 14/16/Two
people were injured on Sunday as a wildfire renewed for the fourth day in the
Jabal al-Hasin forests in the heights of the Akkar region of Mount Akroum, the
National News Agency reported.
It said Abdullah Habib Khodr and Khaled Ahmed Hussein Bou Ali were injured as
they were trying to extinguish flames. “There are no routes that the
firefighting vehicles can use to reach the area of the blaze and residents are
trying by all means to douse the fire that keeps renewing due to the high
temperatures and the dry winds that are lashing the region,” NNA said. The Civil
Defense announced later in the day that an army helicopter had been called in to
assist the firefighting crews in dousing the blaze. Ali Isber, the head of the
Jabal Akroum municipal union, had earlier urged authorities to send military
helicopters to contribute to the firefighting operations, lamenting that “Akroum
has been burning for four days and the distress calls of the residents and
municipalities are falling on deaf ears.”“The blaze has caused extensive damage
to the environment and habitat of this region and the situation will deteriorate
further should our appeals remain unheeded,” Isber warned.
Berri Categorically Rejects Vacancy of Army Chief Post
Naharnet/August
14/16/Speaker Nabih Berri has issued a strong warning against leaving the army
chief post vacant upon the expiry of the term of Army Commander General Jean
Qahwaji next month. “It is prohibited to harm the military institution or
subject it to instability,” the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper quoted Berri's
visitors as saying in remarks published Sunday. “The vacancy of the army chief
post, even for a single minute, is impermissible,” Berri reportedly said. “This
institution represents a security valve for the country,” he added. Qahwahi's
term was extended for two years in 2013 and it will expire on September 23.
Former Mossad deputy director duped
into Hezbollah interview
Smadar Peri|/Ynetnews/August
14/16/Ilan Mizrahi gave a TV interview to a Lebanese station affiliated with
Hezbollah for a series about the Second Lebanon War without his knowledge;
episode aired Saturday. Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet's sister publication,
revealed that in early August, an Italian journalist, who was hired by Hezbollah
to personally interview Israeli officials without their knowing who was behind
the project, managed to interview former ministers Tzipi Livni and Amir Peretz,
former head of military intelligence Amos Yadlin, and former National Security
Advisor Yaakov Amidror. Former Mossad deputy director Ilan Mizrahi joined their
ranks on Saturday's program. That evening, revealed in vivid detail, was the
account of the Hezbollah broker who secured the deal that returned the coffins
of Regev and Goldwasser in exchange for the release of terrorist Samir Kuntar,
four Hezbollah fighters, and 199 bodies of Palestinian and other Arab fighters.
The broker, Wafiq Safah, said: "Throughout the negotiations, we made sure to
keep a tight lid on the fate of the soldiers." The interviews were later
broadcast on a Hezbollah series about the conflict on the Al-Mayadeen channel,
operated by Hezbollah. Mizrahi revealed in the interview the dilemmas about the
high price of the exchange, and emphasized the values of Judaism in returning
the captives. Mizrahi, as well as the others interviewed, got the
explanation that he was being interviewed for "international media," never
having imagined that Hezbollah was behind the initiative. Saturday night, he
told Yedioth Ahronoth, "I asked permission to be interviewed. I did not know the
interview would be broadcast on Hezbollah's channel."
'Nasrallah hides in a bunker while Israeli children play outside'
Jerusalem Post/August
14/16/Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made renewed threats to Israel on
Saturday, but one Israeli politician, who was defense minister in 2006 during
the Second Lebanon War, had some harsh words for the terror leader. While
Nasrallah has hid in a bunker for the past 10 years, children in Kiryat Shmona
have been playing at playgrounds and going to school without fear," said Zionist
Union MK Amir Peretz on Sunday. "From our point of view, that is victory
enough." Turning his attention toward the 2017-2018 budget, which the cabinet
approved on Friday, Peretz said that "A larger budget is needed to stand up to
the challenge" posed by Israel's enemies. "The IDF learned its lessons of war
and put them into use...but there is still much to be done. At a ceremony
marking the war's 10-year anniversary on Saturday, Nasrallah told supporters via
video link that Lebanon achieved a victory in the war and claimed that “Israel
knows that there is no location in the country that is not in Hezbollah’s
cross-hairs.” However Peretz has asserted that the success of the war has been
proven by the test of time and the relative quiet along the Israeli-Lebanon
border that has pervaded for the past decade.
Hezbollah leader endorses Trump’s claim that US created IS
By AP and Times Of Israel
Staff/August 14/16/In rally in Lebanon, Nasrallah notes ‘an American presidential candidate’ made
the assertion, which ‘is based on facts and documents’
BEIRUT — Donald Trump has found at least
one person who agrees with his allegation that the US administration founded the
Islamic State group. The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group quoted Trump
at a rally in the country’s south Saturday, saying the presidential candidate’s
statements were based on facts. “This is an American presidential candidate who
is saying this. What he says is based on facts and documents,” Hassan Nasrallah
said. Trump this week described President Barack Obama as the “founder” of IS.
After at first defending the claim, Trump later said it was intended as sarcasm.
Nasrallah, who has sent thousands of his fighters to Syria to shore up President
Bashar Assad’s forces, has long claimed that the US helped create and fuel the
rise of Islamic extremists to destabilize the Middle East. At the rally,
Nasrallah also railed against Israel, whose “spirit, arrogance, will, trust and
existence” were weakened by the Second Lebanon War fought between Hezbollah and
the IDF in the summer of 2006. The 34-day war led the Israeli public to lose
faith in its military, he declared. In the televised address, Nasrallah told
thousands gathered to mark the 10th anniversary of the war that Israel’s defense
establishment was shaken by what he claimed was a defeat to Hezbollah. “It was
an earthquake which shook the Israeli army,” Nasrallah said according to media
outlets affiliated with the Shiite organization. Nasrallah said the war created
a “mutual deterrence between the Zionist entity and the resistance” and repeated
his long-time threat to launch rockets towards Israel, claiming Hezbollah
weapons could reach “any point” inside the country. The Hezbollah leader also
said the relative calm along the Israel-Lebanon border in recent years proved
correct his boast from 2000 that the Jewish state was “more feeble than a
spider’s web.”
Go back to Moussa al-Sadr’s legacy
Nadim Koteich/Al Arabiya/August
14/16
The Lebanese political arena is witnessing a remarkable phenomenon. Political
debate is no longer held exclusively between major parties and instead debate
now rages within parties, having infiltrated them. There are many reasons for
this shift, including the emergence of a new generation of participants in many
parties. This generation has grown up in a post-2005 neo-revolutionary political
climate. It can be said that this era has been marked by a shift in the sort of
politics the Lebanese became used to after 1992. It seems that all parties have
been affected by the political climate created by the March 14 movement.
The peculiarity of the March 14 youth seems clear; they distinguished themselves
from traditional Lebanese politics, in part due to the deterioration of the
political climate in which the movement was born.
The March 14 bloc decided the nature of political conflict in the country and
pushed certain opponents toward debate, consequently the collapse of sovereign
powers’ political projects in Lebanon led to the breakdown of political life in
the country.
The Shiite political sphere seems to be as of yet unscathed by the political
trend toward internal strife. However, if we are to look closely, the opposite
is true
The contrasting project - Hezbollah’s project - went back to its roots without
having to endure meaningless debate that is superficial to its priorities and
culture.
Ever increasing debates
The most obvious part of the shift currently occurring in Lebanon are the ever
increasing debates occurring within political parties, as opposed to between
political parties.
A good example is the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) led by General Michel Aoun.
Internal divisions and the sacking of prominent activists mar the party. It
seems as though confrontation takes place on almost a daily basis between
Minister Gebran Bassil, Aoun’s son-in-law, and other members of the party.
Besides this very public confrontation, another political skirmish is quietly
taking place between Bassil and retired Brigadier-General Shamel Roukoz who has
a sizeable support base.
For its part, the Future Movement is also suffering from internal divisions that
are as clear as the FPM’s.
The deepest division within the Future movement is encapsulated in the example
of retired Major-General Ashraf Rifi who took on former Prime Minister Saad
al-Hariri in municipal elections in Tripoli. Following the head-to-head, a sharp
debate was launched about “Harirism” within the party.
The Kataeb Party is also struggling internally, albeit on a much smaller scale.
The disputed inheritance of the party’s leadership from President Amin Gemayel
to his son is linked to the overall fragmented state of Lebanese politics and
the country’s constitution. Internal strife was apparent when the party decided
to withdraw from government in a move that led to three Kataeb ministers
distancing themselves from the party. An independent Kataeb member resigned; one
protested against the party's decision and the third minister washed himself of
blame by saying he does not associate himself with Kataeb bloc at all!
The Lebanese Forces, arguably the most united Lebanese party and one which is
led by Samir Geagea, is also suffering in its main stronghold of Bshari where
Geagea’s wife, Setrida, has been criticized. It must be said, however, that
internal strife is relatively low-level compared to other parties.
As for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, it is undergoing a very public
crisis due to leadership elections within the party. There is an ongoing
struggle between key political players Assaad Hardan and Gibran Areiji. It was
widely reported that Hardan attempted to run for a third consecutive presidency.
When he was not allowed to do so, he chose to support Ali Qanso in his fourth
(non-consecutive) presidency. This resulted in uproar and led critics to
describe the president as a puppet in a crisis which is still playing out.
Scratching the surface
The Shiite political sphere seems to be as of yet unscathed by the political
trend toward internal strife. However, if we are to look closely, the opposite
is true. The main dividing line is the war in Syria - Hezbollah sees it as an
existential battle for Shiites, whereas the head of the Amal Movement and
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has distanced himself from this battle.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, says that they both would be
ready to fight in Syria, however, Berri is keen on denying any involvement by
his party in Syria. We have not heard of any Amal members dying in Syria – they
are either refraining from battle or Berri is refusing to become involved in
order to protect the Shiites.
It seems that this division is due to the legacy of Sayyed Moussa al-Sadr’s
stance against Iran’s Khomeini. Sadr was keen on preserving the Shiites
interests by stabilizing society and establishing closer ties with other
religions, to the extent that he was accused of being on good terms with Israel.
In his political discourse, Sadr has relied on Maronite policies, especially the
dialogue of coexistence .
The picture of a coherent Shiite community is misleading. The current stability
is the result of the balance of power that was established by the Shiite-Shiite
civil war in the mid-1980s. Today’s stability is based on the falsification of
the ideological roots of Shiites’ relationship with the Lebanese state, putting
them under Hezbollah’s control. In August, the month that Moussa al-Sadr
disappeared, it is necessary to take a deeper look into his legacy, career,
values and attitudes. Shiites should revert to their legacy; it may not be
perfect but it will at least root them in their Lebanese belongings, their real
belongings, not those which have fabricated by Hezbollah.
**This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Aug. 12, 2016.
Fneish : Lebanon plunged
into political crisis
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mohammad
Fneish, said on Sunday that Lebanon was plunged into a deep political crisis,
ranging from presidential crisis to other files. Fneich reminded that his party
was clear in supporting Aoun for Presidency.
“To ensure order in the country we should establish a partnership between the
Lebanese components, given the nature of the political system in the country,”
he said. Regarding the Presidency of Parliament, the minister pointed out that
Hezbollah supported and would always support the candidacy of Speaker of the
House, Nabih Berri, noting that this decision is clear and definitive and that
no one can change it.
Fayyad: Approving Aoun
candidacy not concession
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - MP Ali Fayyad said that approving the candidacy of General
Michel Aoun was not a concession but a response to the national interest. His
stance came Sunday during an honorary ceremony held by Hezbollah at the
Huseiniyya of Talousa Village. "If General Aoun is elected as a president, the
political crisis in the country will almost be solved and will leave a positive
impact on crisis resolution," added Fayyad. Fayyad warned against the
deterioration of the country's situation "because this would lead to negative
repercussions at both economic and financial levels."
Abou Faour: We are facing national crisis
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA – Public Health Minister, Wael Abou Faour, said that the
Presidential file was awaiting several regional factors, notably an agreement to
end the crisis in Yemen. His stance came Sunday during a political rally in Aita
el Foukhar. He added that no political forces approve a new extension of the
Parliament’s mandate, stressing in this regard the importance of 2017 election.
"The current government is paralyzed despite the efforts of Prime Minister
Tammam Salam who demonstrates patience. Unfortunately, the cabinet is trying to
fill the void," he concluded.
Hashem: To quickly find
solutions for national crises
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - MP Kassem Hashem said on Sunday that finding a solution
for national crises was in everyone's interest. His words came in the wake of
his meeting with Abbott Naamtallah Hachem. Hashem stressed that diversity was a
source of wealth in Lebanon, adding that “this is what distinguishes Lebanon
from other countries in the region, making it a privileged place for dialogue
between cultures and religions. The MP hoped that the dialogue would lead to
agreements to help the country get back on track.
Zahle Deputies Bloc: Dialogue
sessions a waste of time, Presidential elections the sole required solution
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - Zahle Deputies Bloc considered on Sunday that "dialogue
sessions are a waste of time," adding that "the only vital solution at this
phase is the election of a new President of the Republic." In an issued
statement following their meeting devoted to tackling hour issues, Zahle Bloc
members called for "returning to the right norms by resorting to Constitutional
institutions, namely to the Parliament Council whose members are responsible for
electing a new President." Over the security situation in the Bekaa, the Bloc
members praised the efforts exerted by the military and security forces in
combating terrorism and crime, ensuring that security prevails in the region.
The Bloc also discussed various developmental, agricultural, economic and
environmental issues, especially the problem of finding markets for agricultural
products in the Bekaa. In this context, they urged the government to "open ways
for foreign markets and activate a support mechanism to aid farmers overcome
this difficult period."
Enemy reconnaissance plane
circles over Marjeyoun
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - An Israeli pilotless drone is currently circling over the
region of Marjeyoun in the South, NNA correspondent reported on Sunday.
Khalil calls for unity to
face terrorism
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - Finance Minister, Ali Hassan Khalil, reiterated on Sunday
the commitment to the triad army-people-resistance, calling for unity in the
face of terrorism and for the activation of the parliament's work. Acting at the
behest of House Speaker Nabih Berri, Minister Khalil called upon all political
forces to find political solutions in a bid to reactivate the government's role.
"The challenges that we are currently facing must push us to be more
responsible. Moreover, the aim of Berri’s call for dialogue is only to protect
the country," Khalil said. He reminded all the political forces of the
importance to participate in all parliament sessions to find solutions for the
crisis as well as for the sake of people's interest. Commenting on the latest
dialogue session, Khalil said conferees could not manage to solve pending
issues.
Arsal Municipality head receives threat
Sun 14 Aug 2016/NNA - Arsal Municipality head, Bassel Houjeiri, received a
threat by terrorist groups present in the outskirts of Arsal, NNA correspondent
said on Sunday.
Latest LCCC
Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
on August 14-15/16
Dozens Dead as Warplanes Pound
Rebel-Held North Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August
14/16/Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched a wave of air strikes in
northern Syria, killing dozens in areas held by a rebel alliance battling to
take control of second city Aleppo. The strikes, which began on Saturday and
were continuing on Sunday, killed at least 45 civilians in Aleppo and west of
the city and 22 more in neighboring Idlib province, a monitoring group said. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes were targeting areas held
by the Army of Conquest, an alliance of rebel, Islamist and jihadist forces that
has mounted a major offensive to seize Aleppo. "The intensification of the
strikes in Idlib is due to the fact that this province is the main source of
fighters for the Army of Conquest," the head of the Britain-based Observatory,
Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. An AFP correspondent in rebel-held eastern Aleppo
said the strikes were especially intense around the southern district of Ramussa,
seized by rebel fighters earlier this month in a major setback for forces loyal
to President Bashar Assad. Nine other civilians were killed in rebel shelling of
regime-held western Aleppo on Saturday, the Observatory said. Aleppo, Syria's
former economic hub and a focal point of the country's five-year civil war, has
been divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since
mid-2012.
- Intensifying battle -
Fighting for the city has intensified this summer, after regime troops seized
control of the last supply route into rebel-held areas in mid-July. After a
nearly three-week siege, rebel forces took Ramussa on August 6, linking up with
opposition-held neighborhoods. Emboldened by the win, the Army of Conquest
announced an ambitious bid to capture all of Aleppo, which if successful would
be the biggest opposition victory yet in Syria's conflict. The increased
fighting has raised deep concerns for the estimated 1.5 million civilians still
in Aleppo, including some 250,000 in rebel-controlled areas. The United Nations
has called for regular 48-hour pauses in the fighting to allow aid into the
city, which has suffered from severe shortages of food, water and medical
supplies. Russia launched air strikes last September in support of Assad,
helping the regime to consolidate its hold on loyal areas and regain some
territory. The defense ministry in Moscow said Sunday that six long-range
bombers from Russia had struck around Deir Ezzor, a stronghold of the Islamic
State group in Syria. IS controls large parts of Deir Ezzor city and most of
oil-rich Deir Ezzor province in the east of the country -- part of the swathes
of territory in Syria and Iraq that the group seized in mid-2014. The ministry
said in a statement that the Russian Tupolev bombers carried out raids to the
southwest, east and northeast of the city, wiping out two command posts, six
arms depots, IS vehicles and "a large number of fighters."IS emerged amid the
chaos of Syria's conflict, a complex and multi-front war that has left more than
290,000 dead and forced millions from their homes since beginning with
anti-regime protests in March 2011.
Girl evacuated
A U.S.-led coalition is also battling IS in Syria and Iraq, with air strikes and
backing for the Syrian Democratic Forces, an Arab-Kurdish militia alliance,
which on Friday took full control of the strategic city of Manbij after an IS
retreat. The jihadists took some 2,000 civilians as they fled to serve as human
shields. Hundreds were released on Saturday but the SDF said the fate of many
remained unclear. Kurdish television showed footage of jubilant civilians in
Manbij, including smiling mothers who had shed their veils and men who had lived
for weeks under a shaving ban cutting their beards. In rare good news from the
conflict, a 10-year-old girl who was shot in the besieged town of Madaya was
evacuated to a Damascus hospital where she was in a stable condition, the
Observatory and a Syrian security source said. Ghina Quwayder's leg was
shattered when she was shot by a government sniper at a checkpoint in the
southwestern town earlier this month while buying medicine for her mother,
according to Amnesty International.The rights group had launched a campaign
urging help for the girl to be evacuated. The Syrian Red Crescent was able to
bring Ghina and her mother Sahar to Damascus after midnight on Sunday.
Russia Destroys IS Arms
Stores around Syria's Deir Ezzor
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 14/16/Six long-range bombers from Russia on
Sunday destroyed Islamic State group weapon stores around the jihadist
stronghold of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, the defense ministry in Moscow said.
The ministry said in a statement that the Russian Tupolev bombers carried out
raids to the southwest, east and northeast of the city, wiping out two command
posts, six arms depots, IS vehicles and "a large number of fighters."IS controls
large parts of Deir Ezzor city and most of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province in the
east of the country, and has battled Syrian regime forces for control of a key
military airbase there. Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in support of
long-time ally President Bashar Assad since September that has helped shore up
the strongman's crumbling forces.IS militants were on Friday forced out of the
city of Manbij near the Turkish border by a U.S.-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance in
a blow the Pentagon said showed the extremists were "on the ropes."Russian-backed
government forces are also battling other rebels groups in fierce fighting for
the country's second city of Aleppo, a fortnight on from the launch of a major
rebel offensive.
German far-right leader wants
to send refugees to islands outside Europe
Reuters, BerlinSunday, 14 August 2016/The head of the far-right Alternative for
Germany (AfD) says Berlin should send rejected asylum seekers and illegal
immigrants to islands outside Europe and turn its refugee office into an
emigration bureau. The influx of over one million migrants last year fueled
support for the AfD, which now has seats in eight of Germany’s 16 state
assemblies and is expected to make a strong showing in state votes next month in
Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Party leader Frauke Petry made the
suggestions in an interview with the Bild newspaper published on Saturday.
“Illegal migrants and asylum seekers whose applications are rejected will be
accommodated on the two islands outside Europe that are protected by the United
Nations,” Petry added, without naming the two islands she had in mind. German
media interpreted her remarks as a reference to Nauru and Manus, two Pacific
islands where Australia funds camps to hold asylum seekers intercepted trying to
reach its shores by boat. They are told they will never be settled in Australia.
“I propose the transformation of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees
into an office for emigration, which ensures that all illegal migrants leave
this land as soon as possible,” Petry added. The refugee office has been
overwhelmed since last year with hundreds of thousands of asylum applications.
Known for her fiery speeches to AfD supporters, Petry sparked an uproar earlier
this year when she called for German police to be allowed to use firearms
against illegal migrants. Most of the more than one million migrants who arrived
in Germany last year are refugees escaping war and persecution in Syria,
Afghanistan and Iraq.
Italy warned about Milan-based ISIS cell, expels imam
AFP, RomeSunday, 14 August 2016/Libyan authorities have warned Italy about an
ISIS cell based in the Milan area with links to one of the extremist group’s
battle-hardened veterans, Italian media reported Sunday. The existence of the
network was reportedly revealed by documents seized by Libyan agents after
government forces took over an ISIS headquarters in the city of Sirte earlier
this week. The Italy-based militants were said to be associates of Abu Nassim,
47, a Tunisian who lived in Italy for most of his 20s and subsequently fought in
Afghanistan and Syria, before becoming an ISIS commander in Libya. The reports
as concerns grow that ISIS fighters dispersed from Sirte could cross the
Mediterranean on migrant boats and mount “lone wolf” terror attacks on Italian
territory. Security services have been put on a state of high alert for the peak
holiday season and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has stepped up expulsions
of suspected extremist sympathizers. Late on Saturday, Alfano said he had
ordered the deportation of Hosni Hachemi Ben Hassem, a Tunisian imam based in a
mosque at Andria in Puglia. The 49-year-old imam had been cleared of charges of
recruiting extremists but Alfano expelled him anyway on the basis of suspected
incitement to racial hatred. The cleric is the ninth imam to be kicked out since
the start of 2015 under a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to extremist militancy which
Alfano says has reduced the risk of a terror attack on Italian soil. The
centre-right minister has signed a total of 109 expulsion orders since the start
of last year, 43 of them in 2016, he said in a statement.
- Veteran extremist -
Abu Nassim, whose real name is Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, first arrived in
Italy in 1989 to work on building sites. Suspected of trying to radicalize and
recruit other Arab immigrants, he disappeared in 1997 and resurfaced in
Pakistan, on his way to join the late Osama bin Laden’s forces in Afghanistan.
He was arrested by US forces in 2001 and held at the Bagram airbase detention
facility, which was to become notorious for the torture and killing of inmates.
Abu Nassim was transferred to Italy in 2009 after prosecutors tabled charges of
terrorist recruitment related to his previous stay. He was acquitted in 2012 and
deported to Tunisia. He was convicted on appeal the following year, by which
time he was already fighting in Syria. Since 2014, he has commanded ISIS forces
around the Libyan port of Sabratha. Tunisia issued a warrant for his arrest in
connection with the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, in which gunmen
killed 21 tourists and a policeman.
Kurdish forces in fresh push
to capture Mosul
Reuters, Wardak, IraqSunday, 14 August 2016/Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a
fresh attack on ISIS militants early on Sunday, as part of a campaign to capture
the de facto ISIS capital Mosul, a Kurdish official said. The advance began
after heavy shelling and US-led coalition air strikes against ISIS forces, a
Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul.
The militants were fighting back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and
detonating at least one car bomb. Clouds of black smoke rose from the area. A
Peshmerga commander said six villages had been taken from the extremist
militants by midday. The Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish
self-rule region are gradually taking up positions around Mosul, 400 km (250
miles) north of Baghdad. It was from Mosul’s Grand Mosque in 2014 that ISIS
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a “caliphate” spanning regions of Iraq and
Syria. Mosul is the largest urban center under the militants’ control, and had a
pre-war population of nearly 2 million. Its fall would mark the effective defeat
of ISIS in Iraq, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has said
he aims to retake the city this year. The operation that started on Sunday is
part of the preparations for an offensive on the city itself, said a Kurdish
official who declined to be identified.
The Iraqi army is trying to advance from the south. In July it captured the
Qayyara airfield, 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, which will serve as the main
staging post for the expected offensive.
Iran’s Quds Force
Announces Latest Aleppo Deaths
Asharq Al Awsat/August 14/16/London- Iran’s Director of Foundation of Martyrs
and Veterans Cleric Mohammad Ali Shahidi announced that 400 of those recently
killed in Syria, both Iranian and Afghan, were added to the foundation’s list
under an official request applied by the Revolutionary Guard’s special
operations unit, the Quds Force. Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs is
an Iranian governmental entity that receives its funding directly from the
national budget. The Foundation gives home loans to disabled veterans and the
families of the martyrs. Iranian public, enraged with the ever increasing
numbers of reported deaths in Syria, especially after the Aleppo clashes
erupted, launched a wide campaign to express their contempt. Iranians on Friday
launched a twitter campaign on social media under “#4Syrian” denouncing Iranian
military intervention in Syria and to support the civilians affected by it. The
campaign revealed the mass popular opposition going against Tehran’s regional
policies, namely deploying Revolutionary Guard and national army soldiers to
interfere in the Syria crisis. Iran’s state’s news agency, IRNA cited Shahidi
saying that the foundation will be answering to the Quds Force requests as soon
as the application is received. He added that the Iranian foundation is waiting
an extended list presented by the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force which
includes added names of members who were killed in Syria. Shahidi gave no
details whether the expected list strictly addresses Quds Force Iranian
‘martyrs’ or it also covers foreign fighters fighting along its side. Cleric
Shahidi also noted that the foundation has enrolled 200 Fatemiyoun Brigade
militiamen to the list of those recently killed in Syria. Fighting alongside
Quds Force combatants in Syria are many paramilitary factions such as Iran’s
Basij forces, Iranian official Revolutionary Guard teams, the Afghani
Iran-trained Fatemiyoun Brigade and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militias. The
Quds Force is a special forces unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responsible
for their extraterritorial operations. The Quds Force reports directly to the
Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei and is commanded by the notorious Major
General Qasem Soleimani. Fearing public rage on interfering in Syria affairs,
Iran is still reserved concerning the announcement of soldier death toll killed
in Syria. As officials refuse to provide information on exact death toll, media
outlets estimate deaths according to the number of funerals held.
Yemeni Missile Kills Six
Saudi Civilians in Najran
Asharq Al Awsat/August 14/16/A Saudi soldier takes his position at Saudi
Arabia's border with Yemen. A Saudi soldier takes his position at Saudi Arabia's
border with Yemen. Najran- A missile deployed from Yemen targeted southern Saudi
Arabia’s Najran on Sunday killing six civilians. The projectile landed on a
local water facility. Security forces soon locked down the site attacked, moving
injured victims to close medical facilities. Najran is a city located in
southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of
Najran Province. Saudi royal air forces had already intercepted a scud missile
on Saturday, which was launched from Yemeni grounds targeting Khamis Mushait,
south-west Saudi Arabia, located east of Abha. The Launchpad was immediately
destroyed.
Yemeni official: ‘Zinjibar retaken
from Qaeda’
AFP and Reuters, Aden
Sunday, 14 August 2016/Yemeni government forces entered Zinjibar on Sunday
backed by Saudi-led air strikes as they launched an offensive to recapture
southern Abyan province and its capital from al-Qaeda militants. “Zinjibar was
retaken from al-Qaeda fighters, most of whom have fled” the city, said military
commander Abdullah al-Fadhli who is leading the offensive. He said fighting was
still underway however in northern districts of the city where militants were
still holed up. Residents and military sources said hundreds of government
troops battled their way into Zinjibar, where some 100,000 people live, and
captured the local government headquarters from retreating al Qaeda militants.
Residents reported there were some clashes with retreating militants but gave no
figures on casualties. Government forces backed by the Arab coalition began an
all-out offensive in March against militants in south Yemen, recapturing main
cities they had held. But they later retreated from Zinjibar after al-Qaeda
militants struck back. On Sunday they re-entered the provincial capital of Abyan
after clashes with al-Qaeda militants who have exploited a power vacuum in Yemen
to expand their presence in the country’s south and southeast. Yemeni
authorities have trained hundreds of soldiers in the nearby province of Aden
over the past two months to retake Abyan and they began to arrive in the
southern province on Saturday, officials said. Their advance had been slowed
down in past attempts by mines and explosive devices planted by the jihadists on
the road linking Abyan province with Aden, where the government is now based.
Saudi-led coalition warplanes have provided air cover to the pro-government
forces pounding al-Qaeda positions across Abyan, army sources said. Late
Saturday four militants were killed in strikes that targeted the coastal town of
Shoqra. Government forces meanwhile fired artillery rounds at Zinjibar and the
nearby town of Jaar, a key al-Qaeda stronghold, ahead of entering the provincial
capital, the military source said. Also on Sunday, a suicide bomber rammed his
vehicle into a military convoy killing three soldiers in Abyan, army sources
said. Al-Qaeda has exploited turmoil in Yemen, where the government is battling
Iran-backed Houthis, to expand its influence in the country. The Arab coalition
which backs the Yemeni government against the Houthis has turned its sights on
the militants, and the United States has pressed its drone war against them.
Washington considers the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP,
to be the extremist network’s deadliest franchise.
Liberation of Manjib
Revives “Syrian Federalism”
Asharq Al Awsat/August 14/16Beirut: Celebrations filled the city of Manjib in
the province of Aleppo, north Syria, shortly after Kurdish militias fighting in
the region have announced yesterday they had completely controlled the city,
which has been under the rule of ISIS since 2014. The announcement had again
opened the wide door in front of requests previously suggested by Syria’s Kurds
to establish a federal region. Local, regional and international powers had
already expressed their wide reservations on the project. However, the
liberation of Manjib opens a political dilemma related to whether Manjib would
be included in the Kurdish Federal region in Syria. Kurdish sources told Asharq
Al-Awsat newspaper that following the liberation of Manjib by Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), which mainly includes members from the Kurdish People’s Protection
Units,” the city would be annexed to the federal state previously announced by
separatist Kurds in north Syria. “Following the liberation of Manjib, there are
no reasons left for preventing the official announcement of this federal
region,” the sources said. Nawaf Khalil, head of the Germany-based Kurdish
Center for Studies told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper: “Currently, there is a
political need to clear Manjib from ISIS remains and work on securing the return
of more than 170,000 civilians who had lately fled the city.”He said that the
issue of annexing Manjib to the self-governed administration is currently out of
discussion. Khalil said residents of Manjib or other cities that later SDF
forces liberate cannot be forced to join the federal region. He said: “Manjib
residents are aware which party can protect them, and therefore will decide
based on that.”Meanwhile, forces from the Manjib Military Council continued
yesterday clearing the city from mines set by ISIS fighters. A leading Kurdish
member told Asharq Al-Awsat that some “civilians have already returned to the
neighborhoods which are now cleaned, and therefore, there will be no problem if
all civilians decide to return to their homes at the end of the sweeping
operation.” He said that a specialized team of engineers was working on clearing
the mines planted in the city. More than 400,000 people lived in Manjib before
the assault started. However, the majority of them have been displaced since
then. Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIS freed
hundreds of hostages who were used as “human shields” when ISIS fighters were
fleeing the city last Friday. Separately, Secretary General of the so-called
Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, called on ISIS and the al-Qaeda organization to
stop fighting in Syria and warned that the U.S. was planning to destroy them.
During the rally marking the tenth anniversary of so-called “July victory” in
the southern town of Bint Jbeil, Nasrallah completely overlooked the latest
developments in the city of Aleppo. And despite the display of joy and
celebration that party leaders tried to show during Nasrallah’s speech, the
so-called Hezbollah supporters attended with a feeling of resentment and sadness
as thousands of their sons were currently fighting in Syria under very difficult
conditions and with no news on their return. Nasrallah said: “After the new
Middle East scheme failed and after the U.S. could not change the equation in
Afghanistan and Iraq, Washington relied on its plan of proxy war.”He said the
U.S. has created and financed the Takfiri groups using Arab capitals in an
attempt to destroy the axis of resistance in the region.Nasrallah appealed to
ISIS and other extremist groups to lay down their arms, pleading for them to
realize that they are serving U.S. and Israeli interests by fighting in the
region. Nasrallah said in case the fighting does not stop in Aleppo, the party
would remain in the city. “We have no other choice,” he said.
Syrian girl shot by sniper evacuated
to hospital
AFPSunday, 14 August 2016/A ten-year-old Syrian girl shot in the besieged town
of Madaya was evacuated Sunday to a Damascus hospital where she is in a stable
condition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Ghina Quwayder’s leg
was shattered when she was shot by a government sniper at a checkpoint in the
southwestern town earlier this month while buying medicine for her mother,
according to Amnesty International. The human rights group had launched a
campaign urging the UN humanitarian task force in Syria, which is headed by US
and Russian authorities, to evacuate her. It had accused the Syrian government
of refusing to allow her to be evacuated to a hospital in Damascus or in
Lebanon, and said she was in “almost constant, excruciating pain”. “The Syrian
Red Crescent evacuated after midnight the girl from Madaya to Damascus,” the
head of the Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP. A Syrian
security source on the ground told AFP that “the girl was evacuated with her
mother Sahar to an hospital in Damascus for treatment”, saying her “condition is
stable”. Ghina’s aunt Fadah Jassan, who lives in London, had urged the British
government to intervene. “Children should have no part in this terrible war and
I just want powerful countries and the UN to get Ghina out of Madaya and into a
properly-equipped hospital,” she said in a statement cited by Amnesty. She
added: “I know Ghina’s just one among many thousands of children in Syria who’re
going though things they shouldn’t have to, but she can be helped relatively
easily and we need to do all we can to make that happen.”
Kuwait says it arrests 10 Iranians
who are ‘infiltrators’
AP, Kuwait CitySunday, 14 August 2016/Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said Sunday its
coast guard detained 10 Iranian “infiltrators” trying to sneak into the country
illegally. An Iranian official, however, described them as fishermen whose
detention was not related to any border violations.
One of the Iranian men was wounded after refusing coast guard orders to
surrender, the ministry said in a statement published by the state-run Kuwait
News Agency. The Interior Ministry released a photo on its website showing nine
of the men on their knees with their hands clasped behind their backs. The
arrests are likely to draw more accusations by Arab Gulf countries of Iranian
interference in their affairs. The largely Sunni bloc of oil-rich nations has
consistently accused Shiite-led Iran of meddling in regional affairs, primarily
in Bahrain and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing
Iranian-allied militias for more than a year. Iran’s semi-official Fars news
agency quoted Ali Hajatpour, deputy chief of Bushehr province’s coast guard in
southern Iran, as saying some Iranian fisherman were detained in Kuwait because
of a “quarrel.” He was quoted Saturday saying the dispute happened on Kuwaiti
soil and that “their detention was not related to a border violation.”The
incident could further strain ties between Kuwait and Iran. An appeals court in
Kuwait recently upheld the death sentence for a Shiite citizen on charges of
communicating with Iran and the Lebanese militant Shiite group Hezbollah to
commit “hostile actions” against the country. The case also includes an Iranian
national tried in absentia and sentenced to death.Kuwait has also staunchly
aligned itself with Saudi Arabia in the kingdom’s diplomatic spat with Iran.
Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Tehran in January after a mob there ransacked
the Saudi Embassy in protest against the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite
cleric.
Egyptian Olympic will open an
investigation into Egyptian Judoka Islam el-Shehaby
Can't ask me to shake the hand of someone from this State,' says Egyptian judoka
Jerusalem Post/August
14/16/The Egyptian Olympic Committee said on Saturday said it will open an
investigation into Egyptian Judoka Islam el-Shehaby after he failed after he
failed to shake the hand of Israeli opponent Or Sasson following his loss on
Friday. The Egyptian Olympic Committee said it has summoned el-Shehaby to a
hearing on the matter in order to listen to his version of events. The committee
added that it will release its decision in the next 48 hours. Before speaking to
the committee, however, el-Shehaby said he respects the rules of the sport and
had no obligation to shake hands with his opponent. "Shaking the hand of your
opponent is not an obligation written in the judo rules. It happens between
friends and he's not my friend," L'Esprit du Judo quoted El Shehaby as saying.
"I have no problem with Jewish people or any other religion or different
beliefs. But for personal reasons, you can't ask me to shake the hand of anyone
from this State, especially in front of the whole world," he said. After Sasson
had defeated El Shehaby on Friday and the pair retook their places in front of
the referee, the Egyptian backed away when Sasson bowed and approached him to
shake hands. When called back by the referee to bow, El Shehaby gave a quick nod
before walking off amid loud boos from the crowd . El Shehaby, 32, had been
reportedly pressured by fans on social media not to show up for the match with
his Israeli opponent because it would shame Islam. Shortly after the bout's
conclusion Friday, el-Shehaby announced his retirement from competition.
According to The Jerusalem Post's sister publication Maariv, el-Shehaby was
known in Egypt as the most fervently anti-Israel sportsmen competing at the 2016
Olympic games. Some commentators in Egypt have even suggested that el-Shehaby
had lost on purpose to the Israeli as a silent protest against Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who forced him to compete in the games. Sasson
subsequently won the bronze medal Friday evening after defeating Alex Maxell
Garcia Mendoza of Cuba in the men's judo over-100 kilogram competition. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later congratulated Sasson Saturday on his Olympic
bronze medal win and responded to the controversy. Speaking in a joint interview
with Sasson on Channel 2, Netanyahu said that the incident showed that
"alongside the good relations that are developing with countries in the region,
there is still a long way to go in fighting the years of propaganda against us."
Netanyahu said that despite such instances, he would not give up and the "day
would come," when such displays of anti-Israel sentiment would be in the past.
The prime minister praised Sasson's behavior toward his Egyptian opponent. "He
succeeded, he extended his hand, that is the beautiful Israel."The win brought
the Israeli delegation a second medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Female Judoka
star Yarden Gerbi became the toast of Israel by claiming the country's first
Olympic medal in eight years when she took a bronze in the women's under-63kg
competition on Tuesday. *Allon Sinai contributed to this article.
Imam killed execution-style walking from Queens mosque
New York Post/By Kenneth Garger, Kathianne Boniello, Megan McGibney, Georgett
Roberts and Stephanie Pagones August 13, 2016
http://nypost.com/2016/08/13/2-wounded-in-queens-shooting/
A imam and a friend were gunned down execution-style in broad daylight Saturday
afternoon as they walked home from prayers at a Queens mosque. The imam,
identified as Maulama Akonjee, 55, and his friend, Thara Uddin, 64, both died at
Jamaica Hospital, police said. “There is nothing in the preliminary
investigation that would indicate that they were targeted because of their
faith,” NYPD Deputy Inspector Henry Sautner said. Nonetheless, police said they
are probing the double killing as a possible hate crime. The men never saw their
solitary killer, who approached from behind and shot them on Liberty Street in
Ozone Park just before 2 p.m., police said. The shooter, a man in a dark-colored
polo shirt and shorts, was caught on video, police said. Witnesses saw a man
with a gun fleeing. Before the shooting, Akonjee and Uddin prayed at Al Furqan
Jame Masjid on 77th Street and Glenmore Avenue. The married imam hailed from
Bangladesh, and was beloved in the community. “He’s like the pope for this
neighborhood,” Johnny Patwary, 28, told The Post. Thara Uddin’s brother Mashuk
saw him before ambulances arrived. “His eyes were closed … his body is shaking.
I am very scared,” Mashuk Uddin said. But the younger Uddin didn’t know who
would want to hurt his brother. “I don’t even know, nobody knows what’s going
on,” he said, throwing up his hands. “This broke my heart. I miss my big
brother.”Uddin’s nephew, Rezwan Uddin, 27, stumbled across the bloody scene as
his uncle lay dying.
“I was going to work and saw my uncle on ground. His body was shaking, eyes
closed,” he said. “Why were two guys shot? There’s no reason.” One resident
heard two shots, then more. “First it was two, and then he goes, ‘Boom! Boom!
Boom!’ ” said the resident, who didn’t want to be named. He looked out to see a
man with a gun running down the street. It appeared the shooter picked his
targets, the resident said.“There was a carload of people across the street, and
a girl across the street, and he just targeted these two guys,” the resident
said. Donna Jag, 49, at first thought the shots were a car backfiring until she
left her house to find a huge crowd of distraught people on the street. “It was
chaos,” she said. “I was nervous. The neighborhood is quiet, but now, it’s kind
of scary, right at my doorstep in broad daylight.” People of different faiths
have long gotten along peacefully in the neighborhood, Jag said. “We have Hindus
and Muslims here, and we have no problems. This is really, really shocking,” she
said. Gathering near the crime scene, some neighborhood residents didn’t
hesitate to label the shooting a hate crime. Some blamed GOP presidential
nominee Donald Trump, who has been accused of stoking racism with his campaign.
“Donald Trump is responsible!” some in the crowd yelled. Others chanted, “We
want justice today, not tomorrow!” and“Hate crime!”Kobri Chowdhury, 40, the
leader of nearby Masjid al Amam, said the shooting is “just point blank [a] hate
crime, hating Muslims.”
The victim “looked Muslim in every aspect. They shot him because of his looks.
It could have been me,” Chowdhury said. “This is not something we as human
beings should tolerate.”Anowar Miah, 28, is a hotel supervisor who works nearby
and prays at the mosque.
“This is not how I want my community to be. This is not how I want my kids to
grow up,” he said, adding, “The guy didn’t get robbed. He had been targeted.”
Miah blamed the heated political rhetoric of this year’s presidential campaign,
for increased tensions against Muslims.
“It is an ongoing battle just because of what the politicians have to say about
Islam — ‘Islam is this, Islam is that.’”Millat Uddin, 60, attends Akonjee’s
mosque. “I’m really in shock. I really feel insecure. In broad daylight? For a
thing like this to happen? It has to stop,” he said. “The police should be at
the corners, near the mosque area immediately so that we could feel
secure.”Mushak Uddin, brother of the slain man, said he still has faith in his
adopted country. “I know this is a safe country, I still believe. I don’t want
to hurt anybody like that,” he said. When asked about the killer, he replied,
“What can I say? They don’t have a heart.”
US police search for suspect in
killing of imam
AgenciesSunday, 14 August 2016/Police in New York City are searching for the man
who fatally shot the leader of a mosque and a friend as they left afternoon
prayers, setting off fear and anguish among the community’s Bangladeshi Muslim
immigrants. Although police said no motive had been established for the killing
of Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and 64-year-old Thara Uddin Saturday afternoon near
the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque, community members worried the slayings could
be rooted in intolerance. “There’s nothing in the preliminary investigation to
indicate that they were targeted because of their faith,” said Deputy Inspector
Henry Sautner of the New York Police Department. The imam’s daughter, Naima
Akonjee, said her father - described by worshippers as a pious man who gave
compelling readings from the Quran - didn’t “have any problems with anyone.”
She said the imam and Uddin were close friends who always walked together to the
mosque from their homes on the same street. Police said the men were shot in the
head as they left the mosque in the Ozone Park section of Queens shortly before
2 p.m. They later were pronounced dead.
Sautner said that video surveillance showed they were approached from behind by
a man a man in a dark polo shirt and shorts who shot them and then fled south on
79th Street with the gun still in his hand. Police released a sketch early
Sunday of a dark-haired, bearded man wearing glasses. Police said witnesses
described the shooter as a man with a medium complexion. No arrests had been
made by early Sunday. Members of the Bangladeshi Muslim community served by the
mosque said they want the shootings to be treated as a hate crime. More than 100
people attended a rally Saturday night and chanted “We want justice!” The
Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group
known by the acronym CAIR, said Uddin was an associate of the imam. The group
held a news conference near the shooting scene, where Kobir Chowdhury, a leader
at another local mosque, said, “Read my lips: This is a hate crime” directed at
Islam. “We are peace-loving.”
“These were two very beloved people,” Afaf Nasher, executive director of the New
York chapter of CAIR, told Reuters. “These were community leaders.” “There is a
deep sense of mourning and an overwhelming cry for justice to be served,” Nasher
said. “There is a very loud cry, too, for the NYPD to investigate fully, with
the total amount of their resources, the incident that happened today.”“We are
calling for all people, of all faiths, to rally with compassion and with a sense
of vigilance so that justice can be served,” Nasher said.” “You can’t go up to a
person and shoot them in the head and not be motivated by hatred.”Video footage
posted on YouTube showed dozens of men gathered near the site of the shooting,
with one of them telling the crowd that it appeared to be a hate crime, even as
police said the motive was still unknown. Sarah Sayeed, a member of Mayor Bill
de Blasio’s staff who serves as a liaison to Muslim communities, attended the
rally. “I understand the fear because I feel it myself,” she said. “I understand
the anger. But it’s very important to mount a thorough investigation.” Letitia
James, who as the city’s public advocate serves as a watchdog over city
agencies, said in a statement, “This violence is as alarming as it is
senseless.” She urged the police department to “vigorously” investigate the
slayings. Members of the community had felt animosity lately, with people
cursing while passing the mosque, said worshipper Shahin Chowdhury. He said he
had advised people to be careful walking around, especially when in traditional
clothing. He called the imam a “wonderful person” with a voice that made his
Koran readings especially compelling. Worshipper Millat Uddin said Akonjee had
led the mosque for about two years and was a very pious man. “The community’s
heart is totally broken,” said Uddin, who is not related to Thara Uddin. “It’s a
great misery. It’s a great loss to the community and it’s a great loss to the
society.”Naima Akonjee, 28, one of the imam’s seven children, said she rushed to
her parents’ home after the shooting. She said her father was a caring man who
would call her just to check up on whether she had eaten properly. Neighbors
also described Uddin as a pious and thoughtful man who prayed five times a day
and went to the mosque. While at home, they said he would water his garden and
one next door. “A very honest, wise man ... (And) a very helpful guy,” said
neighbor Mohammed Uddin, who is not a relation of Thara Uddin’s.With AP and
Reuters)
Canada's Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Stéphane Dion concerned by heightened tensions between Russia and
Ukraine
August 13, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the
following statement:
“I am concerned by the heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and by
the actions and rhetoric that are contributing to these tensions. We have seen
no evidence to support recent Russian accusations. At this critical time, Canada
urges all sides to intensify their diplomatic efforts and make every effort to
avoid provocations.
“Canada continues to condemn Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and
territorial integrity, and we are resolute in our position that we do not
recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea. We also underscore, as have our
partners and allies, the need for full implementation of the Minsk agreements,
in order to end the violence and bring about a peaceful and durable solution in
eastern Ukraine.”
Canada welcomes UN Security Council decision to strengthen UN Mission in South
Sudan
August 13, 2016 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the
following statement:
“Canada welcomes the United Nations Security Council decision to strengthen the
United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) and stands behind
any and all related efforts to implement an arms embargo in concert with the
international community. A strengthened UNMISS is key to the protection of
civilians and re-establishment of peace.
“Regional and international cooperation is imperative in maintaining a durable
peace, and Canada welcomes the coordinated response by the African Union and the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development to address the conflict in South
Sudan.
“Canada will continue to monitor developments closely, particularly the human
rights situation, and will be engaging with partners to determine how to
continue to best support the peace process.”
Contacts
Youths in Ardabil condemn 1988
massacre of political prisoners in Iran
Saturday, 13 August 2016 /NCRI - A group of youths from Ardabil, north-west
Iran, have issued a statement in remembrance of the 30,000 political prisoners
who lost their lives in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran. The
victims of the 1988 massacre were mainly affiliated to the main Iranian
opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).
In a statement this week, the group of youths from Ardabil said: “In the name of
God and in the name of the martyrs of the 1988 massacre
We mark the anniversary of the bloody massacre, ordered by [Khomeini] and
carried out by the officials of the mullahs' regime who are currently in power,
in which 30,000 of our loved ones were executed. These days we witness how the
[former] heir of Khomeini, [Hossein Ali] Montazeri called these massacres a
crimes against humanity. His remarks have been captured on audio tape, and yet
we see that with each passing day and hour the children of this imprisoned
nation are being hanged and executed. We also witness that the regime is
engulfed in domestic and foreign crises in the wake of its [nuclear agreement].
These inhumane actions of Iran's regime are a great test for the international
community which ought to react properly to the brutality of this regime. We the
freedom-loving youths of Ardabil demand the prosecution of the perpetrators of
this massacre in international courts. We will neither forget, nor forgive such
crimes.
Long live freedom.
Peace be upon the martyrs of freedom.
Down with the principle of Velayat-e Faqih (clerical rule).”
Background
In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime summarily and extra-judicially
executed 30,000 political prisoners held in jails across Iran. This massacre was
carried out on the basis of a fatwa by Khomeini. The Iranian regime has never
acknowledged these executions or provided any information as to how many
prisoners were killed. In the summer of 1988, the mullahs’ regime massacred some
30,000 political prisoners in Iran. A shocking audio recording was published
this week for the first time of Khomeini’s former heir-apparent, Hossein-Ali
Montazeri, acknowledging the brutal nationwide massacre in Iran in 1988 of
activists of the PMOI (MEK).
South Sudan fighting sparks
fears of return to civil war
Reuters, JubaSunday, 14 August 2016/Fighting flared in South Sudan late on
Saturday southwest of the capital between forces loyal to the president and
those backing the opposition, after clashes last month raised fears of a slide
back into civil war. Steven Lodu Onseimo, the information minister for Yei
region where Saturday's clashes took place, told Reuters two civilians and a
soldier were killed but said the area was calm on Sunday. Witnesses had reported
heavy gunfire around Yei, which lies on a road linking the capital Juba with
neighbouring Uganda. The government and opposition each blamed the other side.
Following the fighting in July, the UN Security Council authorized the
deployment of a 4,000-strong protection force to support the existing
12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission. “Our forces have managed to close Juba-Yei
road. Our forces destroyed the government’s convoy that attacked our forces in
the area,” opposition spokesman James Gatdet said by telephone. The Yei
information minister described it as an “ambush” of a government convoy by the
opposition. Political differences between President Salva Kiir and his former
deputy Riek Machar first erupted into conflict in late 2013. They signed a peace
deal in August 2015, but sporadic fighting has continued. Machar had recently
returned to Juba to take up his position as deputy again when the July clashes
flared. Machar then withdrew with his forces from the capital.
Extra UN troops
Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said after Friday's vote for extra UN troops
that the government would not accept the new force, describing it as a UN bid to
take over South Sudan. The United Nations had threatened an arms embargo if the
government did not cooperate. Regional states have backed sending extra troops
to South Sudan in a bid to quell the conflict and prevent any further spillover.
More than two million South Sudanese have been displaced by more than two years
of conflict, and many have fled to nearby states. Kiir's cabinet is expected to
meet on Sunday.
Thai police say wave of
attacks connected, one arrested
Reuters and WAM, Bangkok Sunday, 14 August 2016/A series of bombing and arson
attacks in southern Thailand that killed four people and wounded dozens was
orchestrated by a single person, Thai police said on Sunday, while a man has
been arrested in relation to one of the attacks.
Blasts on Thursday and Friday targeted some of Thailand’s best-known tourist
resorts, just days after Thais voted to accept a military-backed constitution
that paves the way for an election at the end of 2017. “These acts were
undertaken by a group in many areas simultaneously, following orders from one
individual,” Pongsapat Pongcharoen, a deputy national police chief, told
reporters. He gave no further details on who police believe was responsible for
the attacks and no group has claimed them. Analysts say suspicion would
inevitably on fall on enemies of the ruling junta aggrieved by the referendum
results, or insurgents from Muslim-majority provinces in the south of the mostly
Buddhist country. Bombs went off on Thursday and Friday in the upscale resort of
Hua Hin and beach destinations in the south including Phuket, Phang Nga and
Surat Thani, a city that is the gateway to popular islands in the Gulf of
Thailand. Stay indoors, Emiratis advised Meanwhile, the UAE Embassy in Bangkok
on Friday had urged all the UAE citizens currently in Hua Hin district, Bangkok,
to stay at their residences following two blasts in the district. The UAE
Ambassador to Thailand, Saif Abdullah Mohammed Al Shamsi said that the UAE
Embassy in Bangkok is closely following the situation in coordination with the
Thai authorities.The wave of attacks came as tourists flocked to the beaches at
the start of a public holiday. Several attacks used incendiary devices that hit
shops and markets in southern Thai provinces. A man has been arrested and was
being questioned in connection to an arson attack on a supermarket in the
southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pongsapat said. Police believe more
than one individual was involved in that attack, he said. The movements of other
suspects were being monitored, he added. In Phang Nga, two devices that
authorities believe failed to go off were found on Saturday near a market that
was torched in an attack early on Friday. “One worked and the other two didn’t,”
Phakaphong Tavipatana, the governor of Phang Nga, told Reuters, adding that
police hoped to find fingerprints on the defused devices.
No scapegoats
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has instructed the police to be thorough and
cautious in their investigation, said Pongsapat, adding that police were “not
catching scapegoats.”Thai police have come under fire in the past over
investigations into high profile cases, including the brutal murders of two
British backpackers on a tourist island in 2014. Fears that followers of former
prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra could be
blamed prompted a senior figure in their Puea Thai Party to issue a sharp denial
on Saturday. The anti-government United Front For Democracy Against Dictatorship
(UDD), known as the “red shirt” group and sympathetic to the Shinawatras,
condemned the attacks in a statement on Sunday. The group also criticised the
government and political parties over suggestions that the attacks were
undertaken by people who rejected the constitution in the referendum. The UDD
said the junta may use the attacks as justification to stay in power longer.
Thailand has been divided for more than a decade between populist political
forces led by Thaksin, who was toppled in a 2006 coup, and the royalist and
military establishment, which accuses him of corruption. His sister Yingluck
swept to power in an election in 2011, before being ousted in another coup led
by Prayuth in 2014. At last Sunday’s referendum voters in Thaksin’s northeast
stronghold voted to reject the constitution, which opponents of the junta said
would entrench the military’s power and deepen divisions.
Voters in three mostly Muslim southern provinces, where separatists have been
fighting with the military for than a decade, also voted against the new
constitution. No evidence has been found yet to connect southern insurgents to
the attacks, Pongsapat said, but DNA samples collected at the blast sites were
being compared with databases in the southern Muslim provinces.
Fidel Castro thanks Cuba, criticizes
Obama, on 90th birthday
The Associated PressSunday, 14 August 2016/Fidel Castro thanked Cubans for their
well-wishes on his 90th birthday and criticized President Barack Obama in a
lengthy letter published in state media. He appeared but did not speak at a gala
in his honor broadcast on state television Saturday evening.“I want to express
my deepest gratitude for the shows of respect, greetings and praise that I’ve
received in recent days, which give me strength to reciprocate with ideas that I
will send to party militants and relevant organizations,” he wrote. “Modern
medical techniques have allowed me to scrutinize the universe,” wrote Castro,
who stepped down as Cuba’s president 10 years ago after suffering a severe
gastrointestinal illness. On Aug. 13, 2016, Fidel Castro will turn 90. A
controversial and divisive world figure, Castro has received several
international awards and is recognized as a champion of socialism,
anti-imperialism, and humanitarianism. Let’s take a look at the life of Castro,
the revolutionary who ruled Cuba for almost five decades. Just after 6 p.m., he
could be seen in footage on state television slowly approaching his seat at
Havana’s Karl Marx theater, clad in a white Puma tracksuit top and green shirt.
He sat in what appeared to be a specially equipped wheelchair and watched a
musical tribute by a children’s theater company, accompanied by footage of
highlights from his decades in power. He sat alongside his younger brother,
President Raul Castro, and President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, along with
Cuba’s highest-ranking military and civilian officials. In his letter, Castro
accompanied his thanks with reminiscences about his childhood and youth in
eastern Cuba, describing the geology and plant life of the region where he grew
up. He touched on his father’s death shortly before his own victory in
overthrowing US-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Castro returns at
the end to criticize Obama, who appeared to anger the revolutionary leader with
a March trip to Cuba in which he called for Cubans to look toward the future. A
week after the trip, Castro wrote a sternly worded letter admonishing Obama to
read up on Cuban history, and declaring that “we don’t need the empire to give
us anything.”In Saturday’s letter, he criticizes Obama for not apologizing to
the Japanese people during a May trip to Hiroshima, describing Obama’s speech
there as “lacking stature.”
The Cuban government has taken a relatively low-key approach to Castro’s
birthday, in comparison with the large-scale gatherings that had been planned
for his 80th. Along with the Saturday evening gala, government ministries have
held small musical performances and photo exhibitions that pay tribute to the
former head of state. Castro last appeared in public in April, closing the
twice-a-decade congress of the Cuban Communist Party with a call for Cuba to
stick to its socialist ideals amid ongoing normalization with the US. The need
for closer economic ties with the US. has grown more urgent as Venezuela,
Castro’s greatest ally, tumbles into economic free-fall, cutting the flow of
subsidized oil that Cuba has depended on the South American country for more
than a decade. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Cubans are migrating to the
United States, hollowing out the ranks of highly educated professionals. The
brightest spot in Cuba’s flagging economy has been a post-detente surge in
tourism that is expected to boom when commercial flights to and from the United
States, Cuba’s former longtime enemy, resume on Aug. 31.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on on August 14-15/16
Iran:
Sunni execution proves human rights sanctions are necessary
By Shahriar Kia/The Hill/August 14/16
At a time when one would think Iran after the nuclear agreement with the
international community would begin to wind down its human rights violations,
especially the use of executions, recent reports indicate 33 individuals were
sent to the gallows on Tuesday, Aug. 2. Congress should dismiss any call for
appeasement vis-à-vis Iran and continue pursuing and holding firm its sanctions
against the mullahs’, especially those punishing Tehran’s atrocious human rights
violations.
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi condemned Tehran’s mass execution of
Sunni prisoners as “an appalling crime against humanity."
“The mullahs’ anti-human regime carried out the mass execution of our Sunni
brothers on the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners
in Iran. They are trying in vain to contain the volatile social atmosphere and
popular protests by terrorizing the public,” she said.
This is while the Iranian Diaspora communities across the globe are marking the
28th anniversary of the extensive 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political
prisoners in Iran in the course of a few months, pledging to have their voices
heard and raise awareness on Iran’s horrendous human rights record.
This marks one of Iran’s most atrocious mass executions in recent times. Iranian
judiciary officials claim 20 of these individuals were Sunni Kurds, executed in
Gohardasht (Rajaie Shahr) Prison in Karaj, west of the capital, Tehran. These
individuals had denied all charges raised against them, and in video clips and
text posted on the Internet revealed they had spent time in “solitary
confinement” and placed “under torture.”
Iran is known for its skyrocketing number of executions and practice of
obtaining coerced confessions through torture and other banned methods. The
mullahs have also proved their “sickening enthusiasm” of sending juveniles to
the gallows, all in violation of international laws and respecting no bounds in
this regard, said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa
Program Director of Amnesty International. International law, including the
Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Iran is a state party, absolutely
prohibits the use of death penalty for crimes committed when the defendant was
below 18 years of age. Yet apparently this is a pretext Iran refuses to respect.
Shahram Ahmadi, amongst those recently executed, had spent 33 months in solitary
confinement and sentenced to death after a “five-minute” trial. He never enjoyed
access to a lawyer. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad
al-Hussein issued a statement condemning this mass execution of Sunni Kurds in
Iran as a “grave injustice.” The High Commissioner expressed his doubts over the
fact that these individuals ever received a fair trial. Al-Hussein also referred
to Ahmadi’s case, adding he was forced under pressure to sign an interrogation
paper including false allegations raised against him.
This horrific act of carnage by Iran has sparked a series of global
condemnations from a large number of international organizations, accusing the
regime in Tehran of launching these executions with sectarian objectives, and
demanding a halt to human rights violations. The International Federation of
Human Rights Societies and Center of Human Rights Advocate also issued separate
statements condemning the execution of Sunni prisoners in Iran.
Iran was one of the world’s top executioners in 2015 after putting 977 people to
death, according to Amnesty International. Iran hanged 44 convicted drug
traffickers in the span of just two days in 2009. This spelled one of the
country's biggest mass executions to that. While international law absolutely
limits the application of the death penalty to the “most serious crimes”, which
refers to intentional killing, the mullahs’ so-called laws and constitution
criminalize various measures and sentence people to death under such terms, not
seen anywhere else. Even human rights advocates, including the highly praised
Narges Mohammadi, are thrown behind bars for publicly advocating anti-death
penalty campaigns. This mother of twins has been deprived by Iranian officials
and authorities of seeing her own children, and only permitted one phone call in
over a year.
The recent execution of nearly three dozen Sunni Kurds in one day adds to Iran’s
already dismal human rights history, especially in the past three years after
the “moderate” Hassan Rouhani came to power. In his statement to the UN Human
Rights Council - Session 31- on March 14, 2016, the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in Iran, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, said: “At least 966
persons — the highest rate in over two decades — were executed in 2015. At least
73 juvenile offenders were reportedly executed between 2005 and 2015. In the
past two years alone, 16 juvenile offenders were executed.”In their practice of
executing juveniles the mullahs have illustrated yet again their callous
disregard for human rights. 160 individuals remain in torment on death row in
prisons spanning across Iran for crimes allegedly committed during their
juvenile years.
The shocking stroke of irony in the recent executions lies in the fact that this
incident comes as the European Union is reportedly suggesting to launch human
rights negotiations with Iran. Any reasonable party figures Iran would at least
consider halting executions prior to such talks. However, this proves once again
that Iran takes serious only a brazen and decisive language. This should also
serve as a lesson on how Iran disregards and in fact abuses any interceding
measures and has refused to budge on any of its old tactics after the much
boasted “historic” nuclear agreement.
Kia is a press spokesman for residents of Camp Liberty, Iraq, and members of the
People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran opposition group (PMOI, also known as
MEK). He graduated from North Texas University.
War of attrition: The Syrian
rebellion grinds on into its 6th year, with no end in sight
Jonathan Spyer/Jerusalem Post/August 14/16
http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/WAR-OF-ATTRITION-463726
It is now five years since the outbreak of the Syrian armed rebellion against
the regime of Bashar Assad, and up to 400,000 people have been killed in the
civil war that has ravaged and destroyed the country. In addition, 13.5 million
people have lost their homes and of those, around 6.6 million have left the
country. Yet an end to the war seems nowhere near, as a half-decade on, the
revolt finds itself at an impasse. Any hopes for a democratic transformation of
the country are long gone. Today, the rebellion is dominated by Sunni Islamist
groups of various hues, supported by a variety of regional players. Salafi
Islamist groups are the strongest among the armed groups, with Ahrar al-Sham
(Free Men of the Levant) perhaps the single strongest group. Jabhat al-Nusra
(Support Front) – until recently the official franchise of the Al-Qaeda network
in Syria – and Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) from the Damascus area are also
leading players. Many analysts throughout the war had assumed that the sheer
weight of numbers must eventually, inevitably, lead to a rebel victory.
Throughout the fight, the Assad regime has been plagued by a shortage of
manpower.
The regime has a narrow core base of support. The Alawis, the sect from which
the Assads emerged, constituted only about 12 percent of the population of Syria
at the outbreak of the war. The rebels, meanwhile, came from Syria’s 60 percent
Sunni Arab majority. Hence on the basis of sheer attrition, their eventual
victory seemed likely.
In 2015, this moment appeared close. But Russian and Iranian mobilization and
assistance prevented its realization. The current situation now stands as
follows: Russian air power and Iranian proxy manpower have kept the regime in
existence, and are now pushing the rebels back. Rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo
is surrounded. The fronts in the south remain more static, but the initiative in
the war has now passed back to the regime. In the south, too, local
‘de-escalation’ agreements effectively constitute rebel surrenders. In late
2016, I traveled to the border area between Turkey and Syria in order to
interview rebel fighters and leaders. I was among the first foreign journalists
to meet the rebels and visit their first areas of control, all the way back in
February 2012. I wanted to see what had changed and what remained the same. And,
in so doing, perhaps also to get a sense of the current balance of power in the
Middle East, as seen through the lens of its most bloody and intractable war.
The towns of Gaziantep and Kilis, where I visited, have become centers of the
Syrian refugee population. The various rebel groups have hunkered down here,
setting up their offices in the echoing apartment blocks of the poorer parts of
these cities. There they spend their days waiting, with much time on their
hands. The most immediately obvious change is in the border itself. In the first
couple of years of the war, the Syrian-Turkish border was basically open, except
for in the areas facing Syria’s Kurdish population. Turkey was a strong
supporter of the rebellion. Its imminent victory was expected. Ankara in essence
turned the border over to the rebels against Assad in the first years.
In those days, the rebels and the many journalists who wanted to write about
them crossed over more or less freely.The border fence was an old and flimsy
affair. There were many obliging smugglers’ rings willing to trace a path
through the minefields for a fee. The Turkish army itself was cheerfully
amenable to bribery. All that is over now. The journalists for the most part no
longer come. In the course of 2013, the Salafi jihadis entered the picture,
bringing with them their hatred of the kuffar, the infidel. The kidnappings of
journalists soon followed.
Moreover, since the emergence of the Islamic State in Syria, interest in the
destruction of the Assad regime has waned in the West. The rebellion itself is
dominated by Sunni Islamists. Any notion of it representing the doorway to some
better or more representative future for the region has long since departed.
Furthermore, ISIS and its activities have forced the Turks to recalibrate their
position.
From Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s point of view, ISIS wasn’t
necessarily a bad thing. The jihadis were keen to challenge the Kurdish
nationalists of the PKK and its Syrian franchise. These were the forces that
Ankara was really worried about. But with the commencement of ISIS’s war against
the West, a policy of benign indifference toward the jihadis was no longer
possible. Turkey began to act against the ISIS presence in the country, and ISIS
hit back – both by shelling the town of Kilis, and by activating its cells
within Turkey itself, carrying out the bombing at Ataturk airport in Istanbul on
June 28. As a consequence, the border fence has been revamped, and replaced with
a wall along some sections of the frontier. The army no longer take bribes; and
anyone seeking to make a run to or from Syria now faces a good chance of being
shot dead (back in 2012, the soldiers used to just fire in the air).
But the nature of the conflict itself has also changed. There was a moment, in
the early days of the rebellion, when it genuinely looked like a popular
uprising. This was always perhaps misleading. Today it seems very distant. There
is no longer a single war taking place in Syria. Rather, the country has
fragmented into a variety of interlocking ‘projects’ and conflicts. AS BASAM
Haji Mustafa of the Islamist Nour al-Din al-Zenki group put it to me, “There are
four projects in Syria today: The Assad regime and its allies; the [Kurdish-
led, US-supported] Syrian Democratic Forces; the Islamic State; and the
rebellion.”
We were speaking to Haji Mustafa via Skype, from Gaziantep into besieged Aleppo.
It was just a few days before the regime closed the final exit from the eastern
part of the city, the Castello Road. Yet the Zenki commander remained withering
in his contempt for the dictator’s forces. “The regime is no longer an organized
force,” he said. “It is a mixture of many components – Iranians, Lebanese,
Iraqis.”
This is a fair appraisal. As of today, the regime-controlled southern and
western Syria, the rebel-controlled northwest, the Kurdish-controlled northeast,
and Islamic State-controlled east all seem fairly secure. Perhaps only the
latter will yet fall, because of Western determination that the Islamic State be
destroyed.
But the rebels too, even in their own Sunni Arab enclave, are badly divided.
Northwest Syria today constitutes the last area firmly in the rebellion’s hands.
But the area is sub-divided into three separate areas of operation: the south
Aleppo countryside and Idleb Province, the area of eastern Aleppo city, and the
small Azaz-Marea pocket, in which the rebels are sandwiched between an Islamic
State area and the Kurdish Afrin enclave. The South Aleppo and Idleb area is by
far the largest. Islamic State is not in this area, and the war is fought
between the regime and the rebels only. In this area, the Jaish al-Fatah (Army
of Conquest) rebel coalition is dominant. This coalition is dominated by two
Salafi jihadi groups, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, and one Muslim
Brotherhood- inspired militia, Faylaq al-Sham (Legion of the Levant).
In Aleppo city, the jihadi groups organized in Jaish al-Fatah are dominant, but
a number of smaller militias also play an important role.
The Aleppo city front is separated from the Syrian-Turkish border by a narrow
strip of regime-controlled territory. North of this line of regime-controlled
territory, in the small Azaz-Marea enclave, the rebels are engaged in fighting
ISIS. So far, they have enjoyed only limited success. The rebels in this area
again include representatives of the larger Islamist forces further south. But
non-Islamist forces are more strongly represented here. The small Mutassim
Brigade, a non-Islamist group, has emerged as the favored partner of the US. So
the rebellion in Syria today consists of three interlocking frontlines in which
organizations ranging from al-Qaeda’s (now departed) local franchise to
US-supported militias are cooperating. But while a myriad of organizations
exists, it is clear that Sunni political Islam of one kind or another is the
dominant force.This should surprise no one. The armed rebellion emerged from
conservative, Sunni, rural, pious northwest Syria. That it should take on this
hue is entirely natural, and predictable. I asked every rebel leader and
representative I spoke to if they could conceive of some role for Bashar Assad
in a transitory phase that would lead to a new Syria. The reaction was unanimous
and predictable: Assad had to go, as soon as possible. Yet as Ahmed al-Imam, a
military commander of the 1st Regiment from Aleppo city told me, “We have no
clear strategic plan. The regime is supported by powerful countries, and the
allies of the free army are weak.”
The gap between the aspirations of the rebels and their abilities to achieve
them are huge, and growing.
Yet at the same time, they do not appear close to defeat. The Müşterek Operasyon
Merkezi (Military Operations Center) is continuing to operate, supplying US
weapons to certain vetted and selected rebel groups. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
Qatar, meanwhile, maintain their own direct lines of support to Islamist groups
not supported by the MOM. So weaponry is not about to run out. The loss of
eastern Aleppo in its entirety would represent a disaster for the rebels. But
even then, should Assad seek to retake the entirety of Aleppo and Idleb
provinces, he would be faced with the same dilemma which forced him to abandon
them in mid- 2012 – namely, the absence of sufficient manpower with which to
effectively police and hold these areas. These provinces are still inhabited by
a Sunni Arab population, which completely rejects the dictator. Also, as al-Imam
pointed out, the rebels have no way back. “To be or not to be,” he said. “We
have no choice but to continue.”
On a moral or ethical level, there is nothing particular to celebrate regarding
the Syrian rebels, or their opponents. A horrifying video uploaded to the
Internet on July 19 showed rebel fighters of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki movement
decapitating a young child of Palestinian-Syrian origin. The fighters in the
video claim that the child was a ‘spy’ and a member of a pro-government militia.
THE LEADERSHIP of Zenki later condemned this act and referred to it as an
“error.”
But it seems to reflect a context of wider and extensive human rights violations
by rebel groups in northwest Syria. An Amnesty International report issued in
May sets out details of this, including allegations of kidnapping and torture by
a number of groups. Of course, such actions notwithstanding, the Assad regime’s
attempts to portray itself as an anti-terrorist force remain ludicrous. As the
conflict has progressed, the dictator has become increasingly reliant on
Iran-linked militia forces to plug the gaps in manpower. The Assad regime has,
throughout its history, made energetic use of terrorist clients of Sunni,
Shi’ite and other loyalties. What is happening in Syria today with regard to the
regime and the rebellion is that two rival forces of sectarian gunmen are
clashing. Yet the Assad regime has been responsible for the vast majority of
civilian deaths in Syria over the last five years.
So is the Syrian rebellion doomed? The answer is – probably not. For all its
fragmented nature, it retains lines of support from powerful countries. There is
the ‘MOM’ of course, in Turkey, and its equivalent in Jordan. But there are also
the separate channels of support from Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the
powerful jihadi and Islamist militias in the north. It is also notable that
large numbers of Sunni Arab Syrians appear to remain willing to volunteer in its
ranks and risk their lives in its cause. This mass of active support has been
the rebels’ main advantage throughout the war. It derives from their hailing
from Syria’s single largest community. It does not appear to have yet been
exhausted.
So the rebels can neither win their war, nor can they be completely defeated.
What might this mean for Syria? With Aleppo surrounded, the rebels may lose
their main symbolic territorial asset in the months ahead. The rebellion’s entry
into Aleppo in the summer of 2012 represents its single greatest achievement.
But even if it is lost, the rebels will still hold a large swath of territory in
Aleppo, Idleb, Latakia and northern Hama provinces, where they are still scoring
tactical victories against the regime.
Jabhat al-Nusra’s decision in late July to part from the core al-Qaeda network
was almost certainly tactical in nature, rather than representing some profound
shift in the outlook of this group. But Nusra has been characterized by a
tactical flexibility (in stark contrast to the rival jihadis of Islamic State)
since its outset. The move may well be sufficient to prevent a joint Russian and
American counter- terror campaign against the group, which had seemed like an
emerging possibility. What this means is that five years on, the conflict in
Syria appears nowhere close to conclusion. The rebellion – now an entirely Sunni
Islamist affair – appears to be set to continue the fight even in the absence of
any strategy or even any serious hope of eventual victory. As Ahmed al-Imam of
the 1st Regiment put it to me, “The Free Army is surrounded by three enemies
[the regime, ISIS and the Kurds], and we are exhausted. They have all the
energy, we have nothing.”But al-Imam expressed this gloomy prospect before
inviting me to join his fighters for a reporting trip into northern Syria (I
declined). The rebellion still holds ground and appears in no immediate prospect
of eclipse.
What might be learned regarding the region from this situation? Firstly, that in
the Sunni-Shia proxy war currently under way, no side has a clear and obvious
advantage. Rather in Syria, as in Yemen and Iraq, the proxies of the Saudis and
other Sunni powers and those of the Iranians appear capable of surviving each
other’s assaults, but not of achieving comprehensive victory. Secondly, that
this, combined with the fragmented ethnic and sectarian nature of the countries
in question, means that ongoing war of attrition and ongoing division across a
large, ruined swath of the Middle East looks set to remain.
Reducing ISIS terrorist
attacks in Europe: Is it possible, and if so, at what cost?
Liram Koblentz-Stenzler/Jerusalem Post/August 14/16
The wave of terrorist attacks in Western Europe (Germany and France) this July
have raised and intensified what is known as “the democratic dilemma.” This
series of attacks concluded with the Rouen attack, in which two men who had
sworn allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS) killed a priest after holding him
hostage along with several nuns. This attack can be described as an
“escalation,” as it targeted not only Western-democratic values in general, but
Christianity in particular.
Earlier this month in Nice, more than 80 people were killed and over 100 wounded
when they were run over by a man who had sworn allegiance to ISIS amid Bastille
Day celebrations. Germany has also suffered from attacks in its territory, two
of which were definitely undertaken by Muslim extremists: a stabbing on a train
in the city of Würzburg by a man shouting “Allahu akbar!” in which five were
wounded, followed a week later by a suicide bomber swearing allegiance to ISIS
attacking outside the Ansbach Open music festival, wounding more than a dozen.
The “democratic dilemma” entails an essential problem which democratic regimes
are faced with: the need to balance the state’s preeminent interest – protecting
the security of the state and its citizens – against the commitment to maintain
democratic principles in a system of law, most prominently human dignity and
civil rights. Democratic societies value both security and liberty, but
extremist terrorist groups, such as ISIS, have no qualms about using any means
to accomplish their goals. The state must address the following question: should
civil rights be sacrificed to fight terrorism more effectively, or must a
democratic society make its peace with a certain level of terrorism in order to
protect the civil liberties which it prizes so highly?
In the State of Israel, which continually deals with the threat of terrorism,
citizens have internalized that, no matter how much it displeases human-rights
organizations, some civil rights must be sacrificed in the execution of
defensive and offensive operations designed to reduce the quantity of terrorist
attacks and violent incidents. Thus, for example, in the name of deterrence,
security guards are stationed to inspect the bags of those entering public
spaces such as malls, universities, train stations, etc. These security guards
deter potential terrorists, though this is accomplished at the expense of
individual liberty. Similarly, Ben Gurion Airport is considered one of the most
secure airports in the world, due to the use of multiple security rings and a
reliance on the human factor, not merely the technological, to detect suspicious
activity. In offensive operations, Israel demolishes the homes of terrorists’
families, carries out targeted killings and engages in other aggressive tactics.
Western European countries are known for their dedicated protection of civil
rights, and this dilemma presents a significant challenge for them.
Nevertheless, there seems to have been a gradual realization of the true nature
of their predicament.
For example, Winfried Bausback, Bavaria’s justice minster, posted the following:
“Our democratic and free society of laws must strengthen the security
apparatus.” Additionally, a French survey carried out by the Institut français
d’opinion publique (IFOP) one day after the Nice attack (before the events in
Rouen) indicated that the citizens themselves recognize the seriousness of the
situation: 81 percent agreed to impose limitations on the traditional French
liberal-democratic way of life. In fact, one of the steps now under
consideration in France is halting foreign funding of bodies which impinge on
national security.
Another finding of this survey, which should concern the French government and
other Western governments struggling with terror, is that 56% of the French do
not believe that President François Hollande and his government have the
capacity to properly deal with terrorist threats. We may infer that as terrorist
attacks increase, the legitimacy of the government will further deteriorate,
possibly leading to its collapse.
After the Rouen attack, Hollande stated that it was a declaration of war by ISIS
against France.
The question is what France and other countries facing terrorist attacks on
their homelands will do in order to protect the security of their citizens. To
what extent will they agree to impinge on the liberal- democratic lifestyle to
which they have become accustomed? To what extent will they consent to
sacrificing some of their civil rights? Just as Israelis have recognized the
threats against their country, Europeans must do the same: grasping the
seriousness of the situation and the fact that they are in a defensive war
against extremist terrorist organizations, and then taking harsh steps which may
somewhat erode the foundations of democracy.
These measures include extended and closer surveillance of suspicious persons
seeking asylum, the arrest of family members of suspected terrorists before
operations can be carried out, strict security in public areas, and the
demolition of the homes of terrorists’ families. Steps such as these and others
will make it clear to terrorist organizations and potential lone-wolf attackers
that Europe is no longer an arena conducive to terrorist attacks.
This will allow Europeans to succeed in reducing the terrorist threat in their
homelands.
**The author is a PhD candidate in military ethics and terrorism at Tel Aviv
University.
Calling on America’s
Republicans
Trisha de Borchgrave/Al Arabiya/August 14/16
It’s turning out to be a peculiar August for the Western world in which a
much-needed break is proving elusive as school nights close in on post-Brexit
uncertainties and continuing terrorist tensions.
A paralysis of disbelief at America’s presidential predicament is keeping
alternative summer reading at its most peripheral. Historical subjects translate
into analogies for today’s events and sting rather than soothe with their
foresight, like a wasp nest under the deck chair. Holiday destinations feel more
like a return to The Grand Budapest Hotel with nationalism on the rise across
Europe and authoritarian clouds now hanging darkly over America’s standing in
the world.
Many of us are done with reading about Donald Trump. It is more than evident who
and what he is: a fruitcake narcissist who hates, lies, cheats, fails, insults,
knows nothing, and offers zero detail on his inhumane solutions to a nation’s
unease and frustrations. His foreign policy, based on “lots of people are
saying,” would jeopardize worldwide economic and environmental stability, and
his “trigger” finger could plunge the planet into the abyss when his doctrine on
nuclear weapons is, “If we have them, why can’t we use them?” Everything that
can be said about him has been said. He has been medically diagnosed to the
point of being certifiable. Jimmy Fallon should play him in a movie.
Trump used the Republican primaries to lock hearts with the under-educated
American white male, belittled by stagnating wages and struggling with a
multicultural and more gender-equal society
But Germany’s history of accumulated defeats in the early 20th century shows
that humiliation is a dangerous sentiment, especially Trump’s thin-skinned
variety which has intensified since his public dressing down by President Obama
at last year’s White House Correspondents dinner. Trump used the Republican
primaries to lock hearts with the under-educated American white male, belittled
by stagnating wages and struggling with a multicultural and more gender-equal
society.
Haunting parallels
The parallels with 1938 are haunting. Virginia Cowles, an American correspondent
at the time, described British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s inability to
understand the popularity of a “curious, rather unbalanced sort of creature”
who, it was thought, could be managed by “clever handling” amid public opinion
that was “manufactured and fashioned overnight to suit the purpose of the
moment.”
Cowles was just one of many exasperated journalists who wrote then about the
maniacal delusions of power that threatened Germany’s constitution while the
public “drifted back to normalcy.” Today’s opinion columns and editorials groan
under the weight of their warnings about Trump as a sociopath, a despot, a draft
dodger, a racist, and a Republican stooge gone awry. Slate.com has published 173
reasons why Trump is unfit to be president. Yet what is as consistent as Trump’s
jaw-dropping inconsistencies is the real possibility that he will be elected.
The problem is that those Op-Eds are echoing the kindred spirits of their
readership. Trump’s disenfranchised supporters are not seeing the flashing red
light. Hillary Clinton’s “stronger together” message to counteract Trump
divisiveness recalls David Cameron’s “better together” slogan in the EU
Referendum that proved to be the last thing Brexit voters cared about. Neither
will Trump’s general despicableness win her the election, including his latest
insensitivity towards the parents of an American Muslim’s fallen soldier which
appear to have dented his post-convention ratings.
Republican billionaire donors might be desisting from Trump campaign
contributions, but it is the core of his voting public, and its fulsome flow of
real money in online donations between $10 and $50, amounting to $82 million in
July, that could still help vote him in.
Seeking unity
Republican representatives seeking reelection to Congress should practice real
party unity and abandon Trump now, rather than jumping like fleas off the dead
back of his campaign if he loses, or risking the consequences of his victory in
order to secure one deciding conservative supreme court judge. In the words of
the Illinois Representative, Republican Adam Kinzinger, who is voting for
Hillary Clinton, “I don’t think I can get there anymore … I’m an American before
I’m a Republican.”
Alienating Trump voters and possibly losing control of Congress would be a huge
setback for a fractured Republican Party, but preferable to those broken shards
of political dysfunction landing on everyone else. The time has come for his
party to publicly dump Trump and uphold all that good stuff America professes to
have—a conscience, a sense of public duty, and a respect for life, liberty, and
each individual’s inalienable right to pursue a better future.
Should we be suspicious of Washington’s Mideast policies?
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/August 14/16
Last week, I wrote about the “circumstantial evidence” the United States hid in
a 28 page confidential document because it allegedly insults Saudi Arabia.
However, the US, its political leaders and its media outlets carried on in the
same vein, plunging Riyadh and its role in the war against terrorism into a sea
of suspicion. There is a reason behind this American stance, however, I cannot
disclose it as it cannot be verified.
I called for a change of position in the game of suspicion versus intention and
proposed that as Saudis, Arabs and Muslims, we should bring to light the
supposedly circumstantial evidence upon which our suspicions of the American and
Western world’s role in the crafting of international terrorism are based.
You might think that I sound like Donald Trump, the US presidential candidate
who accused US President Barack Obama and his own competitor Hillary Clinton of
creating ISIS. However, what I’m saying resembles in so many ways the absurd
decade-long accusation against Saudi Arabia and what is allegedly hidden in the
aforementioned papers.
Turning a blind eye?
During my work as a field journalist in the 1990s, I stumbled upon
“circumstantial evidence” which indicated to me that some parties in the US and
the West have encouraged the rise of extremist movements or turned a blind eye
toward them. This hypothesis can be justified by many reasons: serving Israel’s
interest by spreading chaos across the region and ruining the resistance’s
image, maintaining the deleterious situation in the Arab world by intimidating
its communities and convincing them that if certain pro-West regimes were to
fall, they would be replaced by worse regimes allied with enemies. Each of these
statements can either be proven or rejected.
Global politics are cold and terrible and many countries have malevolent
political agendas
In a similar situation, President Bashar al-Assad has allegedly been encouraged
to militarize the revolution or even ask for al-Qaeda’s help. In one of my
February 2012 articles, I predicted al-Qaeda’s rise in Syria and noted that to
achieve this goal the regime had allegedly been releasing important figures
affiliated to al-Qaeda. Indeed, it seems to me that Assad’s efforts came to
fruition and enabled him to use indiscriminate violence against his own people
in a supposed bid to counter terrorism and combat armed guerilla groups, not
peaceful movements advocating democracy. Now, even the free democratic countries
are hesitating to help the Syrian people because it seems they are unable to
draw a clear line between terrorist groups and moderate ones. It has become
clear that both Washington and London have prioritized the war on ISIS over
toppling the Syrian regime. Moreover, their troops (most recently, British
troops) are more focused on the war against ISIS rather than on protecting
civilians who are subject to bombings and killings by the regime and its allies,
even when these attacks are using prohibited toxic gases and when the West
should be engaged in war to protect the victims.
There is evidence that the rise of terrorism benefits malicious agendas. Global
politics are cold and terrible and many countries have malevolent political
agendas. Therefore, it seems to be a certainty that in the pre-September 11
period such malevolent agendas were prepared in Washington and London.
A particular case
Among what I see as “circumstantial pieces of evidence,” I remember the case of
Sheikh al-Darir Omar Abd el-Rahman, currently imprisoned in the US and suspected
of inciting violence. He was arrested after the first attempt to blow up the
World Trade Center in 1993. Two years before, he obtained a tourist visa for the
US even though he was on a watch list. More absurd is the fact that he got his
visa from Khartoum at a time when Egyptian-Sudanese relations were at a low, in
addition to his being a wanted man. Any intern or low-ranking employee at the
Embassy in Khartoum should have been aware of all this. But he received a visa,
arrived in New Jersey and settled there. However, one element of the American
apparatus did not want him there. Consequently, this independent element ordered
the cancellation of his visa. He submitted a Green Card application and got it
within a few weeks, which rarely happens! Then, he left the US and returned at a
later date. The administration tried to prevent him from coming back but he was
able to enter the country and attain political refugee status. This is a very
strange chain of events because this man was neither a rich businessman nor a
renowned political activist. Neither was he a highly respected religious figure
because everyone knew he was a member of the extremist Islamic school of thought
involved in the violence ravaging Egypt. He had also been imprisoned for his
involvement in the Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat’s assassination. Back then,
Washington wasn’t an ally of the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and
public opinion didn’t care for this man. Which brings us to this question: Was
there any element in the American administration which wanted Omar Abd el-Rahman
to stay in the US?
I saw Omar Abd el-Rahman more than a few times in New Jersey and I am still
intrigued by the circumstances of our last meeting, held in Los Angeles, which
led to a lengthy piece published in al-Hayat newspaper. This last meeting
resembled in so many ways the famous Egyptian comedian Adel Imam’s movies on
terrorism - men wearing short thobes and women wearing the niqab with children
in their arms. Everyone’s answers to my questions were very short, except for
the Omar Abd el-Rahman’s. I am still surprised with his answer to my last
question: “How did you allow the organization to target a soldier protecting a
bank in Asyout? He’s just an employee obeying his employer.” He replied that
this soldier was supporting a takfirist government and therefore he deserved the
same punishment it was receiving. This interview was conducted before the rise
of ISIS and al-Qaeda and was published in al-Hayat two decades ago.
There is much more to say about all of this in the light of the encounters I
have had with Sayed Nser, Abu Musab, Abu Qatada etc. You can Google these people
because I can’t talk about them now. Indeed, I have met them all and I have many
confusing details about their lives that either push us to go easy on them or
adopt tough positions. I have collected messages and videos of “Al Ansar” used
for fatwas and distributed to believers after Friday prayers in a mosque in
London. I still have some of these. If you read them, you will find the source
of ISIS’ ideology: violence, killings and discrimination. In Acton, in the
suburbs of London, Abu Qatada is reported to have shared his teachings with
civilians, pushing them to join the rising extremist movement in Europe. They
were more like workshops on takfirism and violence. Abu Musab took me and a
colleague - also a renowned writer on political Islam, Camil Tawil - to court.
He won the case against us because we allegedly revealed his real name in a
report published in al-Hayat newspaper, putting his life at risk. He issued
fatwas about killing the wives and children of the Algerian army officers then
he was able to go from London to Madrid without any constraints while importing
the products of Khan al-Khalili for trade purposes. This was all happening at a
time when extremist violence was on the rise in Egypt, Algeria and Libya and
while the Bosnian war was raging on (leading to recruitment and incitation,
despite the delicate circumstances). All these people were free and on the move,
why?
As mentioned, I have only suspicions, no evidence. However, I suspect that
someone saw some benefit to spreading chaos. Has this stopped? The French
Newspaper Le Monde said a resounding “NO” in an article published last month.
This report was a dangerous undertaking in investigative journalism and includes
an interview with a Syrian Intelligence officer who revealed disturbing details
about the alleged collaboration between many Syrian forces opposed to the regime
and US intelligence before and during the rise of ISIS. These forces have
submitted many detailed plans to stop its spread. But each and every time, the
US backed off. For this reason, the famous French journalist Benjamin Barthe
entitled one of his articles: “Why aren’t the Americans doing anything?”
I may be wrong, but considering all of the circumstantial evidence, including
the history of the hidden 28 page document, details about Abd el-Rahman, Abu
Qatada, Abu Musab and “Londonistan” and if we connect the dots among al-Qaeda in
Iran, the prisoners freed in Iraq, the fall of Mosul, American assistance to the
revolutionaries representing most Syrians and alleged American support to a
small Kurdish group accused of terrorism, we might suspect an American
conspiracy. Or, we could also conclude that American political knowledge of the
Middle East goes no further than that of the writer of the “Tyrant” TV series.
**This article was first published in Al-Hayat on Aug. 13, 2016.
On
astonishment and the importance of questions
Turki Aldakhil/Al Arabiya/August 14/16
From childhood to adulthood, there is always something or other that astonishes
us. These moments of astonishment are how we break the monotony, learn new
things and gain knowledge and experience. A child is distinguished by his or her
innocence, children are constantly astonished as they discover and try new
things. Children are inquisitive and spontaneously and frankly inquire about
everything around them. Those who continue to ask questions even after their
childhood years are firmly on the path toward becoming geniuses. Albert Einstein
used to say he no different from other people, except that he continued to ask
the questions he asked during his childhood.
Questions do not frighten us, they educate and inform our faith and increase it.
They allow us to gain more knowledge and make us stronger. Knowledge cannot be
found if questions are not asked and creativity will not flourish in an
atmosphere that curbs the asking of questions
Any notion or idea which cannot stand up to questioning is weak and simply
afraid that its flaws will be exposed. Philosopher Martin Heidegger said
philosophy's task is to ask questions, not yield answers, because questions
trigger activity and transformation. Questions can be likened to an ever-raging
fire - if the fire were to dim, it would flame up again. Answers are blind while
questions can see. If we want to raise a new generation that is innocent,
willing and that has the energy to search and create, we must stop dampening the
urge to ask questions, particularly the frank and eloquent questions asked by
children. Knowledge cannot be found if questions are not asked and creativity
will not flourish in an atmosphere that curbs the asking of questions –
something that is vital in the education process. Amid the rise of technology
and the spread of phrases and expressions which do not trigger thought, the
sense of wonder and astonishment about beauty, nature and knowledge is about to
become extinct. The best way to rediscover and revive astonishment is to
encourage the asking of questions and to respect and value contemplation,
knowledge and thought.
*This article was first published in Okaz on Aug. 14, 2016.
Islamic Islamophobia: When Muslims Are Not Muslim Enough, What Does It Promise
for the Rest of Us?
Douglas Murray/Gatestone Institute/August 14/16
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8679/islamic-islamophobia
Mr Shah's murderer was a Sunni Muslim, Tanveer Ahmed, who had travelled to
Glasgow to kill Mr Shah because he believed Mr Shah had "disrespected the
Prophet Mohammed." At this point the comfortable narratives of modern Britain
began to fray.
If Mr Shah's murderer had been a non-Muslim, there would be a concerted effort
by the entirety of the media and political class to find out what inspirations
and associations the murderer had. Specifically, they would want to know if
there was anybody -- especially any figure of authority -- who had ever called
for the murder of Muslim shopkeepers. Yet when a British Muslim kills another
British Muslim for alleged "apostasy" and local religious authorities are found
to have praised or mourned the killers of people accused of "apostasy," the same
people cannot bother to stir themselves.
Earlier this year there was a murder that shocked Britain. Just before Easter, a
40-year old shopkeeper in Glasgow, Asad Shah, was repeatedly stabbed in his
shop; he died in the road outside. The news immediately went out that this was a
religiously-motivated attack. But the type of religiously motivated attack it
was came as a surprise to most of Britain.
There is so much attention paid to the idea of "Islamophobia" in the country
that many people -- including some Muslim groups -- immediately assumed that the
killing of Asad Shah was an "Islamophobic" murder. It turned out, however, that
the man who had been detained by police -- and this week sentenced to a minimum
of 27 years in prison for the murder -- was also a Muslim.
Mr Shah was an Ahmadiyya Muslim -- that is, a member of the peaceable Islamic
sect which is dismissed as "heretical" by many Muslims. Mr Shah's murderer, on
the other hand, was a Sunni Muslim, Tanveer Ahmed, who had travelled up from
Bradford to kill Mr Shah because he believed Mr Shah had "disrespected the
Prophet Mohammed." At this point the comfortable narratives of modern Britain
began to fray.
Asad Shah was murdered in Glasgow, Scotland by Tanveer Ahmed, a fellow Muslim
who claimed Shah had "disrespected the Prophet Mohammed" by wishing Christians a
Happy Easter.
While everyone would have known what to do, what to say and where to start
hunting for connections if such an atrocity had been committed by a non-Muslim
against a Muslim, politicians and others were uncertain what to do when it
turned out to be a Muslim-on-Muslim crime. If, for instance, the crime, had been
committed by a non-Muslim against a Muslim, political leaders such as Scotland's
First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, would have immediately sought to trace links to
anyone who had called for, or approved of, any such act. But beneath this murder
lay a whole iceberg that Sturgeon and others have still shown no interest in
investigating.
Usually after terrorist attacks, it is traditional for Sturgeon and other
Scottish politicians to traipse off to the local mosque, to say that of course
the attack has nothing to do with Islam, and otherwise to reassure the Scottish
Muslim community. Yet the mosque most often frequented for this trip -- and the
largest mosque in Scotland -- is the Glasgow Central Mosque. Sturgeon has met
its leaders many times, including after the Paris attacks last November. Those
leaders include Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman. Just a month before the killing of
Mr Shah in Glasgow, this Glasgow Imam gave his response to the hanging in
Pakistan of Mumtaz Qadri -- the man who murdered Salman Taseer, the governor of
Pakistan's Punjab province, for his opposition to blasphemy laws.
Reacting to the hanging of Salman Taseer's assassin, Imam Rehman said, among
other things, "I cannot hide my pain today. A true Muslim was punished for doing
which [sic] the collective will of the nation failed to carry out." The
statement is a pretty clear justification of the actions of Taseer's assassin,
and as close as you can get to advocating others carry out similar actions
against people deemed to be outside a particular interpretation of Islam.
Of course, if Mr Shah's murderer had been a non-Muslim, there would be a
concerted effort by the entirety of the media and political class to find out
what inspirations and associations the murderer had. Specifically, they would
want to know if there was anybody -- especially any figure of authority -- who
had ever, for instance, called for the murder of Muslim shopkeepers. Yet when a
British Muslim kills another British Muslim for alleged "apostasy," and local
religious authorities are found to have praised or mourned the killers of people
accused of "apostasy," the same people cannot bother to stir themselves. There
is talk of being "taken out of context" or there are warnings not to
"generalise" or be "Islamophobic" or any number of other fatuous get-out
clauses.
What happened this week in court when Tanveer Ahmed was found guilty and
sentenced for the murder of Asad Shah was even more revealing. After the judge
read out the sentence, Tanveer Ahmed raised his fist and started shouting in
Arabic "There is only one prophet." Supporters, who made up around half the
people in the public gallery, joined in with his cries. All of which made it
understandable that the family of Mr Shah had been too terrified to turn up in
court during the trial of their relative's murderer, and are apparently planning
to leave Scotland.
Then, outside the court, a news reporter from LBC Radio confronted some of the
murderer's family members. The video is worth watching. "Did Asad Shah deserve
to die?" he asks the killer's family as they head to their car. They refuse to
comment.
When another supporter is asked whether he thinks it was "respectful" for the
killer to do the chanting he did in the dock, he becomes threatening and says,
"Yeah, he's respecting his prophet. He's saying 'I love my prophet'. What's
wrong with that?" Asked if he thinks the sentence was fair, the man replies
"No." Asked in what way, he replies, "No comment."
It is, of course, a good thing that the criminal justice system has done its job
and done it swiftly. Asad Shah's murderer has been brought to justice and been
given a suitably long sentence. But this case should have provided a learning
moment for politicians, the media and wider society to finally understand the
full threat to our society that this type of fanaticism poses, as well as a
realistic awareness of how widespread that fanaticism actually is. Instead, on
glimpsing for a moment how deeply this problem goes, it seems that the UK has
decided once again to turn away and avert its gaze, for fear of what it might
otherwise find out.
**Douglas Murray, a British author, news analyst and commentator, is based in
London, England.
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