SPIII -Gazette 071213

Friday July 12th 2013

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Key Syria rebel 'killed by rival group'

A senior rebel commander in Syria is reported to have been killed by rebels from a rival group linked to al-Qaeda.

Kamal Hamami, of the Free Syrian Army's (FSA) Supreme Military Council, was meeting members of the rival group "to discuss battle plans".
An FSA spokesman said he was told by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that they had killed Mr Hamami.
The killing is part of an escalating struggle within the armed uprising between moderates and Islamists.
The BBC's Paul Wood says a civil war within a civil war is building within the opposition as the two sides engage in a battle that is partly over the spoils and partly ideological.
Checkpoint battle Kamal Hamami, also known as Abu Basir al-Ladkani, worked in a butcher's shop before the conflict began, but went on to form one of the FSA's key brigades in his native port city of Latakia.

Thousands Of Morsi Supporters Take To The Streets

CAIRO -- Thousands of supporters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are demonstrating in a Cairo square, waving pictures of ousted president Mohammed Morsi.
They're chanting anti-military slogans, calling the army chief a traitor. He led the military's removal of Morsi from office last week.
The unseating of Morsi followed demonstrations by millions of Egyptians against his rule. It was a bitter blow to the Brotherhood, which won a string of ballots, including Morsi's election as president.
One speaker at the Friday demonstration pledged to stay on the streets until Morsi is reinstated.
"We are ready to stay for a month, two months, a year or even two years," ultraconservative Islamist Salafi cleric Safwat Hegazi told protesters.
This week more than 50 pro-Morsi protesters were killed in a clash with the military.

Death toll from wave of Iraq violence rises to 51

 The toll from a wave of attacks in Iraq mainly targeting security forces and Shiites rose on Friday to 51 killed, 26 of them police and soldiers, security officials and doctors said.

Thursday's attacks came amid a surge in violence that has killed more than 2,500 people already this year, including upwards of 250 so far this month.
Analysts point to widespread discontent among Iraq's minority Sunni community, and the Shiite authorities' failure to address their grievances, as the main factors driving the increase in violence.
In Thursday's single deadliest incident, gunmen shot dead 11 police charged with protecting the country's vital oil infrastructure and three soldiers on the road between Haditha and Baiji, northwest of the Iraqi capital.
In another attack, a car bomb ripped through a funeral tent where family members of a Shiite man were receiving condolences in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, and a suicide bomber detonated explosives when emergency personnel arrived.
The blasts killed a total of 10 people and wounded 22.
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Iran denies dissidents' nuclear site allegation

DUBAI - Iran denied on Friday an exiled opposition group's allegation that the Islamic state was secretly building a new underground nuclear facility.
The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said on Thursday it had obtained "reliable" information about a tunnel complex under construction in a mountainous area near the town of Damavand, east of the capital Tehran.
"This news is in no way true and is denied," Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi as saying.
The Islamic Republic says its nuclear energy program is entirely peaceful and rejects US and Israeli accusations that it is seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons.
The Paris-based NCRI exposed Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a mixed track record and a political agenda.
Its new allegation drew a cautious international response on Thursday: the UN nuclear watchdog and France - one of six world powers trying to diplomatically resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran - merely said they would look into the matter.
The NCRI, which seeks an end to Islamist theocratic rule in Iran, is the political wing of the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
"These claims are a continuation of the story-telling of the bankrupt (PMOI) group," Araqchi said, adding the "terrorist" organization lacked credibility.
The NCRI did not specify what kind of atomic activity it believed would be carried out at the alleged new facility once complete.
Iran said in 2009 it planned to build 10 more uranium enrichment sites on top of its underground Natanz and Fordow plants, alarming the West as it could enable Tehran to faster produce material which can have both civilian and military uses.

Mubarak backers accused of sabotage

The streets seethe with protests and government ministers are on the run or in jail, but since the military ousted president Mohammed Mursi, life is better for many in Egypt: fuel lines have disappeared, power cuts have stopped and police have returned to the street.
The seemingly miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former dictator Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Dr Mursi.
As the interim government struggles to unite a divided nation, the Muslim Brotherhood and Dr Mursi's supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make his administration fail.
Not only did police officers disappear from the streets but the state agencies responsible for providing electricity and ensuring petrol supplies failed so fundamentally that petrol lines and rolling blackouts fed widespread anger and frustration.

''This was preparing for the coup,'' said Dr Mursi's spokesman for the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, Naser al-Farash. ''Different circles in the state, from the storage facilities to the cars that transport petrol products to the gas stations, all participated in creating the crisis.''
Those absent police have returned - just as the military has resumed its crackdown on supporters of the ousted president.
Members of the old establishment, some of them close to Mubarak and the top generals, helped finance, advise and organise those determined to topple the Islamist leadership, including billionaire businessman and an outspoken foe of the Brotherhood, Naguib Sawiris; former Supreme Constitutional Court judge Tahani al-Gebali, who is close to the ruling generals; and Shawki al-Sayed, a legal adviser to Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, who lost the presidential race to Dr Mursi.

Israeli military focuses on northern border

 An Israeli soldier collapses onto the floor of a house in Lebanon, shot by Hezbollah fighters. As his squad mates clear out the second floor, a medic rushes over, pulling on latex gloves and digging into his first aid kit. Gunfire echoes down the stairs as he starts to work on the wound.

The Israeli military experienced this kind of brutal house-to-house warfare during its inconclusive 2006 war with Hezbollah. As it trains in a mock village in its base in this northern Israeli town, it is recreating similar battle scenarios as it prepares for the next confrontation with the Lebanese militant group. Officials say such a conflict could erupt at any time.
While the world has focused its attention on the turmoil in Egypt following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, Israel is keeping a close eye on its northern flank, where officials say the Syrian civil war, and Hezbollah's increasing involvement there, have created a combustible mix that could draw in Israel with little notice.
"They are more and more deeply embedded in their infighting and we have to be prepared, we have to watch the border and have the forces that will enable us to respond quickly and decisively," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.
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Pentagon: Iran will soon have nuclear missiles capable of striking US

 WASHINGTON - A Pentagon report states that China, Iran and North Korea are aggressively developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the United States and proliferation among these nations of technology is rife, the British newspaper Daily Mail reported Friday.
The Department of Defense report, the findings of which were first published by the Washington Times, confirms the assessment of US intelligence agencies that Iran is set to test an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as 2015.

Thousands of workers on strike in Brazil 

 Tens of thousands of workers across Brazil have walked off their jobs in a nationwide strike demanding better working conditions and improved public services in Latin America's biggest nation.

Organized by Brazil's biggest trade union federations, strikers are partially or completely blocking 17 highways in seven states.
Some schools have closed and some hospitals are operating with skeleton crews. But subway, bus and train workers in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other state capitals did not join the strike and transportation services function normally.
The strike follows mass nationwide protests hit Brazil last month.
The strikers are demanding better public transit, health and education services, agricultural reform and a reduced work week.
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Indiana school district loses $300K because students refuse to buy first lady’s healthy meals

School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu changes brought on by First Lady Michelle Obama’s federal lunch regulations.
“I’ve had a lot of complaints, especially with the little guys,” Linda Wireman, a food service director for North White School Corp., told JCOnline. “They get a three-quarters cup of vegetables, but if it’s something they don’t like, it goes down the garbage disposal. So there are a lot of complaints they’re going home hungry.”

Amy Anderson, the food service director for the school district, said the rules made her feel less like an educator and more like a “food cop.” The changes have even made her consider retiring early.
Lori Shofroth, Tippecanoe School Corp.’s food service director, said many students are throwing food away, putting a dent in the district’s budget.
“They’re teaching our kids with this meal pattern that it’s OK to throw away,” she told JCOnline. “We did a waste study on three different schools, and there was a huge amount of waste. That was just with produce, fruit or vegetables or milk.”
Other students don’t eat the lunches at all, resulting in a $300,000 loss for the district.

TX Congressman Says Obama’s Under Investigation By House, Senate & FBI – Will Impeachment Follow? 

Congressman Kenny Marchant (R-TX), whose district includes several areas around Dallas and Ft. Worth and who is a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and its Subcommittee on Oversight, received a letter from a reader over at Obama Release Your Records, who goes by the name of “Dougster” venting his frustration and desire for articles of impeachment to be brought against Barack Hussein Obama. Marchant replied, stating that Obama is “under the most scrutiny” and being investigated by the House, the Senate and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Marchant indicated that as he views what is taking place with the investigations it is important for him to know the views and concerns of his constituents.
“I share your outrage over the multiple scandals involving the Internal Revenue Service, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and other agencies under this Administration,” he wrote. “Each is alarming and each warrants a high degree of scrutiny.”
He went on to elaborate that when articles of impeachment are introduced, the House Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction to consider theme and collect critical information. From there, they would decide whether to move forward with charges that amount to “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announces resignation

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will resign her post in September, The Daily Caller has learned.
In a statement released Friday, Napolitano expressed her gratitude to President Obama for her over four years in the post.
“For more than four years I have had the privilege of serving President Obama and his Administration as the Secretary of Homeland Security,” Napolitano said. “The opportunity to work with the dedicated men and women of the Department of Homeland Security, who serve on the frontlines of our nation’s efforts to protect our communities and families from harm, has been the highlight of my professional career.”

“We have worked together to minimize threats of all kinds to the American public. The Department has improved the safety of travelers; implemented smart steps that make our immigration system more fair and focused while deploying record resources to protect our nation’s borders; worked with states to build resiliency and make our nation’s emergency and disaster response capabilities more robust; and partnered with the private sector to improve our cybersecurity,” she continued.

Hillary Clinton 2008 Presidential Campaign Got Huge Boost From Shady Group 

Employees of a Washington, D.C.-based accounting firm that federal prosecutors called an “assembly line for illegal campaign contributions” donated more than $500,000 to federal candidates and committees over the past 10 years, including nearly $50,000 to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of records.
An employee and a consultant for the firm, formerly run by Jeffrey Thompson, pleaded guilty last month in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to making so-called straw donations to several federal and D.C. campaigns. The two men — Lee Calhoun and Stanley Straughter — made donations in their names and their family members’ names and were then reimbursed by Thompson or his firm, Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates.
The charges stem from a federal investigation of the 2010 campaign of Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray. At the center of the probe is Thompson, who has been implicated by prosecutors as the financier of an illegal, off-the-books $650,000 “shadow campaign” that federal prosecutors say helped get Gray elected.
An analysis of campaign finance records provided by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Thompson and other donors who listed the accounting firm as their employer have given at least $514,350 to federal candidates and political action committees since the 2002 campaign cycle, including $36,900 from Calhoun, the employee who pleaded guilty last month.
The biggest beneficiary of those funds was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose campaigns took in $50,400. Clinton’s presidential campaign committee received $40,300 from employees at Thompson’s firm in November 2007, when she attended an intimate fundraiser at the company’s headquarters in downtown D.C., according to three people who were at the event.

New evidence that IRS targeted progressive groups

The House Oversight committee’s top Democrat on Friday will release new evidence that the Internal Revenue Service targeted both progressive and conservative groups for extra scrutiny during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a draft letter to committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif) that congressional investigators have discovered training materials from an July 2010 “Screening Workshop” that prove IRS agents were told to be on the lookout for groups from both sides of the political spectrum.
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