VOCR-SPIII Gazette 072413

              Wednesday July 24th 2013

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Armed men kill nine police in north Iraq

Militants attacked a police station in north Iraq with mortar rounds and automatic weapons, killing nine police, an officer and a doctor said.The attack, which ocurred about 7:30 am (0430 GMT), wounded another two police. A roadside bomb exploded as emergency personnel travelled to the scene, wounding two more people.

Al-Qaeda claims Abu Ghraib and Taji mass jailbreaks

Al-Qaeda has said it carried out two mass jailbreaks in Iraq, which freed hundreds of prisoners including senior leaders of the Islamist militant group.

In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates.
At least 20 security guards died when gunmen stormed the Abu Ghraib and Taji jails near Baghdad.
Abu Ghraib gained global notoriety in 2004 when images were released showing US guards abusing Iraqi detainees.
Iraqi officials had previously tortured regime opponents in Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.
On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it carried out the attacks on the prisons.
The group, which was formed of al-Qaeda groups in Iraq and Syria, said it had spent "months planning" the attacks on Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital and Taji to the north.
The group also claimed some 500 militants were among the hundreds of prisoners who had escaped.


Egypt's Army Chief Seeks Mandate To Fight Violence

CAIRO — Egypt's military chief on Wednesday called on his countrymen to hold mass demonstrations to voice their support for the army and police to deal with potential "violence and terrorism," a move that signals a stepped up campaign against supporters of the ousted Islamist president.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, addressing a graduation ceremony for a class of military cadets, urged Egyptians to take to the streets Friday, saying a massive turnout would give him a "mandate" and an "order" to do what is "necessary" to stop bloodshed.
Since the military removed Mohammed Morsi three weeks ago, the ousted president's Islamist supporters have taken to the streets vowing to continue protests until he is restored. Clashes have erupted multiple times between the Islamists and Morsi opponents or security forces.
Each side accuses the other of starting the violence. Dozens have been killed, mostly from the pro-Morsi side, including more than 50 who were killed by troops during clashes at their Cairo sit-in.

UN chemical arms investigator arrives in Syria to seek access

DAMASCUS - The head of a UN chemical weapons investigation team arrived in Syria on Wednesday to discuss his inquiry into allegations that chemical arms have been used in Syria's civil war.
Ake Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria due to diplomatic wrangling over access. His mission this week aims to reach an agreement for it to start work in Syria.
Sellstrom, a Swede, is accompanied by the head of the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, who said on her arrival in Damascus that their mission was to prepare the ground for an investigation into chemical weapons use.
The team's visit is taking place at the invitation of the Syrian government and its members will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem as well as technical experts.
Damascus has so far refused to let UN investigators go anywhere except Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, where Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and its Russian ally say rebels used chemical weapons in March.

Middle East ‘Cold War’ pits Sunnis against Shiites

No Iraqi would have missed the historical allusion in al-Qaeda’s triumphant announcement on Tuesday.
When the movement’s leaders claimed credit for two audacious prison breaks outside Baghdad, they declared that ‘‘months of preparation and planning’’ had culminated in these blows against a ‘‘Safavid government’’.

In this overarching struggle, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the key antagonists. 

The Safavids have not been in government for a while – almost 300 years, in fact.  They formed a Persian dynasty that dominated Iran and its empire, including a big slice of present-day Iraq, from the 16th to 18th centuries. Under their founder, Shah Ismail I, the Safavids made Shiite Islam the state religion in Iran, while imposing their faith on peoples living between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Iraqis will grasp the analogy: al-Qaeda’s Sunni zealots believe that the Shiite politicians who dominate Baghdad today are heirs to foreign invaders. Once, the violence in Iraq was directed towards the Anglo-American occupiers. Today, the killing has become a struggle between a Shiite majority that holds  power and a beleaguered Sunni minority.

Bulgarian MPs trapped inside parliament by protesters

Riot police free more than 100 MPs and ministers blockaded for more than eight hours as anti-government protests grow

Police in Bulgaria have broken up a blockade of parliament by anti-government protesters to escort out more than 100 MPs and ministers who had been trapped inside the building for more than eight hours.
Police in riot gear pushed away the protesters early on Wednesday and formed a corridor to allow those trapped out of the building.
Protests in Bulgaria's capital, which have been continuing for 40 days, escalated on Tuesday evening when several hundred demonstrators trapped the officials inside parliament in a bid to oust the left-leaning government.
Police had tried to escort the officials out by a bus on Tuesday, but protesters blocked the vehicle and hurled stones. Seven protesters and two police officers were treated in hospital for head wounds.
The Socialist-backed government took office after early elections in May, following the resignation of the previous cabinet amid anti-austerity protests. The government commands only 120 seats in the 240-seat Parliament and has to rely on the support from a nationalist party.
The appointment of media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of the national security agency sparked the most recent wave of protests. The appointment was immediately revoked but demonstrators insist the government is corrupt and must resign.
Recent public-opinion polls show the protests are supported by about two-thirds of Bulgaria's 7.3m people, who have the lowest incomes in the European Union.
The Bulgarian president, Rosen Plevneliev, issued a statement calling on the protesters to keep the demonstrations "peaceful and civilised."

95 killed in Guinea clashes, govt says

CONAKRY (Guinea): A government spokesman says recent clashes in Guinea's southeast forest region killed 95 and injured hundreds, a significant increase over numbers provided last week.

Albert Camara told Associated Press on Wednesday that the violence was partly due to the large flow of arms in the region, and he raised the possibility that former rebels from Liberia as well as fighters trained under a former Guinean junta leader were involved.

Witnesses said the violence began July 15 in a village outside N'Zerekore when members of the Guerze ethnic group beat a young Konianke man to death after accusing him of stealing from a gas station. Officials previously put the death toll at 54. Residents began burying the dead in common graves shortly after the violence stopped, fueling rumors of higher fatalities.

Drug cartels attack Mexican police, leaving 22 dead

Clashes across the violence-plagued Mexican state of Michoacan killed at least 20 gunmen and two federal police officers Tuesday, the government said.

Gunmen blocked roads throughout Michoacan and ambushed police patrols in at least six different spots throughout the day, the Interior Department said in a statement.

The department said federal agents repelled the attacks, killing 20 and wounding an unknown number of assailants. Two police officers died in the shootouts and 15 were wounded, it said.

Fighting between the Knights Templar drug cartel and federal police has been intensifying over the past week in western Mexico. At least four police officers have been killed in shootouts with gunmen in Michoacan since Thursday.

On Monday, five people were killed when gunmen opened fire on a group of community self-defense members gathered on a plaza in the Michoacan town of Los Reyes.

About 300 masked community vigilantes wearing similar T-shirts arrived at city hall in the town of Los Reyes and announced they would take over policing the town. Minutes later three assailants opened fired on the crowd, killing three members of the self-defense group, a police officer and a passer-by, prosecutors said.

China factory activity at 11-month low

China's manufacturing activity fell to an 11-month low in July, hurt by a decline in new orders, according to a preliminary survey by HSBC.

The bank's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 47.7 from 48.2 in June.
The PMI is a key indicator of activity in the sector and a reading below 50 shows contraction. This is the third month in a row that the HSBC reading has been below that level.
The data comes amid fears of a slowdown in China's overall economy.
Data released earlier this month showed that China's economic growth slowed in the April to June period, the second straight quarter of weaker expansion.
The world's second biggest economy grew by 7.5% compared to the previous year, down from 7.7% in the January to March period.

Some 400 migrants storm Spanish border fence with Morocco

Spain’s Interior Ministry says some 400 sub-Saharan migrants tried to scale a barbed-wire border fence to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco, with some 100 making it across.
Melilla ministry spokeswoman Irene Flores said Tuesday the majority of those who managed to cross the fence had been intercepted and would be placed in a temporary accommodation centre while authorities try to repatriate them.
Spanish National Television images showed dozens of the migrants dashing through the streets of Melilla while being pursued by police.
Melilla is one of two Spanish enclaves on the northwestern African coast that are surrounded by Morocco on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other.
Migrants seeking access to Europe camp around Melilla hoping for a chance to cross the fence.
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 Jay Carney to Joe Scarborough: IRS, Benghazi, NSA scandals 'phony' (Video)

Obama economy speech to urge 'refocus'

President Barack Obama is set to give what is billed as a major speech on the economy, setting the stage for an autumn budget battle with Congress.

He was expected to tout recent economic progress at Knox College, Illinois, without offering new policy proposals.
On Monday, the president said he hoped to ensure Washington "refocuses" on the most important issues for Americans.
Ahead of the president's remarks, opposition Republicans argued the country needed action, not speeches.
In Monday remarks at a political fundraiser, Mr Obama, a Democrat, said Wednesday's speech would be "thematic", but added "concrete" proposals would follow.
"There's no more important question for this country than how do we create an economy in which everybody who works hard feels like they can get ahead and feel some measure of security," Mr Obama told supporters at the Washington DC fundraiser.
"The key is to try to make sure that this town refocuses on the issues that matter most to people day to day."

Congress Disapproval Rating Hits All-Time High In NBC/WSJ Poll, Obama Approval Drops

A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday finds that Americans' disapproval of Congress has reached unprecedented levels, while approval of President Barack Obama has dropped significantly.
According to the survey, 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing in Washington, an all-time high in the poll. Just 12 percent approve of Congress' job, while 57 percent they would replace every member of Congress if they could.
NBC/WSJ also finds that the president's approval rating has dropped to 45 percent, down from 48 percent last month. Obama's new approval rating is the lowest in the poll since August 2011, when the president was entangled in a standoff over the debt ceiling with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other congressional Republicans.
"There is a palpable unhappiness with Washington," says pollster Peter D. Hart said of the results.
Other recent polls have found similar trends. A Gallup report released Monday found that Obama averaged a 47.9 percent approval rating over the last three months, marking a drop for the president. Meanwhile, a McClatchy-Marist survey found Obama's overall approval at 41 percent, while 33 percent of voters approved of congressional Democrats and 22 percent approved of congressional Republicans.
The NBC/WSJ poll, which surveyed 1,000 adults, was conducted July 17-21 and has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

Mother and 12-year-old daughter dead in double homicide, second youth killed in Flint this week

FLINT, MI – A violent week that started with a triple homicide that claimed the life of a 9-year-old boy was capped Saturday with the discovery of a Flint woman and her 12-year-old daughter found slain in a home on the city's south side.

Hillary Clinton is too old to be president

Can baby boomers beat the clock and claim the presidency for their generation one last time? If history is any guide, probably not. Generational headwinds will soon face any boomer candidate in his — or, ahem, her — quest for the Oval Office.
I’m talking, of course, about Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and presumed 2016 presidential favorite. She hasn’t declared her candidacy – yet. But here’s why Hillary might want think long and hard before jumping in.

Let me first be transparent here: I’m a Republican, and I’d like nothing more than to see Clinton go down in flames. And, as a recent front-page story in the New York Times noted, many in my party are already seeking to label the former first lady a “has-been” by virtue of her decades on the political stage.

Their case is as follows: Clinton has been in the spotlight in one form or another since the late 1970s when her husband Bill first became attorney general in their home state of Arkansas at the age of 30. Ironically, as Times reporter Jonathan Martin pointed out, it was Bill’s youthfulness that propelled him to the Arkansas governorship and later the presidency. Now, it could be the inverse that puts the brakes on the Hillary freight train.
There is undoubtedly a lot of spin in this new anti-Clinton narrative. But there are indeed signs that the baby boomers are going to have a tough time winning another presidential race.

House may vote today to limit massive NSA surveillance program

WASHINGTON — A senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence urged fellow legislators Tuesday to rein in sweeping data collection programs before they become an irreversible part of American society.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., made the plea in a speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, as senior intelligence community officials visited Congress to lobby against a proposal that could be voted on as soon as Wednesday that would cut funding for the National Security Agency’s collection of cellphone records and would place limits on the amount of data the NSA could collect.
Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA’s director, met with several members of the House of Representatives, and he and NSA Deputy Director John Inglis were later seen going in to a closed-door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Although bipartisan support makes the passage of the limitations possible in the House, the chances of their making it through the Senate are slim. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and ranking committee member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., defended the surveillance program and encouraged legislators to continue its funding.
“The (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) business records program has contributed to disrupting numerous terrorist attacks against our nation,” they said in a statement. “It has been reviewed and authorized by all three branches of government and is subject to strict controls.”
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