Gazette 082813

Wednesday August 28th 2013

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BREAKING: Russia and China Walk Out of UN Security Council meeting on Syria – ITS ON!

BREAKING: #Russia and #China have reportedly withdrawn from the Security Council meeting.
Confirmed: #Russia and #China have officially withdrawn from security council meeting on #Syria
ITS ON
https://twitter.com/ana_cherine
Sky News Arabia: Russian and Chinese representatives withdraw from UN Security Council on Syrian crisis
https://twitter.com/NOW_eng
Interfax News Wire » Russia News
REPRESENTATIVES OF RUSSIA AND CHINA LEAVE UN SECURITY COUNCIL SESSION ON SYRIA – TV
http://www.interfax.co.uk/russia-news/representatives-of-russia-and-china-leave-un-security-council-session-on-syria-tv/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
NOW: #China and #Russia representatives just walked out of #UNSC meeting on #Syria at @UN.

Key Concerns About The Syria War Plan Remain Unanswered

The war plan for American allied strikes against Syria seems to be in its final stages, and much of the reporting has focused on what will happen and when. Using naval vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean, the U.S. and its allies say they will launch cruise missiles at around 50 military targets over 48 hours, with the intention of diminishing the Syrian government's capacity to launch future chemical weapons strikes, and "teach President Bashar al-Assad … a lesson on the risks of defying the West."
But while the decisions seem to be firmly made in Washington and London, a great deal still remains unexplained about the mission, its end goals, and even the chemical weapons attack that precipitated it.
Here are three crucial outstanding questions that deserve answers before any military operation in Syria, which could as easily make things worse as it might bring relief to the conflict of two and a half years.

UK drafts Syria UN resolution

The UK is to put a resolution to the UN Security Council "authorising all necessary measures to protect civilians" in Syria.

Britain's National Security Council had "unanimously" backed action against Syria over its "unacceptable" chemical weapons use, PM David Cameron said.
The resolution is being put forward at a meeting of the Security Council's five permanent members on Wednesday.
Syria has accused the West of "inventing" excuses to launch a strike.
"Western countries, starting with the United States, are inventing fake scenarios and fictitious alibis to intervene militarily in Syria," Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said on Syrian state television.

US and UK under pressure to delay military intervention in Syria

UN secretary general says more time should be allowed for inspectors to investigate chemical weapons attack

Britain and the US are under pressure to delay military intervention in Syria after Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said more time should be allowed for inspections in Damascus.
Ban said the inspectors, who are investigating the chemical weapons attack last week, would need a total of four days to carry out their site visits and then further time to analyse their findings.
He spoke as a 90-minute meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), devoted to discussing the options for targeted attacks against Syria, broke up in London before a debate and vote in the House of Commons on Thursday on government plans to respond with force to Syria's use of chemical weapons.
Sources in London and Washington have been suggesting that a limited attack could take place before the end of the week, but Cameron's desire to show that he is not ignoring the UN could put that timetable in jeopardy.
The Labour party said it would only support the government if the matter went to the UN security council and if the evidence from the weapons inspectors was considered.
At a news conference in The Hague, Ban said the inspectors needed four days to complete their work in Damascus. They are now on their second day.
"They are working very hard, under very, very dangerous circumstances," he said. "Let them conclude their work for four days, and then we will have to analyse scientifically with experts and then I think we will have to report to the security council for any actions."

Taliban launches failed attack against NATO base in Afghanistan, officials say

Taliban fighters launched a failed attack against a base in Afghanistan that hosts troops from America and Poland, Afghan and Polish officials say, but managed to wound seven soldiers and at least five civilians.
Maj. Marek Pietrzak, a Polish military spokesman, said Wednesday a group of insurgents tried to storm the base in eastern Ghazni city but were repelled. He added that seven Polish soldiers were wounded and hospitalized in the attack but their lives are not in danger.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack
Deputy Ghazni governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi says the assault began with a truck bomb that failed to breach a perimeter wall. Other insurgents opened fire, but were killed.
Both Pietrzak and Ahmadi say they attack is over.

Russia To Withdraw Personnel From Syria Naval Base

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Russia is preparing to withdraw personnel from its naval maintenance and supply facility on Syria's Mediterranean coast, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.
If accurate, the plan would reflect safety concerns as the United States and its allies gear up for a probable strike to punish President Bashar al-Assad for an alleged gas attack his foes say killed hundreds of people.
The modestly staffed and equipped facility in the port of Tartous is Russia's sole military base outside the former Soviet Union, serving as a foothold in Syria and helping it keep warships travelling through the Eastern Mediterranean supplied.
Citing an unnamed source in the Russian navy headquarters, Interfax reported that the facility's personnel had boarded the repair vessel stationed there and that Russian warships would escort it out.
The report did not say when the vessel would leave Tartous or how many people were aboard. The Defence Ministry declined to comment, saying questions should be addressed to the navy. Navy officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Following Russian media reports in June that military personnel had been withdrawn from the facility, the Defence Ministry said nobody had left. It said personnel there were civilians.

Assad flees to Iran

Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad and his family arrived in Tehran Aug 28, landing at Khomeini Airport aboard his presidential jet. Iranian foreign ministry sources confirmed this with the Lebanese newspaper a-Nahar.
Accompanying the Assad family was a group of senior Syrian government officials who together with Assad are officially there to hold talks with the Iranian government about a Syrian response to a possible US strike on Syrian WMD assets which is expected to take place in the near future.
As this information made its way into a-Nahar, Syrian Army generals continued their dire warning that if Syria is attacked, ‘Israel will burn’ and that if Syria weakens, ‘certain irresponsible groups’ will be formed that would endanger Israel.
Pres. Assad and his family fleeing to Tehran is no surprise. Iran and Syria have been decade’s long allies since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Assad’s are Alawite Muslims, which are an offshoot of Shia Islam which is the predominant Muslim sect in Iran.
Syria under the Assad Dynasty of first Hafez and then son Bashar al-Assad were instrumental in helping Iran build, train, equip and supply the terror army known as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to threaten Israel. Without Assad in control of Syria, Hezbollah can not survive.

Baghdad hit by deadly bombings

A series of co-ordinated bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has killed more than 50 people and wounded dozens more, police and medical sources say.

The bombs targeted mainly Shia neighbourhoods during the rush hour.
The deadliest explosion was reported to be in Jisr Diyala in south-eastern Baghdad, where a car bomb killed at least seven people.
Violence has increased in Iraq in recent months amid heightened tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Several blasts in the northern district of Kadhimiya killed at least five people and wounded many others, according to reports. The northern suburb of Sadr City was also attacked.
At least 10 separate bombings are believed to have taken place on Wednesday. More than 160 people were injured.
Growing intensity No group has admitted carrying out the bombings, but correspondents say they appear to have been carried out by Sunni militants.
Sunnis say they are being marginalised by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Shia-led government.
Correspondents say deep-rooted sectarian tensions have also been aggravated by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Fidel Castro denies Russian claim that Cuba snubbed Edward Snowden

Fidel Castro has criticised a claim in a Russian newspaper that his country buckled to US pressure and blocked the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden from travelling through Cuba to exile in Latin America.
Castro, who ceded the Cuban presidency to his brother, Raúl, in 2006, and is rarely seen or heard from in public, said the article in the Kommersant newspaper on Monday was a lie and libell
Castro, in a column carried by official media on various international issues, from Syria and Egypt to robots doing police work and Snowden, praised Snowden and out condemned US spying as repugnant.
"It is obvious that the United States will always try to pressure Cuba ... but not for nothing has (Cuba) resisted and defended itself without a truce for 54 years and will continue to do so for as long as necessary," Castro wrote.
Snowden, who is wanted in the US for leaking details of US government surveillance programmes, had planned to fly to Havana from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport a day after arriving from Hong Kong, on 23 June.
But Snowden, who eventually accepted a year's asylum in Russia after spending nearly six weeks at Sheremetyevo, did not show up for the flight, although he had been allocated a seat.
Citing several sources, including one close to the US state department, Kommersant said the reason was that at the last minute Cuba had told officials to stop Snowden from boarding the Aeroflot flight.
It said Cuba had changed its mind after pressure by the US, which wants to try Snowden on espionage charges.
Castro, in his column, criticised Kommersant as a well-known "counter-revolutionary" and "mercenary" newspaper.

Al-Qaida-linked terror group ready to wage holy war against Jews

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which is linked to al-Qaida and claimed responsibility for the rocket fire at Israel last Thursday, released a statement saying that the attacks were part of the jihad against the Jews. A link to the statement was tweeted by Sheikh Sirajuddin Zureiqat on Tuesday, with the statement dated from the day the rockets were fired.
Zureiqat also tweeted two pictures of what it said were some of the rockets fired at Nahariya and Acre.
The Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the Ziad al Jarah Brigades wrote the statement that claimed credit for the rocket fire and said it was aimed against the Jews, who are benefiting from the blessed Syrian revolution. The statement went on to say that recent developments have led to a change and the group will suspend its activities because of the blatant interference of the Iranian backed Hezbollah in Syria.
It went on to claim that Hezbollah, Iran, and Israel have a “strategic alliance in the region and common interests” and are striving to thwart the Syrian revolution. The Jews, it said, are fully complicit with Western countries in order to give Syrian president Bashar Assad cover to fight the rebels.
The statement said the Israel and the West gave Hezbollah a green light to fight in Syria in order to protect Israel’s security. But this will not bring security and will bring them closer to the fire of the mujahideen and a priority for the Sunnis.
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Afghan Taliban unwilling to talk to Karzai government: Pakistan 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Tuesday that Afghan Taliban insurgents are unwilling to talk to Karzai government and its peace negotiators at least for now.

The statement came hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai concluded a two-day visit to Pakistan that was focused on efforts to encourage Taliban to come to the negotiating table, Xinhua reported.

Karzai's spokesperson Aimal Faizi said that Karzai pressed for Islamabad's help to bring Taliban leaders to the negotiating table.

Afghan government claims that leaders of Taliban are living in Pakistan and that Islamabad should use influence on them and facilitate direct talks between Taliban and Afghan High Peace Council.

Pakistan's advisor to the Prime Minister on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, however, said the Taliban are not willing to talk to Afghan government or Afghan High Peace Council.

"Pakistan will try its best to persuade them to hold dialogue so as to avert outbreak of civil war in post-conflict Afghanistan," Aziz told state radio.

Taliban regime was outsted by a US-led invasion in late 2001 for harbouring al-Qaida and the US and Nato-led combat troops are due to complete withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

North Korea tried to ship gas masks to Syria, report says

BEIJING -- North Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria this spring, presumably for use in the Middle East nation's chemical weapons program, but the shipment was intercepted by Turkey along with arms and ammunition, a Japanese newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Libya-flagged ship El Entisar (“Victory”) was stopped April 3 by Turkish authorities as it passed through the Dardanelles, the Sankei Shimbun reported. Acting on the tip from the United States, authorities searched the ship and seized 1,400 rifles and pistols and about 30,000 rounds of ammunition as well as the gas masks.
The captain of the vessel admitted that the shipment had come from North Korea, according to the newspaper, which said the plan was for the arms to be unloaded in Turkey and transported by land into Syria to support the government of President Bashar Assad.
The revelation comes amid international outrage over accusations that Syrian troops used chemical weapons against civilians suburbs of  Damascus last week. Any connection between North Korea and the alleged attacks could further isolate North Korea.
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Oil surges past $112 a barrel on Syrian crisis

The price of oil rose surged past $112 a barrel Wednesday, as the U.S. edged closer to intervening in Syria's civil war.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday that American forces were ready to act on any order by President Barack Obama to strike Syria in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict.
U.S. benchmark oil for October delivery rose $3.02, or 2.8 percent, to $112.03 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices jumped $3.09 to close at $109.01 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
The last time oil closed above $112 a barrel was on May 2, 2011. Still, oil remains far below its record close of $145.29 a barrel, reached on July 3, 2008.
The price of oil is has surged more than 15 percent in the last three months on concerns over the civil war in Syria and unrest in Egypt. Neither country is a major oil exporter, but traders worry that the violence could spread to more important oil exporting countries or disrupt major oil transport routes.

Anthony Weiner paid for phony supporters at campaign events

Anthony Weiner is having such a hard time generating support for his limp campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide "supporters" for his events, The Post has learned. 
Some of the gung-ho Weiner crowds, including at the Aug. 11 Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, were really actors who were paid $15 an hour by the California firm Crowds on Demand, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal. 
The source said surrogates for Weiner approached the Santa Monica-based company days after Indiana-native Sydney Leathers came forward to say that Weiner had continued his digital dalliances after resigning from Congress. 
The campaign asked the company to have actors seem "like either supporters or people who met him and became supporters as a result of that encounter," the source said. 
"The people would initially be skeptical and then they ask him various questions but would appear then to be convinced by his spiel," according to the source, who said the campaign used Crowds on Demand "several times." 

PASS/FAIL: State's Welfare Drug Testing Flops

Utah's welfare drug testing scheme has yielded only a dozen positive results since the program started last year, though it may have deterred some from seeking benefits.
From August 2012 through July 2013, the state prescreened 4,730 applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program with a written test. The state followed up with an actual drug test for the 466 of those whose written answers suggested a likelihood of drug use.
The 466 tests turned out 12 positive results, as the Associated Press first reported. The results were similar when Florida launched welfare drug testing in 2011 and just 2.6 percent of applicants tested positive. National surveys usually find that about 8 percent of respondents used drugs in the previous month.
Utah's drug screening cost the state about $31,000. But state Rep. Brad Wilson (R-Kaysville) told HuffPost he thinks the bill saved more than it cost. He said an additional 247 Utahns dropped out of the TANF application process after they were told to expect a drug test.
"We had 247 who once we told them, 'our test shows that you are likely using controlled substances, we need you to take a drug test,' they refused to move forward with the process," said Wilson, who sponsored the new law. "The Department of Workforce Services here in Utah estimates the benefits of those folks would have received would have been approximately $369,000 of, basically, benefits we didn't pay to people who were most likely using controlled substances. We spent $31,000 on this program over the last year but we think we've saved at least $370,000, if not more."

Obama to define new front in fight for equality 

Alone in the crowd, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson watched through tears in the cool Chicago evening as the nation’s next first family took the stage: a black man named Barack, a descendant of slaves named Michelle and their two young daughters.

As in much of the country, the feeling in Grant Park on election night nearly five years ago emerged from the heady pride of progress. But for Jackson, the moment pushed him backward, through decades, to those he called “the martyrs” of a movement whose successes Obama had inherited.
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Members of Congress press for vote ahead of possible Syria strike

WASHINGTON — A group of lawmakers is urging President Barack Obama to seek congressional authorization for any military action against Syria, warning that failure to do so would be unconstitutional.
Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Va., who represents a district with a strong military and veterans presence, is circulating a letter to colleagues saying the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973 require a vote in Congress before proceeding with a strike against Bashar Assad's regime.
"While the Founders wisely gave the Office of the President the authority to act in emergencies, they foresaw the need to ensure public debate - and the active engagement of Congress - prior to committing U.S. military assets," the letter states. "Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior congressional authorization would violate the separation of powers that is clearly delineated in the Constitution."
According to Rigell's office, 21 other members - all but one of whom are Republicans - have signed on. He is seeking additional co-signers before sending the letter to the White House on Wednesday.
Thus far, the debate on Syria among members of Congress is as much about whether the White House needs their approval as it is about the merits of any potential action. Administration outreach to members of Congress has increased since this weekend. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday, "We're consulting directly with the leadership of the relevant committees as well as with other members of Congress who have a keen interest in this matter."
A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday that Boehner, in a conversation with the administration, "made clear that before any action is taken there must be meaningful consultation with members of Congress, as well as clearly defined objectives and a broader strategy to achieve stability." He did not indicate that Congress expected to authorize the action.
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has had multiple briefings with the administration this week. He said in a televised interview that he believes the White House has already satisfied its obligations to consult with Congress. Still, he said he hoped the administration would seek formal authorization.
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