Tuesday September 3rd 2013
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Israel Fires Missile In MediterraneanJERUSALEM -- Israel and the U.S. conducted a joint missile test over the Mediterranean on Tuesday, an apparent display of military prowess as the Obama administration seeks congressional support for strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Any U.S. strikes, in retaliation for alleged chemical weapons use by the Assad regime, are not expected before next week when Congress gets back from summer recess.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said the test was performed together with the U.S. Defense Department. A Sparrow missile was launched successfully at 9:15 a.m. and followed its planned trajectory. The Arrow missile defense system successful detected and tracked the target, the ministry said. It was not clear from the statement if the Sparrow was shot down.
The Sparrow is a medium-range guided missile that can be launched either from the surface or the air to hit aerial targets, according to the manufacturer.
In Washington, there was no immediate White House comment.
The missile test came at a time of heightened tensions as Washington weighs sea-launched strikes against Syria. Israel has been increasingly concerned that it will be drawn into Syria's brutal civil war which has repeatedly spilled over into neighboring countries.
Since the weekend, the Obama administration has been lobbying for congressional support for military action against the Assad regime.
Egypt shuts down four TV stations
An Egyptian court has ordered the closure of four television channels that have been accused of sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood.
They include the Brotherhood's own station, Ahrar 25, and the Egyptian arm of Al-Jazeera.Meanwhile, the Egyptian army has launched helicopter strikes against suspected militant targets in the Sinai peninsula, killing a number of people.
The army is trying to assert control over the area bordering Gaza.
The closure of the television stations follows a crackdown on media seen as sympathetic to the deposed President Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown by the army on 3 July, and the Muslim Brotherhood he comes from.
6 suspected Al Qaeda militants killed in Yemen
A Yemeni security official says six suspected Al Qaeda militants and two citizens fighting them were killed in separate clashes between members of the terror group and armed residents who repelled attempts to retake their communities.
The official said the clashes took place Tuesday in the small cities of Yafaa and Lawder in southern Lahj and Abyan provinces. He says Yafaa residents fought suspected Al Qaeda militants after the recent assassination of a government intelligence official. Lawder residents successfully resisted Al Qaeda suspects who attacked checkpoints installed by resident popular committees supporting the Yemeni military offensive against Al Qaeda.The popular committees have been formed over the last year to help soldiers expel suspected Al Qaeda militants.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
More than 2m have fled Syria - UN
More than two million Syrians are now registered as refugees, after the total went up by a million in the last six months, the UN's refugee agency says.
More Syrians are now displaced than any other nationality, says the UNHCR.France and the US are continuing to push for military action over alleged chemical weapons use by Syrian forces.
There are suggestions that President Barack Obama may be planning much wider action than the limited strikes that have been publicly proposed.
Drawing a line on Syria, US eyes Iran talks
Washington: As the Obama administration makes a case for punitive airstrikes on the Syrian government, its strongest card in the view of some supporters of a military response may be the need to send a message to another country: Iran. If the United States does not enforce its self-imposed "red line" on Syria's use of chemical weapons, this thinking goes, Iran will smell weakness and press ahead more boldly in its quest for nuclear weapons.But that message may be clashing with a simultaneous effort by US officials to explore dialogue with Iran's moderate new president, Hassan Rouhani, in the latest expression of Washington's long struggle to balance toughness with diplomacy in its relations with a longtime adversary.
Two recent diplomatic ventures have raised speculation about a possible back channel between Washington and Tehran. Last week, Jeffrey Feltman, a high State Department official in President Barack Obama's first term who is now a senior UN envoy, visited Iran to meet with the new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and discussed possible reactions to a US airstrike in Syria.
Japan To Build Ice Wall To Stop Nuclear Reactor Leaks
TOKYO — The Japanese government announced Tuesday that it will spend $470 million on a subterranean ice wall and other steps in a desperate bid to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear station after repeated failures by the plant's operator.The decision is widely seen as an attempt to show that the nuclear accident won't be a safety concern just days before the International Olympic Committee chooses between Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid as the host of the 2020 Olympics.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has been leaking hundreds of tons of contaminated underground water into the sea since shortly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the complex. Several leaks from tanks storing tainted water in recent weeks have heightened the sense of crisis that the plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., isn't able to contain the problem.
"Instead of leaving this up to TEPCO, the government will step forward and take charge," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after adopting the outline. "The world is watching if we can properly handle the contaminated water but also the entire decommissioning of the plant."
The government plans to spend an estimated 47 billion yen ($470 million) through the end of March 2015 on two projects – 32 billion yen ($320 million) on the ice wall and 15 billion yen ($150 million) on upgraded water treatment units that is supposed to remove all radioactive elements but water-soluble tritium – according to energy agency official Tatsuya Shinkawa.
Shootings, car bombing leave at least 14 dead in Iraq
Shootings and a car bombing in and south of Baghdad killed 14 people Tuesday, the latest deaths in a surge of sectarian killings and other violence this year, Iraqi officials said.The deadliest attack came when gunmen stormed the house of a member of a Sunni militia opposed to Al Qaeda, killing him and his wife and three children in a southern suburb of the capital, police and hospital officials said.
The militia, known as the Sahwa, helped U.S. troops fight Al Qaeda at the height of the war and since been a target for hard-line insurgents who consider them traitors. Prominent Sahwa leader Wisam al-Hardan managed to escape unharmed an assassination attempt on Monday by two suicide bombers, but six of his bodyguards and a bystander were killed.
Elsewhere in Iraq Tuesday, a car bomb blew up at a restaurant in the town of Jbala just south of the capital, killing two people and wounding seven others.
11 Muslim Brotherhood members sentenced to life
CAIRO: Fifty-six members of Muslim Brotherhood were today sentenced, including 11 to life imprisonment, by an Egyptian military court on charges of acts of "aggression" against the army in Suez city last month.
In the first such sentencing since the ouster of former president Mohammed Morsi on July 3, the Suez military court sentenced 11 Islamists to 25 years in jail, while 45 others were given five years. Eight others were acquitted.
The Islamists were accused of assaulting army troops, burning military vehicles, throwing Molotov cocktails and attacking churches in Suez governorate following the August 14 military crackdown on pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza.
The court started the trial of 64 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters of ousted president Morsi today, state media reported.
The military trial was held at Agroud, on the Suez-Cairo highway.
The military prosecutor accused defendants of incitement, aiding and abetting the killing of citizens, burning down three churches in Suez and setting ablaze Third Field Army armored vehicles, as well as attacking public facilities and spreading chaos.
Kenya MPs to debate ICC pull-out
Kenya's parliament has
been recalled for an emergency session on Thursday to debate ending
membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
A resolution supporting Kenya's withdrawal is likely to be passed, making it the first country to do so, a BBC reporter says. Deputy President William Ruto is due to appear at The Hague next week on charges of crimes against humanity.
The ICC said the case would continue, even if Kenya pulled out.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is due to appear at The Hague in November on charges similar to those faced by Mr Ruto.
Both men deny the charges, which stem from violence that broke out after disputed elections in 2007.
'Immense implications' They were on opposite sides of the 2007 election but formed an alliance for elections in March this year and analysts say the ICC prosecutions bolstered their campaign as they portrayed it as foreign interference in Kenya's domestic affairs.
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Group calls on 'all Muslim hackers' to attack Israel, US on anniversary of 9/11
"Hi, Israel do you remember us?" the modified voice-over in the video asks, referring to previous hacking operations, as a kaffiya-clad Joker laughs at the audience.
"We are the same people who f****d you on April 7. And now we are back. To punish you again," the voice declares, in reference to an April attempt, by the group Anonymous, to "erase Israel from the internet" on International Holocaust Memorial Day.
In their most recent operation, the group of technical militants announce the launch of a new operation,"#OpIsrael #Reborn." They then ask "all hacker Muslims to join their September 11 operation.
"There is no Israel in this map," the voice says in reference to ongoing Israeli-Palestinian political conflict, and a potential clue as to the intentions behind the operation. "No one recognizes you. Because it is Palestine."
The voice then poses a question to viewers. "Who are the terrorists?" it asks, while showing images of violent terrorist attacks.
It then calls on Americans and Israelis to expect an attack of some kind on September 11. "America, Israel. We will show you," it reiterates.
Toward the end, the video credits three separate hacker groups including Anonymous, who have attempted several similar operations, as well as lesser known groups, AnonGhost and Fallaga.
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Up in arms -- Obama didn’t deliver on Syria aid
AFTER DELAY, OBAMA TO STEP UP SYRIA ARMS SHIPMENTS -- The WSJ reports that despite President Obama’s promise to arm Syrian rebel forces after the first use of chemical weapons in that country’s civil war in 2012, no U.S. equipment has reached the Islamist fighters backed by the administration. The reports calls into question the ability of rebels to capitalize on the limited airstrikes against government forces Obama has asked Congress to approve.McCain says Obama will now send advanced weapons - Fresh from a huddle with Obama, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told The Daily Beast that the president promised to now ship more advanced weapons systems. McCain, a longstanding advocate of U.S. entry in the war, said that despite Obama’s public insistence that American forces would not be used to topple Syria’s government, “For the first time, we have an outline of action that could lead to the removal of Bashar al-Assad.”
[“A vote against that resolution by Congress, I think, would be catastrophic, because it would undermine the credibility of the United States of America and the president of the United States”—Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during a press conference following a 90-minute meeting with President Obama.]
The takeaway - If Obama is indeed escalating U.S. involvement ahead of scheduled congressional votes on his proposed bombing campaign, he may be able to get resistant lawmakers to yield. It’s always more appealing to back the winning team. But Obama will also increase anxiety about the U.S. being drawn into a larger conflict on the side of the Islamists.
McCain Says He Cannot Support 'Doomed' Plan
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain says he will support President Barack Obama's request to intervene in Syria if the move would "reverse the situation on the battlefield."McCain tells NBC's "Today" show it isn't sufficient to merely send a strong message to President Bashar Assad with a limited-range response. McCain says a resolution of intervention must include authority to degrade Syria's air defenses. The Arizona Republican says "it's an unfair fight" on the ground and that Assad has the upper hand.
McCain says if the authorization doesn't change the balance of power and give the rebels a fighting chance, then it "will not have the desired effect."
He says he supports giving Obama authority to act against Assad but that he "cannot support something that might be doomed in the long run."
Union dumps AFL-CIO for its positions on ObamaCare, immigration reform
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has cut ties with the AFL-CIO, citing in part the private-sector union’s support for ObamaCare and immigration reform.In an August 29 letter to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, leaders of the 40,000-member union said they have become “increasingly frustrated” with the federation’s policy positions on such matters as immigration and health care reform.
“We feel the federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people,” wrote Robert McEllrath, president of the San Francisco-based ILWU.
McEllrath said his union supports the single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy while the AFL-CIO backs Obama’s tax on its so-called "Cadillac" healthcare plan, according to Breitbart.com, which first reported the story.
"President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits," the letter states.
The letter also states both groups have historically supported comprehensive immigration reform with a clear path to citizenship and protecting undocumented workers from deportation and being fired.
Obama Climate Plan's Fine Print Targeted By Coal Industry, Capitol Hill Allies
Paul Bailey made the White House pitch on July 31. Flanked by six colleagues from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the coal industry’s most public voice, Bailey pressed the case for “achievable” greenhouse gas emissions standards for coal-fired power plants.At the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House’s regulatory clearinghouse, the lobbyist presented a table full of economists with the coal group’s latest analysis — a survey of carbon pollution from 22 coal plants built in the U.S. over the past five years. Today’s most efficient coal-burning utilities, they still emit carbon dioxide at nearly twice the rate pegged as the first-ever emissions limit for new power plants.
Bailey reiterated longstanding industry arguments about the costs of stringent environmental regulation — lost jobs, higher energy costs. He offered the coalition’s own emissions standards. And he issued a plea: Don’t kill coal plants.
The pitch marked an opening salvo in the battle brewing over carbon regulations for power plants, a key pillar of President Obama’s climate plan. On June 25, in a speech at Georgetown University, Obama unveiled a national blueprint for cutting carbon pollution, framing it as “a plan to protect our country from the impacts of climate change.”
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