Gazette 06-09-14

Monday June 9th 2014

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Taliban claim deadly attack on Karachi airport

The Pakistani Taliban have said they were behind an assault on the country's largest airport that killed at least 28 people, including all 10 attackers.

The raid on Jinnah international airport in Karachi began late on Sunday at a terminal used for VIPs and cargo.
Security forces battled the militants for at least six hours, finally gaining control around dawn. The airport has now reopened and flights have resumed.
Karachi has been a target for many attacks by the Taliban.
A spokesman for the group, Shahidullah Shahid, said the aim of Monday's assault had been to hijack aircraft, and was "a message to the Pakistan government that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb attacks on their villages".
The dead terminal staff were said to be mostly security guards from the Airport Security Force (ASF) but also airline workers. At least 14 people were wounded.
Analysts say the attack further undermines Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's attempt at initiating peace talks with the Taliban.
The negotiations have made little headway since February. Critics have argued that they could allow the militants to regroup and gain strength.

Gun and suicide attack kills 23 near Pakistan-Iran border

QUETTA, Pakistan: At least 23 people including several Shia pilgrims were killed in a gun and suicide attack on the restive Pakistan-Iran border on late Sunday night, Pakistani officials said.

The attack came when a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims returning from a visit to holy Muslim sites in Iran stopped at a restaurant in the Pakistani town of Taftan in the border area.

"So far we can confirm 23 people killed including several Shia pilgrims and security personal. Seven others are injured," Akbar Durrani, home secretary of Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan province, told AFP.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnap 20 women in northeast

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria –  Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have reportedly kidnapped 20 women from a nomadic settlement in northeast Nigeria near the town of Chibok, where the Islamic militants abducted more than 300 schoolgirls and young women on April 15.
Alhaji Tar, a member of the vigilante groups set up to resist Boko Haram's attacks, says the men arrived at noon Thursday in the Garkin Fulani settlement and forced the women to enter their vehicles at gunpoint. He says they drove away to an unknown location in the remote stretch of Borno state.

Tar says the group also kidnapped three young men who tried to stop the kidnapping.
Boko Haram wants to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. Some 275 of the kidnapped girls remain missing.

Iraq Truck Bombings Hit Offices Of Kurdish Political Parties, Killing 15: Officials

BAGHDAD (AP) — A double bombing at the offices of two Kurdish political parties north of Baghdad and other attacks in Iraq killed at least 29 people Monday, officials said.
The twin attack took place in the town of Tuz Khormato, about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden truck into a checkpoint leading up to the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the nearby Kurdistan Communist Party.
Mayor Shalal Abdoul said another truck bomb exploded, presumably detonated by remote control, as people rushed to the scene of the first attack. The blasts killed 21 people and wounded as many as 150, he said. Several houses and cars were destroyed in the attack.
It was the second double bombing at Kurdish offices in as many days. On Sunday, a suicide bomber and a car bomb explosion targeted PUK offices in the town of Jalula, northwest of Baghdad, in the ethnically mixed Diyala province, killing 19 people.
Also Monday, gunmen opened fire on a security checkpoint northeast of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and two police officers, police said. The shooting happened in the town of Kanaan, about 75 kilometers (47 miles) northeast of the capital.
And in Baghdad, gunmen killed a real estate agent after spraying his office with bullets in the city's west, police said. A bomb blast also killed a government employee in eastern Baghdad, police said.
Medical officials confirmed the casualties for all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

First showdown in Gaza since Palestinian unity deal over salaries for ex-Hamas civil servants

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip –  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamic militant group Hamas are locked in a first showdown since the formation of their unity government last week, a sign of their volatile relations.
At issue are the salaries for more than 40,000 government employees Hamas hired during its seven-year rule of Gaza. Western-backed Abbas is the conduit for foreign aid, while Hamas remains the real power on the ground in Gaza.

Last week, the new government began distributing salaries to 150,000 civil servants loyal to Abbas, but said it cannot yet pay the former Hamas employees. At the time, scuffles erupted outside cash machines in Gaza. Hamas police security forces closed banks.
A senior Hamas official, Khalil al-Haye, said Monday the banks would not reopen until a solution is found.

Sao Paulo police tear gas protesters

Brazilian riot police have used tear gas against protesters in Sao Paulo, three days before the World Cup opening game in the city's main stadium.

The BBC's Katy Watson at the scene said about 300 demonstrators were there and helicopters circled overhead.
The protest was called by Sao Paulo metro workers who are striking in support of a 12.2% salary increase.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said she would not allow violent demonstrations to mar the World Cup.
Sao Paulo metro workers have been on strike since Thursday, creating traffic chaos in one of the world's most congested cities.

Ukraine launches dual talks with Russia to end fighting in east and avert gas cut

EU-mediated talks pose challenge to President Poroshenko's commitment to Europe and vow to end deadly insurgency

Ukraine has launched dual-track negotiations with Russia aimed at averting a debilitating gas cut and ending a bloody separatist insurgency by the end of the week.
The meetings in Brussels and Kiev present an immediate challenge to new president, Petro Poroshenko, and his commitment to Europe and to his vow to preserve the territorial integrity of the former Soviet state.
The 48-year-old confectionery tycoon and political veteran promised late on Sunday to end fighting this week in Ukraine's economically vital eastern region that has claimed more than 200 lives.
After being sworn in as Ukraine's fifth president on Saturday, he confirmed that Kiev would sign a historic pact with the EU that would finally wrest it from Russia's orbit as soon as the end of the month.
But the eight-week insurgency that Kiev and the west accuse Russia of orchestrating continued unabated over the weekend.
Ukrainian military sources said militants had staged a wave of failed attacks on the international airport in Lugansk, a city near the Russian border. Last month militants briefly seized the main airport in neighbouring Donetsk.
Heavy artillery fire and air bombardments also continued in the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk, an industrial city of 120,000 where many have been sheltering in basements for weeks.
The Ukrainian army also said pro-Russian gunmen had taken several of its soldiers prisoner overnight.

Premier raps 'inexperienced' Lapid for pitching West Bank settlement freeze

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked his finance minister, Yair Lapid, for proposing that Israel freeze construction in isolated settlements in Judea and Samaria as part of an eventual “separation” from the Palestinians.
During the weekly faction meeting with Likud deputies, Netanyahu quoted a speech that Lapid made during the election campaign which seemingly contradicts the Yesh Atid chairman’s recent statements urging diplomatic moderation.
“We need to avoid the errors of the left, namely announcing beforehand which concessions it was willing to make before receiving anything in return,” the prime minister quoted Lapid as saying.
Though the premier did not mention Lapid by name, it was clear that he was referring to the finance minister, who one day earlier used his appearance at the Herzliya Conference to flesh out his diplomatic platform.
“[Lapid’s] inexperience in negotiations and inexperience in defense matters will lead to a haphazard plan whose results will be similar to those of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “I am preoccupied with protecting the security of the citizens of Israel. In light of all of these statements and declarations, I will continue to lead the State of Israel responsibly and carefully.”

Assad wins Syria election with 88.7 per cent of votes, speaker says

Bashar al-Assad won 88.7 per cent of the vote in Syria’s presidential election, parliament speaker Mohammad al-Laham said on Wednesday, securing a third term in office despite a raging civil war that grew out of protests against his rule.
Assad’s foes had dismissed the election as a charade, saying the two relatively unknown challengers offered no real alternative and that no poll held in the midst of civil war could be considered credible.
“I declare the victory of Dr. Bashar Hafez al-Assad as president of the Syrian Arab Republic with an absolute majority of the votes cast in the election,” Laham said in a televised address from his office in the Syrian parliament.
Syria’s constitutional court earlier said that turnout in Tuesday’s election and an earlier round of voting for Syrian expatriates stood at 73 per cent.
Syrian officials had described the predicted victory as vindication of Assad’s three-year campaign against those fighting to oust him.
Voting took place in government-controlled areas of Syria, but not in large parts of northern and eastern Syria held by rebels fighting to end 44 years of Assad family rule.
The conflict has killed 160,000 people, driven nearly three million abroad as refugees and displaced many more inside Syria.
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Former UN envoy Brahimi: Mideast could 'blow up' if Syria not checked

The crisis in Syria, if left unchecked, poses grave risks to the entire Mideast, the former United Nations special envoy for Syria says.

Syrian men walk near destroyed buildings in the city of Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned last month, spoke in a no-holds-barred interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, saying that "unless there is a real, sustained effort to work out a political solution, there is a serious risk that the region will blow up."
Syria is embroiled in a civil war pitting opposition rebels desperate to wrest control from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. The fighting, which began as a series of largely peaceful uprisings that quickly turned violent, has killed 160,000 people and forced many to leave their homes to escape the violence.

In the interview, published over the weekend, Brahimi said he had hoped Assad would take on the role of kingmaker instead of staying on as president. But he said many underestimated Assad, who recently received 88.7% of the vote in a presidential election that was limited to government-held regions and which drew widespread international condemnation.
"But the thing is they thought that the regime was going to fall easily -- complete misconception. Syria has a state, it has an army, and it was assumed that it was going to fall just like Libya did," he said.
Brahimi said military intervention to oust Assad would be "very, very dangerous," drawing a comparison to Iraq. But he said a U.N. peacekeeping force might eventually offer a solution.

"The Syrians would have to agree for the U.N. to come in," he said. "It doesn't look likely today or tomorrow, but this conflict has got to be resolved. And it will be at some point. The question is: How much killing and destruction are we going to have before that happens? People are telling me that [the Syrian city of] Homs looks like Berlin in 1945."
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Guantanamo Prisoners Set To Leave Amid Trade Furor

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Some of the men held here for more than a decade have been drafting plans for work and marriage on the outside or studying languages, preparing for a not-too-distant future beyond the coiled razor wire that surrounds the U.S. prison perched at the edge of the Caribbean Sea.
Until the past week, they had good reason to believe their ticket out might be imminent, if not home then at least to another country. President Barack Obama and others in the administration say they are committed to closing the Guantanamo detention center and military officials say they can resume transfers at a moment's notice, just as they did with the May 31 swap of five Guantanamo inmates for a captured American soldier.
"All I need is the names and a country and we could do it all very, very efficiently," the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, said in an interview Saturday at the start of a visit to the base he oversees.
But the current furor over the trade of the five Taliban prisoners for American Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl may have complicated the situation.
The deal to swap Bergdahl, who was held by the Taliban for five years in Afghanistan, was brokered by the Obama White House without consulting Congress. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who initially praised Bergdahl's release have since backed off amid an outcry over the exchange, including questions about whether he walked away from his post before he was captured.

Las Vegas killers 'held extremist views'

Two people who shot and killed two police officers and a bystander in the US city of Las Vegas held "extremist views", police have told US media.

A man and woman, who then killed themselves, left what appeared to be a manifesto at the scene, CNN reports.
Witnesses told police the shooters said: "This is a revolution" during their attack.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called the killings a "cruel act" and praised the two officers.
Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, both husbands and fathers, were having lunch in a pizza cafe at 11:30 (18:30 GMT) on Sunday, when they came under attack.
A man and a woman shot them dead before moving on to a Walmart shop nearby and shooting another person.
The rampage ended when the woman fatally shot the man and then herself.
Police have not officially indicated what the motive could be, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that police found Swastika symbols in the apartment.
And neighbours of the couple, reportedly married, told the paper the two had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views.

Kerry: It Would Have Been 'Offensive' To Leave Bergdahl With People Who Would 'Torture Him, Cut Off His Head'

Secretary of State John Kerry had no patience on Sunday for critics of President Barack Obama's decision to trade Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, saying the consequences of inaction would have been unconscionable.
"It would have been offensive and incomprehensible to consciously leave an American behind, no matter what, to leave an American behind in the hands of people who would torture him, cut off his head, do any number of things," Kerry said on CNN's "State of the Union," according to a transcript. "We would consciously choose to do that?"
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- who had previously endorsed an arrangement to exchange Taliban prisoners of war in American custody for Bergdahl -- has been one of the most vocal GOP critics of the ultimate deal, earning the chagrin of Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.
On the same CNN program, McCain defended his stance, saying he never approved of the five specific Taliban prisoners who were released under the exchange.
"I never signed off on those individuals," McCain said, although as Kessler notes, the five prisoners who were ultimately released have always been at the heart of negotiations over any prisoner swap. Under traditional rules of war, the U.S. government would be required to release the five POWs at the end of the Afghanistan war. 

War Gear Flows to Police Departments

NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. Weighing 30 tons and built to withstand land mines, the armored combat vehicle is one of hundreds showing up across the country, in police departments big and small.

The 9-foot-tall armored truck was intended for an overseas battlefield. But as President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice.

During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.

The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act like military units. Police SWAT teams are now deployed tens of thousands of times each year, increasingly for routine jobs. Masked, heavily armed police officers in Louisiana raided a nightclub in 2006 as part of a liquor inspection. In Florida in 2010, officers in SWAT gear and with guns drawn carried out raids on barbershops that mostly led only to charges of “barbering without a license.”

White House reportedly let Bergdahl parents take part in secure video conferences

The White House allowed the parents of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to take part in a series of secure video conferences with State Department and intelligence officials and senior military commanders, according to a published report. 
The Washington Times reports that Bob and Jani Bergdahl were allowed to join the conferences remotely from the Idaho National Guard headquarters in Boise soon after their son was captured by the Taliban in June 2009. 

A spokesman for the Idaho National Guard told the paper that the Bergdahls participated in up to 20 video conferences per year. 
"Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl were regularly informed about what was happening throughout the duration using video teleconferencing [with] various military and other government agencies," said Air Force Col. Anthony Marsano. "There was a great effort to keep Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl updated on developments."
Larry Johnson, a former State Department official who worked on the cases of American citizens taken hostage in Lebanon during the 1980s, told the Times that granting such access to the family of a missing person was "wrong."
"The Bergdahls shouldn't have been part of that for no other reason than on the off chance they may inadvertently divulge some tactic," Johnson told the paper. "I mean, it's one thing for government officials to interview the family, get insights from the family about what’s going on."But to put them in the middle of what is essentially a classified secure video conference is ridiculous."
Col. Marsano told The Times that he was not aware that the Bergdahls had exposed any sensitive information and would not discuss whether the couple had a security clearance or if any classified matters were brought up in the briefings.