Gazette 06-19-14

Thursday June 19 2014

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Iraq crisis: Baiji oil refinery contested

Iraqi government forces are battling Sunni Muslim militants for control of the country's biggest oil refinery.

Officials insisted security forces were "in full control" of the Baiji refinery, about 200km (130 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.
However, trapped workers said militants were still inside the facility and that there continued to be sporadic clashes.
The fighting comes as US President Barack Obama considers a request for air strikes against the militants.
A spokesman for the party of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told the BBC the country's leaders had felt "abandoned" by the international community as several northern cities and towns were seized by attacks by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and its Sunni Arab allies.
Petrol queues ISIS-led militants launched an assault on the Baiji refinery early on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Iraqi military said some 100 assailants had been killed as troops and helicopter gunships repelled repeated attacks that continued overnight.
"Baiji oil refinery is in full control of the Iraqi security forces, and that all the terrorist attempts to target it were thwarted," Lt Gen Qasim Atta told a news conference.
But workers trapped inside said the militants had breached the perimeter and set fire to several storage tanks. Some said they had taken control of most of the facility. Video footage showed smoke billowing from the refinery and the black flag used by ISIS flying from a building.
"Iraqi forces are still inside the refinery, and they control it," Dhahi al-Juburi, one of the workers, told the AFP news agency, adding that "insurgents are still in several places in the refinery, and even in some towers".

Iraq's Maliki: I won't quit as condition of US strikes against Isis militants

As senators say Iraqi PM's sectarian leadership must end, Maliki calls upon west to give urgent air and intelligence support

A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said he will not stand down as a condition of US air strikes against Sunni militants who have made a lightning advance across the country.
Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, on Wednesday made a public call on al-Arabiya television for the US to launch strikes, but Barack Obama has come under pressure from senior US politicians to persuade Maliki, a Shia Muslim who has pursued sectarian policies, to step down over what they see as failed leadership in the face of an insurgency.
Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told a hearing on Wednesday that Maliki's government "has got to go if you want any reconciliation", and Republican John McCain called for the use of US air power but also urged Obama to "make very clear to Maliki that his time is up".
The White House has not called for Maliki to go but spokesman Jay Carney said that whether Iraq was led by Maliki or a successor, "we will aggressively attempt to impress upon that leader the absolute necessity of rejecting sectarian governance". The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said Washington was focused on the Iraqi people, not Maliki.
Maliki's spokesman, Zuhair al-Nahar, said on Thursday that the west should immediately support the Iraqi government's military operation against Isis rather than demand a change of government. He insisted that Maliki had "never used sectarian tactics".
"Our focus needs to be on urgent action – air support, logistic support, counter-intelligence support to defeat these terrorists who are posing a real danger to the stability of Iraq, to the whole region," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Obama is said to be still weighing military options, and US officials for days have quietly signalled that a decision is not imminent.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, confirmed that the US had received the request for air strikes but said that the fluid state of the Iraqi battlefield had left the US with incomplete intelligence, a factor that made an air campaign more difficult. "It's not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then striking it," he told senators.

Turkey Would Support Iraqi Kurds' Bid For Self-Rule, Spokesman Says In Historic Remark

ERBIL, Iraq -- In a statement that could have a dramatic impact on regional politics in the Middle East, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling party recently told a Kurdish media outlet that the Kurds in Iraq have the right to self-determination. The statement has been relatively overlooked so far, but could signal a shift in policy as Turkey has long been a principal opponent of Kurdish independence, which would mean a partitioning of Iraq.
"The Kurds of Iraq can decide for themselves the name and type of the entity they are living in," Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for the Justice and Development Party, told the Kurdish online news outlet Rudaw last week.
The Kurds have been effectively autonomous since 1991, when the U.S. established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq. Turkey, a strong U.S. ally, has long opposed the creation of an independent Kurdistan so that its own eastern region would not be swallowed into it. But Celik's statement indicates that the country may be starting to view an autonomous Kurdistan as a viable option -- a sort of bulwark against spreading extremism within a deeply unstable country.
"The Kurds, like any other nation, will have the right to decide their fate," Celik told Rudaw, in a story that was picked up by CNN's Turkish-language outlet. "Turkey has been supporting the Kurdistan region till now and will continue this support."
Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan have recently forged a strong bond over oil, much to the chagrin of Iraq, which claims that Baghdad has sole authority over oil in Kurdistan. Turkey recently signed a 50-year energy deal with Iraqi Kurdistan’s semi-autonomous government to export Kurdish oil to the north, and Kurdistan has increased its exports this week despite the insurgency by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk -- known as "the Kurdish Jerusalem" -- has long been an obstacle to independence. The Kurds controlled it briefly in 1991 before Saddam Hussein drove them out amid a horrific chemical weapons attack. Last week, they retook control of the disputed city when Iraqi forces fled ISIS, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to give up the city’s oil reserves. Kirkuk is capable of producing as much as half of all of Iraq's oil exports, although Kirkuk’s pipeline is currently offline following militant attacks in the spring.

Palestinians, Israeli Troops Clash During Search For Missing Teens

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinians during an arrest raid early Thursday in the most violent confrontation so far in the weeklong search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank.
Israel has blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the apparent abductions, without providing evidence. Israel has since launched a widespread crackdown on the militant Islamic group, arresting scores of members while conducting a feverish manhunt for the missing youths.
Hamas has praised the abduction of the teenagers, but has not claimed responsibility for it.
The three — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — disappeared late Thursday while hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries in the West Bank.
The military said about 300 Palestinians took to the streets when the soldiers entered Jenin at about 2 a.m. Some opened fire at the troops, others threw explosive devices or rocks at the soldiers. It said soldiers retaliated with live fire.
The military said 30 Palestinians were arrested in the overnight raid.
Nadir Irshaid, director of the Jenin hospital, said seven people are being treated for light injuries that he said were caused by rubber bullets and beatings.

Rights group accuses Syria's Kurdish party of abuses

BEIRUT –  An international rights group said Thursday that Kurdish authorities ruling three enclaves in northeastern Syria have committed abuses, including arbitrary arrests of political opponents, and have failed to address abductions and unresolved killings in areas under their control.
Human Rights Watch said in a new 107-page report that the Kurdish Democratic Union Party also has used children in its armed wing known as the People's Protection Units.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 percent of the country's prewar population of 23 million. They are centered in the impoverished northeastern province of Hassakeh, wedged between the borders of Turkey and Iraq.
President Bashar Assad's forces largely pulled out of Hassakeh in late 2012 when the Syrian military was stretched thin by fighting with rebels elsewhere in the country, effectively ceding control of the area. Their withdrawal sparked a fierce competition between rebels and the Kurds.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in Turkey, which long fought for autonomy in the southeast. The PYD declared its own administration in the northern Kurdish areas in 2012, after driving out Islamic militant fighters allied with rebels trying to overthrow Assad.

Czech Republic in talks to sell military helicopters to Iraqi government

PRAGUE –  The Czech Republic is in talks to possibly sell military helicopters to Iraq's government, which is struggling with a militant uprising.
Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek says Iraqi officials expressed interest in buying up to 40 Russian-made Mi-24 helicopters when negotiating a different contract to buy 12 Czech-made L-159 light combat planes.

Pejsek says the defense ministry has seven such helicopters it does not need and could be sold to Iraq.
But any deal would take time because the helicopters would have to be modernized first and Iraqi pilots would need to undergo training.

Ukraine's Separatists Refuse Truce

KIEV, June 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists were locked in fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine on Thursday after rebels rejected a call to lay down their arms in line with a peace plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, government forces said.

Heavy fighting broke out at around 4 a.m. (0100 gm) near the town of Krasny Liman, which itself has been under government control since early this month.

"We issued an ultimatum to the terrorists overnight to surrender their weapons. We guarantee their safety and investigation in line with Ukrainian law ... They refused," said government forces spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov.

"Now we are trying to narrow the encirclement. They are trying to break out," Seleznyov said.

No details of the fighting were immediately available from the rebels side.

Poroshenko, installed as a president on June 7, is pushing a peace plan to end the separatist rebellion including an offer of a unilateral ceasefire by government forces and amnesty for the separatists as long as they put down their weapons.

Poroshenko was due later on Thursday to meet regional officials from the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of eastern Ukraine to explain his plan - though he rules out meeting separatists.

Separatist rebellions erupted in eastern Ukraine in early April after street protests in Kiev toppled the Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich and Russia in turn annexed the Crimean peninsula. Eastern rebels have called for union with Russia.

Russians resume buildup near Ukraine, NATO says

BRUSSELS –  Russia has resumed a military buildup near Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday, calling it "a very regrettable step backward."
"I can confirm that we now see a new Russian military buildup -- at least a few thousand more Russian troops deployed to the Ukrainian border, and we see troop maneuvers in the neighborhood of Ukraine," Rassmussen said in London.

"If they're deployed to seal the border and stop the flow of weapons and fighters that would be a positive step. But that's not what we're seeing."
Instead, the NATO chief said, Russia appears bent on using its military to intimidate Ukraine further.
"I consider this a very regrettable step backwards and it seems that Russia keeps the option to intervene further," Rasmussen said. "So the international community would have to respond firmly if Russia were to intervene further. That would imply deeper sanctions which would have a negative impact on Russia."
NATO estimated at one point there were up to 40,000 Russian forces deployed near the border with Ukraine, but reported last month that many of the soldiers and their equipment had been pulled back.
In his speech, Rasmussen said the U.S.-led NATO alliance is at a turning point.
"The world that we helped to build after the end of the Cold War is being challenged in different ways and from different directions," he told his audience at Chatham House.
"To our east, Russia's aggression against Ukraine is an attempt to rewrite international rules and recreate a sphere of influence. At the same time, to our south, we see states or extreme groups using violence to assert their power. And overall, we see threats old and new, from piracy to terrorism to cyber-attacks."

China jails 'New Citizens' Movement' activists

Three Chinese anti-corruption activists have been given lengthy jail terms for urging officials to disclose wealth.

Wei Zhongping and Liu Ping, associated with the New Citizens' Movement, were given six-and-a-half years in jail. A third activist, Li Sihua, received a shorter sentence.
Rights group Amnesty International said the charges were "preposterous".
China's leaders are running a crackdown on corruption, but refuse to tolerate grassroots groups with similar aims.
The three activists were detained after taking photographs with banners urging officials to disclose their assets.
They were put on trial in a high-security court in Xinyu, Jiangxi province, late last year.
At the time, defence lawyers complained of serious procedural problems and said they were not confident of the outcome.
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Hamas threatens third intifada amid ongoing IDF operation in West Bank 

Hamas threatened to ignite a third intifada on Thursday as the IDF continued to arrest Palestinian suspects in the West Bank as part of Israel's search for three teens kidnapped last week.
"We are capable of igniting a third Intifada and this is our irrevocable right. It will go off when enough pressure is exerted on the Palestinian people," said Hamas senior official Salah Bardawil on Thursday.
Bardawil made his statements during a solidarity rally for the director of Hamas's TV network in the West Bank. He was detained by IDF forces on Wednesday. The rally was held in the Gaza Strip where Bardawil added, "We will not stand idly by in the face of occupation in the West Bank," and claimed that the purpose of Israel's ongoing operation in the West Bank was to "wipe out Palestinian resistance."
"Israel is also trying to sabotage the [Fatah-Hamas] reconciliation," he stressed.
Fatah has previously condemned similar comments made by Hamas officials with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calling the statements "irresponsible" and even "suspicious."
"These three boys are human beings like us, and they should be returned to their families," the Palestinian leader told foreign ministers at an Organization of the Islamic Conference gathering in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Abbas also said that those behind the kidnapping “want to destroy us,” adding that they would be held accountable for their deed regardless of their identity.

House Republicans to hold leadership vote after Cantor loss

US Congressman Kevin McCarthy is poised to become the second-ranking member of the House of Representatives in a Republican caucus leadership election.

If he wins on Thursday as expected, Mr McCarthy, 49, would replace outgoing Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Mr McCarthy is the current majority whip, the third-ranking member.
Mr Cantor, 51, unexpectedly lost a Republican Party primary election last week, throwing the party's House caucus into turmoil.
After his shock defeat in his Virginia constituency at the hands of David Brat, an economics professor, Mr Cantor said he would step down from his leadership position at the end of July.
Mr Brat will face a Democratic challenger in November's general election, and the winner of that race will assume Mr Cantor's seat in January.
Winning the leadership vote on Thursday would place Mr McCarthy of California next in line to House Speaker John Boehner.
In the House of Representatives, the majority leader is tasked with scheduling legislation for consideration on the House floor, planning the legislative agenda, and consulting with party members to gauge sentiment.
The majority leader is also a highly visible representative of the party in negotiations with the White House and the Senate, both in Democratic hands.

Media Drop the F-Bomb On Obama: A failed president?

Matt Drudge posted a screaming headline yesterday: “TODD TURNS: OBAMA ‘OVER.’”
Really? Chuck Todd was abandoning the president, and on MSNBC no less?
Well, not exactly. But a new poll is changing the media narrative on Obama’s second term in a way rarely seen with a single survey.
Is there a media rush to lame-duck land? Maybe. You can never write off a guy who’s got 2-1/2 years left in the Oval Office.
But the president hasn’t been able to buy a good headline for many weeks. VA scandal. Bergdahl. Lost IRS emails. Iraq imploding. And now, this NBC/Wall Street Journal survey.
Obama’s overall approval rate in the survey: 41 percent, a new low for this poll.
More striking, just 37 percent approve of his handling of foreign policy.
Trading Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban terrorists: 44 percent disapprove, 30 percent approve.
And the killer statistic: 54 percent say he’s unable to lead the country and get the job done, compared with 42 percent who believe he can.
Todd, who is NBC’s chief White House correspondent and political director as well as an MSNBC host, called this “a disaster for the president.”

John Kerry Denies Obama Has Been Too Passive In Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry brushed aside criticism of Obama administration Middle East policy Thursday, taking exception to assertions Washington has been too passive in the face of surging terrorism in the region.
Kerry noted the failure of the United States to secure a continuing military arrangement with Iraq's government after U.S. combat forces left. "We didn't have operational theater capacity at the time" of the surge in violence spawned by al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State militants, he said in an interview on NBC.
On the broader issue of Mideast policy, Kerry said the administration has been "deeply engaged" in the region and is the largest source of humanitarian assistance. He said violence is on the rise in Iraq because Syria's Bashir Assad, who has been under siege for at least three years, "is a magnet for terrorists of all walks."
Asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that President Barack Obama has been wrong all along about the Mideast, Kerry replied, "This is a man who took us directly into Iraq. Please."
He reiterated that airstrikes have not been ruled out, saying that "nothing is off the table" in administration discussions.
Kerry didn't signal any details of involvement beyond what is already known, but did say that whatever assistance is forthcoming won't necessarily be aimed at bailing out embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The efforts will be "focused on the people of Iraq," he said.
Kerry said the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, is "more extreme than even al-Qaida and they are a threat to the United States and Western interests."
And he denied having suggested that Washington was considering working on this in coordination with Iran, saying "I don't know where this comes from."

IRS chief: Agency working on specific limits for nonprofits’ political activities

The Internal Revenue Service will propose new guidelines next year that would establish specific limits on the amount of political activity allowed for tax-exempt advocacy groups and lay out which types of organizations have to follow the rules, according to the agency’s commissioner.
The move would address questions left unanswered in controversial draft guidelines the IRS unveiled in November with the goal of clarifying the rules for so-called social welfare groups, which fall under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. The initial proposal focused largely on defining political activity, leaving aside other matters for future discussion.
The new plan could be a game-changer for the tax-exempt advocacy groups — such as Americans for Prosperity on the right and the League of Conservation Voters on the left – that have grown increasingly influential in recent elections.
Campaign-finance watchdogs have complained that the existing 501(c)(4) rules allow “dark money” to influence elections, since  social welfare groups are able to collect unlimited financial contributions without disclosing who provided the money. The new rules could make such organizations less attractive for donors.
The Center for Public Integrity first reported the rule-making development on Wednesday, citing interview remarks by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

Former Envoy Pipes Up in Conservative Chorus of ‘Told You So’ on Iraq

WASHINGTON — The only thing that John R. Bolton has tamed is his mustache.

Mr. Bolton, the opinionated, galvanic former United States ambassador to the United Nations — whose public service career appeared to sunset at the end of the George W. Bush administration — is among the cavalcade of neoconservatives newly emerged on cable television and in hawkish policy seminars to say “We told you so” on Iraq.

But Mr. Bolton is unique among Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol and the others in that he has two political action committees and is flirting with an all-but-hopeless campaign for president, which seems to be fueling him in what amounts to a homecoming week for the Bush administration, minus the tailgating.

“He ignored all the potential consequences,” Mr. Bolton fumed about President Obama’s removal of American troops from Iraq, in recent comments on Fox News radio. “The fact was the continuing presence of U.S. troops in Iraq was critical to sustaining the victories that we won.”

Mr. Wolfowitz, a deputy defense secretary under Mr. Bush who is widely viewed as an architect of the Iraq war, echoed Mr. Bolton on MSNBC, saying that he was not the architect of the war but that if he had been, “things would have been run very differently.”

Mr. Kristol, the founder of the conservative Weekly Standard, weighed in on ABC with the view that “it’s a disaster unfortunately made possible, or certainly made more likely, by our ridiculous and total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.”

And in the pages of The Wall Street Journal this week, Danielle Pletka, the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote that “the security investments made by the U.S. over the past decade — like them or not — are being frittered away.”

“If we do nothing,” she wrote in an op-ed article with Jack Keane, a retired general and former vice chief of staff of the Army, “it is the American people who again will pay a terrible price.”

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