Gazette 062514

Wednesday June 25th 2014

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Iraq PM Nouri Maliki rejects calls for unity government

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has rejected calls for a national salvation government to help counter the offensive by jihadist-led Sunni rebels.

Such calls represented a "coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience", he warned.
The US has led appeals to the country's political leaders to rise above sectarian and ethnic divisions.
Government forces have been unable to recapture the territory seized by the rebels this month.
Almost half of the 300 US military advisers assigned to help the Iraqi security forces have arrived and are to start work on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the crisis in Iraq is being discussed by Nato leaders meeting in Brussels. They have been joined by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has just returned from a two-day visit to Baghdad and Irbil.
'Dangerous goals' In his weekly televised address, Mr Maliki called on "all political forces to reconcile" in the face of a "fierce terrorist onslaught".
Related : Iraq PM concentrates troops around Baghdad as Iraq becomes increasingly fragmented

Iraq Violence: Militant Backers Vow To Attack Americans If U.S. Launches Airstrikes

DUBAI, June 25 (Reuters) - Online backers of the Sunni Islamist militants who seized swaths of Iraq this month have said that any U.S. air strikes on the fighters will lead to attacks on Americans.

President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 American advisers to Iraq to help halt the advance by militants from al Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Washington has so far held off granting a request by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government for air strikes.

A Twitter account with 21,000 followers naming itself the "League of Supporters" called for ISIL sympathizers to post messages online on Friday warning the U.S. not to carry out any strikes.

"This campaign reflects the messages sent by all the Sunni people all over the world to the American people ... (It's) a threat to every American in the event of an American strike on Iraq," the message read.

Among hundreds of supportive responses, one user posted, "As our martyred sheik Osama bin Laden said, you need not consult anyone about killing Americans."

"American intervention in the affairs of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant means that the American infidel is a target for the strikes of the holy warriors anywhere," wrote another.

While lacking an official presence in social media, ISIL has a broad following online. The group regularly circulates high-quality film footage of its exploits in battles across Syria and Iraq.

Syrian activists say government warplanes target Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, killing 5

BEIRUT –  Syrian opposition activists say that government warplanes have struck an eastern city that is a stronghold of an Islamic militant group, killing five civilians.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the jets struck a target near the headquarters of the al-Qaida breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the provincial capital of Raqqa on Wednesday, also wounding dozens of others.

Another activist group, the Syria-based Local Coordination Committee also reported Wednesday's airstrike on Raqqa and said it claimed at least five lives.
The Islamic State, along with other rebel groups fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, captured Raqqa in March 2013.
Recently, the group has become a major fighting force in Iraq.

Afghan troops battle mass Taliban assault in Helmand

At least 100 Taliban militants have been killed in fighting around four military checkpoints in southern Afghanistan, local officials say.

Five days of clashes in Sangin district in Helmand province left 35 civilians and at least 21 Afghan troops dead.
Tribal elders in the area say over 2,000 families have been displaced.
Three US soldiers died just last week in an explosion in Helmand. Last month, British troops left their last outpost, withdrawing to the Camp Bastion base.
Sangin district in northern Helmand is regarded as a strategic area as drug dealers and Taliban insurgents have been active in the area, and they often work together, reports the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul. The district lies on the border with Pakistan.
There is no independent confirmation of the number of dead. The militants said on Tuesday that only two of their fighters had been killed and that more than 40 soldiers had died.
The Afghan military does not have its own air force and President Karzai has banned it from asking for Nato air power to be used in populated areas, our correspondent notes.

Officials: Militants assassinate senior intelligence officer in Yemeni capital

SANAA, Yemen –  Yemeni security officials say militants have assassinated a senior intelligence officer in the country's capital, Sanaa.
The officials say Col. Khaled al-Khawlani was killed in front of his house in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday.

Al-Khawlani was involved in investigating al-Qaida-linked militant cells suspected of being behind the abductions and killings of foreigners over the past months.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Yemen has seen dozens of police and military officers assassinated in apparent retaliatory attacks for the government's offensive against al-Qaida hideouts in the south.
Washington considers Yemen's al-Qaida branch as the terror group's most dangerous offshoot.

Cairo Subway Attacks: Explosions Hit 4 Stations, Causing Widespread Panic Among Commuters

CAIRO (AP) — Four near-simultaneous small explosions went off in subway stations and outside a court building in Cairo on Wednesday, wounding three people and causing widespread panic among morning commuters, officials said, in the first attacks since the election of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former army chief who last year's ouster of Islamist president.

Authorities quickly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attacks, describing them as "desperate attempts" to disrupt the "prevailing state of stability." The group, to which the ousted President Mohammed Morsi belonged, has denied involvement in any violence. But even some Islamists warn that young Brotherhood supporters could turn to attacks under pressure of a fierce crackdown on the group for nearly a year.

Three of the blasts, caused by homemade explosive devices, went off in separate subway stations in central and northern Cairo, and the fourth was a bomb that had been planted under a car outside a courthouse in the upscale Heliopolis district, Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif said. In one of the subway attacks, one of the injured was a man who carried the explosive in his backpack, Abdel-Latif said. In another, the bomb was hidden in a garbage can.

A total of three people were injured in the attacks, Abdel-Latif said.

West warns Russia of sanctions amid Ukraine fighting 

The West has warned Russia of new sanctions after fighting flared up in eastern Ukraine despite a truce between the government and pro-Russian rebels.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin that new sanctions could be applied if efforts to stabilise the situation were not speeded up.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said inaction by Russia would mean a stronger case for sanctions.
President Petro Poroshenko warned he might end the truce due to violations.
The ceasefire began on Friday. On Tuesday, a Ukrainian military helicopter was shot down with the loss of nine lives.
There was fighting overnight into Wednesday near the Russian border in Luhansk region.
The Ukrainian military accused the rebels on Wednesday of breaking the ceasefire 44 times since it began. A separatist leader said there had "been no ceasefire".
The truce is part of Ukraine's plan to end two months of fighting between government troops and pro-Russian insurgents who control key buildings in towns and cities across the east. More than 420 people have been killed in the region since mid-April, the UN estimates.
President Poroshenko is expected to unveil proposals for constitutional reform to give regions greater self-government when he attends parliament on Thursday.
On Friday, he is due to sign the long-delayed association agreement with the EU - a pact that was rejected in January by then President Viktor Yanukovych under heavy pressure from Russia.
'Sanctions can return' Mrs Merkel welcomed the surprise decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cancel a parliamentary resolution authorising him to use Russian forces in Ukraine.
The cancellation was ratified by Russia's upper house of parliament on Wednesday.

U.S. And Allies May Target Key Russian Economic Sectors In New Sanctions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and its European allies are finalizing a package of sanctions on Russia's key economic sectors that could be levied as early as this week, though the penalties might be delayed because of positive signals from Russian President Vladimir Putin, administration officials and others close to the decision-making said Tuesday.

Penalizing large swaths of the Russian economy, including its lucrative energy industry, would ratchet up the West's punishments against Moscow over its threatening moves in Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe have already sanctioned Russian individuals and entities, including some with close ties to Putin, but have so far stayed away from the broader penalties, in part because of concern from European countries that have close economic ties with Russia.
But with the crisis in Ukraine stretching on, a senior U.S. official said the U.S. and Europe are moving forward on "common sanctions options" that would affect several areas of the Russian economy. A Western diplomat said those options included Russia's energy industry, as well as Moscow's access to world financial markets.
The U.S. and Europe have been eyeing a European Council meeting in Brussels later this week as an opportunity to announce the coordinated sanctions. However, the enthusiasm for new sanctions, particularly among European leaders, appears to have waned in recent days as countries evaluate whether Putin plans to follow through on a series of promises that could ease the crisis, officials said.
The Russian leader acted Tuesday to rescind a parliamentary resolution authorizing him to use the Russian military in Ukraine. He also urged the new Ukrainian government to extend a weeklong cease-fire and called for talks between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels that are widely believed to be backed by the Kremlin.
Putin's moves came one day after he talked by phone with President Barack Obama, their first known conversation in more than two weeks.

N Korea threatens 'merciless' response against US over Kim Jong-un film

North Korea wants film about attempt to assassinate leader banned and says failure to stop its release will be 'act of war'

North Korea has threatened a "resolute and merciless" response against the US unless it bans a film about an attempt to assassinate the North's leader, Kim Jong-un.
In its first official comment on The Interview, a comedy directed by Evan Goldberg, North Korea warned the US government that failure to stop the film being released would be considered an "act of war."
The comments, attributed by North Korea's official news agency KCNA to an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman, did not mention the film by name, but it was clear that the criticism was directed towards The Interview, which will be released in the US on 14 October.
It appears that the film's plot has touched a nerve inside the regime, which takes a dim view of satirical treatment of its leaders and is notoriously paranoid about perceived threats to their safety.
In the film, Seth Rogen and James Franco play celebrity TV journalists who secure an exclusive interview with Kim, but are then recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.
The foreign ministry official, in typically bombastic style, berated the film's makers as gangsters and described the film's release as "reckless US provocative insanity".
The film had sparked "a gust of hatred and rage" among the North Korean citizens and soldiers, the official said, although ordinary North Koreans are probably unaware of its existence and, with very few exceptions, will never get to see it.
"The act of making and screening such a movie that portrays an attack on our top leadership … is a most wanton act of terror and act of war, and is absolutely intolerable," the spokesman said in a statement carried by KCNA.

Experts downplay threat that Israel’s neighbor could soon be engulfed in jihadist mayhem

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) takeover of the only Iraqi border crossing to Jordan has set off alarm bells that Israel’s neighbor could be the next to find itself engulfed in jihadist mayhem. However, Jordanian officials and experts are downplaying the chances of the Iraqi scenario repeating itself in their country.
The more likely threat, they say, comes from an internal terrorist insurgency, rather than ISIS overrunning its border.
David Schenker, the director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former official dealing with the Middle East for the Pentagon, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that Jordanian officials were less concerned about the risk from ISIS on the country’s border with Iraq, as Jordan has enough firepower to prevent a replay of the northern Iraq scenario.
However, he believes that while the risk is not imminent, ISIS and other Sunni jihadist groups do have Jordan on their to-do list.
Schenker, who recently returned from a visit to Jordan, said that al-Qaida’s Syrian branch, al-Nusra Front, has far more local support, but that ISIS also has some appeal because people are upset with the image of Shi’ites slaughtering Sunnis throughout the region.
The more pressing threat to Jordan is that jihadist groups like ISIS would carry out terror attacks and assassinations within the country. Moreover, many Syrian refugees who have entered the country have not been properly vetted, he said.
On the street in Maan, he added, people are unhappy with the poor economic situation and the harsh government response to protests, in which some have been killed in recent weeks.

Shots fired at Pak plane while landing in Peshawar, 1 killed

PESHAWAR: One person was killed and two others injured when shots were fired at a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane landing at the Peshawar airport on Tuesday night.

The shots were fired at the Boeing flight PK756 carrying nearly 180 passengers from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Peshawar, PIA spokesman Mashood Tajwar told PTI.

"I can confirm two people were injured — a steward and a woman passengers," he said.

But news channels reported that the woman had expired while two others on the flight were injured.

Tajwar said engineers were inspecting the airplane after it landed safely and passengers were evacuated.

"They were 178 passengers besides crew members on the flight," Tajwar added.

A police official said the shots could have been fired from a nearby residential area which is close to the airport.

"We have to see whether the plane was targeted or whether it was hit by bullets from aerial firing which is common in these areas," he added.

US forces arrive in Baghdad to advise Iraqi troops

The first US troops deployed to assist the Iraqi army in combating a growing Sunni militant insurgency have arrived and begun work, the Pentagon has said.

Nearly half the 300 special operations soldiers promised by US President Barack Obama are in Baghdad or on the front lines of the fight.
The rest are expected within days.
Also, US Secretary of State John Kerry called for regional unity to expel the Sunni Isis rebels who have taken large swathes of Iraq.
On Tuesday, two teams totalling 40 US troops began work assessing Iraqi troops on the front line, the Pentagon said.
An additional 90 personnel will work in Baghdad to set up a new joint operations command centre.
Those teams will be joined by an additional four teams of 50 troops each in the next few days.
The Obama administration has stressed the troops are not intended as operational forces but instead are there to advise the Iraqis and provide intelligence, reports the BBC's David Willis in Washington.
The Iraqi government had requested American air strikes, but Mr Obama has been reluctant to do anything that could lead to accusations the US was taking sides in a sectarian conflict, our correspondent reports.
The insurgents, spearheaded by Islamists fighting under the banner of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), have overrun much of north and west Iraq, including the second-biggest city, Mosul.
The violence has claimed at least 1,075 lives in Iraq in June alone, most of them civilians, a United Nations human rights team has reported.

IRS agrees to $50,000 settlement in leaking of conservative group's donor records

The IRS has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a $50,000 settlement to a conservative group after confidential information from the group’s tax returns about its donors was published on the website of a political opponent.
A federal court ordered the U.S. government to pay the settlement to the National Organization for Marriage, a group that opposes same-sex marriage. The group sued the IRS last year after tax information from a 2008 form was leaked and ended up being published in 2012 by the Human Rights Campaign, which supports gay rights.

The group’s chairman John Eastman said in a statement Tuesday that he is thankful that the IRS is being held accountable after a “long and arduous” process.
“Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve forced the IRS to admit that they in fact were the ones to break the law and wrongfully released this confidential information,” he said.
IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland said privacy law prevents his agency from commenting. The agency was represented by the DOJ in the lawsuit.
After the settlement was announced, House Ways and Means Chairman David Camp, R-Mich., blasted the DOJ for declining to pursue the case, adding it was clear the DOJ could not be trusted to adequately investigate the IRS targeting scandal, either.
“While the administration prefers to sweep this under the rug, it is time that the American people have a special prosecutor into this matter so the full truth can come out,” he said in a statement.

Nearly half of promised US military personnel now in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Ninety U.S. troops arrived in Iraq on Tuesday to help set up Joint Operations Centers and begin assessing conditions on the ground, as the U.S. contemplates launching airstrikes against Islamic militants who have overrun much of the country in recent weeks.
The 90 troops are a mix of special operators and conventional forces, including intelligence analysts and logistical experts. Another four assessment teams, comprising 50 troops, will arrive in Baghdad in the next few days, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters.
The 90 troops who arrived Tuesday will join the 40 personnel who were already on the ground when the assessment effort kicked off. These troops will help determine how best to flow in additional advisory teams, Kirby said. All of the services are represented in these assessment teams, according to Kirby.
Last week, President Barack Obama announced that he had authorized up to 300 American military advisers to deploy to Iraq to help the embattled government there thwart the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a transnational militant group that has taken over much of northern and western Iraq and moved within 35 miles of Baghdad.
The assessment teams will help the Obama administration and the Pentagon learn more about the state of the Iraqi security forces, the situation on the ground, and ISIL’s activities. They will also make recommendations about how to proceed with the advisory mission. Their initial assessments are expected to be completed in two or three weeks, Kirby said.

Chief of staff to Ohio Rep. Stivers resigns after lewd photo posted on Twitter

The chief of staff to Republican Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio has resigned after a graphic photo of the aide appeared over the Internet.
Adam Kuhn, a longtime aide to Stivers, submitted his resignation Tuesday.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Kuhn said he was the victim of an attack on Twitter from a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. He expressed regret for what he called "poor judgment in my personal life."
In the last week, the woman tweeted at least one photo of Kuhn's penis to Stivers' Twitter account.
A spokeswoman for Stivers said the congressman had accepted Kuhn's resignation and that the office had no comment on Kuhn's personal life.

Dick Cheney predicts 'far deadlier' attack against U.S. in next decade

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday he expects another terrorist attack on U.S. soil within the next 10 years.

"I think there will be another attack, and next time I think it's likely to be far deadlier than the last one," he said on the conservative Hugh Hewitt radio program when asked if the United States could get through another decade without another "massive attack on the homeland."
Cheney continued: "You can imagine what would happen if somebody could smuggle a nuclear device, put it in a shipping container and drive it down the beltway outside Washington, D.C." 
He made similar comments Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
"One of the things I worried about 12 years ago and that I worry about today is that there will be another 9/11 attack and that the next time, it'll be with weapons far deadlier than airline tickets and box cutters," he said.
His predictions come as the former vice president, who was highly involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during the George W. Bush administration, is now pressing hard against President Barack Obama's foreign policy.
Cheney penned a blistering opinion piece with his daughter, Liz Cheney, for the Wall Street Journal, last week.
"Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," they wrote. "Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory."
They also announced the launch of a new group, "The Alliance for a Strong America," a non-profit advocacy organization that will surely keep them in the political fray on issues involving foreign policy.
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