Gazette 063014

Monday June 30th 2014

Isis rebels declare 'Islamic state' in Iraq and Syria

Jihadist militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria.

It also proclaimed the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and "leader for Muslims everywhere".
Setting up a state governed under strict Islamic law has long been a goal of many jihadists.
Meanwhile, Iraq's army continued an offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit from the Isis-led rebels.
The city was seized by the insurgents on 11 June as they swept across large parts of northern-western Iraq.
In a separate development, Israel called for the creation of an independent Kurdish state in response to the gain made by the Sunni rebels in Iraq.
Allegiance demand The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) announced the establishment of the caliphate in an audio recording posted on the internet on Sunday.

Pope asks Iraq leaders to use dialogue to avoid further warfare

Pope Francis asked Iraq leaders to use dialogue to avoid further warfare there, during his weekly address in St. Peter's Square after Mass -- his first major public ceremony since health problems forced a spate of canceled appointments.
"The news from Iraq is unfortunately very saddening. I join the bishops from that country in calling on the rulers to preserve national unity and avoid war through dialogue," he said. "I express my closeness to the thousands of families, especially the Christian ones, who have had to leave their homes and are in serious danger. Violence generates more violence. Dialogue is the only path to peace. Let's pray to the Virgin Mary to look after the Iraqi people."

Francis appeared to hold up well during the more than 90-minute Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to honor Saints Peter and Paul.
The Vatican has played down the cancellations, including one last-minute on Friday because 77-year-old Francis had an unspecified "mild" health problem.
The Vatican has played down the cancellations, including one at the last minute on Friday, attributing them without elaboration to some mild health problem.

Iraqi Forces Clash With Militants In Northern City

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on Sunday as part of a government offensive to retake the predominantly Sunni hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein from Sunni militants led by the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, residents and officials said.
The Iraqi military launched its push to wrest back Tikrit, a hotbed of antipathy toward Iraq's Shiite-led government, on Saturday with a multi-pronged assault spearheaded by ground troops backed by tanks and helicopters. Security officials said the army is coordinating its campaign with the United States.
Tikrit is one of two major urban centers that fell to insurgents earlier this month during their lightning offensive across the country's north and west.
The insurgents appeared to have repelled the military's initial push for Tikrit, and remained in control of the city on Sunday, but clashes were taking place in the northern neighborhood of Qadissiyah, two residents reached by telephone said.
Muhanad Saif al-Din, who lives in the city center, said he could see smoke rising from Qadissiyah, which borders the University of Tikrit, where troops brought by helicopter established a bridgehead two days ago. He said many of the militants in Tikrit had deployed to the city's outskirts, apparently to blunt the military attack.
Military spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi told reporters Sunday that the military was in full control of the university and had raised the Iraqi flag over the campus.

Israel Launches Airstrikes On Suspected Gaza Militant Sites

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in a central Tel Aviv square on Sunday night to draw attention to the plight of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted in the West Bank earlier this month.
The crowd packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, holding Israeli flags and posters of the three missing teens. Singers performed for the crowd, while politicians and relatives of the youths addressed the gathering.
The mothers of the teens each told the crowd that the nation is united in praying for the safety of their teens. "They know that we will never give up trying to bring them home," said Rachelle Fraenkel, one of the mothers.
The three teens — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — have not been heard from since hitchhiking home in the West Bank on June 12.
Israel has accused Hamas militants of kidnapping the teens, and the army has launched its broadest ground operation in the West Bank in nearly a decade in search of the teens. Israel has arrested about 400 Palestinians, most of them Hamas activists, and has identified two wanted Hamas operatives as the chief suspects. The two men remain on the run.
The plight of the teens has become a national obsession. Tens of thousands of people held a mass prayer for them shortly after their abduction, and there have been daily vigils and speeches on their behalf.
Sunday night's demonstration was perhaps the largest public gathering to date, taking place as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivering a policy speech. He said he had ordered the army "to spare no effort to bring them home."
Related: Gaza rockets strike southern Israel

Netanyahu hints at further Gaza action: Either Hamas reins in rocket fire or we will

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Monday that Israel would take action to stop rocket fire from Gaza if the quiet which followed Operation Pillar of Defense continues to be violated.
Netanyahu was speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, hours after some 15 rockets from Gaza were fired at southern Israel, causing damage to a number of homes in the western Negev. 
The prime minister warned Hamas that it is responsible for reining in the rocket fire. "I want to make clear that if the silence from Operation Pillar of Defense is violated and the shooting continues, their are two options: either Hamas will stop the rocket fire, or we will."
More than two weeks after three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the West Bank, Netanyahu said that Israel's "first goal was and remains to bring the boys back in peace."
Netanyahu said that he had instructed the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF to use "any means" to find and bring home the kidnapped teens.
FADC chairman Ze'ev Elkin said that the committee had held a series of in depth discussions since Operation Brother's Keeper began and was seeking further clarification from Netanyahu on where the operation stands and what further steps will be taken in the future.

Cairo bomb blasts kill two Egyptian policemen

Two bombs have exploded near a presidential palace in Egypt's capital, Cairo, killing two police officers.

The first blast killed one officer and injured three others. The second device blew up as security forces tried to defuse it, killing the other officer.
Islamist militants said they had planted bombs in the area last week.
The attack coincides with the first anniversary of the mass opposition protests that led to the military overthrowing President Muhammad Morsi.
Cairo's security chief told BBC Arabic that the head of the bomb-disposal department, Gen Alaa Abdel Zaher, was among those injured by Monday's explosions.
Meanwhile, the civil defence deputy chief said security forces were currently defusing two other bombs found outside the presidential palace.
A source inside the presidential palace said President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's schedule had not been changed following the blasts.
Bombings and shootings by Islamist militants have left hundreds of security personnel dead since Mr Morsi was ousted on 3 July.
The militants have stepped up attacks in response to the crackdown on Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, in which more than 1,400 people have been killed and 16,000 detained.

Pakistan troops launch ground offensive against Taliban

The Pakistani army says it has launched a ground offensive against Taliban militants in North Waziristan.

A statement said operations had begun around Miranshah, the main town in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The move follows air strikes which the army says have killed 370 militants. There is no confirmation of the figure.
North Waziristan has long been a sanctuary for militants. Correspondents say many are thought to have left the area before the offensive began.
The assault comes three weeks after militants attacked Pakistan's largest airport in Karachi, leaving more than 30 people dead.
For the past two weeks, Pakistani forces have been carrying out air strikes against what it says are militant hideouts in North Waziristan.
Among their targets, they say, have been Uzbek militants who claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack and their Pakistani Taliban (TTP) allies.
Monday's army statement said troops were now conducting a door-to-door search in Miranshah.
"Troops have recovered underground tunnels and IED [improvised explosive device] preparation factories," it said.
The town has been one of the main TTP bases during recent years when militants who had at times been tolerated by the military killed thousands of people in a bombing campaign across Pakistan.


North Korea preparing to try 2 American tourists

TOKYO: North Korea, on Monday, said that it is preparing to try two Americans who entered the country as tourists for carrying out what it said were hostile acts against the country. Though a small number of US citizens visit North Korea each year as tourists, the state department strongly advises against it.

Investigations into Americans, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Edward Fowle, concluded that suspicions about their hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their testimonies, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report.

KCNA said North Korea is making preparations to bring them before a court. It did not specify what the two did that was considered hostile or illegal, or what kind of punishment they might face. It also did not say when the trial would begin.

Fowle arrived in the county on April 29.

North Korea's state media said in June that authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit.

Diplomatic sources said Fowle was detained for leaving the Bible in his hotel room. But a spokesman for Fowle's family said the 56-year-old from Ohio was not on a mission for his church. His wife and three children said they miss him very much and "are anxious for his return home", according to a statement after his detention that was provided by a spokesman for the family.
 

Ukrainian soldiers call for lifting of cease-fire

KIEV, Ukraine –  Several hundred Ukrainian soldiers and activists gathered outside the presidential administration in Kiev on Sunday to call for an end to the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, an indication that tensions remain high a day ahead of a deadline for steps toward easing the violence.
After the weeklong cease-fire expired Friday, President Petro Poroshenko agreed to extend it through Monday in an effort to stop the fighting between government troops and Moscow-backed separatists that has left hundreds dead.

The European Union also set a Monday deadline for Russia and the separatists to take a series of steps, including releasing all captives, retreating from border checkpoints, agreeing on a way to verify the cease-fire and beginning "substantial negotiations" on Poroshenko's peace plan. If this was not done, the EU warned that it was ready to impose new punitive measures on Russia.
Soldiers from the Donbass battalion, a militia formed by volunteers, appealed to Poroshenko on Sunday to allow them to resume the fight.
A presidential administration official, Henadiy Zubko, promised to pass on their demands to the president, but told them that the cease-fire order would remain in effect until 10 p.m. Monday (1900GMT).
Both sides have been accused of violating the cease-fire.

Hong Kong prepares for mass protest against Beijing control

Organisers expect 500,000 at rally as residents call for say in choice of chief executive and activists hold unofficial referendum

Hong Kong is braced for protests on Tuesday, which organisers expect will draw at least 500,000 people, potentially making it the region's largest demonstration in recent history.
The scale of the protests reflects frustration at Beijing's plans to choose Hong Kong's next chief executive. Nearly 800,000 residents – more than a fifth of the city's electorate – had cast ballots in an unofficial "referendum" as the polls closed on Sunday, according to the vote's organisers.
The pro-democratic protest group Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) announced that 798,000 Hong Kong residents had voted in its "civil referendum", an unofficial vote on how their next chief executive – the region's top official – should be elected. Beijing has bristled at the poll. One government official called it illegal and invalid, while China's state-run media has called it a farce and a folly. The referendum website has been barraged by highly advanced cyber-attacks.The region's activists remain unmoved. "The turnout [at this year's protest] will be a sort of signal, just as the referendum was a signal of the number of people who are satisfied with Beijing's method of choosing the chief executive," said Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an assistant law professor at Hong Kong university and one of the movement's leaders. "It takes just two minutes to vote. But attending the rally – that takes a lot of time and effort. That's evidence of stronger determination."
OCLP closed its final polling station at the university's student union building at 10pm local time on Sunday, amid intermittent rainstorms. Volunteers wearing green and yellow vests removed large cardboard ballot boxes, weaving through a scrum of local and foreign journalists pressed against the doors. Just outside the university, vestiges of recent counter-protests littered the pavements – scattered leaflets and bold red banners reading "say no to Occupy Central" affixed to the guardrails.
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Obama to name Bob McDonald as new VA chief

President Barack Obama is to nominate the former head of consumer products giant Procter and Gamble to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bob McDonald, an Army veteran, would replace Eric Shinseki, who resigned.
The agency has been mired in scandal, with managers alleged to have falsified records to conceal long hospital waits.
It is also dealing with a huge influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and struggling to provide care to an aging generation of Vietnam veterans.
Mr Obama is scheduled to make the announcement on Monday afternoon at the Veterans Affairs (VA) headquarters in Washington.
White House officials say Mr McDonald's corporate background at the head of one of the largest consumer products companies in the world has prepared him well to lead an agency that serves more than eight million veterans a year.
Mr McDonald - who has donated to Republican politicians, including Ohio Senator Rob Portman and House Speaker John Boehner - would need to be confirmed by the Senate.
Mr Shinseki resigned in May after an internal investigation found veterans at an Arizona VA hospital had waited an average of 115 days for an initial appointment, even as hospital administrators reported to the agency an average wait time of only 24 days.
This month, another internal audit reported that more than 57,000 veterans had been waiting up to three months for medical appointments at VA hospitals.
Congress is considering legislation that would enable former soldiers to seek medical care from private hospitals and from other government healthcare programmes while authorising funds to hire more doctors and nurses.

Decision Day: Hobby Lobby team ‘very confident’ ahead of Supreme Court ruling

Supporters of the arts-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby -- the business at the center of one of this session's most closely watched Supreme Court cases -- are sounding a confident tone ahead of Monday's expected decision in their case challenging ObamaCare's so-called contraception mandate. 
The court meets for a final time Monday to release decisions in its two remaining cases before the justices take off for the summer. 

The most contentious is that brought by Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby and a furniture maker in Pennsylvania. The for-profit businesses have challenged the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that employers cover contraception for women at no extra charge among a range of preventive benefits in employee health plans. It is the first major challenge to ObamaCare to come before the court since the justices upheld the law's individual requirement to buy health insurance two years ago. 
Supporters of Hobby Lobby cite a few factors potentially leaning in their favor, including the tone of oral arguments in March and a unanimous decision last week finding President Obama overreached in making recess appointments to a labor board. 
"Absolutely, we win -- we are very confident after oral argument in March that we will prevail in this case," Hannah Smith, senior counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Hobby Lobby, told Fox News. She suggested this, too, is a case of government "overreach." 
Citing recent unanimous decisions, she added: "We're hopeful we might see some unanimity here."   
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., also said he's hopeful the court will "uphold the rights of individuals for their expression of their religious freedoms." 
He, too, cited the ruling Thursday that Obama "exceeded his constitutional authority" in speculating that the court might deliver another blow to the administration on Monday. 
The court, though, has surprised onlookers before when it comes to ObamaCare. In the major Supreme Court challenge to the law's individual mandate two years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts cast the pivotal vote that saved the health care law in the midst of Obama's campaign for re-election. 
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., speaking on "Fox News Sunday," predicted the Supreme Court would rule against Hobby Lobby.

UPDATE: VICTORY: Hobby Lobby DEFEATS Obamacare at Supreme Court

Marine Who Disappeared In Iraq In 2004 Is Back In U.S. Custody

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Marine who was declared a deserter nearly 10 years ago after disappearing in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. claiming he had been kidnapped, only to disappear again, is back in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 34, turned himself in and was being flown Sunday from an undisclosed location in the Middle East to Norfolk, Va. He is to be moved Monday to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to a spokesman, Capt. Eric Flanagan.

Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Lejeune, will determine whether to court martial Hassoun.

In a written statement from its headquarters at the Pentagon, the Marine Corps said the Naval Criminal Investigative Service "worked with" Hassoun to turn himself in and return to the U.S. to face charges.
Hassoun disappeared from his unit in Iraq's western desert in June 2004. The following month he turned up unharmed in Beirut, Lebanon and blamed his disappearance on Islamic extremist kidnappers. He was returned to Lejeune and was about to face the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing when he disappeared again.

Flanagan, said the Hassoun case is unrelated to the matter of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his post in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009 under unexplained circumstances. Members of Bergdahl's unit have said he walked away on his own and should face desertion charges.

The Bergdahl case triggered a flood of controversy in part because of questions about the deal the U.S. struck with the Taliban to gain his release May 31, after five years in captivity, in exchange for freeing five senior Taliban commanders from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bergdahl has not commented publicly on the circumstances of his disappearance and the Army has made no charges against him.

It is unclear where Hassoun, 34, has spent the past nine years after disappearing during a visit with relatives in West Jordan, Utah in December 2004. Nor is it known why he chose to turn himself in now. He was born in Lebanon and is a naturalized American citizen.

Bill Clinton: 'There's A Lot Of Evidence' In Favor Of Legal Medical Marijuana

Former president Bill Clinton spoke out in favor of letting states decide whether or not to legalize marijuana, pointing to "a lot of evidence" showing that medical marijuana can help patients with a wide range of symptoms.
In an interview with NBC's David Gregory taped in Denver last week, Clinton -- who famously claimed he "didn't inhale" when asked about his own history with marijuana in 1992 -- was asked whether he believes it's time to "give pot a chance."
"I think there's a lot of evidence to argue for the medical marijuana thing," Clinton said. "I think there are a lot of unresolved questions, but I think we should leave it to the states. This really is a time when there should be laboratories of democracy, because nobody really knows where this is going."
The Obama administration has largely agreed with Clinton, allowing laws legalizing the use of recreational marijuana to go into effect in Colorado and Washington and permitting banks to do business with legal pot shops. House Republicans, however, have attempted to derail decriminalization efforts in Washington, D.C., inspiring more debate over whether the government should intervene as more states move toward legalization.
While Clinton stopped short of endorsing legalization at the federal level, he said he supports states' experimentation.
"There’s all these questions, and I think that I like where it is now," he said. "If the state wants to try it, they can. And then they’ll be able to see what happens.”

Union apologizes for attacks on former Hawaii governor in lawsuit settlement

Pacific Resource Partnership, an affiliate of the Hawaii Carpenters Union, has apologized for a barrage of media attacks that led to former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s defeat in the 2012 Honolulu mayoral race.
As a part of a legal settlement in a defamation lawsuit filed by Cayetano, Pacific Resource Partnership also will donate $100,000 to the University of Hawaii John A. Burns Medical School and $25,000 to the Hawaiian Humane Society on Cayetano’s behalf.

The agreement will end a lawsuit Cayetano filed in October 2012 after PRP Hawaii spent nearly $2 million on negative advertising targeting him, helping the pro-rail candidate, Kirk Caldwell, win election. The advertisements alleged Cayetano was corrupt and broke the law while he was governor from 1994 to 2002.
PRP Hawaii apologized in an advertisement in the June 22 edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The letter was signed by John White, executive director of the union.
“That apology is worth more than money, because I think it helped to erase the tarnish they put on my reputation,” Cayetano told Watchdog.org. The financial settlement went to two of Cayetano’s favorite charities.
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