Weekend Gazette 060114

Sunday June 1st 2014

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U.S. Soldier Taken Hostage By Taliban Released In Exchange For 5 Guantanamo Detainees

A U.S. soldier taken hostage by the Taliban in 2009 was released in exchange for five Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been held in captivity since June 30, 2009. According to the AP, the 28-year-old's release was mediated by Qatar, and he is in good condition.
The AP added that Bergdahl was the only American soldier imprisoned in Afghanistan. According to an April 2014 AP report, about two dozen officials at the State and Defense departments, the military's U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Special Operations Command, the CIA and FBI had been working on the case.

UPDATE (6:20 p.m. ET): President Barack Obama delivered a statement from the Rose Garden with the parents of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by his side. Obama said Bowe was "never forgotten" and as a parent, he couldn't "imagine the hardship" they went through.
"We cannot wait for the moment when you are reunited," Obama added.
Bergdahl's release comes days after Obama announced plans for the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Nearly 10,000 will be there after 2014, followed by a virtual withdrawal of all presence by the close of 2016 and the conclusion of Obama's presidency.
"We also maintain an ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home," Obama said. That’s who we are as Americans."

Israel PM warns against Hamas-Fatah 'terror' cabinet

Israel has called on world leaders "not to rush to recognise" a new Palestinian transitional government involving Fatah and the Islamist group Hamas.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the unity cabinet, due to be formed on Monday, would "strengthen terror".
The Palestinian leadership has dismissed Israel's concerns, saying the government would comprise ministers without political affiliation.
Hamas and Fatah split violently in 2007 but announced a peace deal in April.
Fatah governs in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank while Hamas - which has refused to recognise Israel - holds sway in the Gaza Strip.
The Islamist movement is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the EU, Canada and Japan.
The main purpose of the unity government is to prepare for elections next year.
Boycott 'threat' "Hamas is a terrorist organisation that calls for Israel's destruction, and the international community must not embrace it," Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet in Jerusalem on Sunday.
Israel froze US-brokered peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after the unity deal was reached on 23 April.

Iran announces execution of dissident for 'enmity against God'

An Iranian dissident has been executed by hanging for "enmity against God" despite protests by human rights groups who claimed that the man received an unfair trial. 
The execution of Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani was announced Sunday on the website of Tehran's Revolutionary Prosecutor's office.  Khosravi had been sentenced to death in 2010 after it was alleged that he donated money to the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), a group that seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic, according to Amnesty International. 

A report from Iran's official news agency claimed that Khosravi was also accused of providing photos of the country's military facilities to the MEK, as well as helping to recruit for the group. The report also said that Khosravi had been previously detained from 1981 to 1986.
Khosravi was reportedly held for over 40 months in solitary confinement in various detention centers since he was arrested in 2008 for his links to the group also known as Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Both his detention and sentence were strongly condemned by human rights groups. 
“Yet again Iranian authorities are about to execute a man who did not even receive a fair trial in total disregard of both international law and the Iranian law,” Hassiba Hadj Saharoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement Saturday.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, Woman Sentenced To Death For Apostasy, To Be Freed Soon: Sudan Official

KHARTOUM, May 31 (Reuters) - A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for converting to Christianity is expected to be released soon, a government official said on Saturday, after Khartoum came under diplomatic pressure to halt her execution.
"The related authorities in the country are working to release Mariam (Yahya Ibrahim), who was sentenced to death for apostasy, through legal measures," Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary Abdelah Al-Azrak told Reuters.
"I expect her to be released soon," he added.
A Sudanese court this month imposed the death sentence on the pregnant 27-year-old woman, who is married to a Christian American, and ordered her to return to Islam.
The sentence caused a diplomatic incident, with Britain urging Sudan to uphold what it called its international obligations on freedom of religion.
Ibrahim’s lawyer, Mohaned Mostafa, said neither he nor the woman's husband had been notified about any release.
"But we do hope she will get released soon," Mostafa told Reuters.
Ibrahim was also sentenced to 100 lashes for what it deemed her adultery for marrying a Christian. Last week she gave birth in prison to a daughter, her second child by her American husband Daniel Wani.

Guns and fighters seep through Ukraine's porous Russian border

Combatants engaged in last week's fighting say walked into the country 'to visit relatives' at poorly policed checkpoints

In late April, 65 Russian men in groups of five to 10 crossed the border with Ukraine on foot, telling border guards they were going to visit relatives.
It wasn't a fond babushka who picked them up at the border, however, but rather pro-Russian rebels from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine. They bussed the Russian fighters to the regional capital, where they took up arms and last week engaged in the fiercest combat yet against forces loyal to Kiev.
"I was watching events in Odessa and was very upset about what was going on," said one of the Russian fighters, who would give only his wartime nickname "Varan" or "Monitor Lizard". Clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters in that city last month left more than 40 people dead. "I called up the military enlistment office and asked what I could do. They said people were gathering in Rostov and it may be possible to go to Ukraine. It's not official; they whispered it in my ear, so to speak."
The Russian fighters – including veterans of the military, intelligence services and riot police – formed the core of a new unit called the Vostok Battalion, which took a lead role in the bloody battle for the Donetsk airport last week, in which 33 Russian citizens were killed.
The story of how Varan and his brethren simply walked into the country highlights the problem that Ukraine has had in keeping out the growing number of Russians reinforcing local rebels in the two-month-old uprising in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Recently, Ukrainian forces have reportedly captured vehicles carrying weapons from Russia, while others have got through, hinting at the porous nature of the 1,400-mile border between the two countries.
Speaking on national television on Friday, Anton Geraschenko, a top aide to Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov, said establishing greater control of the border will be key to Kiev's "anti-terrorist operation" against pro-Russian rebels in the east.

Huge Thai security force deployment stifles coup protests

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's military government sent thousands of troops and police into central Bangkok on Sunday, stifling any mass dissent against the army's coup on May 22 and limiting protesters to small gatherings held mostly around shopping malls.
The military toppled the remnants of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's administration after months of protests forced ministries to close, hurt business confidence and caused the economy to shrink.
Yingluck herself was ordered to step down two weeks before the coup when a court found her guilty of abuse of power.
A force of 5,700 police and soldiers was deployed in central Bangkok on Sunday, and rapid deployment units were on hand to stop protests against the coup that might spring up elsewhere, deputy police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said on Sunday.
The military has banned political gatherings of five or more people and protests that have taken place in Bangkok have been small and brief.
A group of protesters gathered on Sunday on an elevated walkway leading to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, scene of small protests in the days after the military declared martial law on May 20 prior to its full takeover of government. Hundreds of troops with riot gear arrived and suddenly stormed the walkway, sending protesters and onlookers fleeing.

Smugglers 'kill six Egyptian guards' near Libya border

Six Egyptian border guards have been killed in a clash with a group of smugglers in a mountainous region near the Libyan border, the military says.

The smugglers attacked the patrol in retaliation for a crackdown, according to the Facebook page of Egyptian military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali.
Egypt has been trying to prevent Libyan weapons and fighters from reaching Islamist militants in the Sinai.
Both countries have been grappling with unrest since the uprisings of 2011.
Libya's government has struggled to restrain the heavily armed militia groups that helped drive former president Col Muammar Gaddafi from power.
Meanwhile, instability in Egypt has strengthened support for the former military chief, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who secured a landslide win in a presidential election last month.
According to an official quoted by the AP news agency, the latest clash between border guards and smugglers took place on Saturday night.
The official said the men were killed in Wadi el-Gadid province, which borders Libya to the west and Sudan to the south.

6 arrested after latest clashes between hooded youths, Spanish police in Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain –  Spanish officials say police have arrested six more people after a sixth night of clashes with youths in Barcelona.
The disturbances erupted in the touristic Mediterranean city after the partial dismantling of a popular social center that had been run by squatters for 17 years. Since then, dozens of people have been arrested.

The melee overnight left a trail of burning garbage containers, damage to bank cash machines, and vandalized public property and parked cars.
A police spokesman said the arrests Sunday resulted from spillover violence after some 3,500 people marched peacefully through the city center a day earlier.
The spokesman said police also checked the identity papers of 225 people. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted publicly in the media.

Iranian commander says readying launch of air defense system more advanced than Russian S-300 

The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami announced on Saturday that his country has built a top secret air-defense system, which is more advanced than the Russian s-300.
"An air defense system more advanced than what they didn’t supply to us due to their strategic interests went on display in the IRGC's recent exhibition," Salami said in Tehran according to a report by Iran’s Fars news agency.
He said that the air-defense system would not be publicly displayed, but would "remain confidential" for now.
Media reports indicate that Iran has long sought to purchase the S-300 from Russia but has faced pressure from the US and Israel against the sale.
Russian officials told Amos Gilad in 2009, then head of the political-military bureau in the Defense Ministry, that the missiles to Iran would not be delivered for political reasons.
In the end, Russia scrapped the sale in 2010, and in what may have been a quid pro quo, Israel agreed to sell Russia surveillance drones that would narrow its technological military gap with Georgia.
Salami added, according to the report, that its ballistic missiles now enjoy "pinpoint precision capability when fired at mobile targets; this might be impossible in terms of science, but it is true and, in addition to us, only the Russians might possess this technology and even the Americans do not have it."
"As regards the ground force power, the IRGC stands atop the world, given its hundreds of martyrdom-seeking battalions and hundreds of highly trained combat battalions," he said.

Three dead as car hits spectators in Scotland rally: Police

LONDON: A rally car ploughed into a group of spectators in Scotland, killing three people and critically injuring another, police said.

The accident happened yesterday at the Jim Clark rally near Kelso, close to the English border. Five people suffered minor injuries when a car collided with spectators in an earlier accident during the same rally, police said.

"Investigations into both incidents are ongoing," Police Scotland said in a statement.

The rally is named after Scottish Formula One driver Jim Clark, who was killed in a motor racing accident in Germany in 1968. It takes place over three days on closed roads. 

 President Barack Obama's national security flops just keep coming

A strange obsession with setting out his national security agenda is backfiring for President Barack Obama 

The US leader President Barack Obama tried again this week to hit the reset button on his reputation as America’s guardian of national security.

While the issue plagues his poll ratings and his many speeches crowd out other more fruitful areas for a Democratic president, there he was again on Wednesday at West Point, outlining his foreign policy strategy.

The reception for the speech was dire.

The Washington Post declared that he had “marshaled a virtual corps of straw men,” in making an argument for an “Obama doctrine” that was at odds with every US president since the Second World War.

Aside from the very serious real-world consequences, Obama’s foreign policy failure also has serious political consequences. 
During the heady days of 2008, and beyond, when the “hope and change” mantra was still popular, it looked like Obama might just be able to reorder the entire American political calculus.
After decades of Democrats reinforcing the negative stereotype that they were weak on national security and foreign policy, it seemed as if he was on the cusp of exorcising those demons to rebrand his party as the serious and competent custodians of the nation’s safety.
By ordering lethal force to end the Somali pirate standoff in 2009 to free Captain Richard Phillips and by ordering the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, Obama’s first term featured some big moments as well as his signature big speeches.
It seemed for a time his vision for using Special Forces and drones to make surgical strikes (as opposed to threats of boots on the ground) was a workable alternative for a war-weary nation that wanted to exert influence without getting its hands dirty.
But while Obama was racking up symbolic victories amongst pirates and terrorists, the geopolitical situation was deteriorating, and authoritarian regimes were watching. The most egregious misstep was Obama’s drawing -- and then ignoring -- a red line on chemical weapons in Syria. At worst, it invited provocation.

Republicans seek to keep pressure on Obama over VA scandal

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republicans say that they intend to keep the pressure on President Obama over the mismanagement of the Department of Veteran Affairs, despite the departure of secretary of the agency Eric Shinseki.
"One personnel change cannot be used as an excuse to paper over a systemic problem,'' House Speaker Boehner said. "Our veterans deserve better. We'll hold the president accountable until he makes things right."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Boehner never directly called for Shinseki to step down from his role as some Republicans believed that such a move would take the heat off President Obama.
With President Obama’s falling popularity a possible benefit to the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections, lawmakers are keen to keep the focus on the VA scandal and to link it to other examples of what they claim is evidence of mismanagement from the Obama administration, such as the glitch-ridden rollout of the HealthCare.gov website.
"I continue to be alarmed by the mismanagement and lack of accountability that has become a pattern in the Obama administration," Rep. Scott Rigell, a Republican from Virginia's military-heavy Norfolk area told The Wall Street Journal.

Reince Priebus: Hillary Clinton 'Playing Politics' With Release Of Benghazi Chapter

WASHINGTON –- Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus suggested on Sunday that the release of a chapter from a new book by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was an intentional attempt to diffuse controversy over the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Politico obtained the chapter of the forthcoming book, Hard Choices, and published a report on it Saturday. The book is due out June 10. In the chapter, Clinton writes, "I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans … Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.”
Preibus suggested that the early release of that chapter was meant to set the talking points for Democrats on the issue.
"Hillary has been playing politics with this since the beginning, and she is launching an organized political defense," Preibus told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. "Their people are trying to preempt or stop any more criticism that she’s been receiving on Benghazi."
"She continues to play politics," he said. "Hillary Clinton is politics 24/7."
Priebus also said that in the days after the attack, Clinton should have appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows rather than sending National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Rice, who was the United Nations ambassador at that time, has said that Clinton was too exhausted from the "grueling" week to go on the shows.
Priebus said Clinton "failed to report for duty" by not appearing personally. "If she's even thinking about running for president, I think she has been disqualified because of her actions here," he said.
But he also said the leak of the chapter could be more about selling books than about Clinton's pursuit of the White House. "Publishers of books create this environment to make a lot of money. All of this talk makes her a lot of money," he said. "Don't confuse her pursuit of money and her pursuit of running for the White House."

Bergdahl release arrangement could threaten the safety of Americans, Republicans say

Amid jubilation Saturday over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity by the Taliban, senior Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were troubled by the means by which it was accomplished, which was a deal to release five Afghan detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to accuse President Obama of having broken the law, which requires the administration to notify Congress before any transfers from Guantanamo are carried out.
“Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans. Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans. That incentive will put our forces in Afghanistan and around the world at even greater risk,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. McKeon (R-Calif.) and the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, James M. Inhofe (Okla.), said in a joint statement.
Lawmakers were not notified of the Guantanamo detainees’ transfer until after it occurred.
The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests.
Before the current law was enacted at the end of last year, the conditions were even more stringent. However, the administration and some Democrats had pressed for them to be loosened, in part to give them more flexibility to negotiate for Bergdahl’s release.
A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.
“Due to a near-term opportunity to save Sergeant Bergdahl’s life, we moved as quickly as possible,” the official said. “The administration determined that given these unique and exigent circumstances, such a transfer should go forward notwithstanding the notice requirement.”

Obama Was On Veterans Affairs Committee From 2005-2008, Yet Still Feigns Ignorance Of Problems

Yesterday, Barack Obama appeared to try to shift responsibility for the VA scandal to his predecessors, saying the problems “predated my presidency” and “I only found out from reporters”.
Yes, problems did predate his presidency, but things became exponentially worse while he was in charge. Under him came not just long waits, but clearly a rampant policy of lying and deception concerning those wait times. This involved reports lying to Congress about those times.
Before Obama entered office in 2009, his transition team was also briefed as to the wait time problem.
Did Obama sleep through those meetings, and sleep though last his six years in office? Or doesn’t he believe he has any obligation to execute the duties of his office?
Before he got into office, when he was campaigning, he also pontificated upon the issue, saying how something must be done.
Now, one more thing.
In case you weren’t aware of it, Barack Obama was also on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 2005-2008. He’s had almost ten years where he has had a responsibility to address these issues. What was he doing then while our veterans waited?
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