Gazette 081514

Friday August 15th 2014

Hamas negotiators in Qatar to discuss Israel truce proposal with group's leadership

CAIRO –  Hamas negotiators are consulting with the militant group's leadership in Qatar on a proposal for a long-term truce with Israel.
Israel and Hamas are observing a five-day temporary cease-fire in an attempt to allow indirect talks in Cairo to continue. The negotiations are meant to secure a substantive end to the monthlong Gaza war and draw up a roadmap for the coastal territory, which has been hard-hit in the fighting.

Hamas is demanding the lifting of the blockade Israel and Egypt imposed after the militant group seized power in the coastal strip in 2007.
Israeli officials have largely kept quiet about the negotiations, saying only that the country's security needs must be met.
Representatives of Palestinian factions in Cairo said Friday that progress was being made.
Related: No change in policy on weapons deliveries to Israel, US says

Terror finance trial plaintiffs: Arab Bank records show funds were transferred to Hamas 

One of the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers said evidence would show that the bank required "all employees to donate 5 percent of their salaries" to the second intifada.

Plaintiffs told the jury in the Arab Bank terror financing trial on Thursday that “you will see bank records in black and white that say ‘Hamas’” as proof the bank knew it was being used to fund terrorism.
One of the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers, Mark Werbner said that evidence would show that the bank required “all their employees to donate 5 percent of their salaries” to the second intifada.
The plaintiffs allege that Arab Bank, Jordan’s sovereign bank with branches in 30 countries, facilitated massive transfer of funds to Hamas leaders and institutions, as well as to the families of imprisoned Hamas members and suicide bombers, via Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s al-Shahid Foundation.
It is alleged that Arab Bank knew the transfered funds were not solely related to terrorists and terrorist groups, but used in attacks – a charge that the Jordanian institution denies.
Werbner added that the funds that passed through the bank “is the oxygen that feeds these kinds of organizations.”
Tab Turner, another plaintiff’s lawyer, said that the evidence would show “millions, literally millions” of dollars “flowed right down the middle of Madison Avenue.”
Turner also said that the applicable US anti-terrorism financing law on the issue says, “thou shalt not provide financial services to foreign terrorist organizations.”
He accused the bank of serving “as the paymaster” for an alleged terror-funding Saudi Arabia-related committee.
Aside from the accusations, the plaintiffs displayed photographs, bank records, bank letters and internal memoranda to prove their case while opening with a description of a March 28, 2001, terrorist attack connected to the case, and allegedly to the bank.

Iraq crisis: Emergency EU talks on arming Kurds 

EU foreign ministers have held emergency talks on arming Iraq's Kurds against the advance of Islamic State (IS) militants in the north.

Any decision would build on French and US moves to supply weapons to the Kurds, whose Peshmerga fighters provide a bulwark against the extremists.
The Islamic State group's violence against religious minorities has driven out an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was flying to Iraq.
He will meet Kurdish leaders and the government in Baghdad to discuss what support is most needed.
"We cannot just watch as people are slaughtered there," he said after the foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "If the current threat level persists, I can't rule out that we will have to deliver weapons."
Iraq has appointed a new prime minister to tackle the crisis. Haider al-Abadi, deputy speaker of the parliament, took over from his fellow Shia Muslim politician Nouri Maliki on Thursday, ending a dangerous political deadlock in Baghdad.

Who will condemn the sexual enslavement of Iraq’s minority women?

Slavery and rape are being used as weapons of war by Isis against Yazidi and Christian women, yet rights activists are silent.

Evidence that women belonging to the Yazidi and Christian religious minorities in Iraq are being raped and sold into slavery by the Islamic State (Isis) is mounting. One of the first to speak out was Vian Dakheel, the only Yazidi female MP who addressed the Iraqi parliament last week, despite the speaker telling her to be quiet and stick to the agreed statement.
“Mr Speaker, our women are being taken as slaves and being sold in the slave market,” she said.
A spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry, Kamil Amin, confirmed that the Islamist group had captured Yazidi women under 35 years old, that it is holding them in schools and likely to use them as slaves.
The news was reaffirmed by the Iraqi Red Crescent and the international press, which reported that those fleeing had received phone calls from their daughters, wives or sisters saying they were being taken as brides or warned to convert or die. The issues has also been documented by US state department and the UN.
The intention of highlighting the plight of minority women is not to obscure the broader suffering of religious minorities in Iraq, which according to UN officials amounts to genocide. Nor is it to ignore the predicament of many Iraqi women who have suffered the worst backlash against their rights since the Islamist authoritarian regime of Nouri al-Maliki took power, and, more recently, in Isis-controlled areas.
Rather, it is to press for acknowledgement of the ways in which gender, religion and location intersect to produce a situation in which women belonging to minority religions are being targeted.
As Isis has taken over cities with large religious minority populations in Nineveh and Mosul, they have targeted women belonging to those minorities.
The Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq has decried the abduction of women and their rape under the Isis banner of jihad al-nikah (sex for the pursuit of struggle).
But there has been a deafening silence among other feminists worldwide, including those in Arab countries. Since the bombing began in Gaza, I have received an impressive stream of petitions, requests for solidarity, and for contributions to campaigns to help women there, and I applaud all these efforts. I have not received a single plea from any women’s rights groups calling for solidarity with the Yazidi and Christian women whose communities are facing a genocide.

Syria crisis: Assad forces retake key Damascus district

Syrian forces have retaken a key district of Damascus from opposition forces, activists and state media say.

Security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad moved in on Mleiha, which is 10km (6 miles) from the centre of the capital, on Thursday morning.
The operation followed a campaign of air strikes on the town, which sits on the main road to Damascus airport.
On Wednesday, Islamist militants were said to have seized several towns from rebels in the northern Aleppo province.
Opposition groups in Syria have been fighting President Assad for over three years, but have lost ground in recent months.
Correspondents say they are facing attacks from the brutal Islamic State group in the north and an offensive by government troops on the outskirts of Damascus and south of Aleppo.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - an activist group that monitors the conflict - said the government forces retook Mleiha with help from fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group.
Clashes were still going on in the town's surrounding areas on Thursday afternoon, the SOHR said.
State media said President Assad's troops had killed a "large number of terrorists" and were in pursuit of other gunmen in farms on the outskirts of the town.


Protesters march on in Pakistan; shots fired at Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Clashes erupted on Friday between ruling PML-N activists and supporters of opposition leader Imran Khan after shots were fired at his vehicle, as tens of thousands of protesters marched towards the capital with an aim of ousting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Two opposition groups, led by cricketer-turned-politician Khan and Canada-based cleric Tahirul Qadri, plan to converge on Islamabad to press Sharif to call an early election little over a year after his landslide victory in the polls.

"The PML-N workers opened fire on my container (vehicle). If I was hit who could stop my party workers from reacting," said Khan, the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

He urged his party workers to remain peaceful, saying if the martial law was imposed in the wake of the government's actions his party would be blamed.

"The government is blaming us for the Gujranwala incident. It will also blame us in case martial law is imposed on such acts of the government," said Khan, who boarded a bullet-proof car after gun shots were reportedly fired at his vehicle in Gujranwala.

NATO boss says alliance observed Russian incursion into Ukraine, which Russia denies

COPENHAGEN, Denmark –  NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance has observed a Russian "incursion" into Ukraine, which Russia denies.
During a visit to Copenhagen on Friday, Fogh Rasmussen told reporters: "I can confirm that last night we saw an incursion (into) Ukraine." Rasmussen did not give details of the alleged incursion but said "what we have seen last night is the continuation of what we have seen for some time."

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's security council, said some Russian military vehicles had crossed the border into Ukraine. Two British journalists said they saw Russian armored personnel carriers cross the border.
Russia's Federal Security Service said Russian forces are patrolling the border area but denied that military vehicles had moved into Ukraine.

Ukraine border guards to inspect Russian aid convoy

Ukrainian border guards have arrived to inspect a controversial Russian aid convoy parked at the frontier.

The convoy aims to bring aid to cities in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian rebels, although reporters said many of the lorries were largely empty.
Ukraine fears the convoy may carry military supplies for the rebels, an accusation Russia has rejected.
Meanwhile Nato on Friday condemned what it said was an "incursion" into Ukraine by Russian military vehicles.
On Thursday, two reporters had said they saw Russian army vehicles heading into Ukraine.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "We see a continuous flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into eastern Ukraine, and it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in [its] destabilisation."
The UK Foreign Office summoned Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko "to clarify reports of Russian military incursion".
The Ukrainian military said its forces had engaged an armoured column and partially destroyed it.
Russia's government has consistently denied directly arming or training the rebels, who sparked the conflict in April when they took control of several cities in eastern Ukraine.

At least 14 killed as African Union forces attack insurgents in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU: At least 14 people were killed in heavy fighting when African Union peacekeepers entered a surburb of the Somali capital Mogadishu in an offensive against armed militias.

Frequent militant attacks in the Horn of Africa country show that a push by African Union peacekeeping troops has not weakened the Islamist al-Shabaab group's capacity to wage asymmetric warfare in the capital, where coordination between Somali and foreign intelligence agencies is poor.

"At least 14 people, mostly militia, died in the fighting this morning. The government's aim is to secure the city," Major Abdullahi Farah, a senior police officer, told Reuters.

Liberian police seal newspaper office, try to detain publisher for critical coverage

MONROVIA, Liberia –  Dozens of riot police have sealed the offices of a newspaper critical of the Liberian government and officers attempted to detain its publisher. Police spokesman Sam Collins says the paper's criticisms could "plunge the country into confusion" when the government is struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak.
Philibert Brown's National Chronicle has often accused President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government of corruption and on Wednesday it called for the government to step down.

Brown has been ordered to report for questioning Friday.
Sirleaf's government has come under stiff criticism for its record on press freedoms. Sirleaf has signed the Declaration of Table Mountain, which calls for the Africa-wide repeal of defamation and "insult" laws, but multiple libel convictions have been handed down since she came to power in 2006.
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 Obama says US 'broke Mt Sinjar siege'

President Barack Obama has paid tribute to US forces for an operation in northern Iraq that helped "break a siege" and rescue tens of thousands of displaced people.

Mr Obama said the situation on Mount Sinjar had greatly improved.
Many of those displaced had now left the mountain and further rescue operations were not envisaged, he said.
However, Mr Obama said the US would continue air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) rebel group.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces who were fighting IS would also continue to receive US military assistance, Mr Obama said.
The jihadist militants, formerly known as Isis, seized a large band of territory across northern Iraq and Syria this summer.
The United Nations estimates that 1.2 million Iraqis have been internally displaced by the latest violence.

Obama Steps Into Another Racially Charged Incident

For President Barack Obama, the intersection of race and the law has revealed both the pitfalls and the power of wading into these delicate matters as the nation's first black president.

Just months after being sworn in, Obama rapped police in Massachusetts for acting "stupidly" by arresting a black Harvard professor at his own home. After more details of the case were revealed, Obama clarified his statements and tried to make amends by hosting an awkward "beer summit" at the White House with the professor and police officer.
Four years later, unburdened by re-election, Obama spoke out passionately about the 2013 acquittal of the man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen gunned down near his family's home in Florida. In unusually personal terms, Obama declared that Martin "could have been me 35 years ago" and gave voice to the pain felt by the African-American community.

Now the president is again wading into a racially charged matter that has riveted the nation, this time in Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a white police officer. The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Saturday has been followed by violent clashes between police and protesters.
In his first in-person statement on the situation, Obama appealed Thursday for "peace and calm" in Ferguson and called for restraint by all involved.

Federal judge orders IRS to provide more details of Lerner computer crash

A federal judge is demanding the IRS provide a more detailed explanation of what happened to the potentially thousands of missing emails of former agency official Lois Lerner.
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Thursday ordered the IRS to provide a new sworn declaration giving more details about Lerner’s computer troubles, just days after the IRS submitted several to the court as part of a case brought against the agency by a conservative watchdog group.

Sullivan said the IRS must provide the declaration from an official with the “authority to speak under oath for the agency” by August 22. IRS officials previously said under oath that Lerner’s emails were lost when her computer crashed, and technicians were unable to recover the drive’s data.
Sullivan said the explanation must include how the IRS attempted to retrieve the emails of Lerner, a central figure in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, from alternative sources such as mobile devices. Sullivan also asked the IRS to explain in detail how the agency tracks hard drives when they are being serviced and provide information from an outside source to verify the agency’s policy regarding the destruction of hard drives.
Judicial Watch, which filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the IRS over the missing emails, said Thursday that it is clear that Sullivan agreed with their view that the declarations previously submitted by the IRS were inadequate.

First Wave Of National Guard Troops Arrives At Texas-Mexico Border

The first wave of National Guard troops has taken up observation posts along the Texas-Mexico border.

Texas National Guard Master Sgt. Ken Walker of the Joint Counterdrug Task Force says "several dozen" soldiers deployed in the Rio Grande Valley are part of the up to 1,000 troops called up by Gov. Rick Perry last month.
Several Guardsmen were seen Thursday afternoon manning an observation tower along the busy road leading to the Hidalgo International Bridge.
Walker says this first batch has been specifically trained to man observation towers in the area belonging to local law enforcement agencies and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They will serve as extra eyes on the border and report suspicious activity to authorities.
State officials have estimated the deployment will cost $12 million per month.

Kerry’s Jet Breaks Down in Hawaii

HONOLULU — Since becoming secretary of state in February 2013, John Kerry has carved out a deserved reputation as the ultimate road warrior. Before his current diplomatic trip, Mr. Kerry had traveled 519,136 miles to 51 countries, logging 230 travel days.

While Mr. Kerry seems none the worse for wear, his Air Force plane finally broke down, at Hickam Air Force Base on Thursday morning as a result of electrical problems.

Mr. Kerry headed to the Honolulu airport to catch a commercial flight to Washington, along with much of his staff and the traveling news media. “Finally, some frequent flier miles!” he observed.

Mr. Kerry’s latest journey took him to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Australia, the Solomon Islands and, finally, Hawaii, where he delivered a speech on Asia policy. 

While waiting for his flight, Mr. Kerry received a briefing from the commander of the United States Pacific Command, and spoke with administration officials and foreign leaders, a senior State Department official said.

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