Gazette 081814

Monday August 18th 2014

Iraq crisis: Military claims control of Mosul dam

There are conflicting reports about whether Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iraqi troops have fully retaken Mosul dam from Islamic State (IS) militants.

Iraqi military spokesman Lt-Gen Qassim Atta told state TV the dam - Iraq's largest - had been "fully cleansed".
Troops had been backed by a joint air patrol, he added, without specifying if there had been any US air strikes.
However, journalists in the area said fighting was continuing and jihadists remained in control of the main gate.
An Islamic State statement also contradicted the military's claim, saying it had repelled Kurdish fighters and inflicted heavy losses.
The BBC's Paul Wood, who is just behind the front line, says reports that the Kurds have taken the dam complex may be true, but the battle is still continuing over a very wide area.
Our correspondent says air strikes are clearly taking place, as he has seen planes flying overhead, explosions and plumes of smoke.
Related: Iraqi and Kurdish troops re-take control of Mosul Dam from Islamic State, official says

Israelis, Palestinians harden positions as end of Gaza cease-fire nears

CAIRO –  Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Egypt-mediated Gaza truce talks hardened their positions Monday ahead of the expiration of a five-day cease-fire, though both sides appeared reluctant to return to the deadly all-out fighting that has destroyed large parts of the densely-populated coastal strip.
Since last week, indirect talks have been taking place in Cairo through Egyptian mediators in an effort to broker a substantive end to the war and draw up a roadmap for Gaza.

On Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli delegations resumed the talks following weekend consultations across the Middle East but gaps between the two sides remain wide, with each staking out maximalist positions.
The Gaza blockade, imposed by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas militants took control of the strip in 2007, remains the main stumbling block. It has greatly limited the movement of Palestinians in and out of the territory of 1.8 million people, restricted the flow of goods into Gaza and blocked virtually all exports.
A Palestinian negotiator, Qais Abdul Karim, told The Associated Press that on Sunday, Israel pressed for guarantees that Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza would be disarmed, while the Palestinians demanded an end to the blockade without preconditions.
Related: Gaza conflict: Peace talks resume in Cairo

Iran attempted large-scale cyber-attack on Israel, senior security source says

Iran attempted to conduct a large-scale cyber-attack on Israeli civilian communications during the war with Hamas this summer, a senior security source revealed on Sunday.
“This is not something we have seen before, both in terms of scope and the type of targets. They targeted communications infrastructure that belong to the civilian sector in Israel,” the source said. Iranian elements were definitely behind the attack, he said, though their aim to cause maximum disruption, was not achieved.
Cyber attackers targeted IDF websites, but online defenses withstood the assault, the source said.
The official, who is familiar with the IDF’s telecommunications capabilities, said an integrated military communications network was used in Gaza during the conflict.
The network serves all branches of the armed forces, enabling them to share intelligence.
This led to swift sensor- to-shooter cycles, in which targets that were detected in Gaza were rapidly destroyed.
In addition to being linked to one another, the ground forces, air force, and navy were directly linked to Military Intelligence.
“Our aim is to enable a military force to be far more effective than it was a year ago.
We succeeded in seeing that during this operation,” the source said.
During the conflict, Military Intelligence loaded new targets onto encrypted servers and relevant IDF units – particularly ground forces – were able to immediately access the intelligence on their command and control system.
Visual intelligence, a critical aspect of modern combat, was available on-demand as well, meaning that all ground forces received access to aerial views of combat areas before entering them.
“Seventy-five percent of the military’s visual intelligence is on the network,” the source said. “We can see, online, aerial visual intelligence, and what the aircraft is seeing,” he added and stressed that the network was highly encrypted.
Additionally, the network allowed for “intelligence- based combat” in Gaza, referring to the ability to direct ground forces to targets detected by Military Intelligence.
This included information that was obtained by questioning Hamas suspects who were taken into Israeli custody.
The intelligence was immediately transmitted to ground forces that operated in relevant areas.

Activists say jihadi fighters closing in on last government-held army base in northern Syria

BEIRUT –  Activists say Syrian warplanes have bombarded jihadi positions in the northern province of Raqqa as Muslim extremists close in on the last army base in the region.
The Tabqa air base is the last position held by Syrian government troops in Raqqa province — which is mostly under the control of the extremist Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported intense clashes Monday between troops and Islamic State fighters on the edge of the villages of Ajil and Khazna. It said there were casualties on both sides.
The Raqqa Media Center, an activist collective, said Islamic State group fighters captured four villages near Tabqa air base, including Ajil.
The Observatory and RMC also reported intense air raids for the second day on Raqqa's provincial capital.

Saudi prince's convoy in Paris attacked by gunmen

Heavily armed men have attacked a convoy of cars belonging to a Saudi prince, stealing 250,000 euros (£200,000; $330,000), police say.

The convoy was heading through northern Paris on its way to Le Bourget airport late on Sunday evening when it was raided, reports say.
The gunmen seized a vehicle carrying the money and documents, later releasing the driver and two others.
The convoy was said to have come from the Saudi embassy. No-one was hurt.
The gunmen, reportedly armed with Kalashnikov rifles, targeted a Mercedes mini-van at 21:15 (19:15 GMT) on the northern ring road, or peripherique, at Porte de la Chapelle, on the edge of Paris.

Libyan militia spokesman: Rockets target Islamist-led militia in Tripoli, killing 6 people

CAIRO –  A Libyan militia spokesman says rockets targeting positions of an Islamist-led militia in the capital, Tripoli, have killed six people.
The attack is part of weeks-long fighting between rival militias in Tripoli, which has forced thousands to flee the country, including diplomats, foreign nationals and Libyans.

Ahmed Hadiya, the spokesman for Fajr Libya militia, says the rockets were launched late Sunday from the Wittiya air base west of Tripoli. He did not provide more details.
A militiaman from the coastal city of Misrata says two warplanes belonging to renegade Gen. Khalifa Hifter's followers took part in the attack. The militiaman spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to media.
Egypt on Monday cancelled all flights to Libya, saying Libyan authorities had closed the country's airspace.

Ukraine Says Government Forces Have Entered Rebel-Held City

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Army troops have penetrated deep inside a rebel-controlled city in eastern Ukraine in what could prove a breakthrough development in the four-month-long conflict, the Ukrainian government said Sunday.
However, the military acknowledged that another one of its fighter planes was shot down by the separatists, who have been bullish about their ability to continue the battle and have bragged about receiving support from Russia. An Associated Press reporter spotted a column of several dozen heavy vehicles, including tanks and at least one rocket launcher, rolling through rebel-held territory on Sunday.
Talks in Berlin between the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict ended without any substantial result.

Ukraine's national security council said government forces captured a district police station in Luhansk on Saturday after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood.
Weeks of fighting have taken their toll on Luhansk, which city authorities say has reached the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The siege mounted by government forces has ground delivery of basic provisions to a halt and cut off power and running water.
Although rebel forces have regularly yielded territory in recent weeks, they have continued to show formidable fighting capabilities.

In Hong Kong, Tens Of Thousands Stage Pro-Government Rally

HONG KONG (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, many wearing red as a sign of their patriotism to China, took part in a demonstration march in Hong Kong on Sunday to protest a planned civil disobedience campaign by pro-democracy activists in the city.
Demonstrators braved wilting heat to participate in the rally, which was organized by a pro-Beijing group. Many carried banners or shouted slogans saying they wanted to "oppose" the Occupy Central with Love and Peace pro-democracy movement, while others waved Chinese flags. Some, however, seemed to be not quite certain what they were protesting.
Occupy Central's organizers have sparked political turmoil in Hong Kong and unease in Beijing with their plan to rally at least 10,000 people to freeze the specially administered Chinese financial hub's central business district if the government fails to come up with satisfactory democratic reforms.

After the former British colony came back under Chinese control in 1997, it was allowed to keep a high degree of autonomy over its own affairs and Western-style civil liberties unseen on the mainland, although an elite pro-Beijing committee picks the city's leader. Beijing has promised that starting in 2017, Hong Kong voters can choose the leader, but insists candidates be vetted by the committee, which democracy activists reject.
"Occupy Central is an extreme way of protest," said Terence Chung, a company manager who joined Sunday's march. "Using legal ways to express opinions is all right. If it comes to an irrational protest, social order will be disrupted."
The Alliance for Peace and Democracy held the rally to cap its monthlong anti-Occupy petition campaign. But tactics used to mobilize supporters raised questions about whether demonstrators knew why exactly they were marching.
Pro-establishment trade unions or professional groups, for example, urged members to join. People who recently moved to Hong Kong from mainland China were also offered cheap day tours of the city, with stops that included lunch, a museum visit and the anti-Occupy march, according to local news reports.
"I don't understand what Occupy Central is for," said a 54-year-old construction worker, who gave only his surname, Siu, and turned out with his daughter. When asked why he joined the rally, he would only say that it was because he had some free time.

UK should be prepared to use military prowess against Isis, says Cameron

PM rules out ground troops as Britain steps up military mission in Iraq which defence secretary says could last months

The UK should be prepared to use its diplomatic and military prowess to help defeat the "monstrous organisation" of the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, David Cameron has said.
As Britain steps up its military involvement – by flying warplanes deeper into Iraq in a mission that could last months, according to the defence secretary, Michael Fallon – the prime minister warned of an extremism crisis in the country.
But Cameron, who confirmed that Britain would look favourably on any request for arms from Kurdish forces fighting Isis, told BBC1's Breakfast programme on Monday: "Britain is not going to get involved in another war in Iraq. We are not going to be putting boots on the ground. We are not going to be sending in the British army.
"Yes we should use all the assets we have – our diplomacy, our political relationships, our aid, the military prowess and expertise we have to help others – as part of a strategy to put pressure on Islamic State and make sure this terrorist organisation is properly addressed and it cannot cause mayhem on our own streets."
Cameron later rejected calls to recall parliament to discuss the Iraq crisis. He said he would keep the issue of a parliamentary recall under review but insisted that Britain's response to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq did not merit an emergency Commons debate.
Speaking at the Relationships Alliance, Cameron said: "I don't think it is necessary to recall parliament. I think that we are not contemplating things that would require that. But I am very happy to keep that under review, as I always do whenever there is a parliamentary recess. We have parliamentary recalls from time to time."

Ebola Clinic Is Looted In Liberian Capital's Largest Slum

Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including blood-stained sheets and mattresses.

The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought from other parts of the capital to the holding center, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister, said Sunday. It was not immediately clear how many patients had been at the center.

West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. The residents took mattresses, sheets and blankets that had bloodstains, which could spread the infection.

Liberian police restored order to the West Point neighborhood, which is home to an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 poor Liberians. Health officials say they fear the looting incident will spread Ebola infections in the capital, Monrovia.

Ebola has killed 1,145 people in West Africa, including 413 in Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.

In East Africa, the Kenyan government took steps to prevent the disease from spreading. Kenya will bar passengers traveling from three West African countries hit by the Ebola outbreak, closing a debate in East Africa's economic powerhouse about whether the national airline was exposing the country to the deadly disease.

The suspension is effective midnight Tuesday for all ports of entry for people traveling from or through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, said Kenya's Health Ministry. Nigeria was not included in the ban, which also allows entry to health professionals and Kenyans returning from those countries.
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Ferguson protests: National Guard sent to Missouri unrest

The US state of Missouri is sending the National Guard to the town of Ferguson as protests escalate over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Governor Jay Nixon signed an order to "help restore peace and order".
An independent autopsy found Michael Brown, 18, had been shot by an officer six times, including twice in the head.
On Sunday evening police dispersed angry crowds shortly before a second consecutive night under curfew began.
The mother of Michael Brown has called for the arrest of the officer who killed her son on 9 August. He has been suspended pending a full investigation.
Officials last week confirmed that Darren Wilson, a six-year police veteran with no previous complaints against him, has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
In an interview with US media, Mr Brown's mother said the only way to restore peace in Ferguson was by "arresting [Mr Wilson] and making him accountable for his actions".
A preliminary post-mortem examination by the St Louis County Medical Examiner's office on the day after Mr Brown's death found he had been shot, police said, without disclosing how many times.
But a preliminary private post-mortem report has since revealed that he was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, the New York Times reports.
The probable fatal shot entered the top of Mr Brown's head, forensic pathologist Michael Baden was quoted by the paper as saying.

How reporters are driving the murky Michael Brown coverage -- sometimes too fast

The arrest of two reporters in a McDonald’s in Ferguson, Mo. was a turning point in the coverage of Michael Brown’s death, but not for the reason you may think.
It’s not that the public was outraged that a couple of scribes got roughed up by the cops and taken to jail on trumped-up charges that were quickly dropped. What happened instead is that against the backdrop of officers in riot gear firing tear gas at protestors (and an al-Jazeera crew), the police suddenly seemed out of control.

Until that moment, the events in Ferguson were following an all-too-familiar script. You had a predominantly white police department in a heavily black town. A white officer shot and killed an unarmed black 18-year-old. The African-American community exploded in anger and riots erupted, followed by a police crackdown.
In fact, as USA Today points out in a helpful bit of reporting, a white police officer killed a black person nearly twice a week over a seven-year period ending in 2012. Some 18 percent of the blacks killed during that period were under 21, compared to 8.7 percent of whites.
As stunning as those figures are, they suggest that the police-vs.-protestors story line in the aftermath of such a killing—with excesses on both sides—has, sadly, become a familiar part of American culture.

Obama Heading Back To DC In Rare Break From Vacation

President Barack Obama is getting off the island.

In a rare move for him, the president took a break in the middle of his Martha's Vineyard vacation to return to Washington just after midnight Monday for meetings with Vice President Joe Biden and other advisers on the U.S. military campaign in Iraq and tensions between police and protesters in Ferguson, Missouri.

The White House has been cagey about why the president needs to be back in Washington for those discussions. He's received multiple briefings on both issues while on vacation. The White House had also already announced Obama's plans to return to Washington before the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq began and before the shooting of a teen in Ferguson that sparked protests.

Part of the decision to head back to Washington appears aimed at countering criticism that Obama is spending two weeks on a resort island in the midst of so many foreign and domestic crises.

Yet those crises turned the first week of Obama's vacation into a working holiday. He made on-camera statements Iraq and the clashes in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb. He also called foreign leaders to discuss the tensions between Ukraine and Russia, as well as between Israel and Hamas.

"I think it's fair to say there are, of course, ongoing complicated situations in the world, and that's why you've seen the president stay engaged," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Obama is scheduled to return to Martha's Vineyard on Tuesday and stay through next weekend.

Texas Governor Rick Perry vows to fight 'farce' indictment

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has vowed to fight an indictment against him for abuse of power, which he dismissed as a "farce".

It "amounts to nothing more than an abuse of power... I cannot and will not allow that to happen," Mr Perry said.
He faces two counts of abuse of power and coercion over a funding veto he imposed last year, seen as a bid to force a local prosecutor to resign.
The possible Republican presidential hopeful has denied any wrong-doing.
A grand jury indicted Governor Perry on Friday after months of investigation into his motivations for cutting funds amounting to $7.5 million (£4.5 million) to a state anti-corruption unit run by District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.
Special prosecutor Michael McCrum said there was evidence Governor Perry had threatened to withhold funding unless Ms Lehmberg, a Democrat, resigned over drink-driving charges.
'I intend to fight' The indictment said Governor Perry "intentionally or knowingly misused government property...with intent to harm another" namely, Ms Lehmberg and the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office.
But the governor defended his decision on Saturday, saying he had "exercised this authority to veto funding for an office whose leadership had lost the public's confidence by acting inappropriately and unethically".
"I wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto, and I'll continue to defend this lawful action of my executive authority as governor.
"I intend to fight against those who would erode our state's constitution and laws, purely for political purposes, and I intend to win," Governor Perry told reporters.
Governor Perry, 63, is the longest-serving governor in the state's history and Texas's first indicted governor in nearly a century.

Hillary Clinton requires 'presidential suite,' stenographer for speaking engagements, report says

Hillary Clinton has not yet announced whether she will be running for president in 2016, but a new report suggests that she has a taste for luxury to match any world leader.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained Clinton's contract and related documents related to a scheduled October 13 speech at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Foundation fundraiser. The documents show that Clinton received $225,000 to speak at the fundraiser, a discount from her initial $300,000 asking price. But the fee was only the first of Clinton's many stipulations. 

The former Secretary of State insists on staying in the ‘presidential suite’ of a luxury hotel of her staff's choice, with up to five other rooms reserved for her travel aides and advance staff. Clinton also reportedly requires that the Foundation provide a private plane. However, the jet can not be any private plane; only a $39 million, 16-passenger Gulfstream G450 "or larger" will do the job.
“It is agreed that Speaker will be the only person on the stage during her remarks,”  reads the contract for the event, which also requires that Clinton have final approval of all moderators or introducers. 
Also, according to her standard speaking contract, Clinton has to stay at the event no longer than 90 minutes and will pose for no more than 50 photos with no more than 100 people. There is no press coverage of video or audio taping of her speech allowed, with the only record allowed being made by a stenographer whose transcript is given to Clinton. The paper reports, however, that the stenographer's $1,250 bill will be paid by the UNLV Foundation.
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