Gazette 091811

Thursday September 18th 2014

Islamic State Seizes Syrian And Kurdish Villages In Major Assault

Islamic State fighters captured villages and besieged a Kurdish city in northern Syria near the border with Turkey on Thursday in a major assault that prompted a commander to appeal for military aid from other Kurds in the region.

With the United States planning to expand military action against Islamic State from Iraq to Syria, a surveillance drone was spotted for the first time over nearby Islamic State-controlled territory in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria's civil war, said.

It was not immediately clear who was operating the drone.

U.S. President Barack Obama last week said he would not hesitate to strike the radical Islamist group that has used Syria as a base to advance its plan to reshape the Middle East.

The United States is conducting air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and last month Obama authorized surveillance flights over Syria.

In an advance near the border with Turkey, Islamic State fighters using heavy weaponry including tanks seized a group of Kurdish villages near the city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani. The Observatory said 21 villages had fallen to Islamic State fighters advancing on the city.

Israeli official: Syria kept 'significant' chemical weapons 

JERUSALEM - Israel believes Syria has retained caches of combat-ready chemical weapons after giving up raw materials used to produce such munitions under pressure from foreign powers, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.

Summarizing Israeli intelligence estimates that were previously not disclosed to avoid undermining the Syrians' surrender of their declared chemical arsenal, the official said they had kept some missile warheads, air-dropped bombs and rocket-propelled grenades primed with toxins like sarin.

"There is, to my mind, still in the hands of Syria a significant residual capability ... that could be used in certain circumstances and could be potentially very serious," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

While saying Israel had a "high degree of confidence" in its information, he declined to give figures for chemical weapons allegedly kept by Syria, citing secrecy concerns as well as the possibility some had been destroyed or used by President Bashar Assad's forces.

"What we are saying is that there are a number of questions here that still have to be clarified, still have to be looked at very closely" by international inspectors, the official said.

Israel is an old foe of its northern Arab neighbor and in April 2013 its intelligence service was the first to accuse Assad's regime of using chemical weapons against areas held by Syrian rebels in the on-going civil war.

Western powers soon echoed the charge and Washington threatened Damascus with air strikes.

Assad agreed to give up the chemical arsenal, which Damascus had previously not acknowledged having. However, he denied his forces had used them and accused rebels of such attacks.

International diplomats told Reuters this week that Syria had revealed a previously undeclared research and development facility and a laboratory to produce the ricin poison.

Those disclosures appeared to support Western assertions in recent months that the Assad regime had not been fully transparent in detailing its chemical weapons program. 

Iran increasingly sceptical about 'murky' US intentions in Isis campaign

Iran's president calls US plans to combat Islamic State militants 'ridiculous' while military officials question Washington's aims

Iran has intensified its criticism of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (Isis), with key officials saying they doubt Washington intends to destroy the terrorist group and the president calling it "ridiculous".
Following Iran's exclusion from an international conference in Paris aimed at confronting Isis, senior figures in the Islamic Republic have said the US-led coalition will do little against the group and is doomed to fail.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, described the US-led coalition against Isis as "ridiculous" in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday.
"Are Americans afraid of getting casualties on the ground in Iraq?" he asked. "Are they afraid of their soldiers being killed in the fight they claim is against terrorism?"
Senior government and military officials in Tehran have in recent days argued the US's Isis strategy is intended to deliver it a greater military presence in the Middle East.
Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by the state-run Keyhan newspaper on Wednesday saying: "We have serious doubts that the US's intention is to obliterate [Isis]".
Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, said: "The pronounced goals of this coalition in the fight against terrorism are inconsistent with certain past and present deeds of its main architects and some of its members."

Nato convoy rammed by Taliban suicide bomber

Two US and one Polish soldier killed and 13 civilians wounded in attack near US embassy in Kabul

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a Nato convoy near the US embassy in Kabul, killing two US and one Polish soldier as well as wounding at least 13 civilians.
The attack was mounted in morning rush-hour traffic outside the supreme court and on a main road from the airport to the heavily fortified embassy.
"We can confirm three International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) members died as a result of an enemy attack in Kabul today," the Nato coalition said.
"It is Isaf policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."
The blast, on a route used daily by Nato convoys, shook buildings and sent a plume of smoke high above the city.
One of the first people on the scene was Sayed Mustafa Saadat, 27, a member of the Afghan national rugby team who was returning from a training session.
"I rushed to help survivors. I picked up a local man who had a broken leg and was badly burned," he told AFP. "I carried him all the way to the hospital, it took about 10 minutes, but I don't know if he survived."
Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai said at least 13 civilians were wounded and 17 civilian cars were damaged in the explosion.
Nato has 41,000 troops in Afghanistan, with about 29,000 from the US and 300 from Poland. All Nato combat soldiers will withdraw by December after 13 years of fighting the Taliban, with a follow-on mission of about 12,000 troops likely to stay on into 2015 on training and support duties.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack via a recognised Twitter account. "[A] powerful explosion destroyed 1 military vehicle, killing/wounding a number of American terrorists," said Taliban spokesman Abdulqahar Balkhi.
Afghanistan is stuck in a political stalemate over election results, with the two presidential candidates in talks to resolve the prolonged dispute about who won the 14 June poll to replace President Hamid Karzai.
Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah have been wrangling over a power-sharing deal after the vote was engulfed in allegations of fraud that have threatened to spark instability as Nato troops pull out.

Shia rebels in Yemen besiege university run by Sunni radicals

Thousands flee homes and number reported dead rises to 60 as Houthi fighters expand area under control in north of country

Security officials say Shia rebels have reached a suburb of Yemen's capital, Sana'a, where they are fighting Sunni militias and besieging a university run by one of the nation's best-known Sunni radicals.
The officials say Thursday's fighting in Shamlan has forced thousands to flee their homes, but they have no word on casualties. They say the rebels, known as Houthis, are surrounding the Iman University, an institution long viewed as a primary breeding ground for militants.
They say 60 people have been killed in the fighting during the past 48 hours.
The Houthis have recently routed their rivals, expanding the area under their control in northern Yemen.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

Australia raids foil reported ISIS beheading plots

Australian counterterrorism forces detained 15 people Thursday in a series of suburban raids after receiving intelligence that the Islamic State militant group was planning public beheadings in two Australian cities to demonstrate its reach.
About 800 federal and state police officers raided more than a dozen properties across 12 Sydney suburbs as part of the operation -- the largest in Australian history, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the Associated Press. A sword was removed as part of evidence at one of the homes.

Separate raids in the eastern cities of Brisbane and Logan were also conducted.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the plan involved kidnapping randomly selected members of the public off the streets in Sydney and Brisbane, beheading them on camera, and releasing the recordings through Islamic State's propaganda arm in the Middle East.
Later Thursday, Attorney General George Brandis confirmed that a person born in Afghanistan who had spent time in Australia and is now working with the Islamic State group in the Middle East ordered supporters in Australia to behead people and videotape the killings.
"If the ... police had not acted today, there is a likelihood that this would have happened," Brandis told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Ukraine crisis: President Poroshenko in key US visit

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged the US to provide military assistance to his country to counter pro-Russian eastern separatists.

In an address to a joint session of Congress, he said ill-equipped young Ukrainian servicemen were fighting a "war for the free world" against Russian aggression.
President Obama has condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine.
But he has said that military support will only include non-lethal equipment.
Mr Poroshenko told the joint session of Congress in Washington that Ukrainian government forces needed more equipment - both lethal and non-lethal.
"Blankets, night-vision goggles are important, but one cannot win the war with blankets," he said, to applause.

Murder case registered against Nawaz Sharif, ministers 

ISLAMABAD: A murder case has been registered against Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, three federal ministers and top police officials over the alleged killing of two persons during last month's clashes between the police and anti-government protesters, police officials said on Wednesday.

The case was registered at Islamabad's Secretariat police station under Anti-Terrorism Act and Pakistan Penal Code sections dealing with murder, attempted murder, attack and abetment of attack.

On Monday, a court had ordered the Secretariat police to register the case after hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) over the alleged killing of its workers. The deaths took place on night of August 30 when the police fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets on followers of cleric Tahirul Qadri-led PAT and Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to stop them from marching on the PM's house in Islamabad's heavily fortified red-zone.

Apart from the two victims, who died from rubber bullet injuries, another PAT worker died that night due to cardiac arrest. Over 500 people were injured.

Border standoff casts shadow on Chinese president’s visit to India

Indian and Chinese soldiers pulled back from a stand-off on a Himalayan plateau on Thursday, helping salvage the mood during a rare visit by China’s President Xi Jinping to New Delhi aimed at opening a new phase in cooperation between Asia’s giants.
Dozens of soldiers from both sides had faced off on the Ladakh plateau in the western Himalayas for over a week in a dispute about construction in the border region that threatened to overshadow Xi’s talks with India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi.
“China and India paid great attention to the aforementioned border issue. After timely, effective communication, the relevant situation has already been appropriately brought under control,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.
Both countries lay claim to vast tracts of territory and after two decades of talks are no closer to a resolution of a border dispute over which they went to war in 1962.
“There should be peace in our relations and in the borders. If this happens we can realise true potential of our relations,” Modi said during a joint news conference.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said the new friction on the border had featured when Xi and Modi met for about two hours in New Delhi on Thursday.

Germany charges 93-year-old as accessory to 300,000 Auschwitz murders

German prosecutors have charged a 93-year-old man with being an accessory to murder in at least 300,000 cases while working for the Nazis at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The man, from the German state of Lower Saxony, is accused of having helped remove the luggage left by new arrivals to the camp at the Birkenau rail platform.

The aim was to get rid of any clues to the mass killings going on at the camp for inmates arriving later, the state prosecutor's office in Hanover said in a statement.

The man, who was not named in the statement, was also tasked with counting the cash found in the belongings and sending it to Nazi headquarters in Berlin, it said.

"The accused must have known that those arriving, mostly Jews, inmates who were deemed as not being fit for labor after the selection process, would immediately be murdered in the purpose built gas chambers," the statement said.

"With his actions, the accused helped the Nazi regime gain economic profit and supported the killing that was going on."

The charges are limited to a period that started with an operation by the Nazis to deport mostly Jews from Hungary in 1944.

"Between May 16 and July 11, 1944 at least 137 prison trains arrived at the camp Auschwitz Birkenau, carrying around 425,000 prisoners from Hungary. According to the charges at least 300,000 of those were killed," the statement said.

The accused was previously charged in 1985 but that case was dropped because of a lack of evidence, it said.

A regional court will decide whether the new charges are brought to trial, the state prosecutor's office said.

There are already 16 applications from survivors and relatives of survivors of the Hungary operation to be secondary plaintiffs in the case, it added.

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Gaffe-prone Joe Biden strikes again

Washington: Vice-President Joe Biden's Wednesday kicked off with an acknowledgment that he had used a "poor choice of words." By day's end, he had put his foot in his mouth again. Twice.
Mr Biden opened the door to the possibility the United States could commit ground troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq - a possibility the Obama administration has painstakingly avoided raising. That came shortly after he walked back his use of the word "Shylocks" and his use of the anachronistic term "Orient" to describe Asia.
Even for the gregarious and outspoken vice president, whose candour has all too often got him into hot water, the trio of eyebrow-raising remarks in about a 24-hour span was something to behold. Two of the "he said what?" moments came in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where anyone thinking about running for president - a possibility Mr Biden has not ruled out - needs to make a good impression.

Islamic State crisis: US House approves Obama Syria plan

The US House of Representatives has approved President Barack Obama's plan to train and arm the moderate Syrian opposition taking on Islamic State.

The vote passed by a large majority in the Republican-controlled House and is expected to be adopted in the Senate.
The endorsement came after President Obama repeated that he would not be committing American combat troops to ground operations in Iraq.
The US has undertaken 174 air strikes against IS in Iraq since mid-August.

 

Note: where strikes are reported over two days, the latest date is recorded

The jihadist group controls large areas of Syria and northern Iraq.
In the most recent air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday, US forces destroyed two IS armed vehicles north-west of Irbil and several units south-west of Baghdad, according to US Central Command (Centcom).
Mr Obama's new strategy plans similar attacks in Syria and calls on a coalition of 40 countries to confront the militant group.

Not All Iowa Democrats Are Sold On Hillary Clinton For President

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Not every Iowa Democrat is cheering for Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president. Some have a gnawing desire for someone else.

Whether that yearning stems from real political differences with Clinton or simply interest in a new face, these Iowans aren't shy about saying so.

"I want to see what others do, like Elizabeth Warren," says Nancy Bobo, one of President Barack Obama's earliest supporters in the state. Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, has said she's not running, but her name comes up nonetheless.

"No one thought there was any room for anyone else in 2008," Bobo says, "and there was."

Bobo was not the only one in the crowd at Sunday's Harkin Steak Fry who wasn't wearing a "Ready for Hillary" sticker. Hundreds of volunteers for a political action committee set up for a potential Clinton candidacy handed out the stickers during retiring Sen. Tom Harkin's farewell event in rural Iowa.

Both Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, spoke at Harkin's fundraiser. Her reception from thousands of Iowa Democratic true believers, though enthusiastic, came with some restraint. There were no chants of "Run, Hillary, run," perhaps reflecting activists' understanding that Clinton represents the party's best chance of winning but might lack the spark for a movement like Obama's candidacy in 2007.

Degrade and destroy? Unclear military goals are an American tradition

For decades, the US has been foggy about its military objectives overseas – at the cost of countless lives, dollars and victories

A military lesson the United States seems doomed to constantly forget and painfully re-learn: unclear goals invite escalation.
The third Iraq war is now the latest example. At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Martin Dempsey, opened the door to US military personnel joining in the ground fight against the Islamic State (Isis). Just don’t call them ground troops. So far, US forces in Iraq have been described as embassy security or “advisers” – Dempsey extended the circumlocution to suggest they might be asked to do some “close combat advising”.
Dempsey’s euphemism bursts the seams of Barack Obama’s insistence that US troops will not return to combat in Iraq. That was itself a rhetorical escalation from the White House’s earlier assurance against troops on the ground, full stop, which has proved difficult to square with the current 1,700 US troops now in Iraq, 1,600 more than were there in June. Perhaps more candidly, Dempsey said Obama has asked the general to come back for “case-by-case” authorization on involving US troops in combat, even as the president again forswore ground combat in a speech at MacDill air force base on Wednesday.
Nor will the ground force plus-up be the US’s only escalation. Air strikes, 167 of them thus far, occur daily; have expanded from Iraq’s north to south-west of Baghdad; and will soon target Isis in Syria. Chuck Hagel, the US defense secretary, acknowledged that the first cohort of US-trained Syrian rebels “is not going to be able to turn the tide” against an Isis force that officials estimate can muster 31,000 fighters. Nor has the US firmed up a Middle East coalition that can sustain that proxy army in the Syrian field.
Steadily increasing men and money ($7.5m every day, per a late-August Pentagon total) into Iraq follows from the goal Obama laid out last week: to degrade and ultimately destroy Isis. It signals toughness and finality, yet its meaning is elusive. 

Another avalanche of bad polls for Senate Dems

 ANOTHER AVALANCHE OF BAD POLLS FOR SENATE DEMS
Denver Post: “A new poll by Quinnipiac University has Republican Cory Gardner ahead of Democrat Mark Udall by a striking 8 percentage points in their race for U.S. Senate — the challenger’s largest lead to-date among public polls. The survey of more than 1,200 likely Colorado voters favored Gardner 48 to 40 percent to the incumbent Udall, with independent, or unaffiliated, candidate Steve Shogan takinghome 8 percent.”
[A new Gallup survey released this morning finds Republicans are now viewed just as favorably as Democrats, rebounding from their low of 28 percent during last fall’s government shutdown. Respondents held equal favorable views of both parties, at 40 percent.]
Buuut… - “Quinnipiac’s findings depart significantly from a Denver Post poll conducted last week that found Udall leading Gardner by 4 percentage points. Similarly, Gardner's biggest advantage over Udall before the latest Quinnipiac results was 2 percentage points, according to a tally of more than dozen polls of both likely and registered voters recorded by Real Clear Politics. Other recent polls have shown the Udall and Gardner in a statistical tie or even a Udall advantage.”
LANDRIEU SINKING FAST
The latest batch of Fox News battleground polls show close contests in several pivotal Senate races, including the showdown for the Republican-held seat in Kansas as well as Democratic defensive efforts in Iowa and North Carolina. But the stunner is in Louisiana where Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy leads Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., 35 percent to 31 percent. The best news for the GOP seems to be that the Sarah Palin-backed candidate in the race, Rob Maness, hasn’t been able to gain traction despite relentless attacks on Cassidy.

Welcome to the jungle - If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on Election Day, the top two finishers head into a Dec. 6 runoff. In a two-way match up, Cassidy topples Landrieu 51 percent to 38 percent. Landrieu’s best hope to survive is to win in the first round, which would require Maness drawing Cassidy into a firefight that drives voters away from the GOP. This result suggests that’s not happening.

Pick Six: Bordering on a Senate flip - Republicans need to flip an additional six Senate seats from blue to red to gain control of the upper chamber. Fox News First readers think the most likely states to switch are: Arkansas (13.7%), Montana (13.0%), West Virginia (12.1%), Louisiana (11.7%), South Dakota (9.9%) and North Carolina (9.6%). Reader Wayne Peterkin of Evangeline, La., feels Pelican State voters will not buy Sen. Mary Landrieu’s, D-La., recent ads touting her toughness on immigration.
-- 47 days until Nov. 4 --

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