Weekend edition 091314

Saturday September 13th 2014

Syrian troops pound central village in what appears to be preparation to storm it

BEIRUT –  Activists say Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships have struck targets in a central village in what appears to be preparations for a ground offensive on the rebel stronghold.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian warplanes conducted at least eight air strikes on the town of Kfar Zeita in Hama province. It had no word on casualties.

A Hama-based activist who goes by the name of Yazan Shahdawi said that by the afternoon there had been about 20 strikes, as well as artillery shelling.
Saturday's bombardment of the central town came two days after government forces captured the nearby town of Halfaya.
After retaking Halfaya, troops are now are better positioned to defend nearby Christian and Alawite communities that support President Bashar Assad.

ISIS Strikes Deal With Moderate Syrian Rebels: Reports

As the United States begins to deepen ties with moderate Syrian rebels to combat the extremist group ISIS, also known as the Islamic State, a key component of its coalition appears to have struck a non-aggression pact with the group.
According to Agence France-Presse, ISIS and a number of moderate and hard-line rebel groups have agreed not to fight each other so that they can focus on taking down the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Other sources say the signatories include a major U.S. ally linked to the Free Syrian Army. Moreover, the leader of the Free Syrian Army said Saturday that the group would not take part in U.S. plans for destroying the Islamic State until it got assurances on toppling Assad.
The deal between ISIS and the moderate Syrian groups casts doubt over President Barack Obama's freshly announced strategy to arm and train the groups against ISIS.

The AFP report cited information from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group monitoring the Syrian civil war, which said parties to the agreement "promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime." The term Nussayri refers to the Alawite ethnic group that Assad and many of his supporters belong to. AFP said the agreement was signed in a suburb of the Syrian capital, where ISIS has a strong presence.
Charles Lister, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center, cited a report from the anti-regime Orient Net website to suggest on Twitter that the signatories of the ceasefire include a U.S.-backed coalition called the Syrian Revolutionary Front. According to the U.K.-based outlet Middle East Eye, that same Orient Net report says the ceasefire between groups described in the U.S. as "moderate rebels" and the Islamic State was mediated by the al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
As recently as March, the Syrian Revolutionary Front and its leader were described in Foreign Policy as "the West's best fighting chance against Syria's Islamist armies." As of that report, the group controlled 25,000 fighters and its leader had close ties with the Western-friendly Syrian National Coalition.

Qatar asks senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders to leave country

Seven Egyptians who sought refuge in Gulf state after overthrow of Mohamed Morsi in 2013 have agreed to go elsewhere

Senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders and allied clerics have been asked to leave Qatar, where they sought refuge following the overthrow of Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi, in a move that increases the regional isolation of the Islamist group.
Seven Egyptians including the Brotherhood's secretary-general, Mahmoud Hussein, Amr Darrag, a former Brotherhood cabinet minister, and Wagdy Ghoneim, an extremist preacher linked to the group, have agreed to leave the Gulf state.
Darrag thanked Qatar for being "a very welcoming and supportive host" before confirming on the group's website that "some symbols of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing – the Freedom and Justice party (FJP) – who were asked by authorities to move their residence outside the state of Qatar, have now honoured that request". A Brotherhood spokesman later confirmed Darrag's statement.
Following the Arab uprisings in 2011, Qatar sought to increase its regional influence by funding and spreading the message of Islamist groups around the Middle East, including Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
Since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013 in July 2013 – which led to the jailing of thousands of Brotherhood members, including its senior leadership – Qatar also acted as the group's primary safe haven.
But Qatar's stance has brought it into conflict with its Gulf neighbours, most notably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the post-Morsi regime in Egypt – all of whom see the Brotherhood and its allies as a threat to the region's old order. The ongoing civil war in Libya is partly seen as a proxy war between Qatar-backed Islamists and their UAE-backed opponents.
The decrease in Qatari support for the Brotherhood follows extensive regional pressure, including the decision by UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to withdraw their ambassadors from Doha, the Qatari capital.

Egypt 'has key role' in fight against Islamic State - Kerry

Egypt has a key role to play in countering Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on a visit to Cairo.

He said Egypt could "publicly renounce" IS ideology, reaffirming US support for Egypt's battle against Sinai militants.
Foreign fighters crossing Sinai en route for Syria are advising local militants there, US officials say.
Mr Kerry is on the last leg of his Middle East tour as he tries to form a broad coalition to tackle IS militants.
He has already enlisted the support of 10 Arab states so far but he has ruled out Iran joining the US-led coalition.
IS controls large parts of both countries and its fighters have become notorious for their brutality, but in recent weeks they have been targeted by US air strikes.
The CIA says the group has as many as 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama unveiled plans for an expansion of the US campaign against IS.

Europe Wants U.S. To Do Dirty Work Against ISIS

Residents in a number of European countries strongly support the American air strikes that have been launched in Iraq, but are much less supportive of their own nations taking the same action, a new YouGov poll finds.
Seventy-one percent of respondents from Denmark, 65 percent of respondents from Sweden and France, 61 percent of respondents from Norway, 59 percent of respondents from Britain, and 55 percent of respondents from Finland expressed support for President Obama's decision to launch air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq. Opposition to the air strikes did not rise above 18 percent in any of the six countries.
German respondents were slightly more divided about the American air strikes in Iraq, with 48 percent of Germans saying they support the strikes, compared to 34 percent who expressed opposition.
In the most recent HuffPost/YouGov poll on this topic, 64 percent of Americans said they support the air strikes in Iraq, while 20 percent opposed them.
When asked about the possibility of their own nation launching air strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq, however, Europeans were much less supportive. The strongest support for this hypothetical action was in Denmark and Great Britain. Forty-two percent of respondents from Denmark said they would support Danish air strikes in Iraq, compared to 36 percent who were opposed. An identical 42 percent of British respondents said they would support Britain launching air strikes in Iraq, while 37 percent expressed opposition.
German and Finnish respondents expressed the weakest support for their country's military hypothetically commencing air strikes in Iraq. Only 26 percent of respondents in both nations said they would support the move. In contrast, 63 percent of German respondents and 50 percent of Finnish respondents expressed opposition to the hypothetical air strikes.

'Turkey directly supported al-Qaeda in Syria'

Turkey has directly supported al-Qaeda's wing in Syria, in defiance of America, the former US ambassador has disclosed.
The Turkish authorities thought they could work with extremist Islamist groups in the Syrian civil war and at the same time push them to become more moderate, Francis Ricciardone, who was until late June the US ambassador to Ankara, told journalists in a briefing. That led them to work with Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot, as well as hardline Salafi Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham. Mr Ricciardone said that he tried to persuade the Turks to close their borders to the groups, but to no avail.
"We ultimately had no choice but to agree to disagree," he said. "The Turks frankly worked with groups for a period, including al-Nusra, whom we finally designated as [being groups] we're not willing to work with." Turkey allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and volunteers heading to support Syrian rebels from the start of the uprising, and there have long been accusations that it did not do enough to distinguish between "moderate" groups and extremists.
But this is the first time a senior American official - albeit one no longer in service - has said openly that Turkey was working with al-Qaeda. Ironically, the Turkish policy has been effective in one way - Jabhat al-Nusra is now seen as relatively moderate compared with its splinter group, Islamic State. But in other respects, it has backfired.
President Barack Obama repeatedly stalled on providing more support to the rebel cause, fearing weapons would fall into the hands of extremists.
Islamic State split from Jabhat al-Nusra in the summer of last year, taking thousands of its recruits and their weapons, along with territory the group controlled in the east of the country. Turkish officials yesterday cited the fact that Isil is holding hostage 49 Turks sized from the country's consulate in Mosul in northern Iraq as a reason not to take part in the US-led military coalition to take on the group. Turkish analysts say the government is also worried about a wider backlash by Islamic State, which now has recruiting stations and supporters entrenched in the country.

Pakistan arrests anti-government protesters in capital

Pakistani police arrested anti-government protesters in what activists said was an effort to crack down on weekslong sit-ins in the capital, while the government said police only apprehended suspects in a recent attack on state-run TV.
The party of famed cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, who is leading one of two major protests demanding the government's resignation, said a large number of party activists were detained in overnight raids beginning late Friday in Islamabad and elsewhere. He did not provide an exact number.

"We are suspending talks with the government over these arrests," party leader Jehanghir Tareen told a news conference.
Anti-government cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who has been leading parallel demonstrations, said police had also detained his supporters, and that he too would be suspending talks over the arrests.
Pakistani news channels had earlier showed several detained supporters of Qadri and Khan arriving at a local court in two prison vans. Khan's party leaders and dozens of activists briefly clashed with police as they tried to break the locks of the vans to free the detainees.
Police eventually pushed them back, and Islamabad police chief Tahir Alam warned that anyone attacking the police vans would be arrested.
Related: Pakistan police arrest scores of anti-government activists amid lingering political turmoil

Yemeni military clashes with Shiite rebels in northwestern district of the capital

SANAA, Yemen –  Yemeni military officials say army troops have clashed with Shiite rebels who have been demonstrating for weeks demanding the government reinstate fuel subsidies and resign.
The officials say the Saturday clashes broke out in a northwestern district of Sanaa, the capital, near a state TV building, when troops stopped a rebel truck loaded with weapons. They did not report casualties and added that the area was now secured by army vehicles and troops.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The flare-up of violence came at a time the Shiite-rebel group, known as Hawthis, were close to signing a deal with the Yemeni leadership through an international mediator.

Boko Haram commander reportedly killed in clash with Nigerian forces

The feared militant and 200 other fighters died in a battle on Friday in the state of Borno state, birthplace of the extremist group
A leading commander of Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has been killed along with 200 other militants in a rare victory for Nigeria’s armed forces, according to reports.
One Nigerian army officer said a feared commander known only as Amir was among the dead after a battle on Friday in Konduga town, 35 kilometres from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of the extremist group.
Also killed were a Boko Haram video journalist and a suicide bomber, he said.
There were no military casualties, according to the officer and a civilian self-defence group that fights alongside the soldiers. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to reporters.
Boko Haram has captured a string of towns in recent weeks stretching over 320 kilometres alongside Nigeria’s north-east border with Cameroon in a new campaign to create an Islamic caliphate, mimicking the Isis group in Syria and Iraq.
The extremists also have attacked a town and villages across the border in Cameroon, but that country’s state radio said Cameroonian troops beat them off and forced them back across the border into Nigeria.
The United States said last week it is about to launch a major border security program for Nigeria and its neighbours, but gave no details.
Thousands of civilians have been forced from their homes in the latest offensive, joining more than 1.5 million other Nigerians who are refugees within their country or across borders in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, according to UN figures.

Ukraine forces 'repel rebels in Donetsk airport'

Ukrainian government troops say they have repelled an attack by pro-Russian rebels on Donetsk airport.

All Saturday morning gunfire was heard from the area, controlled by government forces despite rebel victories in the rest of the eastern city.
Correspondents say the fresh violence is a big challenge to a fragile ceasefire agreed on 5 September.
Meanwhile Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has accused Russia of wanting to "eliminate" his country.
He said Ukraine was "in a stage of war", with the "key aggressor" being Russia.
Mr Yatsenyuk said the goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin "is to take the entire Ukraine", adding that Nato was the "only vehicle" that could protect his country. 
Ukraine and Western countries accuse Russia of intervening on the side of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies this.
On Saturday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described as "nonsense" reports that Russia was intent on creating a buffer zone in eastern Ukraine.
Russia, he said, wanted Ukraine to be a "prosperous, neutral and friendly country".
And he accused the US of "trying to use the crisis in Ukraine to break economic ties between the EU and Russia and force Europe to buy US gas at much higher prices".
Russian convoy The BBC's Paul Adams, in Donetsk, says most of the gunfire around the airport sounded like artillery, but that multiple rocket launchers have also been in use.
On Friday night, he also heard a volley fired from somewhere much closer to the centre of the city.
There are additional reports of plumes of black smoke rising above the airport.
A couple of hundred Ukrainian army troops have been holed up at the airport since June - but our correspondent says that something more concerted now appears to be going on there. 
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US strengthens sanctions on Russia

The US government has imposed new sanctions on major Russian banks, defence and energy companies.

The measures are part of a joint effort with the European Union aimed at punishing Russia for what they say is its military intervention in Ukraine.
They come despite a fragile ceasefire holding in the east of the country.
The Russian foreign ministry denounced the new sanctions as "another hostile step in line with the confrontational course" taken by the US .
"Of course, our retaliatory measures will not keep you waiting," it said.
The sanctions announced on Friday mean that US citizens will not be able to provide loans lasting longer than 30 days to Sberbank, Russia's biggest bank.
They will also affect Rostec, a major technology and defence firm, and technology for Russia's oil industry.

White House, Pentagon contradict Kerry, say US ‘at war’ with ISIS

The White House and Pentagon acknowledged Friday that the U.S. “is at war” with the Islamic State -- contradicting Secretary of State John Kerry and others who a day earlier refused to use that term, prompting criticism from lawmakers that the administration was downplaying the conflict.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby used almost identical language when pressed by reporters Friday whether or not the expanded military operation against the terrorist group is in fact a war.

“In the same way that the United States is at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates … the United States is at war with ISIL,” Earnest said.
Kirby said “this is not the Iraq War” from a decade ago, “but make no mistake -- we know we are at war with ISIL in the same way we are at war and continue to be at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates.”
The comments are a sharp turnaround from how Kerry described the military operation on Thursday. In interviews with CNN and CBS News, Kerry described it as a “very significant” and “major counterterrorism operation.” He told CBS News that “war is the wrong terminology.”
His spokeswoman, Marie Harf, also said she would not “refer to our efforts” as part of the “war on terrorism.”

Proposal to split California into six states fails to make it onto ballot

The proposal to divide California into six states failed to make it onto the 2016 ballot, California’s secretary of state office said Friday.

The measure required about 807,000 signatures to quality, and despite proponents turning in more than 1 million signatures earlier this summer, a random sample conducted by counties found that not enough signatures were valid to meet the threshold to qualify.

Venture capitalist Tim Draper, the billionaire behind the proposal, spent $5.2 million to try to get the proposal on the ballot while opponents spent $10,000.

Draper’s proposal called for carving out Silicon Valley as its own state, which would have had the highest per capita income in the U.S., while the proposed state of Central California, which would have included Fresno and the Central Valley, would have had the lowest.

Draper said in a statement he believed enough signatures had been collected and said the group Six Californias would conduct its own review.

“The internal verification process conducted by our signature-gathering firm predicted a much higher validity rate than the random sample result,” he said. “It is yet another example of the dysfunction of the current system and reinforces the need for six fresh, modern governments.”

HSBC to pay $550m in US to settle mortgage mis-selling suit

Deal comes three weeks before a trial was due to begin in New York, where HSBC could have faced $1.6bn in damages

HSBC Holdings will pay $550m (£340m) to resolve a US regulator's claims that the British bank made false representations in selling mortgage bonds to the federal mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial crisis.
The settlement announced on Friday between the bank's US unit and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of the two government-controlled finance companies, came less than three weeks before a trial due to begin on 29 September in New York, where HSBC has said it could have faced up to $1.6bn in damages.
The deal is the latest arising from 18 lawsuits that the FHFA filed in 2011 to recoup losses on $200bn in mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the US government took control of amid the 2008 economic crisis.
The lawsuit accused HSBC of falsely representing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that loans underlying $6.2bn of mortgage-backed securities sold from 2005 to 2007 met underwriting guidelines and standards.
HSBC has denied the allegations, and did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The bank stopped issuing residential mortgage-backed securities in 2007.
"We are pleased to have resolved this matter," Stuart Alderoty, the general counsel for HSBC North America, said in a statement.
Under the settlement HSBC will pay $374m to Freddie Mac and $176m to Fannie Mae, the FHFA said.
Along with settlements with other banks including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, the FHFA has recovered nearly $17.9bn to date.
Last month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc agreed to a settlement that the FHFA valued at $1.2bn.

Military source: ISIS hostages dispersed after revelation of Foley rescue mission

After the administration released details of the July mission to rescue journalist James Foley and others in Syria, intelligence suggests ISIS dispersed the remaining hostages to multiple locations, making them harder to locate, a military source told Fox News.
In addition, the source added guard forces around the hostages doubled while widely publicized reporting about the scope of new aerial surveillance in the region caused ISIS to change its pattern of behavior on the ground.

"Any time you (disclose) very highly sensitive tactical information, you're giving away your road map if you will, your strategy,"  said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee receives regular intelligence briefings. "It's very highly damaging to the hostages."
The details about the rescue mission were released by the Defense Department and National Security Council one day after a video was posted online Aug. 19 of Foley’s execution.
The administration said its hand was forced because unnamed reporters had learned about the raid to rescue Foley and other hostages, believed to include Steven Sotloff, who was also later executed by ISIS.
Asked about the ramifications of providing the information in such a public way, Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday it was still the right call.

Rob Ford pulls out of mayoral race, Doug Ford steps in

'Our supporters need us to continue what we’ve started,' Doug Ford says of late switch

Toronto city Coun. Doug Ford says it's with mixed emotions that he has agreed to "take the torch" from his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, and enter the ongoing mayoral campaign after his brother withdrew earlier in the day over health concerns.

In an unprecedented move that shocked many political observers and made international headlines, Coun. Ford registered as a candidate for mayor shortly before the official deadline at 2 p.m. ET, after it was revealed the mayor would be forced to withdraw after learning just days ago he has an abdominal tumour. 

In making the switch, the Fords have once again catapulted Toronto's political landscape into uncharted territory, an ongoing theme that has largely defined a latter half of Mayor Ford's time at city hall marked by admissions of crack cocaine use, alcohol abuse and profane encounters with critics.

Surrounded by cheering supporters and a sea of media at a news conference at his mother's home on Friday evening, Doug Ford said he is running because he "couldn't bear the thought of city hall returning to the old days at the expense of the good, honest, everyday people."

“Together we’ve always been an unstoppable team," he said. "Rob said, 'Just because I have to sit this one out, it doesn’t mean I won’t be by your side. Our supporters need us to continue what we’ve started'. ”
Doug Ford took several short pauses to gather his composure as he recounted conversations with his brother over the past several days, and said that the mayor asked him to apologize on his behalf to the people of Toronto for dropping out of the election race. 
"He wanted to make sure I told people just how much he really cares," he said.

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