The following is from "Osteen Says Obedience, Worship 'Not for God,'" Christian News Network, Aug. 28, 2014: "A recently recorded video is circulating online of Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen, calling on congregants at Lakewood Church to 'do good for your own self' because obedience, the church and worship are not for God as much as for self-happiness. 'I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God--I mean, that's one way to look at it--we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we're happy,' she declares in the undated 36-second clip with her husband standing by her side and nodding. 'That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy…' 'So, I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy,' Osteen continues. 'When you come to church, when you worship Him, you're not doing it for God really. You're doing it for yourself, because that's what makes God happy. Amen?" Osteen is the author of the book Love Your Life, and is 'co-pastor' of Lakewood in Houston, Texas.
The chaos in Libya goes from bad to worse, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts US President Barack Obama has been making with the aid of French President Francois Hollande, UK Premier David Cameron and UAE ruler Sheikh Muhammed bin Zayed.
They have sought to bring a measure of stability to central government in Tripoli, by ending the sway of violently squabbling militias and restoring the normal functions of Libyan government and parliament – so far, to no effect.
Libya’s embattled parliament has fled the civil war to the small eastern town of Tobruk, the last seat of Libyan sovereign power before the Egyptian border.
The lawmakers fled after the Islamist Libya Dawn militia and its allies seized control of Tripoli and most of Libya’s second city Benghazi. Without the means for a counterattack or international support, the lawmakers remain in Tobruk, having chartered the Greek liner, Elyros, as a floating hotel or haven. Monday, Sept. 8, the parliament hired a car ferry. They are surrounded by troops in US-made Humvees.
The capital survives between power and water cuts, the burning of buildings and attacks on ethnic minorities and journalists.
The coastal town of Derna was this week declared an Islamic caliphate, armed with anti-aircraft guns on pickup trucks.
Libyan General Hiftar’s stubborn fight to rid Tripoli of Islamists
Yet when UN envoy Bernard Leon arrived in Libya Monday, Sept. 8 for his first visit, he said he was optimistic. “This is a country, a society, which is fed up with conflict,’ he said. “We are going to spend the week developing contacts with the stakeholders.”
One of those stakeholders, former Gen. Khalifa Hiftar, is leading the broadest national grouping – a hodgepodge of loyal militias, former army units and air force remnants - in battle against the Islamist and extremist fighters controlling Benghazi, including the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Shari militia.
Gen. Hiftar is ready to continue fighting the radical armed groups in other parts of Libya as well.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration chose Hiftar as the man to save Libya and supplied him with arms and generous funding. But now, Washington has begun distancing itself from the veteran Libyan general, having given up faith in his leadership, after years living in America, for bringing calm and stability to the turbulent country.
Egypt and Dubai have also lost their belief in Hiftar, after backing him with weapons. In August, the Emirati and Egyptian air forces launched combined attacks against the Islamist militias ruling Tripoli.
US, Egypt and UAE advise pacts with militias instead of combat
At a secret conference in Cairo this week, the US, Egypt and the UAE decided to advise Gen. Hiftar to reverse his tactics and,instead of fighting the warring militias, sign cooperation pacts with them.
Since it is customary in Libya for pacts between parties to depend on the amount of cash on the table and the amount of weapons promised to the opposite side, the three powers presumed that by handing over enough funds and weapons, they could bring the militias to heel.
At the same time, there is one militia, Hiftar’s largest and most powerful adversary, which can’t be reined in by cash or weapons bribes. And that is the Misratan Union of Revolutionaries, a federation of 200 militias comprising 40,000 members under arms.
Along with some “unregulated brigades,” the Mistratan federation of militias is thought to possess more than 800 tanks and at least 2,000 vehicles mounted with machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons.
Washington is urging Gen. Hiftar to try and reach terms with the Misratans. In case this doesn’t work out, the Obama administration along with Cairo and Dubai are getting set to launch a heavy aerial offensive to force them to give up and surrender.
US President Barack Obama presented “systematic” US air strikes and support for ground forces as the great strength of the strategy he unveiled Wednesday, Sept. 10, for fighting IS. But the low intensity of the air campaign makes it more of a weakness.
The low number of 154 fighter-bomber and drone strikes over Iraq in the four months, since the Islamist State of Iraq and Levant began its land grab in Iraq, was not nearly enough to wrest a single piece of territory or strategic site from its clutches.
The Kurdish Peshmerga force alone made gains in Nineveh Province, retaking some captured villages. However, IS fighters had previously withdrawn from hundreds of those villages, after they were depopulated and the homes of the terrified inhabitants were destroyed or burned down.
However, on other battlefronts, such as the approach to the Kurdish Republic’s capital of Irbil or the strategic Mosul Dam, Kurdish forces were no match for IS fighters and, without US air bombardments, would have had to fall back.
Aside from small units of special forces, the Iraqi army fell apart in the initial IS march through Iraq, throwing down its American-made weapons.
This leaves the Obama strategy with no combat troops to work with in Iraq at this time.
No regional government has extra elite troops to spare for Iraq
Wednesday, Sept. 10, the Obama administration promised to release $25 million worth of hardware to the Iraqi army and the Kurdish militia without delay. The most urgent items for the two forces are anti-tank missiles, because IS will likely deploy the hundreds of US-made tanks and armored vehicles captured as booty from the fleeing Iraqi troops. However, this sum is not enough to provide the quantity of weapons needed to alter the battlefield imbalance, which is currently in favor of the Islamists.
To make up for this deficiency, President Obama had hoped that Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan will agree to contribute special forces units to help Iraq combat IS.
DEBKA Weekly’s military sources were skeptical. Some of those governments are not ease with one another – especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar - and none is likely to step up readily with enough elite fighters to make a serious difference in Iraq or enable its troops to squeeze the jihadis out of captured towns.
There are four reasons for their reluctance:
1. Their special operations units are not large. Therefore, they can hardly afford to spare a substantial number for Iraq. These units are anyway designed by training to defend their government regimes and can’t be retooled overnight into forces for overseas combat against unfamiliar adversaries.
Furthermore, none of these elite forces, with the exception of Iran, can be guaranteed to be free of jihadist penetration or members with relatives serving in some Al Qaeda affiliate.
Turkey drops out leaving Obama without a prize asset
2. Any Gulf Arab emirate sending fighting units to fight IS in Iraq makes itself instantly vulnerable to Al Qaeda revenge attacks at home. Jordan is most at risk. Black IS flags flutter over many of its towns and villages, and hardly a day goes by without the funeral for a Jordanian youth who died as a jihadist in Syria or Iraq.
3. The combat record of Saudi elite units, on which the Americans are banking heavily for a contribution, is not especially distinguished. They suffered repeated upsets in recent years at the hands of Houthi insurgents in northern Yemen, when they attempted to carve out a Saudi buffer zone to secure the kingdom’s southern regions against pro-Iranian Houthi incursions.
4. The biggest upset for Obama’s game plan was inflicted by Turkey dropping out abruptly from the coalition Thursday, Sept. 11. Although its presence was problematic, the US military was badly jolted by the statement in Ankara that “Turkey will refuse to allow a US-led coalition to attack jhadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases; nor will it take part in combat operations against militants.”
Turkish special forces were seen in Washington as a prize asset for combating Islamists in Syria and in Iraq’s northern and Kurdish regions.
US can’t second-guess IS responses for lack of intelligence
At the same time, their deployment in Syria would have required prior Syrian and Iranian consent. Even then, it may have provoked fellow Muslim members to quit the coalition. A Turkish military presence in northern Iraq would have been unpopular in Baghdad and Damascus, as well as Tehran.
So while losing a prime coalition ally, the Obama administration has also saved itself some diplomatic knots. Even so, the rest of the Muslim camp were not persuaded by US Secretary of State John Kerry to join the US-led coalition against IS, when he met their leaders in Jeddah on Thursday, Sept. 11
DEBKA Weekly’s military and counterterrorism experts point to the three major weaknesses in Obama’s war plan for crushing the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant:
- It fails to take IS’ armed response into account - mostly for lack of intelligence regarding the inner workings of the Islamist organization and its fighting strength. In view of the iron discipline ruling the jihadists and the support they enjoy among local Sunnis, it is hard to see how the Americans can improve their sources of intelligence and their insights.
- Iraq and Syria alone are counted as war arenas in the plan, whereas counterterrorism experts specializing in Al Qaeda would advise covering the entire Middle East as a potential war zone.
- The four stages of Obama’s operational strategy have no timelines. This raises the suspicion among would-be coalition partners that the US president is reserving his options to quit the campaign when it suits him.
Twin Solar Storms Arrive At Earth
Sep 12th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Guardian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
‘Space weather’ experts say double event unlikely to cause problems but alert issued to power and communication networks
A solar flare in the middle of the sun on 10 September. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters
Twin magnetically charged solar storms will arrive at Earth on Thursday and Friday, raising concerns that GPS signals, radio communications and power transmissions could be disrupted, “space weather” officials in the US have said.
Individually the storms, known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, would not warrant special warnings but their unusually close timing and direct path towards Earth prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Centre to issue an alert.
The first CME burst from a magnetically disturbed region of the sun on Monday night and other erupted on Wednesday, said centre director Thomas Berger.
“We don’t expect any unmanageable impacts to national infrastructure from these solar events at this time, but we are watching these events closely,” Berger said.
An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun on 10 September.
The sun is in the peak of its 11-year cycle, though the overall level of activity is far lower than a typical solar max.
Storms as powerful as the ones now making their way towards Earth typically occurred 100 to 200 times during a solar cycle, Berger said. “The unique thing about this event is that we’ve had two in close succession and the CMEs could possibly be interacting on their way to Earth, at the Earth’s orbit or beyond. We just don’t know that yet,” he said.
The highly energetic, magnetically charged solar particles could hit Earth’s magnetic field and disrupt some radio communications and degrade GPS signals, NOAA said. Past storms have affected the power grid, and operators and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had been notified “just in case”, Berger said.
The storms might also trigger beautiful auroral displays along northern latitudes as electrically charged solar particles hit the atmosphere.
In whatever guise US President Barack Obama may wish to clothe his strategy for battling Al Qaeda’s Islamist State, he has undeniably declared a new Middle East War and ushered in America’s military comeback to the region. That strategy is bound by five constants, as outlined by DEBKA Weekly’s military experts.
1. America is committed to a major armed conflict in the least stable world region that will inevitably last years. The plan he unveiled to the American people Wednesday, Sept. 10, is just the curtain-raiser. It was put together in a hurry to address a hugely perilous situation. The complete play will be extensively rewritten and restaged as inherently fluid situations unfold.
2. Although the Obama strategy addresses IS in Iraq and Syria, US military architects understand that America will be obliged to extend its military involvement for “rolling back, degrading and ultimately defeating” this dangerous foe to other parts of the Middle East – and in particular revisit Libya - more about which in a separate article in this issue.
3. In his six years in the White House, Barack Obama has jettisoned the regular bricks and mortar of US foreign and security policy. He has pulled US troops out of the Middle East and gradually divorced Washington from its ties in the region and the concerns of its nations, while clinging to a single fixed idea: The normalization of US relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran is the frame for two leading powers to emerge to dominate, respectively, the international arena and the regional stage. Their policies will go hand in hand.
US cobbles together resources after major defense cutbacks
That is precisely the built-in explosive trap that could trip up the Obama strategy for tackling Al Qaeda at the head of a broad Western and regional coalition. America’s would-be regional partners, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and a clutch of Gulf emirates, are concerned about the effect on their national interests of an association in which Iran is powerfully engaged. That was one of the reasons that US Secretary of State John Kerry came away empty-handed from his first bid to construct a regional coalition of 11 governments in Jeddah Thursday, Sept. 11.
(The Iranian dimension is analyzed in detail in a separate article in this issue.)
4. The “comprehensive and sustained counter-terror mission,” Obama has launched to hunt terrorists down in the Middle East, is living evidence that his regional policies heretofore were totally wrongheaded, and that his defense spending cutbacks, which cut America’s military strength to the bone, was even more misguided.
The US Navy is left with 11 aircraft carriers (down from 15 or 19 – depending on a carrier’s definition) and a large number of shuttered operational US Air Force squadrons.
Just eight months ago, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel commented that the cuts assume the United States will no longer become involved in large, prolonged stability operations overseas on the scale of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“An Amy of this size is larger than required to meet the demands of our defense strategy,” said Hagel. “It is also larger than we can afford to modernize and keep ready.”
Iraqi and Kurdish troops will tackle IS with US air cover
5. Those comments might have been uttered in a different world and a different time from the reality addressed by Obama in his speech Wednesday.
The stark contrast between them shows again how unrealistic were Obama’s hopes for leaving behind him a relatively stable economy and shunting aside the world’s most daunting crises to his successor when he bowed out of the White House in 2016.
Having been forced to address the acute peril of an Islamist terrorist scourge without delay, our military sources report that he has laid out an operational strategy that is programmed to unfold in stages:
- The US will lead off with systematic air strikes 24/7 over ISIS targets in all parts of Iraq as well as their transport routes. The initial object is to immobilize Islamist fighters and render them unable to move from point A to point B anywhere in their quasi-state.
- After two weeks of massive US bombardment, Kurdish Peshmerga militia and Iraqi army troops will attack IS-held terrain in two spearheads: the Kurds will go for Mosul and its outlying towns including Tal Afar, whereas the Iraqi army will focus on locations in the Tigris region, such as Tikrit, as well as fallen towns in the eastern Diyala province bordering on Iran. These ground offensives will have American air cover.
This stage is computed to go on until early 2015.
No attempt will be made to expel IS from the western province of Anbar. US military strategists have decided that this arena is not a determining factor in the campaign.
US air strikes in Syria only after objectives achieved in Iraq
- After the ground offensives achieve their objective of reclaiming territory currently held by ISIS, the US Air Force will move over to the skies of Syria. Initial air strikes will target the Islamic State ”capital” of Raqqa in northern Syria, and Deir a-Zor in the north east. This aerial blitz will have the same object in Syria as it did in Iraq: To deprive the Islamists of mobility and pin them down.
- The US will arm Iraqi and Kurdish military forces with advanced heavy weaponry, including different types of missiles and assault helicopters. Pro-Western Syrian rebel militias will also be well-armed for fighting IS - after three years of skimpy supplies for the war on Bashar Assad.
- The American war plan takes into account that aerial warfare, however heavy and sustained, will not suffice to defeat ISIS without ground action. It is based on the premise that Al Qaeda’s tacticians have devised methods for staying out of sight of US spy satellites and reconnaissance planes and will therefore be comparatively safe from some of the US targeted air strikes which are guided by surveillance.
The US script therefore rests on supplementary ground action by special operations forces, which the Americans expect to be put up by seven Mid East nations: Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey.
A lengthy conflict dictated by the narrow scale of Obama’s plan
In the course of compiling this plan, its authors fell out over its fundamental strategy.
The Pentagon experts complained that the president’s advisers were cutting the overall plan down to a scale that was too narrow to be effective. Instead of inflicting a categorical defeat on the Islamist enemy, the mission as conceived by the White House would deteriorate into a protracted war and drag on for many years – even outlasting the 13 year-Afghan conflict, in some views.
These military planners strongly advised a short, sharp and concentrated campaign, to quickly eradicate the Islamists’ and their military and territorial gains, before they were give the chance for further expansion.
However, since this plan would have necessitated the outlay of many more warplanes, naval vessels and special forces than the narrow blueprint, it was vetoed by President Obama.
There was practically nothing left of the US-led global and regional coalition for defeating IS but a wispy thought just 12 hours after President Barack Obama unveiled his plan on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
The next day, in Jeddah, Secretary of State John Kerry obtained from the foreign ministers of key Arab and Middle East nations a shared commitment to stand against terrorism and undertake steps to stop fighters and funding for Islamists. But none were ready to contribute combat troops to fight the Al Qaeda-related IS which had seized over one-third of both Syria and Iraq and was still on the march.
The most they would offer on the subject was that they would “as appropriate, join in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign” against the militants.
DEBKA Weekly’s Middle East sources describe the motivations at work among Middle East nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They were clearly intent on payback to the Obama administration for the way his policies had brushed them off - in particular in relation to the Iranian nuclear program and the Syrian civil war.
Now that the US president had changed his policy in response to the peril posed to the West by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – whose rise the moderate Arab rulers lay at Obama’s door – they saw no cause to jump up and serve his new global strategy with combat troops.
Erdogan tripped Obama up without warning
Turkey led the way. At midday Thursday, Ankara announced that Turkish bases will not be available for the US-led coalition to mount air strikes against jhadists “in neighboring Iraq and Syria.” Nor would it take part in “combat operations against militants.”
This was just three days after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Ankara Monday, Sept. 8, to discuss strategy with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials. And three days before that, Hagel and President Obama met with Erdogan at the NATO summit in Wales and persuaded him to join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.
All this hobnobbing stood out in sharp contrast to the coolness between Turkey and the US in the last nearly two years.
In his speech Wednesday, Obama cited Turkey and Turkish troops as participants in his strategy for fighting IS. He would not have mentioned this had he been warned by Kerry or Hagel that Erdogan was about to trip him up.
A big strategy for fighting ISIS, but no troops
Turkey and its strong elite special units were the key to an effective regional combat force for Iraq. Therefore, Washington was stunned when Erdogan again pulled the rug from under a major American military venture led by Obama, just as he did in 2003, when he denied President George W. Bush transit through Turkey for 60,000 US troops to open a second front against Saddam Hussein.
Erdogan then prolonged the Iraq war by at least six months, with the result that many more Americans were killed and wounded.
By Thursday, the US president already found himself saddled with a formidable-sounding strategy for crushing the monstrous ISIS, but no allies or troops in the region to make even the first part of the plan, the war in Iraq, operational.
Though only 17, high school senior Perri Frost has met more than her share of atheists and agnostics. For several years she has been reaching out to fellow teens who are skeptics, including some who post videos on the internet insulting God.
"Some of the teens who seem most hostile toward God are the same ones who emphasize that they are rational thinkers," she says. "It seems odd to want to insult Someone who supposedly isn't there."
Regarding the videos, Frost is referring to "The Blasphemy Challenge," an Internet-related activity that encourages people to post a clip of themselves cursing God or renouncing the Holy Spirit's work in their life. The more brazen clips include assertions that the person willingly accepts the consequences this action (including hell) incurs should it turn out that God does exist.
Blasphemy-challenge promoters make no secret of their desire to promote atheism among teens. One website offered to send a free DVD documentary against Christianity to teens who post a video rejection of God online. One of the project's organizers told Fox News, "It (the blasphemy challenge) exposes the crock that is Christian doctrine."
Some Needed Clarifications
Online atheists base their so-called "blasphemy challenge" on Scriptures such as Mark 3:29 in which Jesus says, "But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin" (ESV). On the basis of this Scripture, some atheists fault God for apparently being unable or unwilling to forgive this specific sin.
But what exactly is blasphemy? Are there unforgivable or unpardonable sins? How does one know whether or not they have "crossed the line" and passed beyond the point of God's forgiveness?
Biblical examples of blasphemy imply irreverence or slander against God. But the term also means, "to spurn." The Scriptures alluding to "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" imply a two-fold indictment against the leaders who personally encountered Jesus while He was here on Earth: They refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, plus they accused Him of being empowered by Satan. To say the least, they spurned Jesus.
Considering the Context
Barry Leventhal, Ph.D., is director the Jewish studies program at Southern Evangelical Seminary. Regarding passages that deal with blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Leventhal states, "There is a difference between an unpardonable sin, and the unpardonable sin. The sin which ultimately places a person beyond God's forgiveness is to live and die in the act of unbelief. That is, to reject Christ."
Most scholars agree that Jesus' ominous warnings about "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" represent a situation unique to the time that Christ was on Earth. Leventhal explains, "Jesus had presented Himself as Messiah to the Jewish leaders. With irrefutable evidence, He had done everything necessary to validate who He was."
Because the religious leaders were intimately familiar with all of the Old Testament Scriptures—and because the incarnate Lord was right in front of them—these particular Jewish leaders had been entrusted with an unparalleled amount of revelation. "For them to stubbornly maintain that posture of unbelief and then to attribute Christ's work to the devil—this rejection of God's overtures was the inexcusable, unpardonable, "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit," Leventhal explained.
Could a Christian Commit the Unpardonable Sin?
Some Christians struggle with a nagging fear that they may have committed an unforgivable sin. Verses like 1 John 1:9 reminds us that when people come to God in repentance and faith, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Rom. 8:1 assures believers: "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Jesus taught that part of the Holy Spirit's work in the world would be to reveal to people their sinfulness and need for salvation (John 16). A healthy concern about sin evidences the fact that the Holy Spirit is still at work in a person's life. To feel contrite about sin is proof that one hasn't committed something unpardonable.
Effective Witness in an Age of Doubt
Interestingly, the taunts of blasphemy-challenge videos are directed almost exclusively at the God of Christianity.
"The online atheists and teens who are into the blasphemy challenge are almost exclusively opposed to Christianity," says Frost. "There are almost no complaints against other faiths. Virtually all of the atheists rail against Christianity only."
The rise of spiritual skepticism and outright blasphemy are vivid reminders that Christians must strive to be authentic. After listing the spiritual qualities that ought to be tangibly present in a Christian's life, Gal. 5:23 says that "against such things there is no law." In other words, "it can't be argued against." The blasphemy of an unbelieving world is tangibly answered by a testimony of Christ-likeness on the part of God's people.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon that the “hatred and bigotry” he encountered when he was booed off the stage at a Middle Eastern Christian conference for defending Israel on Wednesday night was like nothing he has previously seen in his political career.
“I’ve certainly encountered audiences that disagreed with a particular point of view. But this virulent display of hatred and bigotry was remarkable, and considerably different from anything I’ve previously encountered,” Cruz said, just a few hours after his pro-Israel speech to the In Defense of Christians conference was drowned out by shouts and jeers from the audience.
The senator was booed off stage at the conference, which is aimed at raising awareness for the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians, after saying that Christians “have no greater ally than Israel” and calling on the audience to support the Jewish state.
“The division and anti-Semitism expressed tonight by some of the crowd is not reflective of the teachings of Christ, and is in fact directly contrary to the tenets of Christianity,” Cruz said.
In video posted by the Daily Caller, audience members can be heard shouting at Cruz during his keynote address.
“I am saddened to see that some here, not everyone, but some here, are so consumed with hate,” said Cruz, before he was interrupted with shouts of “all of us!” from the audience.
“You speak for yourself!” one participant yelled during the senator’s defense of Israel.
“If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you,” said Cruz, as audience members drowned him out with boos and cries of “enough!,” “no!” and “never!”
The Free Beacon reported on Wednesday that several Hezbollah and Syrian regime supporters were scheduled to speak at the conference. Numerous members of Congress were scheduled to attend, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), and Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.).
The speakers included Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Raï, who has defended Hezbollah’s right to attack Israel and has called for a meeting with the Iranian-backed terrorist group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Another speaker, Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, boasted on his official Facebook page last week about his Sept. 5 meeting with a “high level delegation from Hezbollah.”
The conference also featured Antioch Church patriarch Gregory III Laham, who has blamed terrorist attacks against Iraqi Christians on a “Zionist conspiracy against Islam” aimed at making Muslims look bad.
“It is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations, and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam,” Laham said in 2010, according to the Daily Star.
Despite the controversial speakers, Cruz decided to speak at the conference because he wanted to bring attention to the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians, his office told the Free Beacon on Wednesday afternoon.
He said Wednesday night that he was disappointed he was unable to give the speech he had planned.
“I’d intended to talk tonight about Pastor Saeed Abedini, wrongfully imprisoned in the nation of Iran for practicing his Christian faith. I’d intended to talk tonight about Mariam Ibrahim, wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to torture and death for her Christian faith,” said Cruz. “I had intended to talk about the three Jewish teenagers who were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas simply because they were Jews.”
Jihadis from ISIS in Mosul, Iraq
Reuters
A spokesperson for "moderate" Syrian rebel factions spoke to Channel 2 near the Golan Heights on Friday, saying in a rare interview that locals are preparing for "total war" against the extremist Islamic State (IS; formerly known as ISIS) organization.
"There will be total war against IS in the south," a rebel leader, who wished to remain anonymous, said to the daily.
"We will hold face-to-face battles - not like the US and other countries that allowed IS to form," he added. "We maintain that there will not be a single person left who is loyal to them in the south."
The rebel leader also stated that, by his estimation, IS will not take the offensive to Israel's northern borders. But mere hours after the report's publication, a rocket from Syrian spillover exploded in the Golan, causing no injuries or damage.
American offensive helping the Middle East?
Meanwhile, a senior diplomatic source confirmed to Israeli news media earlier Friday that the American airstrike offensive against IS in Iraq has been showing signs of success.
"American air strikes on the ground have been helping Kurdish forces seize IS strongholds and take them over," he related.
Obama on Wednesday authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time, along with expanded strikes in Iraq as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out the extremists.
Just 24 hours later, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro confirmed that Israeli military and intelligence officials have been actively helping the US fight IS, mindful of what Israeli President Reuven Rivlin declared as the "global responsibility" to defeat jihadists.
"The West has already understood that it could not sit back and let these horrible forces rule, and we hope to combat this nightmare - and make it clear to everyone that there is no future for terrorism," he said Friday.
"In this vein, not only is all Israel responsible for each other, but all countries are responsible for each other; the whole world is responsible [for responding to terror]."
Professor Peter Piot: still no sense that Ebola outbreak is an 'absolute emergency and catastrophe'. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
The microbiologist who helped identify the Ebola virus in 1976 has urged David Cameron to support a "quasi-military intervention" to stop the current epidemic, which is spreading unchecked in west Africa.
Professor Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the outbreak was now so bad that a UN peacekeeping force ought to be mobilised in Sierra Leone and Liberia with huge donations of beds, ambulances and trucks as well as an army of clinicians, doctors and nurses.
"At the moment, I'm not so optimistic, I'm pessimistic about how to control it. It's one thing to isolate patients or put a small village or town in quarantine; it's another thing when entire countries are affected," he said. "This requires a state of emergency and a kind of quasi-military intervention – and it's not my style to exaggerate."
Piot, who has worked for the UN and World Health Organisation, said the US and UK efforts were good, but not good enough. "It's all going far too slow; I think there's still no sense that this is an absolute emergency and catastrophe," he said.
Describing the "formidable management challenge" that lies ahead, he said the biggest question for him was what would happen if the disease spread to "megacities" in Nigeria, where there have already been seven deaths from 19 confirmed cases.
"One of the reasons for this being out of control is because of the slow response both from the national community and the international community, with the exception of Medecins sans Frontières (MSF)," he added.
Piot said the Ebola outbreak was discussed at a meeting of the government's Cobra national emergencies committee last month, so he knew Cameron had been briefed on the problem.
He said: "I call on the government and the prime minister to intensify the country's efforts and provide assistance, and to accelerate it also."
He said Cameron should sanction the release of up to 100 NHS doctors and nurses to go to Sierra Leone and Liberia and called on the UN to put an international emergency programme into action. "There is no way that the three countries effected most can handle this on their own," he said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Piot also called on British Airways and other airlines including Air France to resume flying to the two countries, saying the closure of services this summer "has not been helpful" to the aid effort.
He said security could be guaranteed if passengers were screened before boarding.
A Belgian, now based in London, he co-discovered the virus in Zaire 38 years ago but never thought he would see an outbreak of this scale. It has already affected four countries and has claimed about 2,300 lives, more than the combined total of all previous outbreaks.
Piot, who is working hard behind the scenes to provoke a sense of urgency at government levels, said the head of the UN's peacekeeping operations in Liberia had already offered to assist, but that the force needed training.
"I was in contact with them and they said: 'We are not trained for that, we do not know how to do this.'"
The African Union has also offered to get involved on a military level, but again needs outside help from experts in infectious disease containment.
"This is an enormously complicated logistics job. Frankly, the military, together with DHL and so on, and companies who do transport and delivery, they would be extremely useful," Piot added.
He urged the UN High Commission for Refugees to get involved and other agencies who deal with disasters including the International Rescue Fund, chaired by David Miliband. "I think they should get involved, absolutely," he said. "They are the ones with most experience to organise and mobilise on a large scale in a minimum of time, [as well as] the military.
"I think the NHS and universities can help. We should make it possible for nurses and doctors who wanted to do this and want to work in an organised way, like through MSF, to go."
A team of up to 100 would have huge impact, he said, and would not compromise the NHS.
"This should be the last epidemic of Ebola where all we have is quarantine and isolation," Piot said. "What we need the next time are stockpiles of drugs or treatments or vaccines in countries where undoubtedly the virus will resurface."
Facing sanctions for his “shadow” invasion of Ukraine, Putin has promised he will develop a new array of weapons to counter the West. Source: AP
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has promised his military commanders a new array of weapons — from intercontinental nuclear missiles to aircraft and submarines — to counter what he calls ‘growing Western aggression’.
Mr Putin’s statement came as the military successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a nuclear submarine yesterday.
Putin accused the West of using the crisis in Ukraine to reinvigorate NATO, warning that Moscow will ponder a response to the alliance’s decision to create a rapid-reaction “spearhead” force to protect Eastern Europe.
His comments came as Russia’s relations with the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War due to Russia’s role in the crisis in Ukraine. They appear to show that the Russian leader is determined to pursue a tough course in the face of more Western sanctions.
Addressing a Kremlin meeting on weapons modernisation, Putin ominously warned the West against getting “hysterical” about Moscow’s rearming efforts, in view of US missile defence plans and other decisions he said have challenged Russia’s security.
“We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding countermeasures to ensure our security,” Putin said, adding that he would now take personal charge of the government commission overseeing military industries.
He said Russia’s weapons modernisation program for 2016-2025 should focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a “guaranteed nuclear deterrent;” rearming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defence system and developing high-precision conventional weapons.
Among the new arsenal are:
Next generation ... the PAK FA T-50 Stealth Fighter. Source: Supplied
Sukhoi PAK FA T-50 Fighter Jets: Intended to be Russia’s new frontline fighter, the prototype of the T-50 first flew in 2010. It is intended to be the match for the US F-22 “Raptor”, with stealth characteristics and engines capable of “supercruise” — high speed and high fuel economy.
PAK DA Strategic Bomber: Russia’s answer to the B-2 “Spirit”, this next-generation strategic bomber is intended to be almost invisible to radar and capable of carrying a huge array of conventional and nuclear missiles. Little else is known other than its expected service date: 2025.
MiG Skat Combat Drone: The idea of stealth combat drones has been embraced by Russia, with two contenders currently vying for production contracts. It is intended to carry missiles and bombs into heavily defended areas up to 2000km away in order to destroy radar and anti-aircraft weapons. This would clear the way for manned aircraft to deliver their crushing blows.
A-100 AWACS: This new early warning and combat command aircraft is expected to be delivered in 2016. Built around an IL-276 transport airframe, the extended-range surveillance aircraft will be used to tracking aircraft and vehicles over a broad swathe of territory.
Stealth Attack Helicopter: Russia has announced plans to begin construction of a new “stealth” helicopter to roam future battlefields in search of armoured vehicles and command bunkers. Few details have so far been revealed on the $1 billion design project which has two contenders developing designs. Among the military’s requirements are a low sound signature, small radar cross-section, long-range and anti-aircraft missiles capable of engaging fighter jets. A similar project in the United States, the “Comanche” attack helicopter, was abandoned a decade ago.
Guided Missile Destroyers: Named Project 2196, this major surface warship would be a severe threat to the United States Navy which has lost its way with a new class of “littoral” combat ships which are proving to have highly limited effectiveness and a new advanced “stealth” destroyer, Zumwalt, which has proven so expensive that only two will be built. The new Russian destroyer is intended to be capable of fighting submarines, surface ships and aircraft, while also providing support for amphibious operations. It also is intended to be built with stealth technology.
All front ... the T-90AM main battle tank. Source: Supplied
T-90AM “Armada” Tanks: This is a reworking of Russia’s older T-72 tank which went so far as to essentially produce an entirely new design. It features a new protection system blending hardened steel, composite (laminated) armour and reactive plates, along with a new engine, new gun and updated sensors. An automated gun on top of the turret is capable of destroying incoming rocket projectiles. It is expected to enter service next year.
Iron dome: The S-400 missile system is intended to protect troops and key facilities from incoming aircraft and missiles. Source: Supplied
Air Defence System: Intended to be at least twice as capable as the West’s “Patriot” ant-aircraft and antimissile system, the S-400 “Triumph” — given the NATO code name SA-21 Growler system uses three different missiles to give it a comprehensive range of capabilities over both long (400km) and short (120km) ranges.
Anti Ballistic-Missile System: Currently under development, the S-500 missile is intended to be capable of intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles when combined with radar input from the likes of the new A-100 AWACS aircraft. It is supposed to be able to track and shoot at up to 10 supersonic targets at any one time at heights of up to 40km.
Despite promising much, there is some doubt about delivery.
The difficulties faced by the Russian arms industry have been highlighted by the long and painful development of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, which has suffered repeated launch failures.
Its designers finally seem to have cured the glitches, and the navy boasted of a successful launch of the Bulava from a nuclear submarine yesterday. Two more launches are set for the fall.
Putin said potential threats must be thoroughly analysed to avoid overburdening the economy with excessive military spending. He would not elaborate on prospective weapons, but he and other officials have repeatedly boasted about new Russian nuclear missiles’ capability to penetrate any prospective missile shield.
Putin’s emphasis on high-precision conventional weapons reflected government concerns about the US and other NATO countries enjoying a significant edge in that area.
The comparative weakness of Russia’s conventional arsenals have prompted Russia to rely increasingly on a nuclear deterrent, with the nation’s military doctrine envisaging the possibility that Russia may use nuclear weapons first in response to a conventional aggression.
Talking about potential threats, the Russian president specifically pointed at the US missile defence program and Washington’s plans to develop new “hypervelocity” conventional weapons that could strike targets anywhere in the world in as little as an hour with deadly precision.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of weapons industries, told reporters after the meeting that Russia will respond to the US challenge by developing its strategic nuclear forces and aerospace defences.
Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the military will focus on developing defensive systems to counter the new US programs, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia inherited most of its arsenal from the Soviet Union and has struggled to develop new weapons systems after the post-Soviet industrial meltdown.
With hundreds of subcontractors going out of production, Russian arms manufacturers often had to make components themselves, swelling costs and affecting production quality.
Putin said Russian defence industries must rid themselves of a dependence on imports and quickly become capable of producing key components at home.
Faced with a pro-Russian insurgency in the east backed by Moscow, Ukraine has already cut arms exports to Russia. They include missile components, helicopter engines and turbines for naval ships that Russian arms makers may find hard to replace. Western nations also have cut exports of military components to Russia.
President Reuven Rivlin
Flash 90
Israel has a "responsibility" to stop Islamic State (IS; formerly known as ISIS), President Reuven Rivlin stated Friday.
"Fighting evil, in the form of ISIS and those like it, is not simple," Rivlin stated, at an event honoring fallen Druze soldiers held in the village of Muhraka.
"The West has already understood that it could not sit back and let these horrible forces rule, and we hope to combat this nightmare - and make it clear to everyone that there is no future for terrorism," he added.
"In this vein, not only is all Israel responsible for each other, but all countries are responsible for each other; the whole world is responsible [for responding to terror]."
Israel has expressed both confidence and cooperation regarding IS, stating that it would be able to tackle the threat despite the many other terror organizations looking to attack Israel closer to its borders.
On Thursday, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro confirmed that Israeli intelligence agencies are working with Washington to fight the terror group in Iraq and Syria, as part of an ongoing effort by over 40 countries to combat global jihad.
Hours earlier, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed to fight Islamist extremism in general, including against Iran and Palestinian terror groups.
“Clarity and courage, alliances as broad as we can make them with those who understand that we're in a common battle, and courage to see this through, to roll back an ultimate victor," he noted. "I'm confident that militant Islam will perish, but we must not allow anyone to perish with it before it goes down. That's our task.”
Israel's Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino also stated recently that all local terrorists found to be supporting IS would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, after Israeli Arabs told Channel 2 that they hoped to see Israel under the "Caliphate."
“Over the last few days I have instructed police to act sternly against any display of support, in any way, with this murderous organization," Danino said. "That includes posting notices, waving flags and banners, posting messages on Facebook and other online service. ISIS is a terror organization, and its supporters will be treated harshly."
Ebola death toll hits 2,400: WHO
The worst-ever outbreak of Ebola fever has now killed more than 2,400 people and infected twice that number, according to a new toll released on Friday by the World Health Organization. “As of Sept. 12, we are at 4,784 cases and more than 2,400 deaths,” the head of the U.N. health agency, Margaret Chan, told a news conference on the spiraling West African health crisis.
How Have Churches Changed When It Comes to Race, Size, Worship and the Treatment of Gays?
from 2006 until 2012, the National Congregations Study found that the number of congregations that were open to allowing gays in leadership roles rose substantially from 18 percent to 26.4 percent, according to a press release announcing the results. Additionally, the proportion of houses of worship accepting gays for membership during this same time frame rose from 37.4 percent to 48 percent.
‘Even If I Am Going to Hell’: Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ Defends Evolutionary Beliefs
Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ defiantly defends his evolutionary beliefs and says that even if he ends up ‘going to Hell,’ it still won’t prove that the earth is young.
US Military's New Laser Gun Zaps Drones
Boeing recently announced that its mobile laser weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), successfully shot down more than 150 drones, rockets and other mock enemy targets in a third round of tests. The trials prove that the laser weapon is reliable and capable of consistently "acquiring, tracking and engaging a variety of targets in different environments," according to Boeing.
10 Arab states agree to join US-led military campaign against Islamic State
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar agree to join coalition to fight radical Sunni militants.
Scientists revert human stem cells to pristine state
Taking a new approach, the scientists used reprogramming methods to express two different genes, NANOG and KLF2, which reset the cells. They then maintained the cells indefinitely by inhibiting specific biological pathways. The resulting cells are capable of differentiating into any adult cell type, and are genetically normal.
SOLAR STORM UPDATE
The first of two CMEs expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 12th has arrived, and a minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm is underway as a result of the impact. The second and potentially more powerful CME is still en route.
Increased SO2 emissions from Holuhraun eruption site can pose health risk
Earth has split open between the Bardarbunga and Askja volcanoes in Iceland and spewed lava and hot gas. A blue haze of SO2 and aerosols has been observed downwind over several towns and villages in eastern Iceland. Due to dangerous levels of gas emissions, scientists have been forced to evacuate the Holuhraun area several times since the eruption began and cautioned to keep gas masks handy due to noxious gases and shifting winds.
Obama’s Iraq strategy unraveling ...didn't take long for that to happen
The Turkish government says it will not allow a US-led military coalition to use its air bases in order to launch attacks on IS terrorists’ hideouts in neighboring Iraq and Syria. A government official said Ankara can open the Incirlik Air Base in the south only for logistical and humanitarian operations, and not for any airstrikes.
Earthquake damages dozens of houses, injures four in West Sumatra
An earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale jolted Tanah Datar, a region located around 17 kilometers southeast of Padang Panjang, West Sumatra early on Thursday, said the Disaster Mitigation National agency (BNPB).
Obama Global War on ISIS: The Coalition
Iranian and American officials fell over themselves last weekend to obscure the real story behind the forcing of the chartered Fly Dubai airplane to land in the Iranian town of Bandar Abbas Friday night, Sept. 5, with 140 American and other NATO officers and troops aboard. That story was loaded with the potential for more than a passing diplomatic incident. It might have blown sky high the fledgling US-Iranian military and strategic partnership taking its first tentative steps in Iraq and Syria – or even their bilateral dialogue on the nuclear issue.
The first Iranian version went like this: The plane which entered Iranian air space did not match the specifications declared and “due to inconsistencies in the provided information, the pilot was asked to make landing at Bandar Abbas Airport.”
That is not how it happened. DEBKA Weekly’s military and intelligence sources reveal that the plane was not “asked to make landing,” but intercepted by a pair of Revolutionary Guards Air Force jets while over the Afghan city of Kandahar. They escorted the civilian airliner across the border and forced it to land in Iran.
Three days later, on Sept. 8, Brig Gen. Farzad Esmaeili, Commander of the Khaatam-ol-Anbiya Air Defense Base, more or less let the cat out of the bag, when he said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Army had been involved in the landing at Bandar Abbas of a chartered aircraft carrying about 100 Americans from the US air base at Bagram, Afghanistan.
The general disclosed that IRGC and Army fighters had tracked the plan and forced it to land. But he did not explain why.
Washington over-reported the incident as a cover-up
This did not stop the US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf from saying that contrary to some media reports, “No Iranian jets were scrambled in this situation.”
That was not the end of it. A rash of wildly inconsistent accounts of the incident popped up all over the media. One claimed that the plane had intruded on Iranian airspace without permission. Another, that permission was obtained, but the airliner delayed its takeoff from Afghanistan by several hours and, by the time it was aloft, its registration had fallen off the Iranian control tower’s log.
Then, Jassem Chador, the governor of the Hormozgan district of southern Iran, piped up with his version of the episode: When the pilot was asked by the Iranian control tower for identification, he provided incorrect particulars that did not match Iranian data. The request was repeated with the same result. The pilot was then told to return to Bagram. When he said he was short of fuel for the return run, he was allowed to land at Bandar Abbas.
Gulf: A set-up to hijack the plane with the pilot’s connivance
The truth was that the episode began when the airliner was still in Afghan air space. It could have come down at Kandahar air field, only it didn’t get the chance; IRGC jets forced the plane to land on the Iranian side of the border.
DEBKA Weekly’s intelligence sources report the most widely-accepted view in Gulf intelligence circles is that the entire incident was set up in advance with the Fly Dubai airline - or even some of its pilots on the regular routes to Dubai and Iran. Those pilots or the airline were said to have been given generous payoffs by IRGC agents to tip them off when they touched down at Bagram military airport and relay information on the identities of the passengers and types of cargo aboard their flights.
The Guards’ plan was to intercept one of those flights to provoke a major crisis in relations between Washington and Tehran, the Gulf sources believe.
This particular flight was tailor made for the scheme, since it carried a large group of American and other NATO military personnel.
Intriguingly, the governor of Hormozgan seemed to know more about the incident than anyone else, although he is situated at a distance from Bandar Abbas, and the passengers were clad in civilian dress, except for army boots, and therefore difficult to pin down as soldiers.
Rouhani in row with Revolutionary Guards to end the incident
But it was President Hassan Rouhani who moved fastest to smooth over a potential diplomatic furor. Fearing another 1979 US hostage crisis, he ordered the airport to refuel the plane and send it on its way without delay.
Nonetheless, the plane was delayed on the tarmac of the Iranian airport for another six hours and not released before each passenger’s identity and the cargo were meticulously checked.
During those hours, a heated debate raged between Rouhani, whose demand for the plane’s immediate release was challenged by members of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s bureau and Guards chiefs. They insisted that the passengers’ identities must be confirmed as a matter of national security, because secret agents among them might be part of a conspiracy for an air attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Confined to the grounded plane for hours, some of the passengers sent text messages to worried relatives. One reported that the airliner had been forced to land and “a group of unfriendly looking soldiers were headed towards the aircraft.”
In the end, President Rouhani’s moderate voice prevailed and early Saturday, Sept. 6, the plane was allowed to take off for its destination.
This was clearly just one chapter in the epic tussle afoot in Tehran between the pro-diplomacy and extremist camps over two dominant issues: Iran’s nuclear program and the reconciliation between the Islamic Republic and the United States. The struggle being fought in the corridors of power in Tehran burst into the open over a Revolutionary Guards’ scheme to force their radical stamp on the two issues: by disrupting ties with Washington, they planned to shorten the distance to an Iranian A-bomb.
Tehran power struggle may sabotage US-Iranian military ops in Iraq
The president eventually won this round, but there are undoubtedly more to come in the titanic clash rending the Iranian regime, with the supreme ruler playing both sides to his advantage.
Our Iranian and intelligence sources confirm that President Barack Obama is adhering strongly to his plan for military and intelligence collaboration with Tehran in the campaign against the Islamic State.
He is even amenable to American ground operations as a joint effort of Iranian – mostly Revolutionary Guards - and American special forces, although, in the light of the Fly Dubai incident, US special operations troops on the spot would do well to beware of Afghanistan-type “insider” attacks by their partners.
Furthermore, DEBKA Weekly’s military sources have disclosed the onset of secret talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s envoys for coordinating their efforts to eradicate the Islamist State, whose seized territory straddles Syria and Iraq.
These talks are taking place under the eye of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Al Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards’ arm for external espionage and terror, whom Khamenei has put in charge of Iranian operations in Syria.
The involvement of this hard-line Iranian general in the US campaign against IS magnifies the peril of a recurrence of the Dubai airliner incident in the course of the joint battle against al Qaeda.
Kerry leaves Iran out of his bid in Jeddah to enlist Arab leaders
Undeterred by this prospect, some of the president’s close advisers are reported by our Washington sources to have provoked a major row shortly before he unveiled his strategy for fighting IS in a speech to the American nation Wednesday night, Sept. 10. A group of aides argued against Secretary of State John Kerry’s mission to Jeddah to persuade a group of Muslim nations to join the president’s broad coalition for fighting IS – unless the Iranian foreign minister was invited to join the meeting.
This group maintained that - if the Obama strategy for tackling Al Qaeda’s Iraqi branch proceeds according to plan - Saudi special forces will inevitably find themselves fighting cheek by jowl with Iranian fighters at some point. Those aides advised putting this eventuality squarely before Saudi King Abdullah and his government in advance, rather than putting it off until it comes to light at a later stage, possibly six months away, with unforeseeable damage to the coalition effort.
President Obama supported this approach at first. But then he reconsidered and ordered Kerry to set out for Jeddah and confine his meeting to the Arab leaders of Saudi Arabia Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Clearly Iran’s presence would hardly be conducive to persuading these Sunni Muslim leaders to join President Obama’s plans for a global military campaign against the Islamic State.
So it was decided that Iran would only be asked to attend a parallel international parley with the same theme – this one organized by Iraqi President Fuad Masum, to take place in Baghdad early next week. French President Francois Hollande will also be attending.
The embattled Syrian regime and its closest allies, Russia and Iran, will oppose American military action in its territory against Islamic State, the axis said on Thursday.
President Barack Obama holds a National Security Council meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, April 5, 2013.. (photo credit:OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO / PETE SOUZA)
WASHINGTON – The embattled Syrian regime and its closest allies, Russia and Iran, will oppose American military action in its territory against Islamic State, unless the White House coordinates US actions with President Bashar Assad, the axis said on Thursday.
The group expressed its opposition to American force, which it called an “aggressive” and “illegal” intervention in a sovereign state, hours after President Barack Obama announced his intent to target Islamic State terrorists “wherever they exist.”
But the White House made clear that the president’s decision had already been made. Strikes will begin against targets in Syria “at a time and place” of his choosing, senior aides said.
“This is something the president has decided to do,” one official said. “We will take action.”
And in Iraq, the official continued, “we are going to expand the efforts of our air campaign... if there is an [Islamic State] target that we need to hit in Iraq, we will hit it.”
With its veto power on the United Nations Security Council, Russia has long opposed foreign intervention in the Syrian civil war, which it considers a domestic political conflict.
Russia suggested on Thursday that without UN authorization, American action would be illegal.
“The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces against ISIL [Islamic State] positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. “This step, in absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law.”
Relations between Moscow and Washington are at a post- Cold War nadir, soured ever since Russia intervened in the civil strife embroiling Ukraine.
That conflict has been stoked by Russia, the Obama administration contends, and should be considered a domestic political conflict within sovereign borders.
“Any action of any type without the approval of the Syrian government is an aggression against Syria,” Ali Haidar, minister of national reconciliation affairs, told reporters in Damascus on Thursday. “There must be cooperation with Syria and coordination with Syria, and there must be a Syrian approval of any action, whether it is military or not.”
At the same time, Syria’s deputy foreign minister said that his government was “ready to talk” to the US, and that the two were “natural allies” fighting “the same enemy.”
The Obama administration says the Assad regime has “lost all legitimacy,” however, and refuses to cooperate with Damascus.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Thursday that strikes in Syria would not target the Assad regime.
“Obviously we believe Assad has lost legitimacy, but that is separate from our fight against ISIL,” Harf said.
Iran, too, questioned the breadth of the coalition that Washington says represents the international community.
“The so-called international coalition to fight ISIL is shrouded in serious ambiguities,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, according to state-run television, noting that some coalition members were “financial and military supporters of terrorists in Iraq and Syria.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has raised the possibility that Islamic State might have been created by the United States.
The Islamic State organization, which considers itself Sunni, calls for the conversion or killing of all Shi’ites and violently opposes the government in Tehran.
While Obama officials say Tehran can play a constructive role in supporting inclusive governance in Baghdad, they have ruled out military cooperation with the Iranian government.
Sunni powers, historically antagonistic to the Islamic Republic, signed a document in Saudi Arabia on Thursday committing to “appropriate” military cooperation with the United States.
The Jeddah communiqué was signed by ministers representing the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
In a 15-minute televised address, Obama said Islamic State did not yet pose a direct threat to the US – but that it might in short order, if left unchecked.
“We will conduct a systematic campaign of air strikes against these terrorists,” he said from the White House. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”
Islamic State is neither Islamic, nor a state, the president said, despite ruling territories throughout eastern Syria and northern Iraq. The group has corralled together an army with strength estimated at between 10,000 and 30,000 men.
“It will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL,” he continued, adding, “Any time we take military action, there are risks involved.”
But “our own safety – our own security – depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation, and uphold the values that we stand for, timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth,” he continued.
Obama said he already has the authority to act without a new vote for authorization from the US Congress, based on a 2001 authorization vote that allows the president to target al-Qaida and its affiliates.
But the White House has requested a swift vote in Congress on providing $500 million in aid for the training and equipping of moderate Syrian fighters.
The US seeks a force in Syria that can hold ground cleared by American air power.
Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Thursday that he supported the measure, and that the president had made a “compelling case for action.”
“These are serious discussions. This is a very serious issue. And it ought to be handled that way,” Boehner said.
But the speaker continued with a critique of the overall strategy, arguing that air power alone would not be sufficient in halting Islamic State. “Somebody’s boots have to be on the ground,” he said.
Germany and Turkey announced on Thursday that, while they were a part of the US-led coalition, they do not intend to participate in the air campaign. The British foreign secretary suggested the United Kingdom, too, would abstain from the strikes, but Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said that no decision had yet been made on the use of British force.
Those governments, along with other NATO alliance members and Australia, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, among others, have agreed to cooperate with the US in its mission.
“Conversations are now under way” on what nations will play what roles in the coalition, US officials said. Instead of military power, some may instead provide funding and training for rebels, while others still will contribute political support.
In the Jeddah communiqué, signatories agreed to join “in many aspects... [of] a coordinated military campaign against ISIL.”
It requires them to halt the arming and financing of Islamic State from their countries, and to publicly repudiate its “hateful ideology.”
“The role played by regional states is central to this effort,” the Gulf states said.
The Pentagon is prepared to begin air strikes as ordered, one senior defense official said after Obama’s speech.
“The US military is ready to conduct direct action against ISIL targets in Syria,” the official said. “Decisions about when to conduct these actions will be made at a prudent time.”
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the army was prepared to launch the broad offensive upon the president’s order.
“The men and women of the US armed forces are ready to carry out the orders of our commander- in-chief, to work with our partners across government, and to work with our friends and allies around the world to accomplish this mission,” Hagel said.
From Jordan, Secretary of State John Kerry said the US effort to build an international coalition against Islamic State was already well under way. Kerry was in Baghdad on Wednesday, praising the creation of a new, inclusive government that could take on the security challenge of the terrorist group.
“We are uniting the world against a unified threat, and the president’s strategy will succeed because doing it with allies and partners isn’t just smart, it’s strong,” Kerry said.
The secretary attended the GCC deliberations in Jeddah on Thursday, endorsing the language of the final document. US officials say the Saudis are prepared to “fully cooperate” on training moderate Syrian rebels to help combat the group, and have agreed to host a train-andequip program for moderate Syrian groups.
Rounding out the coalition- building trip, Kerry will travel to Ankara and Cairo for strategic consultations over the weekend.
Ukrainian paratroopers of the 95 airmobile brigade take part in military drills in the Zhytomyr region, some 150 km from Kiev, on September 11, 2014 SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. is moving forward with tougher economic sanctions on Russia to protest what the U.S. describes as Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine.
Mr. Obama said the sanctions will have an impact on Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors. He said they'll increase Moscow's political isolation and foist additional economic costs on the country.
Fighting goes on right up to start of Ukraine cease-fire
"I have said from the very beginning of this crisis that we want to see a negotiated political solution that respects Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the president explained in a statement. "Together with G-7 and European partners and our other Allies, we have made clear that we are prepared to impose mounting costs on Russia. We are implementing these new measures in light of Russia's actions to further destabilize Ukraine over the last month, including through the presence of heavily armed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine."
The U.S. penalties will be coupled with a new round of European Union sanctions announced Thursday in Brussels. The U.S. and the EU will both disclose the full details Friday.
The latest sanctions from the West come despite a cease-fire reached last week between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists.
"We are watching closely developments since the announcement of the ceasefire and agreement in Minsk," the president said in his statement, "but we have yet to see conclusive evidence that Russia has ceased its efforts to destabilize Ukraine."
Mr. Obama said if Russia follows through with its commitments to help end the crisis, the sanctions can be rolled back. Otherwise, he added, they'll be increased.
"The international community continues to seek a genuine negotiated solution to the crisis in Ukraine," he said. "I encourage [Russian] President Putin to work with Ukraine and other international partners, within the context of the Minsk agreement and without setting unreasonable conditions, to reach a lasting resolution to the conflict."
The new US sanctions against Russia, following EU economic penalties, for the first time targeted Russia’s Sherbank, dealings with Rostec, a big Russian technology and defense conglomerate, and five state-owned defense technology firms: OAO Dolgoprudny Research Production Enterprise, Mytishchinski Mashinostroitelny Zavod OAO, Kalinin Machine Plant JSC, Almaz-Antey GSKB, and JSC NIIP. Oil industry sanctions will affect the exploration and production of Russian deepwater, Arctic offshore and shale projects by five Russian energy companies: Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegas and Rosneft.
According to scientific modeling systems used by the European Union, the radioactive ocean plume released by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster is likely to remain a massive clump of radioactivity until it slams into the West Coast of the United States in late 2017.
On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, knocking out power and cooling capability to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Within three days, multiple meltdowns and reactor explosions had taken place. By March 25, massive amounts of radioactive material were observed leaking directly into the Pacific Ocean.
In 2013, the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway used computer models to project the movement and dispersion of this radioactive plume. Although the results of this study have been cited in official Chinese government documents, they have not been widely publicized.
Levels to remain high through at least 2026
The researchers used two separate scenarios to model leakage of radioactivity from the Fukushima plant into the Pacific. The first scenario assumed continuous and constant leakage for 20 days, while the second assumed continuous and constant leakage for one year.
Although delivering differing estimates of total radiation, both models concluded that the pollution would remain in a relatively unified mass and take the same path across the ocean until crashing up against western North America. Both models show the plume colliding with the U.S. West Coast and beginning to spread out starting around late 2017, with a maximum concentration of radiation hitting the coast toward the end of 2018.
Following this collision, the plume is projected to disperse and spread north, south and west, with portions of it eventually crashing back into East Asia sometime between 2021 and 2026. Throughout this entire time period, however, the area of greatest radioactivity concentration will remain positioned along North America’s West Coast.
The researchers noted that the model does have certain limits, namely its failure to account for ocean ecology (which may alter the flow of radioactive material) and atmospheric fallout (which may increase the concentration of radioactive material in additional regions to those predicted by the model).
Cleanup efforts in shambles
More than three years after the disaster, the Fukushima plant remains crippled, contaminated and uncontained. Massive amounts of radioactive water continue to pile up at the plant and leak into the surrounding earth and ocean. Thus far, all plans by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to stem the flow of this water by freezing the ground surrounding the plant have failed. More than 120,000 people evacuated from the area in 2011 are still unable to return to their homes, and criminal gangs have infiltrated cleanup operations.
In recent weeks, TEPCO has also been hit with a number of legal setbacks. A court ordered the company to pay nearly half a million dollars to the family of a woman who committed suicide just two months after being forcibly evacuated from her home near Fukushima. In August, a citizens’ judicial panel called for three former TEPCO executives to be prosecuted for their role in the disaster. TEPCO is also being sued by four workers seeking $600,000 in unpaid wages from their work in the plant’s clean-up and decommissioning operations.
“A year ago, the prime minister told the world that Fukushima was under control. But that’s not the case,” said Tsuguo Hirota, lawyer for the plaintiffs. “Workers are not getting promised hazard pay and skilled workers are leaving. It’s becoming a place for amateurs only, and that has to worry anyone who lives near the plant.”
Let the Headlines Speak
Sep 12th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
Ebola death toll hits 2,400: WHO
The worst-ever outbreak of Ebola fever has now killed more than 2,400 people and infected twice that number, according to a new toll released on Friday by the World Health Organization. “As of Sept. 12, we are at 4,784 cases and more than 2,400 deaths,” the head of the U.N. health agency, Margaret Chan, told a news conference on the spiraling West African health crisis.
How Have Churches Changed When It Comes to Race, Size, Worship and the Treatment of Gays?
from 2006 until 2012, the National Congregations Study found that the number of congregations that were open to allowing gays in leadership roles rose substantially from 18 percent to 26.4 percent, according to a press release announcing the results. Additionally, the proportion of houses of worship accepting gays for membership during this same time frame rose from 37.4 percent to 48 percent.
‘Even If I Am Going to Hell’: Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ Defends Evolutionary Beliefs
Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’ defiantly defends his evolutionary beliefs and says that even if he ends up ‘going to Hell,’ it still won’t prove that the earth is young.
US Military's New Laser Gun Zaps Drones
Boeing recently announced that its mobile laser weapon, dubbed the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), successfully shot down more than 150 drones, rockets and other mock enemy targets in a third round of tests. The trials prove that the laser weapon is reliable and capable of consistently "acquiring, tracking and engaging a variety of targets in different environments," according to Boeing.
10 Arab states agree to join US-led military campaign against Islamic State
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar agree to join coalition to fight radical Sunni militants.
Scientists revert human stem cells to pristine state
Taking a new approach, the scientists used reprogramming methods to express two different genes, NANOG and KLF2, which reset the cells. They then maintained the cells indefinitely by inhibiting specific biological pathways. The resulting cells are capable of differentiating into any adult cell type, and are genetically normal.
SOLAR STORM UPDATE
The first of two CMEs expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 12th has arrived, and a minor (G1-class) geomagnetic storm is underway as a result of the impact. The second and potentially more powerful CME is still en route.
Increased SO2 emissions from Holuhraun eruption site can pose health risk
Earth has split open between the Bardarbunga and Askja volcanoes in Iceland and spewed lava and hot gas. A blue haze of SO2 and aerosols has been observed downwind over several towns and villages in eastern Iceland. Due to dangerous levels of gas emissions, scientists have been forced to evacuate the Holuhraun area several times since the eruption began and cautioned to keep gas masks handy due to noxious gases and shifting winds.
Obama’s Iraq strategy unraveling ...didn't take long for that to happen
The Turkish government says it will not allow a US-led military coalition to use its air bases in order to launch attacks on IS terrorists’ hideouts in neighboring Iraq and Syria. A government official said Ankara can open the Incirlik Air Base in the south only for logistical and humanitarian operations, and not for any airstrikes.
Earthquake damages dozens of houses, injures four in West Sumatra
An earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale jolted Tanah Datar, a region located around 17 kilometers southeast of Padang Panjang, West Sumatra early on Thursday, said the Disaster Mitigation National agency (BNPB).
Russia warns US against strikes on Islamic State in Syria
Russia has warned that US air strikes against militants in Syria would be a "gross violation" of international law. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said any such action, without the backing of the UN, would be "an act of aggression". It comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia to try to build a coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants.
Russia reduces gas supplies, as EU imposes sanctions
Poland and Slovakia have said gas supplies from Russia are down, as the EU prepares to impose new sanctions. A Polish diplomat told EUobserver on Thursday (11 September) that volumes fell by 20 percent on Monday and were down by 45 percent by Thursday. The same day Slovak PM Robert Fico said supplies to his country had dipped by eight to 11 percent.
EU names 24 new people, 14 firms in Russia sanctions
EU countries have added Russia’s top oil firms, an oligarch, and a leading nationalist MP to their blacklist. ...The new regulation forbids EU entities from buying debt with a 30 or more day maturity, issuing loans, or selling financial services to five banks, three oil firms, and three defence companies.
High-level talks between Israel, US largely focus on Gaza, peace process
Israeli and US representatives held high-level talks in Washington on Thursday night, as part of the semi-annual series of US-Israel meetings dubbed 'Strategic Dialogue.' The US-Israel discussions...centered on a host of hot-button issues – from the changes engulfing the Middle East, to the ever-expanding threat of Islamic State, to joining forces against regional terrorism.
Report: Jordan to provide logistical support, training to Iraqis
After Saudi Arabia vowed to support the broad, US-led coalition against the jihadist group Islamic State and host a training program for moderate Syrian fighters, it seems Jordan has taken its cue and will be following in the Saudi kingdom's footsteps. ...The decision comes on the heels of a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday.
Catalans rally for independence referendum from Spain
Thousands of Catalans have rallied in Barcelona, Spain, demanding the right to hold a referendum on independence. Participants, waving Catalan flags and wearing the flag's red and yellow colours, stood in a V-shape formation, indicating their desire for a vote. Protesters were energised by Scotland's forthcoming independence referendum - and many also waved the Scottish flag.
Islamic State fighter estimate triples - CIA
The CIA says the Islamic State (IS) militant group may have up to 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria - three times as many as previously feared. A spokesman said the new estimate was based on a review of intelligence reports from May to August. IS has seized vast swathes of Iraq and beheaded several hostages in recent months, leading to US airstrikes.
Russia faces new U.S., EU sanctions over Ukraine crisis
European Union governments agreed on Thursday to begin their new sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis on Friday but could lift them next month if Moscow abides by a fragile truce, while the United States prepared its own fresh sanctions.
For Assad, U.S. plan will weaken one foe but bolster others
By striking Islamic State in Syria, the United States would be weakening one of President Bashar al-Assad's major enemies. But the new U.S. strategy may still unnerve Assad by helping other opponents determined to overthrow him.
Evidence growing that Hamas used residential areas
Two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, there is growing evidence that Hamas militants used residential areas as cover for launching rockets at Israel, at least at times. Even Hamas now admits "mistakes" were made.
Drudge Report Finds Something Devilish In Obama’s Appearance Wednesday Night
Wednesday’s speech was not the first instance in which critics have pointed out Obama’s supposed Mephistophelean physical attributes.
Did you know that two Russian bombers practiced launching cruise missiles at the United States from a spot in the North Atlantic just the other day? And did you know that Russia is spending massive amounts of money to build and test new nuclear weapons systems? Meanwhile, the Obama administration is doing absolutely nothing to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Our nuclear officers are actually still using floppy disks and other computer technology from the 1960s. The size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has been reduced by about 95 percent from the peak of the Cold War, and Barack Obama has spoken of even more dramatic reductions. Obama is snoozing even as a Russian general speaks of the need to “spell out the conditions under which Russia would launch a preemptive nuclear strike” against the United States.
Obama appears to be entirely convinced that a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia is not even a remote possibility. He better be right, because we are definitely not prepared for one.
Even with everything that has happened between the United States and Russia lately, most Americans still believe that “the Cold War is over” and that Russia presents absolutely no threat to us.
But Russia is behaving as if the Cold War is still very much on. You probably didn’t hear a peep about it from the mainstream media, but just the other day a couple of Russian bombers simulated launching cruise missiles at us from the North Atlantic. The following is an excerpt from an excellent article by Bill Gertz…
Two Russian strategic bombers conducted practice cruise missile attacks on the United States during a training mission last week that defense officials say appeared timed to the NATO summit in Wales.
The Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying a route across the northern Atlantic near Iceland, Greenland, and Canada’s northeast.
Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined “launch box”—an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at U.S. targets, said defense officials familiar with intelligence reports.
And Russia is spending money as if a nuclear confrontation with the U.S. is a very real possibility. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed to a “weapons modernization program” that is going to cost the equivalent of 540 billion dollars…
Putin said Russia’s weapons modernization program for 2016-2025 should focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a “guaranteed nuclear deterrent;” re-arming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defense system and developing high-precision conventional weapons.
He would not elaborate on prospective weapons, but he and other officials have repeatedly boasted about new Russian nuclear missiles’ capability to penetrate any prospective missile shield.
The Kremlin has bolstered defense spending in the past few years under an ambitious weapons modernization program that runs through 2020 and costs the equivalent of $540 billion.
You don’t spend that kind of money just for the fun of it.
Putin is deadly serious about being able to fight (and win) a war against the United States.
Of course nobody on either side actually hopes that such a war will happen. But most wars are won before a single shot is fired, and right now Russia is working very hard to make sure that it will have the best chance possible of coming out on top in any future conflict.
For example, Russian media is reporting that 60 percent of all Russian nuclear missiles will have radar-evading capability by 2016…
Russia’s Defense Ministry plans to complete the rearmament of Strategic Missile Forces within six years. “By 2016, the share of new missile systems will reach nearly 60%, and by 2021 their share will increase to 98%. At the same time the troop and weapon command systems, combat equipment will be qualitatively improved, first of all — their capabilities for the suppression of antimissile defense will be built up,” Defense Ministry’s RVSN spokesman Colonel Igor Yegorov told ITAR-TASS on Friday.
But of greatest concern is the new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines armed with long-range cruise missiles that Russia has been developing.
Just this week, Russia conducted a successful test of the new submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile…
Russia carried out a successful test of its new Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile on Wednesday and will perform two more test launches in October and November, the head of its naval forces said.
The armed forces have boosted their military training and test drills since the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which Russia considers in its traditional sphere of influence.
The 12-meter long Bulava, or mace, has undergone numerous tests, some successful, and can deliver an impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
Each one of these missiles weighs more than 36 tons and has a range of more than 5,000 miles.
But in a future conflict, they would likely only have to travel a short distance.
That is because Russia has developed super silent attacks subs that are virtually undetectable when submerged.
Did you know that Russia is building submarines that are so quiet that the U.S. military cannot detect them? These “black hole” submarines can freely approach the coastlines of the United States without fear of being detected whenever they want. In fact, a “nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles” sailed around in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks without being detected back in 2012. And now Russia is launching a new class of subs that have “advanced stealth technology”. The U.S. Navy openly acknowledges that they cannot track these subs when they are submerged. That means that the Russians are able to sail right up to our coastlines and launch nukes whenever they want.
Most Americans don’t realize this, but Russian subs can come cruising right up to our coasts without us knowing about it and launch missiles which will start hitting our cities within just a few minutes.
And if you do not think that this can ever happen, perhaps you should consider what a Russian general said about a preemptive nuclear strike just the other day…
A Russian general has called for Russia to revamp its military doctrine, last updated in 2010, to clearly identify the U.S. and its NATO allies as Moscow’s enemy number one and spell out the conditions under which Russia would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the 28-member military alliance, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Russia’s military doctrine, a strategy document through which the government interprets military threats and crafts possible responses, is being revised in light of threats connected to the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Ukraine, the deputy chief of the Kremlin’s security council told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has discussed reducing the size of our already neutered strategic nuclear arsenal down to just 300 warheads.
Let us hope and pray that we never see a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.
Because if one does happen, there is a very strong possibility that America will not be the winner.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said France had promised him to join the US-led airstrikes targeting Islamist extremists in Iraq. He spoke at a joint press conference with visiting French president Francois Hollande in Baghdad Friday. Hollande arrived in Iraq with four arms shipments and 60 metric tons (66 tons) of humanitarian equipment. Monday, he hosts in Paris an international conference in support of a long-term campaign against the Islamic State.
The new Indian government has indicated strong support for a controversial project to require residents to have biometric IDs in order to collect government benefits, setting a target of 1 billion enrollments by 2015.
The status of the project was in doubt when a new federal government was voted in last May, as the winning Bharatiya Janata Party had said during the election campaign that it would review the program. The new target signals the new government’s backing of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which was largely seen as a project of the previous government led by the Congress party.
The biometric ID, which assigns a person a 12-digit number called the Aadhaar number, requires the collection of 10 fingerprints, iris scans and other information such as the name, date of birth and address of the individual. It has been criticized by a number of privacy groups who are concerned that the data could at some point be misused by the government.
Ruling in a fundamental rights lawsuit, India’s Supreme Court issued an interim order last September that people cannot be required to have the Aadhaar identification to collect state subsidies. This runs against the aim of the UIDAI to use the Aadhaar number for the distribution of government benefits and also as a proof of identity for a variety of services including banking.
The new enrollments to the program will come from the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. About 674 million people have been allotted the numbers so far across the country.
Before the government can expand the scheme, it will have to be backed by a law passed by India’s Parliament, rather than the current executive order, according to legal experts. It will also have to get the Supreme Court to change its order. The UIDAI website still describes the Aadhaar program as voluntary.
“The UID project aims to ensure inclusive growth by providing digital, online, verifiable identity to all residents, including marginalized sections of society,” the government said in a statement Wednesday. The Aadhaar number is designed to replace traditional paper ration cards that are usually inaccurate, and misused to benefit people who do not qualify for subsidies.
The Turkish government inflicted a stunning blow to President Barack Obama’s strategy for a broad US-led coalition for tackling and defeating the Islamic State, Thursday, Sept. 11 - just hours after the plan was unveiled in Washington. One of the 11 Sunni Muslim nations invited to Jeddah by US Secretary John Kerry Thursday to join the coalition’s establishment, Turkey announced instead that it wants no part in the US strategy for destroying IS.
In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama specifically named Turkey as one of the “friends and allies” who would contribute troops to the mission.
However, an official in Ankara, who chose to remain anonymous, stated later: “Turkey will refuse to allow a US-led coalition to attack jhadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants.” The statement continued: “Turkey will not be involved in any armed operation but will concentrate entirely on humanitarian operations.”
Debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that Turkey has knocked out one of the main props from under the Obama plan, which was its reliance on regional forces for combating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, while the United States provided air strikes and cover.
As prime minister of Turkey eleven years ago, President Tayyip Erdogan confronted former US President George W. Bush with the same letdown when, on the eve of the US 2003 invasion of Iraq, he withheld Turkish bases for the deployment of 60,000 US troops to open a northern front against Saddam Hussein.
This act provoked a long crisis in relations between Washington and Ankara.
US sources report that, straight after the Jeddah meeting, Secretary Kerry will travel to Ankara on Friday, Sept. 12, to confront Turkish leaders.
But meanwhile, Germany and Britain have said they would not take part in the US air campaign in Iraq and Syria.
debkafile reported earlier: In his speech to the American people, Wednesday, Sept. 10, President Barack Obama unveiled a four-point strategy “to roll back, degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS, at the head of “a broad coalition of friends and allies.” The US would lead off with systematic air strikes against IS targets, while local forces would perform the fighting on the ground. “No US combat troops would be involved,” he pledged.
He described the effort as a “comprehensive and sustained counter-terror mission,” to hunt terrorists down wherever they are. “We will not hesitate to take action against IS in Syria as well as Iraq,” said Obama. “There will be no safe haven for anyone threatening America.” He therefore called on Congress to approve additional resources for training and equipping Syrian opposition forces to take part in the war on IS.
Another 475 US military personnel had been assigned to Iraq, he said, but not in combat missions. They would provide training, intelligence and equipment and judge how best to support the Iraqi military. "America can make a difference,: he stressed, "but Iraqis must do the job of fighting IS themselves."
According to US sources, the Obama administration has earmarked the small sum of $25 million dollars for training the Iraqi and Kurdish armies.
In the past six weeks, the US has conducted 154 air strikes against IS – a relatively low number which debkafile’s military sources note is far below the fire power needed to “degrade” the Islamists.
Moreover, Washington has scarcely delivered on its promises for three years to arm the Syrian opposition adequately to contest Bashar Assad and his Iranian, Russian and Hizballah-backed war machine.
Now, it will take months if not years to bring the pro-Western Syrian rebel militias up to scratch for their new mission of fighting IS.
As for the broad coalition of friends and allies, US Secretary of State John Kerry stated in Baghdad Wednesday that it would consist of 40 nations. So far only 10-15 governments have signed up.
At the same time, President Obama appeared to be firm and determined in his resolve the eradicate the terrorist scourge that calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but he made no bones about a mission that would start slowly and stretch out over a long period.
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/September12/123.html#kvZdYBCu6YbiUdXW.99
Germany Bans Islamic State
Sep 12th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
Germany announced a ban on the Islamic State on Friday, saying it aimed to prevent the group from recruiting young jihadists in Germany, Reuters reported.
Coinciding with the launch of a broad U.S. campaign against the Sunni terrorists, which could include air strikes in Syria as well as Iraq, Germany introduced an immediate ban making all IS propaganda, symbols and activities illegal.
"The terrorist organization Islamic State is a threat to public safety in Germany as well," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was quoted as having said, estimating that over 400 Germans have joined IS in Iraq and Syria and about 40 have died, some in suicide attacks.
More than 100 jihadists are back in Germany including "some with combat experience who have learned to hate", he said, according to Reuters.
"We don't know what they are doing, but it could be that they will carry out attacks," said De Maiziere, citing the case of a returning French jihadist arrested in connection with an attack on a Jewish museum in Belgium in May.
Islamic State runs aggressive German-language recruitment campaigns on social media "to get young women and men to join the jihad and fight and murder", the minister said.
But security services alone cannot stop the radicalization of young Muslims, de Maiziere said, urging "parents, siblings, neighbors and friends" to help. He praised the main Muslim community groups for standing up to the "barbaric" organization.
This issue of Islamists from Western countries joining the jihadists in the Middle East has been a concern for the West. Russians, Americans, Canadians and French citizens have been known to be taking part in the fighting in the Middle East, and a concern has been raised that they would bring terrorism to their home countries once they return.
This week, the head of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO) warned of the threat to the country from Islamic extremists and homegrown fighters returning from Syria and Iraq.
Speaking to Australia’s ABC network, director-general David Irvine warned he is considering raising Australia’s terror alert level to high, which indicates an attack on home soil is likely.
President Obama announced a four-part strategy to “destroy” the Islamic State terrorist group, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL. It consists of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, support for Iraqis and Syrians fighting the group, international counterterrorism cooperation and humanitarian aid.
This is a broad strategy that could succeed in eliminating the group’s safe havens. There are four problems ahead that the U.S. and its coalition of over 40 countries must expect:
Radical Shiite Influence Ends Sunni Cooperation
Iraqi Sunni tribes have pledged to work with the Iraqi government in fighting the Islamic State and the U.S. is in communication with them. Over 25 Sunni tribes are now fighting the Islamic State and are even working with the Iraqi military around the town of Haditha despite their adversarial relationship.
The formation of a new and more inclusive Iraqi government is being described as a "milestone" by the U.S. Sunnis appear receptive to the new government, at least for the moment, but their cooperation could cease with any indication of sectarianism, Iranian puppetry or use of radical Shiite militias in areas where Sunnis live.
The breakdown in the relationship between the Iraqi Sunnis and the Shiite-majority Iraqi government provided the critical opening for the Islamic State. Tension will arise if the Iraqi government chooses to give the post of Interior Minister to Haid al-Ameri, leader of the Iran-backed Badr Organization that has a militia.
If Iranian-linked militias grow in power and are seen as extensions of the Iraqi government, then cooperation with Iraqi security forces will end. Shiite militiamen massacred 73 Sunni civilians at a mosque in Baqubah last month, causing Sunni leaders to suspend talks on forming the new government.
Sunnis are much less likely to fight the Islamic State if they believe the Sunni terrorists will be replaced with even more hostile Shiite extremists. Acts of sectarian violence and oppression could cause Sunni tribes to embrace radical forces and some could even come to see the Islamic State as protectors and try to reconcile with them.
Iranian-backed militias and terrorists could also unravel cooperation between the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi government. Iran was the first country to arm the Kurds against the Islamic State, but the Kurds would prefer to ally with the U.S.
The Islamic State’s siege of Amerli was broken by U.S. airstrikes and two Iran-linked militias that the U.S. considers to be terrorist groups: the Hezbollah Brigades and Asiab al-Haq. Though Kurds worked with these militias, they are calling them the “Shiite Islamic State.” The Hezbollah Brigades are refusing to let the Peshmerga into Amerli and are burning homes of Sunnis suspected of belonging to the Islamic State.
Any successful strategy for Iraq must include limiting Iranian influence and the long-term disbanding of radical Shiite militias.
“Moderate” Syrian Rebels
There are Syrian opposition figures who want to topple the Assad regime and defeat the Islamists so that a secular democracy with separation of mosque and state can follow. Kamal al-Labwani, a major opposition leader, is one example. Clarion Project interviewed al-Labwani in April 2012.
Removing the Islamic State from Syria would require some kind of force on the ground. Supporting moderate rebels is the only option since the Assad regime also sponsors terrorism and is an ally of Iran. However, Islamist radicals dominate the armed rebel forces that would fight the Islamic State.
In April 2013, the New York Times reported, “Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” As of June 2013, 10 of 12 rebel groups were Islamist.
Of the two that are not Islamist, one consists of the Kurds, who have PKK terrorists among them. The second one is the Free Syria Army (FSA), which has Islamist factions fighting in its name. Any arms given to the FSA could pass into unsavory hands because the FSA collaborates with Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch. Further, many FSA fighters have switched sides and joined al-Nusra.
Time and time again, “moderate” Syrian rebel political leadership has been linked to Islamists. Ghassan Hitto, the former prime minister of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, was linked to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood network and backed by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. He was rejected by the FSA, but the point remains that the rebels have a major Islamist component.
Prominent pro-rebel groups in the U.S. also cannot be relied upon. The Syria Support Group, the only group licensed by the U.S. to provide material support to the FSA, has Islamist links. It has gotten at least $12 million in U.S. government aid.
The leader of the Syrian Emergency Taskforce supports the Islamic Front, a coalition of Salafists that want to institute sharia
governance, some of whom work with al-Nusra. An Islamic Front-aligned cleric has raised millions of dollars in the U.S. The Front’s takeover of FSA bases in December prompted the U.S. and U.K. to suspend non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels.
Another radical cleric came to America on a fundraising tour with the Syrian American Council. This organization has officials that used to belong to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. It opposed the designation of Jabhat al-Nusra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department.
Pro-Islamist Allies in the Coalition
The U.S. must also be prepared for the pro-Islamist members of its coalition against the Islamic State to predictably support Islamism.
Secular Syrian opposition figures complain that Qatar and Turkey are sidelining them by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. When the U.S. worked with Qatar in removing the Qaddafi regime in Libya, Qatar exercised its influence to benefit the Islamist forces. Libya is experiencing bloody fighting between Islamist and secular forces today.
Qatar continues to support the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the Islamic Front, specifically Ahrar al-Sham. An Ahrar al-Sham leader named Abu Khaled al-Souri had high-level Al-Qaeda ties and was killed by the Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusra and other Al-Qaeda-linked figures see Qatar as friendly territory.
Saudi Arabia, which has agreed to help support rebels fighting the Islamic State, has already been supporting the Islamic Front, specifically Zahran Alloush’s Army of Islam (or Jaysh al-Islam). His ideology is similar to that of Al-Qaeda/Jabhat al-Nusra.
The Saudis also back a coalition named the Syrian Revolutionary Council. It condemned the United Kingdom for sentencing Islamist cleric Raed Salah for inciting terrorism. He was previously imprisoned in Israel for financing Hamas and working with an Iranian intelligence operative.
The Meaning of Combat Troops
President Obama announced that an additional 475 U.S. troops are going to Iraq to assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces. This raises the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to 1,600, but President Obama is adamant that they won’t play a combat role.
The scope of their mission may not include combat operations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll avoid combat. Islamic State supporters have incessantly expressed their eagerness on social media for U.S. troops to come fight in Iraq.
All Americans in Iraq, especially soldiers in any role, are a top target of the Islamic State. These soldiers won’t be on the frontline, but they will be at risk. The Islamic State will try to attack them at their bases.
Just as Afghan soldiers and policemen have attacked U.S. soldiers in "green-on-blue" attacks, Islamic State may have sympathizers ready to do the same to U.S. troops in Iraq. And if American soldiers are attacked, they will be equipped and ready to defend themselves -- in other words, engage in combat.
Should American soldiers come under attack, President Obama will face the difficult task of articulating how having troops in combat is not a violation of his pledge.
Conclusion
Before President Obama’s address, a CNN poll found that 76% of Americans support airstrikes on the Islamic State and only 23% oppose them. In addition, close to 62% favor military aid to those fighting the Islamic State, a dip in support likely reflective of American concerns about arming the wrong actors.
A Washington Post poll found that 71% of Americans support bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and 65% support doing so in Syria. About 58% want to arm the Kurds.
These polls indicate broad support for the announced strategy. However, Americans opinions have not been tested by stories of setbacks and possible American casualties.
If the U.S. government is to wage a successful campaign against the Islamic State and maintain American support, it must prepare to deal with the problems above.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to hold snap combat readiness drills in Russia's Eastern Military District starting Thursday.
MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - Troops in Russia's Eastern Military District are moved to the highest state of combat readiness as surprise drills begin in the region, the Russian Ministry of Defense informed on Friday.
"As part of a surprise check of the Eastern Military District troops' combat readiness, military formations and units located in the Eastern region of the Russian Federation have completed the implementation of measures to enter the highest degree of combat readiness," the ministry wrote in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to hold snap combat readiness drills in Russia's Eastern Military District starting Thursday.
Air defense forces and military units would be put on full combat alert starting 10:00 a.m. Moscow time [6:00 a.m. GMT], Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.
The Eastern Military District includes military units in Transbaikal and the Far East. The headquarters are located in the city of Khabarovsk.
The number of ISIS fighters may be three times previous estimates, with between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria,” a CIA spokesman told CNN on Thursday. Recruitment has grown stronger since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, he said. More than 15,000 foreign fighters, including 2,000 Westerners, have gone to Syria, coming from more than 80 countries. The US is refining its targets based on improved intelligence-gathering, including surveillance flights over Syria, a Pentagon official added. The US may also start going after ISIS leaders.
Catholic Cardinal Mccarrick Embraces Islam
Sep 12th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Daily Caller
Categories: Today's Headlines;One World Church
Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick offered Islamic religious phrases and insisted that Islam shares foundational rules with Christianity, during a Sept. 10 press conference in D.C.
“In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,” McCarrick said as he introduced himself to the audience at a meeting arranged by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. That praise of the Islamic deity is an important phrase in Islam, is found more than 100 times in the Koran, and is akin to the Catholic prayer, ”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
McCarrick next claimed that “Catholic social teaching is based on the dignity of the human person… [and] as you study the holy Koran, as you study Islam, basically, this is what Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, has been teaching.”
McCarrick was 71 when 19 Muslims brought Islam to the public eye by murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11. He is one of the 213 Cardinals of the Catholic church, but is too old to vote in church debates.
“Either the cardinal has studied the whole thing and does not know what he’s talking about, or he is making a somewhat misleading statement,” said Michael Meunier, head of the U.S. Copts Association. “The practice of the Muslim majority people that adhere to the Koran… have proven that [claim of equivalence] is not correct,” he told The Daily Caller during a Sept. 11 trip to Jordan.
“Has Cardinal McCarrick converted to Islam?” asked a scornful critic, Robert Spencer, the best-selling author of many books on Islam.
“‘Peace be upon him’ is a phrase Muslims utter after they say the name of [their reputed] prophet… [so] probably he is unaware of the unintended Islamic confession of faith he has just made,”said Spencer, who runs the Jihadwatch.org website.
McCarrick is wrong to say “that Islam teaches the dignity of every human person,“ Spencer said. “Actually it teaches a sharp dichotomy between the Muslims, [who are called] ‘the best of people’ and the unbelievers [are called] ‘the most vile of created beings,’” Spencer told TheDC.
“The Koran also says: ‘Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, harsh to the unbelievers,’” Spencer said.
The same warning came from Archbishop Amel Nona, who was head of Chaldean Catholic Archeparch of Mosul in Iraq. In a August comment made to Europeans, he said that “You think all men are equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal [and] your values are not their values.”
“If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the [immigrant] enemy you have welcomed in your home,” said Nona, who is now exiled — along with surviving Chaldean Catholics — in the Kurdish city of Erbil.
Islamic societies have routinely persecuted non-Muslims, including Christian Armenians in Turkey and Christian Copts in Egypt, said Taniel Koushakjian, a spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America.
During the First World War, more that 1.5 million Armenians were deliberately killed by Turkey’s Islamic government, he said.
In Egypt, Copts “seem to bear the brunt of the persecution… [which] comes from the religious divide [and] is an interpretation of the theology in which people who are not of the same [Islamic] belief are cast out as infidels, as unrighteous,” he said.
The Islamic Society of North America says Islam “recognize[s] plurality in human societies, including religious plurality.” The section of the Koran that endorses plurality, it is claimed, include verses 10:19, 11:118 and 11.19.
“Mankind was not but one community [united in religion], but [then] they differed. And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord, it would have been judged between them [immediately] concerning that over which they differ,” says verse 10:19, which ISNA says shows Islam’s tolerance for other religions.
The Koran has some welcoming messages, but they’re from Islam’s early period, Meunier said. “When Islam became strong and had a strong army, the tougher verses came down from heaven — apparently — and according to Islamic teaching, those later verses abrogate the earlier verses [so] moderate Muslims have an uphill battle saying Islam is tolerant.”
“We have to encourage moderate Muslims to present a more moderate version of Islam and the Koran,” but they’re outgunned by Saudi clerics who have used petrodollars to make Islam tougher and less tolerant, he said.
But the Saudi clerics “won’t do it [because] they don’t believe in it,” he added.
For Muslims, the Koran is the unimpeachable transcript of commands from Allah, the single and all-powerful deity. Muslims believe that the Koran was dictated by an angel to Islam’s final prophet, Mohammad, 1,400 years ago. This rigidity sharply constrains Muslims’ use of alternative ideas, including elements of Christianity, or secular ethics and philosophy.
The Koran also include many passage urging the use of violence. “The penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land,” says Verse 33 of the Koran’s fifth book.
In contrast, the Christian Bible, including the almost-2,000 year-old New Testament, is based on the statements of witnesses. For example, Matthew the disciple provide the main account of the Beatitudes sermon, which includes the famous lines, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.”
The Christians’ reliance on witnesses allowed perpetual debate over the meaning and purpose of words from the twinned deity of Jesus and God, and it also allowed a Christian search for evidence of God via the “natural sciences,” that gradually created modern science. Christianity also endorsed separate roles for church and state, where Islam assumes that states’ laws comply with Koranic rules.
McCarrick, however, blended the two distinct religions in his comments at the press club.
“We are together on this against evil, we are against killing, we are against destruction… God bless you in this work you do,” McCarrick said to the Muslim speakers, which included representatives from one group — the Islamic Society of North America — that was implicated in a conspiracy to smuggle funds to the Hamas terror group that recently launched another bombardment of thousands of rockets at Israeli Jews.
“We believe that Islam is a religion which helps people, not kills them… the Muslim community has always taught this,” McCarrick said.
“I’m privileged to be able to lend my voice to the voice of many of my friends here,” he said about the Sept. 10 meeting, which was designed to help U.S.-based Islamic groups avoid the public disgust with The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Since early this year, the Islamic State group has killed and murdered thousands of Iraqis that don’t accept rule by the brutal Salafi variant of Islam. The victims include Shia Muslims, Christians and adherents of the pre-Christian Yazidi religion. Tens of thousands of non-Muslims have also been driven from their homes and fields.
McCarrick, however, downplayed ISIS’s attack on Christians in Iraq, and expressed more concerns for Muslim victims of ISIS attacks. “The truth of the matter is in these terrible massacres of the Islamic state, most of the victims have been Muslims, most of them have not been Christians,” he told his Sept. 10 audience.
“Many Christians, obviously, have suffered, so I am here to say that we stand with our brothers and sisters in the Muslim community, who here in the United States have been giving leadership in a very strong way,” he declared.
“They are proud to be Americans… they love America,” he said, without retuning to discuss the fate of his fellow Christians under Muslim rule.
Spencer urged McCarrick to challenge his Muslim hosts. “Cardinal McCarrick, rather than indulge in this fond and ignorant wishful thinking, would have done better to have challenged his Muslim friends to match their lofty words with real action to combat the Islamic State and other Muslim persecutors of Christians,” Spencer said.
McCarrick should have “asked them to institute programs in mosques and Islamic schools to teach against the literal meaning of the verses I quoted above and others like them, so that they no longer incite Muslims to violence,” in the U.S. or abroad, Spencer said.
Faith Chapel Christian Center near Birmingham, Alabama, has opened a $26 million dollar entertainment center. The facility features a 12-lane bowling alley, a basketball court, a fitness center, a banquet hall and cafe, a teen dance club, and an adult alcohol and smoke-free night club. Pastor Michael Moore explains the name of the facility, The Bridge, as follows: "We believe we can really meet the needs of the community. It will bridge people from the world to the Kingdom."
This is beyond foolish and ridiculous. It is apostasy. There is no hint in Christ's Great Commission about entertaining unbelievers or bringing them to the gospel through an entertainment program. The command of Christ does not teach churches to entice sinners through worldly means; it commands the churches to go and preach to sinners. America is already entertained to death, and most churches are merely Christianized versions of the world. There are Christianized sports programs, Christianized social media, Christianized rock music. Whatever the world has, there is a Christianized version of it. The result has been less spiritual power and influence than ever. "If we win people with sensationalism we will need sensationalism to keep them. People who come for loaves and fishes have to be kept with loaves and fishes" (John Phillips).
The new European Union sanctions against Russia have gone into effect today, and include the blocking of loans for five major State banks, as well as curbing the EU’s business with oil and defense companies, as reported by the BBC.
The EU’s aim is to keep up pressure on Russia over the crisis in the Ukraine, but the EU has stated that these measures could be either eased or completely cancelled if the ceasefire in the Ukraine holds.
Russia has announced that it is preparing a response, and one official said that cars imported from the EU could be one of the things that are targeted.
NATO claims that Russia still maintains approximately 1,000 heaviy armed troops in the eastern Ukraine.
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar agree to join coalition to fight radical Sunni militants.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (C) poses with his Arab counterparts in Jeddah September 11, 2014. . (photo credit:REUTERS)
JEDDAH - The United States signed up Arab allies on Thursday to a "coordinated military campaign" against Islamic State fighters, a major step in building regional support for President Barack Obama's plan to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier.
After talks in Saudi Arabia's summer capital Jeddah, Secretary of State John Kerry won backing from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar - for a coalition to fight the Sunni militants that have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.
"Arab nations play a critical role in that coalition, the leading role really across all lines of effort: military support, humanitarian aid, our work to stop the flow of illegal funds," Kerry told a news conference.
Non-Arab Sunni power Turkey also attended the Jeddah talks but two other major regional players - Shi'ite Iran and Syria itself - were excluded, a sign of the difficulty of building a coalition across the Middle East's sectarian battle lines.
The Arab states agreed in a communique to do more to stop the flow of funds and fighters to Islamic State and help rebuild communities "brutalized" by the group.
"The participating states agreed to do their share in the comprehensive fight against ISIS, including ... as appropriate, joining in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign against ISIS," they said, using the acronym for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a former name for the group.
Kerry met the Arab leaders to drum up support a day after Obama announced his plans to strike fighters in Iraq and Syria.
US officials said Kerry also sought permission to make more use of bases in the region and fly more warplanes overhead, issues that were not mentioned in the communique. Kerry said none of the countries in the coalition would send ground troops.
In a hopeful sign of outreach across the sectarian divide that has spread war across the Middle East and fed Islamic State's militancy, Sunni Saudi Arabia said it might open an embassy in Shi'ite-ruled Iraq after decades of suspicion.
The Saudis, who support other Sunni armed movements in Syria but consider Islamic State a terrorist group, have also promised to help Obama's campaign by providing training camps for moderate Syrian Sunni fighters.
But Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the Middle East and supporter of Syria's President Bashar Assad, said it had severe reservations over the new US-led coalition, and doubted it would fight "the root causes of terrorism", which it blames squarely on Sunni Arab states like Saudi Arabia.
Obama announced his plans in a prime time address on Wednesday to build an alliance to root out Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, plunging the United States into two conflicts in which nearly every country in the Middle East has a stake.
The region has been galvanized since June when Islamic State fighters, already in control of much of Syria, swept through northern Iraq, seizing cities, slaughtering prisoners, and proclaiming a "caliphate" that would rule over all Muslims.
The White House says the group is a threat to the West as well, attracting fighters from around the world who could return to carry out attacks at home.
Islamic State is a Sunni group that embraces a radical vision of a Middle East ruled along 7th century precepts. Its fighters are battling a Shi'ite-led government in Iraq and a Syrian government led by Assad, a follower of an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. They are also fighting against more moderate Sunnis in Syria and against Kurds on both side of the frontier.
An alliance against Islamic State is bound to require cooperation from countries that consider each other enemies. Washington itself supports the Shi'ite-led government in Iraq but opposes Assad in Syria; it is allied to most Sunni Arab states while hostile to Iran.
A State Department official traveling with Kerry said the top US diplomat would the ask allies to make room for US military activity: "We may need enhanced basing and overflights ... there's going to be a meeting soon of defense ministers to work on these details."
Kerry would also urge regional television news outlets, particularly Qatari-owned Al Jazeera and Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, to air anti-extremist messages. Governments in the region would be urged to press mosques to preach against Islamic State.
"They need to get at the clerics because the clerics can get at the mosques in the neighborhood and they have to expose ISIS for what it is," the official told reporters.
Washington also wants more efforts to stop the flow of money to the group by tackling oil smuggling and cracking down on contributions from private donors, the official said.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil told Reuters there was extensive discussion in Jeddah about whether the campaign should be broadened to include other Islamist groups, not just Islamic State. This is something that strongly anti-Islamist Gulf Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates had sought.
Despite attending the talks, Turkey was not mentioned in the communique, an omission attributed by a senior Turkish official to sensitivities about 46 Turkish hostages held by the fighters. Turkey will discuss the needs of the alliance with Kerry on a visit to Ankara he starts on Friday, the official said.
