How Saddam Hussein's former military officers and spies are controlling Isis

April 08, 2015

Syria Iraq map ISIS Assad Kurdish Iraq security

Syria and Iraq full of Russian, Iranian, and Chinese weapons

Control of territory is an essential precondition for the Islamic State’s authority in the eyes of its supporters. This map, adapted from the work of the Institute for the Study of War, shows the territory under the caliphate’s control as of January 15, along with areas it has attacked. Where it holds power, the state collects taxes, regulates prices, operates courts, and administers services ranging from health care and education to telecommunications.

From Chechnya To Syria | News & Analysis of Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters In Syria

How ISIS' land grab across Middle East is being orchestrated by Saddam ...

Daily Mail

Militants fighting for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq are being led by a highly secretive group of strategists and officials that were once senior figures in Saddam Hussein'sarmy. Despite thousands of foreign fighters flocking to join the Sunni ...

The Russian Roots of ISIS

The New American

Despite reports of Russia and ISIS being at odds with one another, further research points to Russian security services (FSB, successor to the Soviet KGB) and military intelligence (GRU) behind the very threat while ostensibly opposing it. "The banner ...

A Path to ISIS, Through a Porous TurkishBorder

New York Times

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Under pressure from its allies in the West, Turkey has made it harder for would-be jihadists to slip across the border and join the ranks of the Islamic State group at its base in northern Syria. But it has been unable — or ...

Iraq Empties Mass Graves in Search for Cadets Killed by ISIS
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 4:27 PM

BAGHDAD — Among the mass graves being unearthed in Tikrit, soldiers spotted an old man carrying a large trash bag and trying to sneak away.

“Our men asked the old man, ‘What’s in the bag?’ ” said Haider Majeed, an official with the prime minister’s office who was there to help supervise the exhumations. He told the story on the Iraqiya television channel on Tuesday.

“This is my son,” the old man was quoted as saying. Officials took the bag and looked inside, finding a pile of bones and some clothing, but no proof of identity.

“How do you know that’s your son?” they asked. Under questioning, the man broke down and admitted that he did not know whose remains they were.

“I swear to God, I just wanted to take these bones to show to his mother and say, ‘This is our son,’ to stop her from crying, because she’s been crying for 10 months,” the man said.

The graves, believed to contain some of the remains of air force cadets massacred by the Islamic State in June, were discovered on Monday amid the complex of palaces built for Saddam Hussein outside Tikrit. State-run television on Tuesday showed images of the graves being unearthed and of skeletons, many with their hands tied behind their backs. Small yellow flags, with a number for each victim, were staked out as forensics experts in plastic gloves carefully scraped the earth from each grave site. Soldiers lit candles, and some relatives wept.

Eleven mass graves had been found, with the remains of 57 bodies identified, a fraction of the 1,686 air force cadets who were registered as missing in June from Camp Speicher, a former American base near Tikrit, according to Kamil Amin, the spokesman for the Human Rights Ministry.

When extremists of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, overran Tikrit in June, officials at the air force academy ordered 1,700 cadets to return to their homes. They left Camp Speicher unarmed and fell into the hands of Islamic State fighters. Camp Speicher itself never fell to the extremists.

The Islamic State posted videos showing groups of hundreds of cadets being executed, and boasted that it had killed 1,700.

“We’re still digging, but we don’t know how many graves there are yet,” Mr. Amin said on Tuesday. “We’re expecting big numbers.”

Mr. Amin said that officials were still searching for other mass graves in the area because the 11 found so far were unlikely to account for all of the missing. Officials were aided in their search by Ali Hussein Kadhim, one of the few survivors of the massacre. He feigned death as those around him were killed.

Mr. Kadhim, who was interviewed by The New York Times a few months after the massacre, showed officials where some of the killings he had witnessed took place, according to Iraqiya.

Many of the victims’ bodies were thrown into the Tigris River, and the remains of 35 cadets washed up at the nearest dam downstream, in Samarra, in June.

“We expect the river itself to be the biggest mass grave,” Mr. Amin said. “And we expect that in every city of our area that is liberated we will find a mass grave full of those who opposed ISIS.”

In Kurdistan, members of the Yazidi minority, which is much persecuted by the Islamic State, complained that Kurdish officials had arrested their top military leader, Haider Qasim Sheshu, on Sunday and accused him of failing to submit to the authority of the Kurdish pesh merga forces in the area.

“The pesh merga want to exploit our case and take supplies from the international community that are intended for us,” Ibrahim Hodeida, a Yazidi spokesman, said. “They are threatening us not to say anything and either just shut up or leave Sinjar.”

A spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government, Umeed Sabah, said Tuesday at a news conference that Mr. Sheshu had been arrested because he refused to disband his fighters on Sinjar Mountain and join pesh merga fighters instead.

“We announce that we will not allow any person to form illegal forces that are not under control of the pesh merga and will punish anyone who ignores such instructions,” Mr. Sabah said. Although Sinjar is not in Kurdistan, Kurdish forces have led the fight against the Islamic State in that area.

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Obama's Anti-ISIS, Middle East Strategy 'Incoherent,' Somali-born Activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Says
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:43 PM

U.S. News - News

U.S. diplomatic contortions have left it without an apparent strategy for stability in the Middle East, particularly in the war against the Islamic State group, says American activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, herself a former Muslim of Somali descent.

“I think our approach today – and I just want to use the most politically correct word I can come up with now – it’s incoherent,” Hirsi Ali said Tuesday, while speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. She was responding to a question about the limited U.S. air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and how that comports with the Obama administration’s hands-off military policy elsewhere in the region, particularly Yemen.

[READ: Who Gets What Out of the Iran Nuclear Deal?]

Murky policies and the appearance of disengagement stem from an imperfect relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, run by a regime with a questionable history of human rights, and itsdiametric foe Iran, with whom Obama has insisted on negotiating over its nuclear program.

“We’re fighting ISIS alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni governments that are our allies,” she said. “They’re waging proxy war in Iraq, in Syria, and Yemen. We’re supporting both of them but we’re also opposing them.”

“Our policies and our approach to the Middle East right now is incoherent, and the Middle East is in crisis. What was called Islamic civilization is in crisis,” she said.

[ALSO: Obama's Middle East Policies Leave Saudi Arabia, Iran to Fight it Out]

Hirsi Ali faults the U.S. for not persuading followers of Islam to reject Sharia Law – the hardline rules governing Muslims’ day-to-day lives according to ancient interpretations of the Koran and other religious texts. The U.S. also has done little to counter Islamic extremists’ rhetoric that America is simply greedy, interested in oil and supporting despotic leaders to feed its consumerism, she said. America should instead promote a narrative of volunteerism and philanthropy, she said.

Obama has in recent weeks come under criticism elsewhere for his strategy against organizations like the Islamic State group, including his refusal to classify them as “Islamic extremists.”

Hirsi Ali’s latest book, “Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now” was released in March.

Evolution of Obama’s foreign policy continues to engage, but with less risk
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:42 PM

The Globe And Mail - World

America’s pastime – baseball – isn’t President Barack Obama’s sport. He prefers golf and basketball.

But small-ball advocates, those who prefer hitting singles, taking walks, anything to get on base and advance a runner, rather than swinging for the fences with high-risk, high-reward home runs, would recognize the Obama Doctrine, the underlying theme of his foreign policy.

“You asked about an Obama Doctrine,” the President told New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a Saturday interview during which Mr. Obama defended and explained the breakthrough, and very controversial, nuclear-limitation deal with Iran. “The doctrine is: We will engage, but we preserve all our capabilities.”

Mr. Obama didn’t come to the Oval Office as a small-ball devotee. The foreign-policy goals he set out six years ago were big. He would end the “wrong” war, the one in Iraq, and win the good one, the one in Afghanistan. And he had other lofty goals. “With old friends and former foes, we’ll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the spectre of a warming planet,” he said in his first inaugural address in 2009.

Like most presidents, the grinding reality of dealing with tough, sometimes intractable problems, has made Mr. Obama more of a pragmatist.

Pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq didn’t end the war. In fact, it may have been hastily premature, allowing sectarian fissures to reopen and create the conditions leading to the rise of extremist group the Islamic State. U.S. boots are back on the ground – only thousands this time, not hundreds of thousands – and U.S. warplanes are bombing again in Iraq as well as Syria. But it’s small ball, compared to the 2003 invasion. Just as deciding to leave more U.S. troops for longer in Afghanistan is small ball.

“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” Mr. Obama said last fall as he sent U.S. special forces and warplanes back into the fray in Iraq against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

“This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

Pointing to Yemen as a success seems a stretch now, a few seven months later, with the country engulfed by war and Iranian-backed militias on the verge of winning.

Just as he offered an open hand to Tehran’s ruling theocracy if it would unclench its fist after three decades of bitter hostility between the United States and Iran, Mr. Obama has sought to end isolation and seek engagement with other regimes long shunned by Washington.

Overtures to Myanmar and Cuba, hardly foreign-policy home runs, have, in the President’s view, been worth the risk.

“We are powerful enough to be able to test these propositions without putting ourselves at risk,” Mr. Obama said Saturday. “And that’s the thing … take a country like Cuba. For us to test the possibility that engagement leads to a better outcome for the Cuban people, there aren’t that many risks for us. It’s a tiny little country.”

Even dealing with Iran – far bigger and a major regional power in the Middle East – poses easily manageable risk, Mr. Obama said, although he acknowledges that the risk looms far larger for Israel.

Iran is “a larger country, a dangerous country,” Mr. Obama said, “but the truth of the matter is, Iran’s defence budget is $30-billion [U.S.]. Our defence budget is closer to $600-billion. Iran understands that they cannot fight us.”

Engagement without overreach or too much risk. Singles, not home runs.

While it hardly has the cachet of “speak softly and carry a big stick,” the phrase that became famous as defining Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy at the dawn of the 20th century, Mr. Obama’s preference for smaller bats may be more suited to the sole remaining superpower’s role in the 21st century.

Tellingly, Mr. Obama said the strategic stakes for the United States in the Middle East have changed, making the risk of dealing directly with Iran worthwhile. Even if the framework deal collapses, the risk was still worth taking, the President said.

“At this point, the U.S.’s core interests in the region are not oil, are not territorial. … Our core interests are that everybody is living in peace, that it is orderly, that our allies are not being attacked, that children are not having barrel bombs dropped on them, that massive displacements aren’t taking place,” Mr. Obama said.

“Our interests in this sense are really just making sure that the region is working. And if it’s working well, then we’ll do fine.”

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Operation Charlie Foxtrot | Foreign Policy
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:41 PM

Comments On: Operation Charlie Foxtrot

Just because the Middle East’s descent into chaos is hardly the fault of the Obama administration, that doesn’t mean its policies in the region are not an egregious failure.

The situation in the region is unprecedented. For the first time since the World Wars, virtually every country from Libya to Afghanistan is involved in a military conflict. (Oman seems to be the exception.) The degree of chaos, uncertainty, and complexity among the twisted and often contradictory alliances and enmities is mind-boggling. America and its allies are fighting alongside Iran to combat the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria but in Yemen, the United States and many of those same regional partners are collaborating to push back Iranian-backed Houthi forces. Israel and Saudi Arabia are closely aligned in their concerns about Iran while historical divisions between the two remain great. Iran supports Bashar al-Assad in Syria; the United States and Western allies deplore his policies but tolerate his presence while some of the rebel forces we are supporting in the fight against the Islamic State in that country seek his (long overdue) removal. The United States wants the states of the region to stand up for their own interests — just not in Libya or when they don’t get America’s permission first.

The technical foreign-policy term for this is giant cluster-fuck. (In the military’s shorthand, using its own phonetic alphabet, the expression is charlie foxtrot.) It is no wonder that the response of so many Americans is to want to back away from the region as quickly as possible. They argue that its problems are beyond our control, that the animosities fueling the fires of the current Middle East hellscape are ancient, and that many of the festering conflicts have little relevance to the daily lives of the American people.

It is true that the Sunni-Shiite divide that plays some role (although perhaps an overstated one) in the divide in Yemen or that created the divisions that have broken the Iraqi state and led to the rise of IS is a thousand years old. Further, there is no denying that many of the current uprisings trace their roots to the abuses of autocratic governments that stole from their people and failed at the rudiments of governance. A remarkable number of the problems date back to the misjudgments of the leaders of the British Empire (who, in retrospect, were really not very good at the god-like role of nation-defining that they arrogated onto themselves). Still other conflicts are the result of the breakdown of the formulas for regional stabilization — like Sykes-Picot — that have been rendered obsolete after nearly a century. George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq certainly didn’t help, either. And then of course, there is Bibi, who is still a jerk.

Further, assert the advocates of disengagement, America has oil. We have gas. We don’t need them like we used to. And, by the way, we have also proven ourselves to be really lousy at military interventions and nation-building in the Middle East (among other places). So, why not just walk away and let this fire burn out? In fact, come to think of it, wasn’t that our plan? Wasn’t that the reason that Barack Obama was elected?

Well, no. Taking the last point first, Obama was arguably elected to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but he also explicitly took on the responsibility of keeping America safe from further threats that might come out of that region. And as president he had the broader responsibility of advancing our national interests worldwide.

And those interests require that we remain engaged in the Middle East. On the energy front, while we have plenty of supply, energy prices are set globally and that means that major fluctuations in supply or perceptions of risk will impact us. Further, were this regionwide conflict to deteriorate further, it could have very serious global economic consequences. The Sunni-Shiite war could spread. The Islamic State, embedded throughout the region, could take advantage of the chaos, as would other groups like al Qaeda or al-Nusra Front in Syria or Libya Dawn or Hamas. Libya could easily turn into the next Yemen and that would certainly trigger a regional intervention like that led by the Saudis. (One reason the Egyptians have offered their support in Yemen is that they would inevitably have to lead any action in their neighbor to the west.)

The breakup of countries like Iraq, Syria, Yemen, or Libya could certainly shift the regional balance of power — especially if it were to result in the establishment of a state (or states) like the one IS seeks to create in Iraq and Syria or in the creation of permanent failed regions that become breeding grounds for more extremism. As 9/11 should have taught us — and as recent events in Europe, Africa, Canada, and the United States have demonstrated — in today’s world seemingly distant problems can very quickly spread to the doorsteps of our allies or to those of our own homes. We watched the spread of al Qaeda to the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. IS can now be found in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in Nigeria has pledged to collaborate with this new hot brand name in the terrorist marketplace. IS fighters recruited from Europe or the United States (see the case this week of the two Illinois National Guardsmen) will certainly return home and spread mayhem if their threat is not extinguished on the battlefields of the Middle East. Further, critical allies from Israel to Jordan are at risk from this unrest. And were their positions made more precarious it would obligate the United States to a much deeper and more costly involvement in the region.

Finally, there are big geopolitical factors at stake. Not only would prolonged chaos and weakened governments make it ever harder to manage and contain the threats produced in the region, but ultimately when these wars end, national governments will emerge, and American influence with them will be directly linked to how constructive our perceived role was in creating and then supporting them. (And to the extent that we are disengaged or otherwise rendered impotent, our influence over the nature of those governments will be diminished or, as seems quite possible, eliminated entirely.) And if our influence diminishes, that of others will certainly grow (as it already has). That may seem unimportant now but in the long run, with the new rivalries and challenges of the 21st century unfolding as they might, giving up influence in this strategically important corner of the world — and letting others gain that influence — could have very unhappy ramifications.

So even though the Obama administration is clearly not responsible for most of the root and many of the exacerbating causes of the current melee in the Middle East, it is also true that it does not have the luxury of walking away from this upheaval/these conflicts, or the room to employ halfway measures, reactive or largely improvised initiatives that exist without benefit of any broader strategy. And unfortunately for America, for our allies, for the region, and for the world, those are the three primary approaches that have been employed by this White House.

These approaches have contributed materially to the situation we now face. The situation in Iraq was stabilizing and markedly improving in the last two years of the Bush administration, thanks to the surge, attention to the Sunnis, and the active week-to-week involvement of the president and senior officials in the details of trying to fix a situation — let’s be blunt, a catastrophe — of which they were the authors. That includes trying to manage their really bad choice as prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. It was no Jeffersonian paradise. But the trend line was in the right direction when they left office. President Obama’s decision to rush to the exits (which took the form of not really doing what was necessary to produce the kind of Status of Forces Agreement that would have enabled a prolonged American troop presence) undid this. The inattentiveness to the mismanagement of Maliki’s government and the rise of unrest and later IS among the Sunnis exacerbated this.

Of course, the president’s fiasco of indecision, reversed decisions, and ignoring the recommendations of his team regarding addressing the growing unrest in Syria contributed to this.

Sluggish and confused reactions to the Arab Spring were compounded by a major mishandling and dangerous weakening of the vital relationship the United States had with Egypt.

Sluggish and confused reactions to the Arab Spring were compounded by a major mishandling and dangerous weakening of the vital relationship the United States had with Egypt. Obama’s ambivalence about taking action and then doing what was necessary to produce successful outcomes in Libya was yet another such mismanaged effort that created more problems than it solved.

It is an irony of the Obama years that although he raised hopes of a new, better era in regional relations with a speech he gave in the heart of the Arab world in Cairo, that ultimately his only real efforts to change relations “for the better” in the region were not with Arabs at all but with Persians. The administration’s good first-term toughness toward Iran on nuclear sanctions was followed by a second-term hunger for a nuclear deal that was so great that everyone from Tehran to Toledo, Ohio, now believes that the United States wants the deal more than the Iranians do and has lost negotiating leverage as a result. This shift, which was not accompanied by sufficient coordination with our important regional allies from Israel to the Gulf that might allay their concerns about a deal or a U.S.-Iran rapprochement, became more troubling to those allies (and to students of the region) as Iran became the one country in the Middle East to actually make gains thanks to the growing chaos. It has done so in Yemen, through its ever-closer ties with Baghdad and the Iraqi government’s dependency on Iranian ground troops and advisors and weapons to help combat IS, and it has increased its influence on the regime in Syria (where Assad now looks like to outlast Obama in office).

The indignant comments of American Gen. Lloyd Austin this week denouncing the idea that he might ever command troops that would fight alongside Shiite militias after their treatment of Americans during the Iraq War were moving. But they rang hollow given that they hung on a semantic deception. The world knows that America is providing air support for Iranian-led, Shiite-militia-backed, Iraqi-supported forces in the war against IS in that country. They know that for all the talk of America’s coalition, Iran is gaining more influence in Baghdad because they are willing to put boots on the ground. That is why it is not Austin but Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani who is celebrated as a hero in and around the Shiite and even in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Do not think this reality, denials aside, has not fed the growing and acute distrust of the Obama administration among some of our most vital allies in the Gulf, in Egypt, and elsewhere. Do not think it did not lead them to the awareness that they would have to take action on their own in Yemen to counterbalance Iran’s gains. The United States has since scrambled to paper this over by arguing Washington is supporting both the fight against the Houthis in Yemen and not really working too closely with Iran in Iraq. (The retreat of Shiite militias, allegedly because of their discomfort with working alongside the United States, rings suspicious to me and a bit too conveniently orchestrated. We may not “coordinate” with the Iranians but we sure do play an active game of telephone with them through Iraqi interlocutors … at least.)

Meanwhile, the Iran nuclear talks have obviously also taken a toll on the deteriorating relationship with Israel. Now, as noted above, Benjamin Netanyahu is no walk in the park as a partner. But it is also undeniable that the White House has poured gasoline on the flames that have all but incinerated the traditional foundations of the relationship. Whatever the next 21 months may bring — and a further deterioration of the relationship is likely — it’s no exaggeration to say that the relationship between the leaders of the United States and Israel is at a historic low.

In fact, you can say what you want about the origins of the current mess in the Middle East, but the fact that America’s relations with every important country in the region are worse with the exception of Iran is telling.

Bad choices, mismanagement, and faulty diplomacy are not the primary causes of America’s problems of its own making in the region. The biggest culprit is strategic incoherence. We don’t seem to have a clear view of our interests or a vision for the future of the region fostered in collaboration with our allies there and elsewhere. “Leave it to the folks on the ground” is no more a U.S. foreign-policy strategy than is “don’t do stupid shit.” It is a modality at best and in fact, it is really an abrogation of responsibility when so many of these relationships do have trade, investment, political, military, and other elements that give the United States leverage that it could and should use to advance its interests. Our relations with other major powers likewise should provide us with such tools if we were to do the diplomatic heavy lifting to produce coordinated efforts. (And arguing that’s what we are doing in Iran is not compelling when we are not doing it with regard to the region’s many other problems or when we have done it to ill-effect in places like Libya or Syria.)

It would be so easy for the president to say, “I seek stability in the Middle East. I seek to preserve American interests from the security of our allies to our security at home, from commercial ties to global economic concerns. I intend to do this by establishing a new alliance with our traditional allies that will help ensure them the stability they need to rebuild and that will provide a necessary deterrent against adventurism by others in the region like Iran. If we can make progress containing the Iranian nuclear threat and that produces some better dialogue with that country, that’s for the better. But we recognize the many remaining threats Iran poses from its support of terrorists like Hezbollah and Hamas to its cyberattacks against American targets. Only its cessation of such activities and removal of such threats will elevate its status further. And in no circumstances will we depart from seeking regional balance.”

But those words alone would not be enough. They would need to be backed up with actions — meaningful ones. We should not be naïve.

We need to push back hard on the idea that somehow Iran is about to become our friend.

We need to push back hard on the idea that somehow Iran is about to become our friend. Thenuclear threat is just one the many threats it poses and not the greatest one. Geopolitically, our failings and inaction have created a sense among countries of the region to seek other support from other big powers. From Egypt to Israel to the Gulf, virtually every country in the region is (ironically) pivoting to Asia — to China and to India and, where possible, to Japan and Southeast Asia. And Russian influence is growing too in Cairo, in Tel Aviv, and in Tehran. Better burden-sharing is fine. Greatly reduced influence not so much. In the region that means rebuilding old alliances through attention to our partners’ needs, through actions, not words, through listening, not offering up placating speeches. Further, we must recognize that in some conflicts unless we are willing to commit some number of boots on the ground (and the fight against IS is one such conflict) we will not be seen to be truly leading, truly committed, and others who are willing to make such commitments (like the Iranians) will gain.

Should we aggressively seek diplomatic solutions to the fights in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya? Yes. But we will only be successful if our opponents know that they will pay a high price that would be inflicted by a committed coalition that includes the resources and genuine engagement of the leaders of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth alongside regional leaders it clearly trusts and empowers to take the lead on regional issues. And the negotiations will only work if we practice the kind of diplomacy that is not impeded by artificial deadlines and undercut by messages that we need the deal more than the other side does.

So, by all means, let’s acknowledge the complex origins of the current crisis. But let’s not minimize that the failure to be more effective in addressing it can and almost certainly will lead to major losses for American interests in the region. Further and finally, this is a moment that requires great vigilance and should be producing much greater multilateral action by the United States and our allies and within the U.N. Having effectively every country in the region at war is as likely to lead to escalation as it is to solutions. More so. We are not far from seeing the conflicts connect into what could be the biggest conflagration the world has seen since August 1945. And even if that does not happen, prolonged chaos will feed into the spread of extremism in Africa, Asia, and the spread of terrorism in Europe and North America. The stakes could not be higher. And it is clear, even if we recognize America’s limited ability to impact what is happening on the ground, that we have an urgent obligation to try and to try to do so in new ways. Because what we have done for the past six years is just not working and in fact is making the world’s worst situation worse.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

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How the War With ISIS Has Exposed Kurdistan’s Internal Divisions
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:36 PM

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Turkey’s Drift From NATO - NYTimes.com
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:34 PM

The website of Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledges that NATO has played a “central role” in the country’s security and insists that Turkey, which became a member in 1952, “attaches utmost importance” to it. Yet Turkey’s commitment to the alliance has never seemed more ambivalent than it does now.

On crucial issues — from fighting the Islamic State to fielding integrated defense systems, which share information and operate together, to standing firm against Russian aggression in Ukraine — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government either are not cooperating fully or are acting in outright defiance of NATO’s priorities and interests. Add the fact that Turkey under Mr. Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian, and it becomes apparent that the country is drifting away from an alliance whose treaty says it is “founded on the principles of democracy” as much as defense.

For months, the Western allies have pressured Turkey to close its porous border, which has allowed thousands of jihadists to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and has enabled ISIS to smuggle in weapons and smuggle out oil on which it relies for revenue.

Although the Turkish government has taken some steps to make transit harder, it has been unwilling, or unable, to stem the flow, according to Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt’s reporting in The Times. One smuggler said that while his job has become more difficult, sometimes the Turkish border guards look the other way.

Completely shutting down the long border may be impossible, but given the country’s large military and well-regarded intelligence service, it is inexcusable that Turkey is not doing a better job. Turkey should also be making military bases and troops available to the American-led coalition, but James Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, told Congress recently that he was not optimistic that Turkey would do more against ISIS because it had “other priorities and other interests.”

Public opinion polls show that the Turks don’t consider ISIS a primary threat, and Mr. Erdogan is more concerned with opposing Kurdish autonomy within Syria and with bringing down the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

There are other troubling aspects of Turkey’s behavior. The government says it is still considering buying from China a $3.4 billion air defense system that involves radars and long-range ground-to-air missiles that can shoot down enemy missiles. The purchase is opposed by the American and European allies because they view this military purchase from China as a risk. They are also disturbed that Turkey is not purchasing a system from them, because they have borne the cost of defending Turkey against a Syrian attack by stationing Patriot missile batteries on Turkish territory. Moreover, the Turkish defense minister last month said the government did not plan to integrate whatever air defense system it bought with NATO’s air defenses and radars so that the various parts would work together, though the presidential spokesman later said the system would be integrated with NATO’s.

NATO would not integrate its system with a Chinese system because the two are not compatible, a Chinese system might contain risky software, and members of Congress oppose it. If Turkey refuses to link its defense system with NATO’s, “they are weakening the defense of their territory and weakening NATO at the same time,” said Ivo Daalder, a former American ambassador to NATO.

Meanwhile, Turkey is supposed to sign an agreement this year that will allow Russia to build a natural gas pipeline to Turkey, thus bypassing Ukraine. The Erdogan government, ignoring Western sanctions, has been exploiting a rift between Russia and the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to gain energy supplies at bargain prices. Russia also plans to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.

American officials say they don’t think Turkey will ever withdraw from NATO. Of course, such a move would be a catastrophic mistake. But the fact that the possibility is even raised by officials and defense experts shows how concerned the allies are about relying on Turkey in any crisis.

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Despite Crackdown, IS Says Turkey-Syria Border Still Open
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:33 PM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

On April 6, Ahlul Hakk, a Russian-speaking pro-IS group on the VKontakte social network issued an emergency announcement.

It is still possible to cross into Syria from Turkey, the message said, despite rumors that the Turkish authorities have closed the border.

"Recently, rumors have been spreading that the border between Syria and Turkey is closed and that it is not possible to make Hijra [an Arabic term used by IS to mean immigration to the lands under its control], and that there is a chain of tanks along [the border] and that allegedly Muslims are spending months in Istanbul in standby mode," read the message, which said that it was intended for "brothers and sisters from the caliphate [the term used by IS for the lands under its control] first and foremost, and to those who are outside its borders."

The message said that the rumors that the border crossings were closed were "fundamentally incorrect," as the border had never been open in the first place, so the only way to cross into Syria was illegally using "guides and loopholes."

Ahlul Hakk added that, even though there really are tanks on the border, "even these tanks cannot stop the flow of the muhajireen [immigrants] by the grace of God."

The message comes amid signs of increased efforts by IS -- including Russian-speaking militants -- to attract new recruits to come to Syria, and increased efforts by Turkey to crack down on those trying to cross the Turkish border into Syria illegally.

In the past week, authorities in Turkey say they have arrested seven Russian nationals who tried to cross the border into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Two Russians were arrested on April 4, and five more were detained on April 7, according to the reports, which cited Turkish security authorities in Gaziantep province.

The reports did not provide the names of those arrested or any further details, such as where in Russia the suspects had come from.

The arrests of the seven Russian nationals are part of increased efforts by Turkey to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Syria and joining IS and other militant groups.

Alongside the crackdown, Turkish news reports also say that there has also been an increased number of potential militants trying to cross the border.

In addition to the seven Russians, officials from Gazantiep Province said that suspects from Switzerland, Kosovo, Syria, and Tajikistan were detained in southern Turkey this week.

The Turkish Armed Forces said that they had arrested 15 Chinese nationals and 15 Syrians who were all trying to cross into Syria on April 5, according to Turkey's Daily Sabah news website.

In March, Turkey said it had deported several Russians, a Chechen, and a Tajik, who had been among tens of foreign citizens trying to cross into Syria to join militant groups.

The reports about an increased number of potential militants trying to cross into Syria, and the news that groups of Russians are among those attempting to join IS, come amid evidence that IS has stepped up recruitment of Russian-speaking men and women.

Despite frequent attempts to shut them down, IS maintains an extensive, unofficial Russian-language network on social media, including on Russia's VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social-networking sites, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. That network comprises accounts run by individual militants, IS sympathizers, as well as small media groups whose task is to publish IS-related news and material preaching IS's version of Islam.

Via this network, Russian-speaking militants in IS -- who are mostly from the North Caucasus -- have put out calls for both men and women to travel to Syria to join the group as well as a how-to guide advising potential IS recruits on how to travel from the Russian Federation to Syria.

The emergency announcement by the Russian-language pro-IS group Ahlul Hakk on VKontakte insisting that Turkey's illegal border crossings are still open suggests that news and rumors of the Turkish crackdown could have deterred potential recruits from trying to travel to Syria.

Ahlul Hakk even went so far as to accuse those Russian-speaking militants who are passing on rumors about difficulties crossing the border of "spreading fitna [dissent]."

"Stop scaring the muhajireen [immigrants]," Ahlul Hakk added. "Believe me, they have enough emotions and fears as it is. And I ask those who hear these rumors to cut them off at the root."

-- Joanna Paraszczuk

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Iraqi Forces Move Against IS Group In Anbar
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:31 PM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said on April 8 the country's "next battle" is retaking western province of Anbar, most of which is under the Islamic State (IS) group's control.

"We will prevail in Anbar as we prevailed in Tikrit," Abadi said on his official Facebook page, referring to Iraqi forces' liberation of the strategic city of Tikrit last week.

Abadi visited Anbar, a predominantly Sunni region, on April 8 as Iraqi forces launched a new offensive against IS militants there.

Army officers said IS militants were driven back from Fallujah and the Sijariya area east of provincial capital, Ramadi.

Military sources said the purpose of clearing Sijariya was to secure supply routes to the nearby Habbaniya air base and to weaken the militants' grip on territory connecting Ramadi and Fallujah – the region's two key cities.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Turkey Deports Wannabe Russian, Chechen, And Tajik Militants
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:30 PM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Several Russians, a Chechen, and a Tajik are reportedly among the tens of foreign citizens arrested and deported in Turkey this month as they attempted to cross the border into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group and other militant factions.

The arrests and deportations are part of a new crackdown by the Turkish security authorities against wannabe militants from around the world seeking to use Turkey as a crossing point into Syria.

Turkey's Daily Sabah news website reported on March 19 that the Turkish authorities had detained and deported 32 "IS sympathizers" in the past two weeks via a "special system that Turkey has set up to keep tabs on potential fighters heading to Syria through Turkey."

The Daily Sabah said that two Russians named only as K.S. and E.S., as well as Tajik citizen S.S. and a Chechen named as S.B., were deported before March 19.

On March 25, the Gazantiep governor's office said in a statement that a Russian citizen, S.D., was arrested for trying to cross the border into Syria.

Turkey's DHA news agency reported on March 20 that four Russian nationals were deported after trying to illegally cross the border near the Turkish border town of Kilis.

There have been no further reports about whether the Russian nationals had been arrested or questioned upon their return to Russia.

Officials at Tajikistan's Dushanbe airport told RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Radio Ozodi, on March 25 that they had no information about the identity of the deported Tajik citizen. However, airport spokesman Muhammadyusuf Shodiev said that deportees usually disembark as ordinary passengers and so airport staff are not able to give information about such individuals.

Authorities in Tajikistan suggested that the deported Tajik citizen may have been a 25-year-old woman named Shakhnoza Bozorzoda from Kulob. According to reports on Tajik state television, Bozorzoda was detained in Turkey recently and returned to Tajikistan.

The reports said that Bozorzoda was a medical student in Dushanbe and had become acquainted with a Tajik man named Sabzkadam via the Russian-language social-networking website Odnoklassniki and the voice-chat app Viber. Under Sabzkadam's influence, Bozorzoda reportedly abandoned her studies and decided to join the militants in Syria. However, she never reached Syria and was arrested in Turkey, Radio Ozodi reported.

Turkey's Porous Border

Turkey has faced criticism for failing to control its border with Syria, with the border crossing at Kilis becoming the main entry point for foreign nationals seeking to join militant groups. In January, after Hayat Boumedienne, the Frenchwoman named as an accomplice of the Islamist militants who carried out bloody terrorist attacks in Paris, crossed into Syria from Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu complained that even though there were Turkish units posted along the border, "a passage [into Syria] can always be found."

Two border crossings into rebel-held areas of northern Syria have been partially closed this month, amid fears of a terror attack.

-- Joanna Paraszczuk

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The Turkey connection to the ISIS network - Middle East News & Top Stories
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:27 PM

RSS Breaking News - Business

When Benjamin Xu, a German national of Macedonian and Chinese descent, arrived in Istanbul two years ago, he had no problem hooking up with the handlers from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) managing his transfer to neighbouring Syria.

Welcomed by a member of the extremist group who called himself simply Mohammed, he was taken to an Istanbul association that was officially billed as a charity organisation but was known in the neighbourhood as a relay station to transfer militants to Syria.

"It had a light green sign and looked like an aid association," Xu told Turkish investigators when he was arrested a year later.

Mr Tugay Bek, a lawyer who has been attending the ongoing trial against Xu, told The Straits Times it was an open secret in the Istanbul neighbourhood that the association was providing help for extremists. "Even the children on the street knew it, and they called the men the 'new fighters'."

Soon, other ISIS volunteers started arriving. Together, the volunteers travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border, where yet more helpers secured Xu's passage to a training camp in Syria.

"There are Chechens, Turks and Germans in the camp," Xu said, adding that the Chechen leaders of the training camp owned houses in Turkey's Hatay province just across the border.

Xu, 25, was arrested along with two other men after a deadly shoot-out on his way back from Syria into Turkey in April last year and has been in detention since.

His testimony to investigators, leaked to Turkish media recently, provides a glimpse of the ISIS network known to have funnelled thousands of foreign fighters and supporters from around the world to join them in Syria.

"Turkey is the most important transit point" for this highly organised effort, said Turkish opposition MP Ertugrul Kurkcu.

The flow of foreign fighters shows no sign of drying up. Five Dutch nationals were arrested as they tried to cross the border from Turkey to Syria last Saturday, the Turkish military said. Two weeks ago, 16 Indonesians were arrested.

Mr Kurkcu added that Ankara had stepped up countermeasures recently because of international pressure and because ISIS was becoming an internal threat to Turkey itself. "They take it a bit more seriously now," he told The Straits Times. "But it's a little late in the day."

The border crossing comes at the end of a process that starts very early - with a 50-page English-language booklet for potential new fighters planning to travel to Syria via Turkey.

The guidebook, Hijrah To The Islamic State, tells recruits to travel to Turkey, contact ISIS members in Syria via Twitter and ask them to come and pick them up. Its title is in keeping with other efforts by ISIS to endow its actions with religious symbolism as "hijrah" usually refers to the Prophet Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution.

"Lately, things have got harder at the Turkish border, so Islamic State members often meet new people in Turkey hotels and smuggle them across the border," the booklet says. It contains advice on what to pack - including the right sort of power plug adaptors for Syria - and separate tips for female militants.

The Guardian newspaper reported late last month that Britain's anti-terror police were trying to have the booklet removed from websites, but it is still available.

ISIS sometimes relies on Turkish smugglers to lead new arrivals into Syria. The extremist group controls several stretches of the 900km border on the Syrian side and can therefore receive new fighters once they make it over the line.

Turkey has rejected Western criticism that it is not doing enough to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Syria but admits there is a problem.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this month that Turkey had blacklisted 12,519 suspected ISIS supporters to prevent them from entering Turkey and deported 1,154 foreign ISIS members.

But it is not always easy to identify potential fighters.

ISIS supporters from Western countries can easily travel to Turkey undetected because they do not need visas and can blend into the mass of millions of foreign tourists visiting the country every year.

Ankara also says home countries of ISIS supporters often fail to notify the Turkish authorities that suspects are on their way.

Western officials say the militants' networks might have benefited from Turkey's Syria policy in the early phase of the civil war that started in 2011.

They say Turkey initially supported radical Islamist groups, hoping they would speed up the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Francis Ricciardone, the former US ambassador to Ankara, said last year that the Turkish authorities were convinced they could work with radical militias in Syria, including groups linked to Al-Qaeda.

A Western official in Ankara, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said the Turkish government had been sure they could control the Islamist militants. "Now, all this is blowing up in their faces."

Critics say Ankara is reluctant to investigate the ISIS operation in Turkey thoroughly because ties between militants and members of the security apparatus could come to light. "There may be a certain tolerance by Turkish border guards towards ISIS," Mr Kurkcu said.

Xu's case also hints at a possible connection. He told investigators he decided to leave Syria after his father was killed by Syrian government forces.

He said that he managed to leave Syria with two other foreign militants and that a man called Heysem Topalca helped the trio to cross the border back into Turkey. News reports say Topalca is suspected of having ties to Turkish intelligence services.

dayibey@yahoo.com

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Turkey deports Russians who tried to cross into Syria, 8 April 2015
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:21 PM

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Russian, Swiss citizens among 10 Syria-bound fighters detained by Turkey
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:20 PM

Turkey has said this week that it has detained at least 10 foreign fighters from five countries, including Russia and Switzerland, who were trying to cross into Syria using its southern border.

The governor's office in Gaziantep, a Turkish province on the Syrian border, said in a statement on Tuesday that citizens from Kosovo, Syria, Switzerland, Russia and Tajikistan were detained while trying to "illegally cross into Syria." The statement also said the Turkish security services suspect that the foreign citizens were headed to conflict zones in Syria to fight.

The detainees included two Kosovars called A.B., Syrian H.A., Russians L.I., A.I, Z.A., A.I. and F.I. and Tajik S.A. They will be deported after they have been interrogated by the police. Swiss citizen O.A.M.B., however, will be charged with being a member of a terrorist organization.

Thousands of foreigners from different countries have joined the ranks of radical groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), with many of them using the route through Turkey.

Turkey has stepped up border security, regularly releasing details of would-be fighters it has detained, after criticism it had not done enough to stem the flow of foreign fighters through the region.

ISIS Hackers Warn Turkey to Release All Caliphate-Bound Detainees or Face Attack
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:19 PM

Comments On: ISIS Hackers Warn Turkey To Release All Caliphate-Bound Detainees Or Face Attack

A document claiming to be from a southeast Asian chapter of the Islamic State Hacking Division states that ISIS is ready for cyberwar with Turkey if the republic does not free jihadists caught trying to cross into the caliphate.

A handbook released by ISIS earlier this year detailed a web of sympathizers utilized on the Turkish side of the 500-mile border with Syria to smuggle in recruits from around the world. This includes special safehouses for women wanting to go to the Islamic State.

“Lately things have got harder at the Turkish border, so Islamic State members often meet new people in Turkey hotels and smuggle them across the border,” the guide said, stressing safehouses can only be accessed with “a paper signed by an existing member to show he is trustworthy.” It added that “the only reason members live in Turkey in some peace is because Turkey fears revenge attacks.”

Faced with international criticism and high-profile cases of teens running away to join the caliphate, Turkey has been making notable arrests including nine Brits nabbed last week trying to cross illegally into Syria. Among that group was Waheed Ahmed, the 21-year-old son of a Labour Party council member, and four small children.

In the past few days, Turkish border guards have caught people from Switzerland, Kosovo, Syria, Tajikistan, Russia, China and Iraq trying to sneak into Syria. A Dutch woman who Turkish officials said was sought by Interpol was also apprehended in the flurry of detainments.

Turkey’s Sabah newspaper reports “both the number and the variety of people illegally trying to cross the border has increased” since Turkey started cracking down on the ISIS pipeline, which consists not only of foreign fighters but smuggled goods.

Now, ISIS is warning Turkey to let their would-be caliphate citizens go or face the cyber consequences.

The warning, titled “Fight Them with Every Power,” was posted by the “MIT” cyber team of the Islamic State Hacking Division — Mujahidin Indonesia Timor.

It decries the “brothers who became prisoners when seeking to move to the caliphate” and those “repatriated back to their Kufr states” after being caught.

“Pay attention and take note of our terror threat, Erdogan!” it says, demanding that all destined for the Islamic State be immediately released “without condition” and deportations canceled for those designated to be returned to their home countries.

“By God, we will launch our attack in cyberspace to be a helper for our brothers” if all demands are not met.

The PDF released by the group cites numerous Quranic verses and warns against taking part in “this infidel coalition warfare.”

“You have seen our terror, you have been shocked by the terror… even through cyberspace. We who terrorize you with a variety of media releases, we are responsible for the publication of the identity of the soldiers (US. Army),” it states, referring to last month’s posting of the names, photos and addresses of 100 American service members with a call to ISIS recruits in the U.S. to kill them.

“If you say this as a joke (we hope so), wait until we arrive in front of your home and cut down your neck as Qisas
for the carnage you did to the Muslims,” it adds. Qisas is the Islamic principle ISIS said justified the murder by fire of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh.

Bridget Johnson is a veteran journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. She is an NPR contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.

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Report: ISIS Beheads Senior Hamas Member in Syria - Middle East - News
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:16 PM

Among the Palestinian Arab fighters beheaded by the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) in Damascus's Yarmouk camp was a senior Hamas figure in Syria, according to emerging reports.

On Saturday, senior Israel Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toumeh posted a graphic image which appeared to show the severed head of Sheikh Abu Salah Taha, held aloft by an ISIS fighter in Yarmouk.

ISIS has been involved in fierce clashes inside the camp since Wednesday, as it seeks to wrest control of it from Palestinian Islamist rebels aligned with Hamas.

As of Sunday morning, ISIS were said to be in control of between 50-90% of Yarmouk, according to various reports. The takeover of the camp - located at the southern edge of the Syrian capital - is the closest ISIS has come to the heart of the Assad regime. Even more alarming for the regime are reports that ISIS's Yarmouk offensive was made possible with the cooperation of the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's official arm in Syria, which until now has been involved in a bloody rivalry of its own with ISIS.

Concerns over the possibility of further jihadi advances into Damascus have even reportedly spurred the regime into making the unprecedented move of facilitating military aid to rebels inside the camp to fend off the ISIS assault.

Yarmouk has been under siege by government forces for nearly two years, with some 18,000 civilians still trapped inside, and the regime is currently in control of its northernmost areas, to block off any rebel advances further into the capital. Around 2,000 of those remaining civilians have been evacuated over the weekend as the fighting worsens, according to Palestinian sources.

Regime airstrikes have also been witnessed in the past several hours, although as yet there is no word on any casualties.

Despite that ISIS appears to have the upper hand, and has reportedly set about beheading Palestinian fighters and civilians alike in areas under its control in a grisly campaign of retribution, posting evidence of its atrocities online.

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Assad: Syria Gets Russian Arms Under Deals Signed After Conflict Broke Out | Business
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:08 PM

Omar Sanadiki / ReutersA member of a Female Commando Battalion which is part of the Syrian Army, aims her weapon at the frontline in the government-controlled area of Jobar, a suburb of Damascus.

Russia is supplying weapons to Damascus under contracts signed since the conflict in Syria began in 2011, as well as under earlier deals, President Bashar Assad said.

Assad's comments, in an interview published by Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Monday, appeared to contradict Moscow's line that any Russian arms supplies to Damascus were agreed before the conflict began.

"There are contracts that had been sealed before the crisis started and were carried out during the crisis. There are other agreements on arms supplies and cooperation that were signed during the crisis and are being carried out now," Assad said.

"They went through some changes to take into account the type of fighting the Syrian army carries out against the terrorists," he said in the full text of the interviews, excerpts of which were published last week.

Assad gave no details of the weapons being supplied by Russia, the world's second-biggest arms exporter, since the start of the conflict which has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions.

Asked about the interview, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether Moscow was supplying arms to Damascus.

"In fact, Moscow has always highlighted that there have been and are no embargoes on military cooperation. There are no legal limitations no us," he told reporters.

Russia's Defense Ministry, contacted by telephone, declined immediate comment.

Russia is a longstanding ally of Assad and is hosting meetings in Moscow on April 6-9 involving some of the more moderate Syrian opposition representatives and Damascus envoys.

Expectations of a breakthrough are low after a first round of consultations made little progress. Many Syrian opposition figures shunned the January consultations, saying they would appear only at meetings that led to Assad's removal from power.

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Russia, Iran, Syria share same vision, says Assad
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 3:05 PM

By AFP | Washington
Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he shares the same goals as Iran and Russia when it comes to the brutal war tearing apart his country.
Assad, speaking on PBS television in excerpts of an interview airing Monday, insisted that close allies Russia and Iran “want to have balance in the world.”
“It’s not only about Syria. I’m (a) small country. It’s not about having a huge interest in Syria. They could have it anywhere else,” he told the U.S. public television network.
“So, it’s about the future of the world. They want to be a great power that has their own say in the future of this world.”
In Syria, he said, “they want stability, and a political solution.”
“Syria and Iran and Russia see eye to eye regarding this conflict,” Assad added.
The interview with talk show host Charlie Rose also aired last week on CBS television’s “60 Minutes” program.
Iran-backed Shiite militias are fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring an Islamic “caliphate” and committing widespread atrocities.
Russia operates a naval base in Tartus along Syria’s western shores that includes warships, barracks and warehouses.
Set up under a 1971 security agreement, Moscow has called its Tartus presence “a supply and technical point for the Russian navy.”
Last week, Assad told Russian news channels that he would welcome an increased Russian military presence at Syria’s seaports.
More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began, and half the country's population has been displaced.

Last Update: Tuesday, 31 March 2015 KSA 09:44 - GMT 06:44

What next? - Curaçao Chronicle
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 2:55 PM

Curaçao Chronicle

The big question on everyone’s mind is, what will fill the void that was left behind after the collapse of socialism? Will the world witness a new central theme of religion or politics that will ruthlessly marginalize all others to the fringes?

After the revolutions of 1989, the communist imperium of the USSR officially collapsed in 1991. The People’s Republic of China changed course to unbridled capitalism with “money making is beautiful.” The hard fought bloody battlefields of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have now become the sweatshops for unabated Chinese capitalism. A few communist pockets remain in the world, like Cuba and North Korea and they became amongst the poorest countries in the world. Hugo Chavez’s switch to socialism/communism in 2000 after the global collapse was a bizarre anachronistic turn of events. It took his junta only 20 years to bankrupt the once wealthiest country of South America.

In many ways, socialism was a secular execution of Pauline Christianity under the banner of “I am my brother’s keeper.” Surprisingly, socialism also appealed to agrarian Asians through reformist Chinese student guest-workers (Mao, Deng etc.) visiting French automobile factories. Even more surprising was the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party development in the leftovers of the Ottoman Empire, as off 1920. Arabs embraced socialism with local leaders like Egypt’s Nassar, Libya’s Gadhafi, Iraq’s Hussein, Syria’s Assad, Iran’s Khomeini etc. Turkey’s Ataturk stood out as the great leader of pan-Arabian secularism, general education and anti-religious development.

A swing back to religious Islamic reactionism seems one way to fill the void after socialism in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, though it led to widespread bitter and bloody feuds and civil wars. Symbol politics by ISIS with loud trumpeting of unfathomable cruelties and atrocities against humanity seem to make dramatic in routes in the global media and the otherwise closed, traditional Islamic communities.

In a very similar, but much more quiet way, a new Christian Protestant reformation took place in the world after aggressive proselytization by Evangelicals around the world. Mormon, LDS, and Seventh-Day Adventists etc. pop up everywhere. Not all these groups are peaceful though. Atrocities by the LRA, Lords Resistance Army of Joseph Kony are extremely well documented and may add up to as many as two million casualties. Note: The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord’s Resistance Movement, is a Christian extremist religious movement, which operates, in northern Uganda and South Sudan. Originally known as the United Holy Salvation Army and Uganda Christian Army/Movement, its stated goals include ruling Uganda and South Sudan according to the Ten Commandments. Supposedly, today there are more than 300 million of these new Protestants in the world (see Pew Forum), a group to be reckoned with.

Islamic fundamentalism and Evangelicals defy reason and logic and many seem to despise the fruits of Western European Enlightenment. Their emotional simplification of reality, ethics and divinity may look from enlightened perspective delusional, but still it does appeal to the gullible millions of seekers. If these new faithful will be able to manage a sophisticated and complex western economy, is to be seen, but appears very unlikely. Many of these groups seem even anti-intellectual, although they still manage to maintain some levels of industrial sophistication in warfare and industry. In history, reactionary movements, with strong romanticized longings for idealist golden ages of the past, never lasted very long.

What may come out of the percolating brew of upset in today’s world could be a remarkable and totally new side product. Being able to communicate without borders and have access to mass migration, short and long term, could make the need for one central philosophy totally redundant. A bit of mutual respect and acceptance could fill the void more than anything else.

By Jacob Gelt Dekker, opinion columnist for Curaçao Chronicle.

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Top ISIS leader who was once Saddam general killed in Fallujah
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 2:53 PM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A local militia in Fallujah said its forces had killed a top ISIS leader who was once a general in Saddam Hussein’s army.

The Fallujah Liberation Committee said that Abu-Jihad Abdullah Dlemi, who was killed by its gunmen, was a top ISIS leader responsible for the group’s suicide bombings.

“Abu-Jihad was a former General in Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Abdullah Wasiq, a member of the committee, told reporters. “He was killed near Fallujah’s Grand Mosque by the security forces of the Fallujah Liberation Committee.”

'Iraq Is Finished' — The Atlantic
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 2:40 PM

Master Feed : The Atlantic

Tribal leaders reflect on the enemy destroying their country from within.

One afternoon this March, during a visit to Jordan, I sat on the banks of the Dead Sea with my Iraqi friend, Azzam Alwash. As we stared across the salt lake and watched the sun disappear behind the rocky crags of Israel, I recounted a trip I had taken to Jordan 20 years earlier to conduct field research on Palestinian refugees, as part of a Middle East peace effort designed to ensure that within a decade nobody in the region considered himself a refugee.

No one had an inkling back then that the numbers of refugees in the region would increase exponentially, with millions of Iraqis and Syrians displaced from their homes by international intervention and civil war. Nor had I imagined at the time that I would find myself in Iraq after the invasion of 2003, initially as a British representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority—the international transitional government that ran the country for about a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein—and then as the political advisor to U.S. Army General Raymond Odierno when he commanded U.S. forces in the country.

A number of the Iraqis I had gotten to know over the last decade had relocated to Jordan. I had gone there to see them and better understand events in the region—and the conditions that had led to the rise of the Islamic State.

* * *

The evening following our Dead Sea visit, Azzam and I went out for Italian food in Amman with a diverse group of our Iraqi friends, Sunni and Shiite, Kurd and Arab. It was a reunion of sorts; some of us had gone white-water rafting down the Little Zaab river in northern Iraq a few years ago. Azzam was an experienced rafter, but even the danger of the rapids had not pressured the group to trust his leadership and work together. There was a lot of shouting and we all got soaked, but somehow we had survived the trip. This, to me, represented Iraq writ large.

ISIS and the Foreign-Fighter Phenomenon

The conversation soon turned to Daesh (known as ISIS in the West), and how the group had formed. A common view I’ve heard in the region, propagated by Sunni and Shiite alike, is that Daesh is the creation of the United States. There was no al-Qaeda in Iraq or Islamic State before the U.S. invasion in 2003. Therefore, so the twisted reasoning goes, the United States must have deliberately created the group in order to make Sunnis and Shiites fight each other, thereby allowing the U.S to continue dominating the region. Local media had reported on alleged U.S. airdrops to Daesh. Some outletseven referred to Daesh's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as an Israeli-trained Mossad agent.

One of my dining companions asked me where I thought the group came from. I responded thatDaesh was a symptom of a much larger problem. Regional sectarian conflict was an unintended consequence of the Iraq War and the manner in which the United States had left the country, both of which had empowered Iran and changed the balance of power in the Middle East. In my view, regional competition—of which Iran versus Saudi Arabia is the main but not only dimension—exacerbated existing fault lines. Those countries’ support for extreme sectarian actors in different countries had now turned local grievances over poor governance into proxy wars. Iran was funding and training Shiite militias, as well as advising regimes in Baghdad and Damascus. Gulf financing had flowed to Sunni fighters, including the ones that ultimately became Daesh. At the same time, there was a symbiotic relationship between corrupt elites in Iraq and terrorists—they justified each other's existence, each claiming to provide protection from the other.

Azzam offered another perspective. Daesh, he said, were Muslims, and fundamentalist Salafi Islam was to blame for their existence. The problem, he said, was the literal interpretation of the Quran, which, for example, spelled out harsh criminal punishments reflective of seventh-century practices. Other religions had moved forward and reformed because adherents were willing to interpret texts for their own time. A heated argument broke out as others at the table defended Islam and accused Azzam of being brainwashed by the West. "If we Muslim intellectuals are not self-critical, if we refuse to take responsibility to address the issues," he responded, "what hope is there for the Middle East?"

* * *

Azzam’s was only one of numerous explanations of Daesh’s origins and power that I heard from Iraqis during my visit to Jordan. All of these explanations contained some truth: There was no one simple reason, but rather a complex set of factors, that had enabled the group to take control of so much of Iraq.

Another explanation came from Sheikh Abdullah al-Yawar, the paramount sheikh of the Shammar tribe, which has around 5 million members in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Last summer, in the wake of the Daesh takeover of Mosul, his mother and brother managed to escape just hours before their palatial 27-room house near Rabiah—northwest of Mosul on the Syrian border—was blown up, his photos and carpets destroyed, his horses scattered to the wilds. It was a house that I knew well and had visited many times. From 2003 onward, Abdullah had decided that he and his family would cooperate with international coalition forces to secure their area, rather than fight against them.

Daesh did not suddenly take control of Mosul last summer, Abdullah told me over dinner with his family at his house in Amman. For years, there had been so much corruption in local government that Daesh had been able to buy influence and supporters. Government in Iraq, he said, was a business—a family business in which politicians in Baghdad and Mosul had stolen millions of dollars worth of the country's wealth. Daesh had then been able to exploit this situation to take control, presenting itself as a better alternative to corrupt local government.

But I had a more basic question: "Who are Daesh?" Many, he told me, had come out of the town of Tal Afar, where there had been bitter fighting between the Sunni and Shiite populations during the civil war. They were former Baathists, members of Saddam Hussein’s party who had been purged from Iraq’s government following the international intervention to oust Hussein. Then, after 2003, some became al-Qaeda, and now they were Daesh. They felt excluded and marginalized. Daeshgave them a sense of empowerment and let them present themselves as the defenders of the Sunnis against Shiites, Iran, and the United States.

In northern Iraq last summer, I had met men with large mustaches—the Baathists’ signature facial hair—who claimed to be spokesmen for insurgent groups and said they were leading a Sunni uprising against then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. I asked Abdullah what had happened to them. He responded that they had been all talk. Some had grown the beards mandated by fundamentalists and joined Daesh. Others had done nothing.

Abdullah and his wife provided me quotation after quotation from the Quran to prove that Daeshviolated the tenets of Islam. Personally, I told them, I judge people by how they behave. "When I think of a Muslim, I think of the hospitality shown to me, a foreigner, whenever I travel in the Arab world." I went on, "Sadly, when I now tell people in the U.S. that I am off on holiday to the Middle East, they worry that I will be kidnapped and have my head chopped off." I had finished the vine leaves and tabbouleh salad we had been eating, and kebab and chicken were now heaped on my plate. I told them I thought I faced a greater risk of death from overeating.

Abdullah turned serious. "We need more help from America," he said. "Look at what Iran is doing. Iran is now in Tikrit.” (Iranian military officers were highly visible as advisors to Shiite militias seeking to retake the city.) He went on: "This is a huge humiliation for the Sunnis. This is not the way to destroy Daesh. It will cause a worse reaction in the future."

* * *

A few days later, Sheikh Ghassan al-Assi of the Obeidi tribe, which has around 700,000 members in Iraq, both Sunni and Shiite, took me to a restaurant in Amman that he said was owned by Christians from Baghdad. When the waiter came to take our order, Ghassan said, with an acerbic wit that I was by now long familiar with: "The Americans and British destroyed our country—but we still invite them to lunch!" He would later pick out the best parts of the barbecued fish and put them on my plate.

I had first met Ghassan in 2003, when he had been highly critical of coalition forces in Iraq. Even so, we had remained friends. He had fled to Amman last summer in the wake of the Daesh blitzkrieg. According to Ghassan, the group had blown up the grave of his father, the paramount sheikh of the Obeidis, and had destroyed the houses of his uncles because they collaborated with Maliki. He had hoped that his house would be left alone, since he had not worked with the United States or the Iraqi government. But the week prior to my visit, Daesh had turned up with C4 explosives and blown the home up. He did not know why. He took out his iPhone. "Bastards, bastards, bastards,” he muttered as he flicked through the photos.

Over a cup of tea, Ghassan showed me photos of one of his sons, who was wearing a red-and-white checked scarf, with a goatee, and was posing for the camera like a male model. I was surprised; I had never expected a boy born and bred in Hawija—a rough provincial town—to turn out looking like this. Even in Hawija, it seemed, there were people who just wanted to lead normal lives, to wear the latest fashion. It was Dubai, not Daesh, that represented the sort of society they wanted to live in.

Sheikh Ghassan laughed at my astonishment. "Miss Emma,” he asked me somewhat cryptically, “what is life without love?"

* * *

On my last day in Jordan, Jaber al-Jaberi, another tribal leader who had served Iraq as a member of parliament and had once been a candidate for minister of defense, drove me to Jerash, an ancient city outside Amman. With Daesh destroying Iraq's archaeological sites, we both wanted to go and see Jordan's. Jaber, too, had been forced to leave his home in Anbar amid the Daesh advance.

"The Sunnis of Iraq are like the Palestinians," Jaber said. "We've been displaced from our land." Sunnis had been cleansed from Diyala and areas surrounding Baghdad by Shiite militias, and many more had fled from the provinces of Anbar, Nineva, and Salah al-Din because of Daesh. Jaber himself had given up politics and was now spending his days trying to get food and assistance to tribesmen living in terrible conditions in makeshift accommodation in the desert. The Sunnis, he said, had no real leaders, and the Shiite militias were more powerful than the Iraqi security forces.

"Iraq is finished," he lamented to me. "There is no state left. It is a state of militias.”

The state of Iraq has indeed failed. It no longer has the legitimacy or the power to extend control over its whole territory, and the power vacuum is being filled by a multitude of non-state actors, increasingly extreme and sectarian, who will likely continue to fight each other for years to come, supported by regional powers. Whether a new kind of order will finally emerge, with more local legitimacy, remains to be seen. And for now those who are displaced are left wondering how long it will be until they are able to return home—and to what.

Still, I refused to believe that terrorists could erase Iraq’s past, and I told Jaber so. The past would survive in archives, in exhibits in the British Museum, on the walls of art galleries in Amman, in poems recited around the world. We were in the land where humans had first experimented with settled agriculture, where the Babylonian king Hammurabi gave some of the first written laws, where Jews had written the Talmud. Jaber, I saw, had tears in his eyes. "Nothing can take this away, Jaber,” I told him. “Nothing. Not these terrible terrorists, not these militias, not these awful politicians. A new generation will come one day that can build on this. The hope is the youth who just want to live their lives."

“Insh'allah,” Jaber responded.

Read the whole story

· · · · · · ·

Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein lives on in Islamic State, ISIS
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 2:38 PM

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lives on in Islamic State

middle east

by: EMMA REYNOLDS
From: news.com.au
3 days ago April 06, 2015 2:31PM

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Video

The Islamic State was built on Saddam Hussein’s influence. Source: AP

SADDAM Hussein’s legacy lives on in the senior ranks of the Islamic State, with his former top commanders leading the jihadist organisation.

The Iraqi dictator’s influence has made IS, also known as ISIS, more efficient and dangerous than would otherwise have been possible.

Ex-government officers now use their skills and knowledge of the terrain to ensure the extremist organisation operates with military precision.

Iraqi security forces gather at the entrance of one of Saddam’s palaces in Tikrit last week after taking control back from IS. Source: AP

While these mysterious figures control IS, high-profile foreign fighters act as its public face, distracting from these leaders by carrying out the group’s sickeningly violent acts of terror.

Those who have had contact with IS say almost all its general, emirs and princes are former Iraqi officers, the Washington Post reported.

A former IS fighter told the newspaper he took orders from Saddam’s ex-soldiers, and that even commanders in Syria had Iraqi deputies who made the real decisions.

Abu Hamza (of no connection to the radical preacher) said ex-government intelligence agents had brought their expertise to IS’s security service, and that smuggling networks developed in the 1990s are now used for IS oil trading.

“The Iraqi officers are in command, and they make the tactics and the battle plans,” he said, having left the group and fled to Turkey last year. “But the Iraqis themselves don’t fight. They put the foreign fighters on the front lines.”

Iraqi forces, backed by Shi'ite militiamen, prepare to attack Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. Source: AP

When Saddam’s army was scattered after the 2003 invasion, 400,000 soldiers were banned from government employment, denied pensions, but allowed to keep their guns. Experts say it was almost inevitable that these Baathist officers would come to play a major role in IS.

“The manner in which Saddam was dispatched meant a vacuum was created,” Monash University terrorism expert Greg Barton told news.com.au. “These were the conditions for a perfect storm of insurgency.”

Saddam’s former commanders were treated with prejudice by Nouri al-Maliki, who was installed as prime minister in 2006. After Saddam’s downfall, he helped to lead the purge of ex-Baath party officials from the military and government and marginalise Sunni Muslims.

Iraq had been a predominantly Shi’ite country led by a Sunni minority, and many saw that as the natural order of things. With al-Maliki’s arrival, this changed, and IS tapped into a sense of aggrievement among Sunnis in the north of the country.

US troops prepare to topple Saddam’s statue after his ousting in 2003. Source: AP

The West was aware that Saddam’s disgruntled former officers were joining rebel groups and assisting al-Qaeda ten years ago, but failed to avert the crisis. Now it appears many completed a full transformation into jihadist leaders, as al-Qaeda became IS.

Saddam’s actions towards the end of his rule set the scene for IS, with more than 200 people beheaded in the final two years of his regime, mainly on suspicion of prostitution.

The nationalist Baath party had been forming branches across the Middle East and running training camps for foreign volunteers. Despite its secular roots, Saddam had begun moving towards a more religious approach, adding the words “God is great” to the Iraqi flag and ordering amputations for theft.

The Iraqi dictator’s final years in power marked a move towards Islamist ideology typified by IS.Source: News Corp Australia

Many of the Iraqi dictator followers stopped drinking, started praying and embraced a deeply conservative form of Islam known as Salafism. It made a move to extremist ideology a logical development after the invasion tore the country apart.

Just last week, Iraq’s government won the battle to retake Saddam’s home city of Tikrit from IS, but their victory was overshadowed by violence from Shi’ite militants. The chaos means this is far from an ideological win, with Sunni distrust of the government helping IS retain power.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called for a halt to looting and vandalism in Tikrit, and sworn to help residents return. This step could be crucial in bringing Sunnis into the fold and ending Saddam’s influence for good.

How Saddam Hussein's former military officers and spies are controlling Isis - Middle East - World
Wednesday April 8th, 2015 at 2:23 PM

Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis who moved in and out of the battlefield in Syria. When Abu Hamza disagreed with fellow commanders at an "Islamic State" meeting last year, he said, he was placed under arrest on the orders of a masked Iraqi man who had sat silently through the proceedings, listening and taking notes.

Abu Hamza, who became the group’s ruler in a small community in Syria, never discovered the Iraqis’ real identities, which were cloaked by code names or simply not revealed. All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein, including the masked man, who had once worked for an Iraqi intelligence agency and now belonged to the Islamic State’s own shadowy security service, he said.

US Marines chain the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein before pulling it down in Baghdad's al-Fardous square 09 April 2003, while an Iraqi waves the US flag.

His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of Iraq’s former Baathist army in an organisation more typically associated with flamboyant foreign jihadists and the gruesome videos in which they star.

Even with the influx of thousands of foreign fighters, almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.

They have brought to the organisation the military expertise and some of the agendas of the former Baathists, as well as the smuggling networks developed to avoid sanctions in the 1990s and which now facilitate the Islamic State’s illicit oil trading.

In Syria, local “emirs” are typically shadowed by a deputy who is Iraqi and makes the real decisions, said Abu Hamza, who fled to Turkey last summer after growing disillusioned with the group. He uses a pseudonym because he fears for his safety.

“All the decision makers are Iraqi, and most of them are former Iraqi officers. The Iraqi officers are in command, and they make the tactics and the battle plans,” he said. “But the Iraqis themselves don’t fight. They put the foreign fighters on the front lines.”

Timeline: The emergence of Isis

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The public profile of the foreign jihadists frequently obscures the Islamic State’s roots in the bloody recent history of Iraq, its brutal excesses as much a symptom as a cause of the country’s woes.

The raw cruelty of Hussein’s Baathist regime, the disbandment of the Iraqi army after the US-led invasion in 2003, the subsequent insurgency and the marginalization of Sunni Iraqis by the Shia-dominated government all are intertwined with the Islamic State’s ascent, said Hassan Hassan, a Dubai-based analyst and co-author of the book Isis: Inside the Army of Terror.

“A lot of people think of the Islamic State as a terrorist group, and it’s not useful,” Hassan said. “It is a terrorist group, but it is more than that. It is a homegrown Iraqi insurgency, and it is organic to Iraq.”

The de-Baathification law promulgated by L. Paul Bremer, Iraq’s American ruler in 2003, has long been identified as one of the contributors to the original insurgency. At a stroke, 400,000 members of the defeated Iraqi army were barred from government employment, denied pensions — and also allowed to keep their guns. Regime change – by force

Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party was banned after the 2003 US invasion and members banned from public office and education, removing thousands of people from their jobs

The US military failed in the early years to recognise the role the disbanded Baathist officers would eventually come to play in the extremist group, eclipsing the foreign fighters whom American officials preferred to blame, said Colonel Joel Rayburn, a senior fellow at the National Defense University who served as an adviser to top generals in Iraq and describes the links between Baathists and the Islamic State in his book, Iraq After America.

The US military always knew that the former Baathist officers had joined other insurgent groups and were giving tactical support to the Al Qaeda in Iraq affiliate, the precursor to the Islamic State, he said. But American officials didn't anticipate that they would become not only adjuncts to al-Qaeda, but core members of the jihadist group.

“We might have been able to come up with ways to head off the fusion, the completion of the Iraqisation process,” he said. The former officers were probably not reconcilable, “but it was the labeling of them as irrelevant that was the mistake.”

Under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph, the former officers became more than relevant. They were instrumental in the group’s rebirth from the defeats inflicted on insurgents by the US military, which is now back in Iraq bombing many of the same men it had already fought twice before. Islamists in eastern Libya have declared allegiance to Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Islamists in eastern Libya have declared allegiance to Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is one of the few senior Isis officials not to be a former Iraqi official

At first glance, the secularist dogma of Hussein’s tyrannical Baath Party seems at odds with the Islamic State’s harsh interpretation of the Islamic laws it purports to uphold.

But the two creeds broadly overlap in several regards, especially their reliance on fear to secure the submission of the people under the group’s rule. Two decades ago, the elaborate and cruel forms of torture perpetrated by Hussein dominated the discourse about Iraq, much as the Islamic State’s harsh punishments do today.

Like the Islamic State, Hussein’s Baath Party also regarded itself as a transnational movement, forming branches in countries across the Middle East and running training camps for foreign volunteers from across the Arab world.

By the time US troops invaded in 2003, Hussein had begun to tilt toward a more religious approach to governance, making the transition from Baathist to Islamist ideology less improbable for some of the disenfranchised Iraqi officers, said Ahmed S. Hashim, a professor who is researching the ties at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. Shi'ite fighters and Iraqi army members guard a checkpoint in Jurf al-Sakhar

Shi'ite fighters and Iraqi army members guard a checkpoint in Jurf al-Sakhar

The Iraqi Army was rebuilt after the 2003 Iraq invasion, leading many disaffected commanders to flee

With the launch of the Iraqi dictator’s Faith Campaign in 1994, strict Islamic precepts were introduced. The words “God is Great” were inscribed on the Iraqi flag. Amputations were decreed for theft. Former Baathist officers recall friends who suddenly stopped drinking, started praying and embraced the deeply conservative form of Islam known as Salafism in the years preceding the US invasion.

In the last two years of Hussein’s rule, a campaign of beheadings, mainly targeting women suspected of prostitution and carried out by his elite Fedayeen unit, killed more than 200 people, human rights groups reported at the time.

The brutality deployed by the Islamic State today recalls the bloodthirstiness of some of those Fedayeen, said Hassan. Promotional videos from the Hussein era include scenes resembling those broadcast today by the Islamic State, showing the Fedayeen training, marching in black masks, practicing the art of decapitation and in one instance eating a live dog.

Some of those Baathists became early recruits to the al-Qaeda affiliate established by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Palestinian Jordanian fighter who is regarded as the progenitor of the current Islamic State, said Hisham al Hashemi, an Iraqi analyst who advises the Iraqi government and has relatives who served in the Iraqi military under Hussein. Other Iraqis were radicalised at Camp Bucca, the American prison in southern Iraq where thousands of ordinary citizens were detained and intermingled with jihadists.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi recruited Baathists

Zarqawi kept the former Baathists at a distance, because he distrusted their secular outlook, according to Hashim, the professor.

It was under the watch of the current Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that the recruitment of former Baathist officers became a deliberate strategy, according to analysts and former officers.

Tasked with rebuilding the greatly weakened insurgent organization after 2010, Baghdadi embarked on an aggressive campaign to woo the former officers, drawing on the vast pool of men who had either remained unemployed or had joined other, less extremist insurgent groups.

Some of them had fought against al-Qaeda after changing sides and aligning with the American-backed Awakening movement during the surge of troops in 2007. When US troops withdrew and the Iraqi government abandoned the Awakening fighters, the Islamic State was the only surviving option for those who felt betrayed and wanted to change sides again, said Brian Fishman, who researched the group in Iraq for West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center and is now a fellow with the New America Foundation.

Baghdadi’s effort was further aided by a new round of de-Baathification launched after US troops left in 2011 by then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who set about firing even those officers who had been rehabilitated by the American military.

Among them was Brigadier General Hassan Dulaimi, a former intelligence officer in the old Iraqi army who was recruited back into service by US troops in 2006, as a police commander in Ramadi, the capital of the long restive province of Anbar. Masked Sunni fighters in Ramadi in December following raids by government forces

Masked Sunni fighters in Ramadi in December following raids by government forces

Brigadier General Hassan Dulaimi was dismissed as the police commander in Ramadi, which is now partly controlled by Isis

Within months of the American departure, he was dismissed, he said, losing his salary and his pension, along with 124 other officers who had served alongside the Americans.

“The crisis of Isis didn't happen by chance,” Dulaimi said in an interview in Baghdad, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “It was the result of an accumulation of problems created by the Americans and the [Iraqi] government.”

He cited the case of a close friend, a former intelligence officer in Baghdad who was fired in 2003 and struggled for many years to make a living. He now serves as the Islamic State’s wali, or leader, in the Anbar town of Hit, Dulaimi said.

“I last saw him in 2009. He complained that he was very poor. He is an old friend, so I gave him some money,” he recalled. “He was fixable. If someone had given him a job and a salary, he wouldn't have joined the Islamic State.

“There are hundreds, thousands like him,” he added. “The people in charge of military operations in the Islamic State were the best officers in the former Iraqi army, and that is why the Islamic State beats us in intelligence and on the battlefield.”

The Islamic State’s seizure of territory was also smoothed by the Maliki government’s broader persecution of the Sunni minority, which intensified after US troops withdrew and left many ordinary Sunnis willing to welcome the extremists as an alternative to the often brutal Iraqi security forces. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was accused of persecuting Iraq's Sunni minority

But it was the influx of Baathist officers into the ranks of the Islamic State itself that propelled its fresh military victories, said Hashem. By 2013, Baghdadi had surrounded himself with former officers, who oversaw the Islamic State’s expansion in Syria and drove the offensives in Iraq.

Some of Baghdadi’s closest aides, including Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, his deputy in Iraq, and Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, one of his top military commanders in Syria, both of them former Iraqi officers, have since reportedly been killed — though Dulaimi suspects that many feign their own deaths in order to evade detection, making its current leadership difficult to discern.

Any gaps however are filled by former officers, sustaining the Iraqi influence at the group’s core, even as its ranks are swelled by arriving foreigners, said Hassan.

Fearing infiltration and spies, the leadership insulates itself from the foreign fighters and the regular Syrian and Iraqi fighters through elaborate networks of intermediaries frequently drawn from the old Iraqi intelligence agencies, he said.

“They introduced the Baathist mind-set of secrecy as well as its skills,” he said.

The masked man who ordered the detention of Abu Hamza was one of a group of feared security officers who circulate within the Islamic State, monitoring its members for signs of dissent, the Syrian recalled.

“They are the eyes and ears of Daesh’s security, and they are very powerful,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein at a military show in Baghdad in 2001

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein at a military show in Baghdad in 2001

Saddam Hussein's former military leaders are operating in the highest levels of Isis

Abu Hamza was released from jail after agreeing to fall into line with the other commanders, he said. But the experience contributed to his disillusionment with the group.

The foreign fighters he served alongside were “good Muslims,” he said. But he is less sure about the Iraqi leaders.

“They pray and they fast and you can’t be an emir without praying, but inside I don’t think they believe it much,” he said. “The Baathists are using Daesh. They don’t care about Baathism or even Saddam.

“They just want power. They are used to being in power, and they want it back.”

Whether the former Baathists adhere to the Islamic State’s ideology is a matter of debate. Hashim suspects many of them do not.

“One could still argue that it’s a tactical alliance,” he said. “A lot of these Baathists are not interested in ISIS running Iraq. They want to run Iraq. A lot of them view the jihadists with this Leninist mind-set that they’re useful idiots who we can use to rise to power.”

Rayburn questions whether even some of the foreign volunteers realise the extent to which they are being drawn into Iraq’s morass. Some of the fiercest battles being waged today in Iraq are for control of communities and neighborhoods that have been hotly contested among Iraqis for years, before the extremists appeared.

“You have fighters coming from across the globe to fight these local political battles that the global jihad can’t possibly have a stake in.”

Former Baathist officers who served alongside some of those now fighting with the Islamic State believe it is the other way around. Rather than the Baathists using the jihadists to return to power, it is the jihadists who have exploited the desperation of the disbanded officers, according to a former general who commanded Iraqi troops during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears for his safety in Irbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan, where he now resides.

The ex-Baathists could be lured away, if they were offered alternatives and hope for the future, he said.

“The Americans bear the biggest responsibility. When they dismantled the army what did they expect those men to do?” he asked. “They were out in the cold with nothing to do and there was only one way out for them to put food on the table.”

When US officials demobilised the Baathist army, “they didn't de-Baathify people’s minds, they just took away their jobs,” he said.

There are former Baathists with other insurgent groups who might be persuaded to switch sides, said Hassan, citing the example of the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, usually referred to by its Arabic acronym JRTN. They welcomed the Islamic State during its sweep through northern Iraq last summer, but the groups have since fallen out.

But most of the Baathists who actually joined the Islamic State are now likely to have themselves become radicalised, either in prison or on the battlefield, he said.

“Even if you didn't walk in with that vision you might walk out with it, after five years of hard fighting,” said Fishman, of the New America Foundation. “They have been through brutal things that are going to shape their vision in a really dramatic way.”

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» Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein lives on in Islamic State, ISIS
08/04/15 15:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lives on in Islamic State middle east by: EMMA REYNOLDS From: news.com.au 3 days ago April 06, 2015 2:31PM Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Print Email Share Add to Digg Add...

» Nostalgia for Saddam Hussein: At least 'you knew who the enemy was'
08/04/15 15:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Comments on: Nostalgia for Saddam Hussein: At least ‘you knew who the enemy was’. In hookah cafes and on social media, people recall a man who 'loved Iraq' and was a bulwark against Iran. WASHINGTON —...

» Standard Digital News - Kenya : Shock as ISIS seek to recruit nurses into terror group
08/04/15 15:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Nurses working under ISIS must speak fluent English under strict new regulations enforced by the regime. The surprising job requirement is being implemented as the terrorist organization launches plans to ope...

» How Saddam Hussein's former military officers and spies are controlling Isis - Middle East - World
08/04/15 15:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis who moved in and out of the battlefield in Syria. When Abu Hamza disagreed with fellow commanders at an "Is...

» What ISIS Really Wants - The Atlantic
08/04/15 15:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Master Feed : The Atlantic. What is the Islamic State ? Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the ans...

» From Chechnya To Syria | News & Analysis of Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters In Syria
08/04/15 15:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from » From Chechnya To Syria. Signed in as mikenova Share this story on NewsBlur Share this story Subscribe to this site Shared stories are on their way...

» ISIS - Google Search
08/04/15 14:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results In the news Iraq Starts Drive Against ISIS, but Reports on Scale Differ New York Times ‎ - 30 mins ago BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Army and militia forces carried out an attack against the ...

» The West must dismantle ISIS and Russia’s lie machines
08/04/15 14:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Lyudmila Savchuk fights on the net for the Kremlin. Source: AFP You’re in a crowded lift when it stalls. It’s a public holiday, the emergency number doesn’t work and you look around at your ...

» US Is Losing Information War Against Russia And ISIS
08/04/15 14:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Comments on: US Is Losing Information War Against Russia And ISIS. According to Reuters and a federal agency report, the United States is losing an information war against Russia and ISIS terrorists, while...

» Ex-Saddam Baathists unite in Ninevah campaign
08/04/15 13:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Full Feed. Iraqi families fleeing the violence in Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrive at Shangal, a town in Ninevah province, June 17, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/ Ari Jala) Author: Omar al-Jaffal Posted...

» Saddam Hussein's Old Party Is Behind Iraq Chaos
08/04/15 13:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Military & Defense. An extremist Al Qaeda offshoot is far from the only anti-government group sewing chaos in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) wrested control of Mosul, Iraq'...

» Iraq: The lesser of two evils
08/04/15 12:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Shia militias have helped fight Isis, but many worry they are pushing their own brand of sectarianism Iraqi security forces in Tikrit after pushing Isis out of the city with help from Shiite militiamen I t wa...

» The Homemade Weapons Of ISIS | The Daily Caller
08/04/15 12:48 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Daily Caller. 4525374 WASHINGTON — ISIS lacks sufficient military grade weaponry, but that doesn’t mean it has conceded defeat, according to new findings shared by experts Tuesday at the St...

» obama foreign policy iraq - Google Search
08/04/15 12:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/.../ Foreign _ policy _of_the_Barack_ Obama _a... Cached Similar Wikipedia Loading... Jump to War in Iraq - [edit]...

» obama policy towards iraq - Google Search
08/04/15 12:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/.../Foreign_ policy _of_the_Barack_ Obama _a... Cached Similar Wikipedia Loading... Supporters of Obama's foreign ...

» obama policy on isis - Google Search
08/04/15 12:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Obama outlines "new phase" in the fight against ISIS - CBS ... <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/.../" rel="nofollow">www.cbsnews.com/.../</a> obama -outlines-the-new-phase-in-the-fi....

» obama policy on war in iraq - Google Search
08/04/15 12:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/.../Foreign_ policy _of_the_Barack_ Obama _a... Cached Similar Wikipedia Loading... Jump to War in Iraq - [edit]. ...

» Syria and Iraq full of Russian, Iranian, and Chinese weapons
08/04/15 12:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Military & Defense. As ISIS first blitzed across northern Iraq in June 2014, the militants seized large quantities of US arms and vehicles from the fleeing Iraqi forces. Over the almost past year...

» Iraq Launches Drive Against ISIS, but Reports on Scale Differ
08/04/15 12:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Army and militia forces launched an attack against the Islamic State outside Ramadi on Wednesday, with some local officials claiming it was the beginning of a major offensive in west...

» ISIS Essentially Ruled by Former Saddam Hussein Army Officers: Report
08/04/15 12:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Comments on: ISIS Essentially Ruled by Former Saddam Hussein Army Officers: Report. As they say, what goes around comes around. The ISIS terrorist group that controls much of Syria and Iraq didn’t em...

» ISIS Defeats Could Trip Global Terror Campaign
08/04/15 12:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Newsweek. The Islamic State (ISIS) upped the ante last month, conducting a series of attacks in a number of Arab countries. While the operations in Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen pursue the organization&#...

» The 'seeds of Iraq's unraveling' were sown in 2003, not 2010 (+video)
08/04/15 12:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Christian Science Monitor | Backchannels. The dangerous fantasy that Iraq was on the brink of a new democratic era in 2010 – if only the Obama administration had leaned harder on Iraq's politicians &...

» The Iraq War: Bush’s Biggest Blunder
08/04/15 11:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Newsweek. History is beset by military blunders, from Napoleon's attempt to conquer Russia to America's decision to invade Iraq. But do leaders learn from the mistakes of others? ADVERTISEMENT The authors ...

» Hackers Exploiting ISIS Notoriety To Promote WordPress Hacks
08/04/15 11:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Self-described sympathisers of extremist group ISIS have hacked their way into websites to leave messages for visitors, the FBI has warned . The law enforcement agency said yesterday many sites were being att...

» saddam hussein baath party - Google Search
08/04/15 11:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Ba'ath Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ba'ath _ Party Cached Similar Wikipedia Loading... The Arab Ba'ath Party merged with the Arab Socialist Party, led by Akra...

» isis and baath party - Google Search
08/04/15 11:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results How Saddam's Former Soldiers Are Fueling the Rise of ISIS ... <a href="http://www.pbs.org" rel="nofollow">www.pbs.org</a> › ... › Iraq / War on Terror › The Rise o...

» 2015-04-07#Playlist
08/04/15 03:54 from Mike Nova - Google+
2015-04-07 #Playlist Recent Posts Review 2,578,7562,578,7562015-04-04#Playlist Tuesday April 7 th , 2015 at 11:55 PM Mike Nova - Google+ 1 Share 2,578,756 2,578,756 2015-04-04 #Playlist Modern Songs Playlist Modern Songs Playlist See a...

» The hidden hand behind the Islamic State militants? Saddam Hussein’s.
08/04/15 01:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, center, chairs a joint meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and the regional command of the ruling Baath Party on Oct. 31, 1998. (Reuters) SANLIURFA, Turkey — Whe...

» 2,578,7562,578,7562015-04-04#Playlist
08/04/15 00:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,578,756 2,578,756 2015-04-04 #Playlist Modern Songs Playlist Modern Songs Playlist See also other posts with music: 2015 Saturday, March 21, 2015 - Fly fly butterfly A Watchful Gua...

» 2,578,7592,578,7592015-04-04#DespicableMe
08/04/15 00:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,578,759 2,578,759 2015-04-04 #DespicableMe #Minions "Despicable Me Minion Mayhem" ride " Despicable Me Minion Mayhem" ride Despicable Me."I'm having a bad,bad day" - YouTube Saturd...

» #Stanford
08/04/15 00:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. #Stanford A Stanford Medical School Student Was Arrested for Poisoning Her Classmates' Water Bottles | VICE A Stanford Medical School Student Was Arrested for Poisoning Her Classmates'...

» 2015-04-05#DHS
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-05 #DHS #Obama #Google » Obama's dhs cyber army targets anti-obama sites - Google Search Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review From The Major News Sources » obama's dhs cyber...

» 2015-04-05#Ukraine
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-05 #Ukraine #USNavy Joint exercises put U.S. Navy at Russia's doorstep | » Ukraine Live Day 412: Six Ukrainian Troops Killed Near Mariupol, Schastye Joint exercises put U.S. Na...

» 2015-04-03Why the Russian Far East Is So Important to China | Artyom Lukin
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-03 Why the Russian Far East Is So Important to China | Artyom Lukin: "The entire vastness of the RFE contains just over 6 million residents. Being remote from, and having tenuo...

» 2015-04-05 #Ukraine
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-05 #Ukraine #USNavy Joint exercises put U.S. Navy at Russia's doorstep | » Ukraine Live Day 412: Six Ukrainian Troops Killed Near Mariupol, Schastye Joint exercises put U.S. Na...

» 2015-04-06Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Soundtrack: Snake Eater - YouTube | Top
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-06 Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater Soundtrack: Snake Eater - YouTube | Top Definition: Snake Eater. 1. Nickname given to Special Forces, because they can survive in the wilderne...

» 2015-04-06#Pentagon
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-06 #Pentagon » Pentagon chief heads east as US tries to maintain Asia focus 06/04/15 15:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks Are you a GENIUS? Find out with a few of the most f...

» 2015-04-06#Cyprus
08/04/15 00:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-06 #Cyprus #Putin Using Cash and Charm, Putin Targets Europe’s Weakest Links Using Cash and Charm, Putin Targets Europe’s Weakest Links Monday April 6 th , 2015 at 7:38 PM 1 ...

» 2015-04-07#BarrettBrown
08/04/15 00:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-07 #BarrettBrown The strange case of Barrett Brown barrett brown - YouTube Tuesday April 7 th , 2015 at 5:03 PM 1 Share 22:04 Is The Obama Administration The LEAST Transparen...

» 2015-04-07#Parliament
08/04/15 00:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-07 #Parliament Russian Parliament Strips Immunity From Dissenter Tuesday April 7 th , 2015 at 10:40 PM WSJ.Com: World News 1 Share The Russian parliament voted to revoke immu...

» Saudi Arabia Strongly to Reach out to Pakistan
08/04/15 00:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Pakistani parliament is considering Saudi request to provide ground troops as well as air and naval support for fighting in Yemen Saudi Arabia’s bid to get Pakistani military support for ...

» Divorce by Facebook: New York woman can file online - KOAT Albuquerque
08/04/15 00:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. KOAT Albuquerque Divorce by Facebook: New York woman can file online KOAT Albuquerque (CNN) —Facebook may soon need to add "Just got served divorce papers" to its list ...

» Edward Snowden risked lives by not reading all the leaked files
08/04/15 00:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. In a television interview the fugitive and former US spy squirmed as he admitted only ‘evaluating’ the files stolen from GCHQ and the US National Security Agency.

» Blackmail and abuse: Gay sex ban in India stirs violence
08/04/15 00:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Rajan was followed by two men into a public toilet in Mumbai and forced to perform oral sex on them, the 31-year-old gay marketing profess...

» Yemeni Fighters Attack Houthis as Aid Flights Delayed
08/04/15 00:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Yemeni militias backed by warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked Houthi fighters across several provinces in south Yemen on Monday, driving the Shi'ite rebel forces from some of th...

» Germanwings pilot Patrick Sondheimer who tried to stop Andreas Luzitz pictured for first time
08/04/15 00:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Staring straight ahead, eyes firmly on the camera, this is the only photograph to have emerged of Patrick Sondheimer, the pilot of the doomed flight who tried to break down the cockpit ...

» G.O.P. Senator Is Major Player in Iran Accord
08/04/15 00:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. Few people on Capitol Hill are more important to the White House now than Senator Bob Corker, the Republican behind a bill to force President Obama to send any deal with Iran to Congress fo...

» Male writers continue to dominate literary criticism, Vida study finds
08/04/15 00:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Women buy two-thirds of books sold but magazine reviews are centred on male authors and critics – though picture is beginning to change The continuing bias towards men in the ...

» Saudis Seek More Help in Yemen
08/04/15 00:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by VOA News. Saudis Seek More Help in Yemen Saudi officials are putting pressure on Pakistan to back the coalition of Sunni nations carrying out airstrikes in Yemen. It's a request that could fores...

» A Changed Rand Paul Vows to Change the Republican Party - TIME
08/04/15 00:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. TIME A Changed Rand Paul Vows to Change the Republican Party TIME Rand Paul will finally announce his presidential campaign on Tuesday in Louisville, but avid fans were treated t...

» Police: Teen killed by police involved in gun deal - Journal Gazette and Times-Courier
08/04/15 00:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Police: Teen killed by police involved in gun deal Journal Gazette and Times-Courier ZION, Ill. (AP) — A teenager killed by a police officer in Illinois had just been involved in...

» Obama Administration Promises Safe, Lasting Deal With Iran
08/04/15 00:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The Obama administration says any nuclear deal with the Iranian government will ensure the safety of Iran's neighbors, including Israel. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday that the...

» Woman permitted to serve her husband divorce papers via Facebook - The Week Magazine
08/04/15 00:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Woman permitted to serve her husband divorce papers via Facebook The Week Magazine Seeking a divorce yet unable to find her husband, a New York woman has been granted permission ...

» Uzbek Man Charged In New York With Islamic State Recruiting
08/04/15 00:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. A fourth man has been charged in a terrorism case involving raising funds to send U.S. residents to join Islamic State fighters in Syria.

» United States Says Iran Sanctions Would Be Phased Out
08/04/15 00:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The United States says economic sanctions on Iran would be gradually phased out if a final nuclear agreement is reached between Tehran and six world powers before the Jun...

» With Cuba at Summit, US Seeks Renewed Ties With Latin America
08/04/15 00:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by VOA News. With Cuba at Summit, US Seeks Renewed Ties With Latin America The Summit of the Americas normally receives little media attention in the United States. But this year is different becau...

» Obama: Iran's Recognition of Israel Not to Be Part of Nuclear Deal
08/04/15 00:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. President Barack Obama has rejected a call by Israel that any final nuclear agreement with Iran include a "clear and unambiguous Iranian commitment of Israel's right to exist." Israeli Pr...

» Israel to push Congress to pass bill to hamper Iran deal - Haaretz
08/04/15 00:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Haaretz Israel to push Congress to pass bill to hamper Iran deal Haaretz Israel will try to persuade congressmen and senators to introduce a clause stipulating that the deal with...

» Eight Iranian Guards Reported Killed Near Pakistan Border
08/04/15 00:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Iranian media say gunmen have killed eight border guards in the country's volatile southeast, near the border with Pakistan.

» ISIS militants behead and crucify four men accused of stealing in Iraq
08/04/15 00:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Taken in ISIS' northern stronghold of Mosul, the photographs show four men being interviewed by the terrorists before they are dragged before bloodthirsty crowds eager to see their exec...

» Afghan interpreter who worked with British army refused UK asylum
08/04/15 00:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Aslam Yousaf Zai claims he has been targeted by Taliban, but Home Office says it does not believe he would be in danger if he returns to Afghanistan An Afghan interpreter who ...

» Yemen anger grows at absent president
08/04/15 00:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News. Saudi decision to build campaign around president Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi may yet prove problematic

» Polish radio says crew distracted before 2010 Smolensk plane crash
08/04/15 00:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WARSAW (Reuters) - In the minutes before a 2010 plane crash that killed Poland's president, members of the president's entourage urged the crew to land despite thick fog, according to ...

» How the subconscious mind shapes creative writing
08/04/15 00:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Authors who improvise, like John Boyne, and those who meticulously pre-plan like Michelle Paver, all seem to benefit from thoughts they don’t know they’re having Do you rememb...

» EU to Host Russia, Ukraine Gas Talks
08/04/15 00:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. The European Union said it will host the next round of gas talks between Ukraine and Russia on April 14 in Berlin.

» Russian atomic submarine catches fire in shipyard: RIA cites source
08/04/15 00:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in a shipyard in Russia's northern province of Arkhangelsk, a law enforcement source told Russia's RIA news agency on Tue...

» How ISIS' land grab across Middle East is being orchestrated by Saddam Hussein's generals
08/04/15 00:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Despite thousands of foreign fighters flocking to join the Sunni extremist group and starring in their propaganda videos, ISIS' leadership is dominated by ex-members of the late Iraqi d...

» Albania and Kosovo to unite, inside EU or not: Albanian PM
08/04/15 00:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - The unification of Albania and Serbia's majority-Albanian former province of Kosovo is "inevitable", whether it happens through membership of the European...

» Mass Grave of Iraq Soldiers Exhumed in Tikrit - Voice of America
08/04/15 00:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Voice of America Mass Grave of Iraq Soldiers Exhumed in Tikrit Voice of America BAGHDAD—. Iraqi forensic teams in the newly liberated city of Tikrit have started exhuming bodies ...

» Russian nuclear sub on fire, state news agency reports - CNN
08/04/15 00:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. CNN Russian nuclear sub on fire, state news agency reports CNN (CNN) A nuclear submarine being repaired at a Russian shipyard has caught on fire, according to a law enforcement source ...

» Dangerous Boa Constrictor Gives Police The Slip
08/04/15 00:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. Teams scour a top Australian tourist spot for the two-metre snake mistakenly released into bushland by police.

» Why Senate Democrats could be Obama's biggest problem on Iran - Washington Post (blog)
08/04/15 00:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Why Senate Democrats could be Obama's biggest problem on Iran Washington Post (blog) Senate Democrats are emerging as a potentially major obstacle facing President Obama as he tr...

» Russian nuclear sub on fire, state news agency reports
08/04/15 00:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - World. A nuclear submarine being repaired at a Russian shipyard has caught on fire, according to a law enforcement source speaking to Russia's state-run news agency ITAR-Tass.

» China, Vietnam must manage sea dispute well to keep peace: Xi
08/04/15 00:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping told the visiting head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday that the two countries must manage their dispute over the South C...

» Analysis: Iran nuke deal tough — but could be circumvented - Chron.com
07/04/15 23:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Chron.com Analysis: Iran nuke deal tough — but could be circumvented Chron.com VIENNA (AP) — In selling the Iran nuclear deal to Congress and other skeptics, President Barack Oba...

» U.N. Cyprus envoy says sees no obstacle to new peace talks
07/04/15 23:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. NICOSIA (Reuters) - A U.N. envoy for ethnically split Cyprus said on Tuesday he expected stalled peace talks to resume "within weeks", following a six-month suspension in a dispute ove...

» Obama Says Iran Could Cut Nuke Time To Near Zero In 13 Years ...
07/04/15 23:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from world news - Google Blog Search. ... deal fails to eliminate the risk because it allows Iran to keep enriching uranium. He told NPR News that Iran will be capped for a decade at 300 kilograms — not enough ...

» Russian Nuclear Sub 'On Fire In Dry Dock'
07/04/15 23:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. The submarine's nuclear reactor had been shut down before the blaze broke out, and there has been no word on any casualties.

» Russian deputy who opposed Crimea seizure stripped of immunity
07/04/15 23:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's parliament voted on Tuesday to strip the only deputy who voted against last year's annexation of Crimea of his immunity from prosecution as a lawmaker.

» Alexis Tsipras flies to Moscow amid speculation of bailout from Putin
07/04/15 23:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Greek prime minister to sign accords with Russia, including a gas price discount and possible loans in return for Greek assets, that would alarm EU creditors The Greek prime m...

» Why Yarmouk's takeover by ISIS is good news for Bashar al-Assad - CNN
07/04/15 23:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. CNN Why Yarmouk's takeover by ISIS is good news for Bashar al-Assad CNN Lina Khatib is director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Previously, she was the co-founding head o...

» Raped, jailed, pardoned and shamed
07/04/15 23:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from CNN.com - World. In Afghanistan, the solution to rape is to marry your attacker. That's what happened to Gulnaz, who was barely 16 when she was raped and and then jailed for adultery.

» Latin America silent on Venezuela as US airs rights concerns
07/04/15 23:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 10:10 p.m. EDT. PANAMA CITY (AP) -- From Mexico to Brazil, leaders in Latin America have largely kept silent amid charges of human rights abuses in Venezuela and are unlikely to speak o...

» 100-Year-Old Man Kills Wife with Ax, Then Commits Suicide - People Magazine
07/04/15 23:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. People Magazine 100-Year-Old Man Kills Wife with Ax, Then Commits Suicide People Magazine A 100-year-old man and his 88-year-old wife were found dead Monday in their Elmwood Park, New ...

» The Battle For 'Nemtsov Bridge'
07/04/15 23:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The bridge where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead has become a sacred symbol for his supporters.

» Russia Strips 'Rogue' MP of Immunity
07/04/15 23:48 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Russia's parliament voted on Tuesday to strip the only deputy who voted against last year's annexation of Crimea of his immunity from prosecution as a lawmaker. State prosecutors had aske...

» Prince Andrew Sex Claims Struck From Court
07/04/15 23:48 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. A US judge has ordered that sex allegations made against Prince Andrew be struck from the court record.

» ABC Breaks NBC's Winning Streak in Evening News - New York Times
07/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. New York Times ABC Breaks NBC's Winning Streak in Evening News New York Times NEW YORK — NBC's evening newscast has lost in the ratings for the first time since 2009, and the fir...

» Russia paves way for fraud case against exiled MP
07/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News. Only deputy to vote against Crimea annexation faces corruption claims

» Obama gets Easter prayer breakfast crowd laughing – video
07/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World news + Video | The Guardian. President Obama amuses the crowd talking about his daughters and his faith at the White House's annual Easter prayer breakfast on Tuesday 7 April. The breakfast was just ...

» U.S. judge denies request by Prince Andrew accuser to join lawsuit
07/04/15 23:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman who said in court papers she was forced as an underage girl to have sex with Britain's Prince Andrew, prominent U.S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz and other men c...

» President Obama Hints at Disappointment With Christians at Easter Breakfast - TIME
07/04/15 23:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Kansas City Star President Obama Hints at Disappointment With Christians at Easter Breakfast TIME President Obama took a more measured approach in his remarks about Christianity ...

» In Egypt, ex-military men fire up Islamist insurgency
07/04/15 23:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. CAIRO (Reuters) - A small but highly dangerous succession of former Egyptian army officers are joining Islamist militant groups, complicating President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's efforts t...

» A sledgehammer to civilisation: Islamic State’s war on culture
07/04/15 23:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Isis has destroyed countless irreplaceable artefacts and heritage sites across the areas it controls of Iraq and Syria – and some are comparing its assault on human history to...

» Pakistan judge: Charge CIA lawyer, agent for drone strike - San Francisco Chronicle
07/04/15 23:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. San Francisco Chronicle Pakistan judge: Charge CIA lawyer, agent for drone strike San Francisco Chronicle FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011 file photo, Pakistani tribal elder Kari...

» German economy minister calls Greek war reparations request 'stupid'
07/04/15 23:45 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Sigmar Gabriel throws out Greece’s demand for €278.7bn, but opposition parties argue for return of forced wartime loan from Athens amounting to €10.3bn Germany’s economy minis...

» Ukraine in Talks to Boost Cash
07/04/15 23:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. Aging populations and sluggish advances in worker productivity are quickly binding the global economy to a bleaker growth fate, the IMF says.

» Pakistan judge: Charge CIA lawyer, agent for drone strike
07/04/15 23:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 10:10 p.m. EDT. ISLAMABAD (AP) -- A Pakistani judge on Tuesday ordered criminal charges be filed against a former top CIA lawyer who oversaw its drone program and a former station chief...

» Banker Svetlana Lokhova wins £3.2m payout after bullying by male colleagues
07/04/15 23:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. A tribunal found Cambridge graduate Svetlana Lokhova, 33, was a 'resilient person' driven to a mental breakdown by workmates at the London branch of Russian bank Sberbank CIB.

» Russian Parliament Strips Immunity From Dissenter
07/04/15 23:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. The Russian parliament voted to revoke immunity for an opposition lawmaker targeted in a case of alleged embezzlement, a move Kremlin critics denounced as an attempt to stifle politica...

» Elderly Couple Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide In Elmwood Park, NJ - CBS Local
07/04/15 23:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. CBS Local Elderly Couple Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide In Elmwood Park, NJ CBS Local ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) — A 100-year-old Bergen County man and his 88-year...

» Obama, Raúl Castro to 'Interact' at Summit, White House Says
07/04/15 23:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro this week will see each other for the first time since their two countries began re-establishing ties.

» Nuclear submarine catches fire in Russian shipyard
07/04/15 23:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. The submarine that caught fire in a shipyard was submerged to extinguish the blaze yesterday. The emergency move came after premature reports that the flames had been put out.

» World Briefing: Israeli Fire Killed Spanish Peacekeeper in January, Israeli Official Confirms
07/04/15 23:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. A military investigation concluded that the peacekeeper had been killed as the Israeli military responded to an attack against its forces by Hezbollah.

» Fears Loom of Young Israeli Arabs Lured to Jihad
07/04/15 23:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by VOA News. Fears Loom of Young Israeli Arabs Lured to Jihad Governments worldwide are trying to stop their young people from being recruited by the so-called Islamic State and other jihadist grou...

» ISIS capital Raqqa's streets lined with queues for food
07/04/15 23:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. In scenes more familiar in the world's most impoverished refugee camps, scores of downtrodden Syrians wait in lines for food in the terror group's self-declared capital of Raqqa.

» Iran: Militants Killed Border Guards
07/04/15 23:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. The incident, denied by Pakistan, comes a day before Iran’s foreign minister travels to Islamabad to urge it to stay out of Yemen conflict.

» Does Germany really still owe Greece for World War II? - Christian Science Monitor
07/04/15 23:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from world - Google News. Christian Science Monitor Does Germany really still owe Greece for World War II? Christian Science Monitor Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas said Monday that Berlin owes At...

» Judge Rejects Sex Allegations Against Prince Andrew and Prominent Lawyer
07/04/15 23:36 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from TIME. (MIAMI)—A federal judge rejected a bid by two women to join a high-profile sexual abuse lawsuit and ordered scandalous sex allegations against Britain’s Prince Andrew and a prominent U.S....

» Thieves break into underground vault in Hatton Garden
07/04/15 23:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by ODN. Thieves break into underground vault in Hatton Garden Thieves have used heavy-duty cutting equipment to break into an underground vault in Britain's main jewellery district - potentially ne...

» Isis mass graves: Iraqi forensic teams recover remains of 1700 military cadets ... - The Independent
07/04/15 23:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. The Independent Isis mass graves: Iraqi forensic teams recover remains of 1700 military cadets ... The Independent Mass graves containing the bodies of 1,700 Iraqi military cadet...

» Iran Nuclear Deal: What Obama Would Say to Iranians | EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | The New York Times
07/04/15 23:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by The New York Times. Iran Nuclear Deal: What Obama Would Say to Iranians | EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | The New York Times President Obama responds to the question of what he would say to Iranian people...

» US appears close to announcing Cuba's removal from terrorism sponsor list
07/04/15 23:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. As Obama and Raúl Raul Castro prepare to meet this week, White House expects decision soon – and reports have suggested it will be a positive one The US and Cuba are on the ve...

» ISIS launches English language radio bulletins on its Iraqi broadcast service
07/04/15 23:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. The extremist group's first English bulletin - hosted by a man with an American accent - aired on Tuesday on its al-Bayan radio network, which already boasts updates in both Arabic and ...

» Iran Nuclear Deal: Obama on Breaching Diplomatic Protocol | EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | The New York Times
07/04/15 23:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by The New York Times. Iran Nuclear Deal: Obama on Breaching Diplomatic Protocol | EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | The New York Times President Obama on the “dangers” that arise when lawmakers breach traditi...

» Judge strikes sex claims against Dershowitz, others - CNN
07/04/15 23:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. CNN Judge strikes sex claims against Dershowitz, others CNN (CNN) A Florida judge Tuesday threw out claims that high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz had sex with minors with help ...

» Another deadly Isis discovery - New Zealand Herald
07/04/15 23:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Another deadly Isis discovery New Zealand Herald Iraqi forensic teams have started recovering the remains of hundreds of cadets who were slaughtered by Isis fighters near Tikrit,...

» World Briefing: Pakistani Court Orders Ex-C.I.A. Officials Charged Over 2009 Drone Strike
07/04/15 23:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. A judge ruled in a case involving a former C.I.A. station chief and a former C.I.A. lawyer and their roles in directing drone attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions.

» Video Cited By Police in Murder Charges Shows Officer Shooting Driver - ABC News
07/04/15 23:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. ABC News Video Cited By Police in Murder Charges Shows Officer Shooting Driver ABC News A South Carolina police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man Saturday is being charg...

» Republican Rand Paul Launches US Presidential Campaign
07/04/15 23:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by VOA News. Republican Rand Paul Launches US Presidential Campaign Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has become the second major Republican to announce his candidacy for president. Paul, a libertarian, i...

» Report: Russia behind 2014 attack on White House computer system - Fox News
07/04/15 23:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. CNN Report: Russia behind 2014 attack on White House computer system Fox News Russian hackers last year were able to breach a White House computer system after a successful cyber...

» White SC officer charged with murder for shooting black man
07/04/15 23:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 10:10 p.m. EDT. CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- A white South Carolina police officer has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a black motorist after a traffic stop....

» A Nazi-Built Resort Beckons New Dwellers
07/04/15 23:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. After decades of decay, a German coastal site operated by the Third Reich, the Soviets and the East Germans over the years is being converted into hotels and apartments.

» Mexican military halt drug tunnel construction near U.S. border
07/04/15 23:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers foiled the construction of a suspected drug tunnel underneath a house near the U.S. border, arresting nine people and impounding a truck used t...

» Dmitry Oreshkin: “In the light of Nemtsov’s murder, Putin looks like a weak and dependent politician”
07/04/15 23:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Home - Institute of Modern Russia. The Institute of Modern Russia continues its series of interviews with Russian and Western experts on the situation in Russia, its relationship with the West, and the fut...

» Americans Struggle to Get Families Out Amid Yemen Conflict
07/04/15 23:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Instead of getting married last Friday, Summer Nasser was in the mountains of Yemen — a twisting, perilous five-hour-drive from her fiancé. The American college student of Yemeni descent ...

» Ukraine Leader Denounces Federalization as Way to Break Up Country
07/04/15 23:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. President Petro O. Poroshenko said he was so certain Ukrainians would reject the idea, which Russia endorses, that he offered to put it to a referendum.

» Political Economy: Greece Must Walk the Talk, and Soon
07/04/15 23:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. The radical-left government has pretty much exhausted its techniques for squeezing blood from a stone.

» Гражданам России грозит статус «белорусского тунеядца» - ИА REGNUM
07/04/15 23:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РБК Гражданам России грозит статус «белорусского тунеядца» ИА REGNUM Белорусские «тунеядцы»/"иждивенцы" будут убирать кладбища и камни с полей, и примерно 10 тыс иностранцев, в т.ч...

» Греция оценила ущерб от немецкой оккупации в €278 млрд - Коммерсантъ
07/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Lenta.ru Греция оценила ущерб от немецкой оккупации в €278 млрд Коммерсантъ Греция намерена добиваться от Германии выплаты €278,7 млрд репараций за ущерб, нанесенный стране во врем...

» Ukraine has key to better Russia-EU relations - Lavrov - RT
07/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. RT Ukraine has key to better Russia -EU relations - Lavrov RT Relations between Russia and the EU depend on the implementation of Minsk documents, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said on Mon...

» Documentary Explores Impact of Drug Violence on Mexican Society
07/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed tens of thousands of lives in recent years as rival gangs compete for the millions of dollars they can make smuggling marijuana, cocaine, and o...

» Poland to build watchtowers at Russia's Kaliningrad border
07/04/15 23:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. 50 metre high towers will be ready to begin surveillance in June according to border police Poland will build six watchtowers to survey its 200-kilometre-long border with the Russian...

» Poland to build watchtowers at Russia's Kaliningrad border - The Guardian
07/04/15 23:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. The Guardian Poland to build watchtowers at Russia's Kaliningrad border The Guardian A Russian Iskander ballistic missile during a rehearsal of a military parade outside Moscow. Polan...

» War with Russia Now Much Likelier: Ukraine's Leading Nazi Dimitri Yarosh Gets ... - Center for Research on Globalization
07/04/15 23:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Bloomberg War with Russia Now Much Likelier: Ukraine's Leading Nazi Dimitri Yarosh Gets ... Center for Research on Globalization But now, with the military expertise of the nazis and ...

» Госдеп: США будут представлены на торжествах 9 мая в Москве - Коммерсантъ
07/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РИА Новости Госдеп: США будут представлены на торжествах 9 мая в Москве Коммерсантъ Руководство США будет представлено на торжествах 9 мая в Москве. Уверенность в этом выразила на ...

» Rogers Touts Russia Yet Again As Investors Increasingly Hop On Band Wagon - Forbes
07/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Forbes Rogers Touts Russia Yet Again As Investors Increasingly Hop On Band Wagon Forbes Commodities guru Jim Rogers has his eyes on Russia . And he likes what he sees. What he sees is...

» Waving Cash, Kremlin Sows EU Divisions - New York Times
07/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Al Jazeera America Waving Cash, Kremlin Sows EU Divisions New York Times NICOSIA, Cyprus — When Cyprus seized hundreds of millions of dollars from bank depositors, many of them Russia...

» US Defense Secretary Urges Approval of TPP
07/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Before embarking on an Asia trip, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, free trade agreement an important part of the Obama Administ...

» Meet Anonymous International, the hackers taking on the Kremlin
07/04/15 23:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. They’ve hijacked the Russian prime minister’s Twitter account and attacked the political elite. But they’re also guns-for-hire, collecting private information for a fee. Daniil Turov...

» Илья Яшин: "Кадыров бросает вызов всему государству"
07/04/15 23:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Илья Яшин: "Кадыров бросает вызов всему государству" Заявление оппозиционного политика Ильи Яшина, пришедшего почтить память своего друга Бориса Немцова на... From: Радио Свобода ...

» Владимир Рыжков:" Все нити ведут в Чечню"
07/04/15 23:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Владимир Рыжков:" Все нити ведут в Чечню" "Впервые после смерти Сталина в России стали применяться политические убийства как метод политической... From: Радио Свобода Views: 2376 ...

» Frankfurter Rundschau: Ципрас в отношениях с Россией "ищет весны" - РИА Новости
07/04/15 23:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РИА Новости Frankfurter Rundschau: Ципрас в отношениях с Россией "ищет весны" РИА Новости В то время, как в отношениях между ЕС и России господствует "политический&q...

» Russian Politician Threatens Latvia Sanctions After Reported Comparison to Nazi Regime
07/04/15 23:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. A top Russian politician has called for sanctions to be brought against Latvia after accusing its foreign minister of comparing Russia to Nazi Germany's Third Reich.

» Посол ЕС в России: надо признать, что мы не пойдем воевать и умирать за Украину - УНИАН
07/04/15 22:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. УНИАН Посол ЕС в России: надо признать, что мы не пойдем воевать и умирать за Украину УНИАН Принимая решение о военное поддержке, отдельные страны должны со всей ответственностью в...

» Александр Рыклин: "Немцова убила российская власть"
07/04/15 22:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Александр Рыклин: "Немцова убила российская власть" Панихида по убитому сорок дней назад Борису Немцову прошла в Климентовском храме, рядом с домом, где жил... From: Радио Свобода...

» Russia and Russian Nation Owe Their Existence to the Mongols, Kalmyk Émigré Eurasianist Argued
07/04/15 22:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Window on Eurasia -- New Series. Paul Goble Staunton, April 7 – Eurasianism by definition is diverse because it argues that Russia ...

» Слава Рабинович: "Это не расследование - это саботаж"
07/04/15 22:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Слава Рабинович: "Это не расследование - это саботаж" Среди тех, кто на сороковой день после убийства Бориса Немцова пришел на панихиду в Климентовский храм,... From: Радио Свобод...

» Russian Court Authorizes Closure Of LGBT Teen Support Group's Site
07/04/15 22:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. A court in St. Petersburg has authorized the government to block the social-network page of an online support group for LGBT teenagers in Russia.

» Russia Says Ukraine Must Seek Direct Debt-Restructure Talks - Bloomberg
07/04/15 22:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Bloomberg Russia Says Ukraine Must Seek Direct Debt-Restructure Talks Bloomberg Russia said only direct talks with Ukrainian authorities may change its refusal to join debt restructur...

» Op-Ed Contributor: Austria’s Islamic Reforms
07/04/15 22:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. The country has taken a positive step to combat extremism while protecting Muslims' religious liberties.

» Vladimir Putin, Is That You?
07/04/15 22:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Russia's President Vladimir Putin was once an ardent defender of Ukraine's borders. Don't believe it? Watch the video.

» Russian nuclear submarine catches fire at shipyard - Telegraph.co.uk
07/04/15 22:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Telegraph.co.uk Russian nuclear submarine catches fire at shipyard Telegraph.co.uk A similar fire at a nuclear submarine occurred in Russia in December 2011, when the K-84 Yekaterinbu...

» Top Spy: Hillary's Emails 'Likely' Hacked by China, Russia, Iran - The Weekly Standard (blog)
07/04/15 22:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. The Weekly Standard (blog) Top Spy: Hillary's Emails 'Likely' Hacked by China, Russia , Iran The Weekly Standard (blog) A top intelligence official under President Obama, Lt. Gen. Mic...

» Представители Украины не приедут в Москву на празднование 9 мая - Коммерсантъ
07/04/15 22:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. ЛІГА.net Представители Украины не приедут в Москву на празднование 9 мая Коммерсантъ Представители Украины не будут участвовать в мероприятиях 9 мая в Москве, сообщил спикер МИД Ук...

» Russian nuclear submarine catches fire in shipyard - Reuters
07/04/15 22:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Reuters Russian nuclear submarine catches fire in shipyard Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) - Firefighters struggled to put out a blaze on a nuclear submarine as it underwent repairs at a shi...

» Russia nervously eyes the US-Iran deal - MarketWatch
07/04/15 22:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. MarketWatch Russia nervously eyes the US-Iran deal MarketWatch Russia has no interest in seeing a nuclear-armed Iran in the neighborhood, but the mere threat of an unshackled Iranian ...

» Лех Валенса допустил возможность распада России на несколько государств - РБК
07/04/15 22:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РБК Лех Валенса допустил возможность распада России на несколько государств РБК Экс-президент Польши Лех Валенса дал интервью украинскому изданию «Экономическая правда», в котором ...

» Will NATO Attack Russia? Russian-Finnish Border Military Exercises Not A Good ... - International Business Times
07/04/15 21:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. International Business Times Will NATO Attack Russia ? Russian -Finnish Border Military Exercises Not A Good ... International Business Times Stroking fears in Russia that NATO will a...

» Greek PM Tsipras In Moscow Visit
07/04/15 21:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 8 during a visit to Moscow.

» Nuclear-Powered Russian Submarine Catches Fire
07/04/15 21:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. State-run Russian news agencies cite unnamed law enforcement sources as saying a nuclear-powered submarine has caught fire at a shipyard in the Arkhangelsk region.

» Russian nuclear submarine catches fire at shipyard
07/04/15 21:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in the northern province of Arkhangelsk

» Nuclear Submarine Catches Fire at Russian Shipyard, Reports Say
07/04/15 21:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. A nuclear submarine caught fire in a shipyard in Russia's northern province of Arkhangelsk on Tuesday but there were no weapons on board, Russian news agencies reported.

» Vice-president of far-right Front National party claims '100 per cent of places of radicalisation are mosques' amid calls for more to be built
07/04/15 21:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from - Europe RSS Feed. The vice-president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right Front National party has controversially claimed “100 per cent of places of radicalisation are mosques" after a leading cleric rector call...

» Russia ready to offer Greeks cash in return for assets
07/04/15 21:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. Kremlin could provide cash-strapped Greeks a credit line and discounted energy supplies as Alexis Tsipras meets with Putin

» A Potentially Dangerous Situation: Russians Want Regime to Take Care of Them But Don’t Think They Can Hold It Responsible
07/04/15 21:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Window on Eurasia -- New Series. Paul Goble Staunton, April 7 – Russians want their government to take care of them and ensure a hi...

» Russia rules out QE as banking sector faces wave of defaults
07/04/15 21:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Central Bank of Russia, has said that QE is not being considered as "the recipes used by other countries won't work"

» What lies behind NATO's activity near Russia's borders? - RT (blog)
07/04/15 21:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. RT (blog) What lies behind NATO's activity near Russia's borders? RT (blog) Plans to add around 160 Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles to 60 existing ones for an indefinite p...

» Georgian Elders Call For Help To Prevent Teenagers From Joining IS
07/04/15 21:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Elders in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge have called on the government to help them prevent teenagers from joining the Islamist State militant group.

» Third Uzbek Man Charged In New York With Aiding IS
07/04/15 21:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. An Uzbek national has been arrested and charged in New York in connection with an alleged plot by a group of Central Asian men to support the Islamic State (IS) group in ...

» В прошлом году Порошенко заработал 16 миллионов долларов - Вести.Ru
07/04/15 21:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Вести.Ru В прошлом году Порошенко заработал 16 миллионов долларов Вести.Ru В 2014 году президент Украины Петр Порошенко заработал более 368 миллионов гривен, или около 16 миллионов...

» СМИ: пикап батальона "Азов" протаранил машину сына Порошенко - РИА Новости
07/04/15 21:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РИА Новости СМИ: пикап батальона "Азов" протаранил машину сына Порошенко РИА Новости Во вторник днем в центре Киева на улице Крещатик произошло ДТП с участием сына презид...

» Xi: China, Vietnam Must Cooperate on Sea Dispute
07/04/15 21:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Chinese President Xi Jinping told the visiting head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday that the two countries must manage their dispute over the South China Sea well to mainta...

» IMF Official Sees 'Leeway' in Judging Ukraine's Debt Progress
07/04/15 21:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The International Monetary Fund will assess the progress of Ukraine's talks with creditors, but does not have to make any decisions in June, when its next review of the country's $17.5-bi...

» Russia considers cut-price gas deal with Greece, sparking EU fears that any agreement could undermine its sanctions against Moscow
07/04/15 21:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from - Europe RSS Feed. Russia is preparing to offer Greece a cut-price gas deal as part of a package that European Union officials fear is aimed at undermining the sanctions regime against Moscow.

» Kremlin Reliance on the Russian Orthodox Church May Backfire, Analysts Say
07/04/15 21:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. While the Russian federal government's reliance on the Orthodox Church is a tool aimed at consolidating society, in using it the authorities risk giving the clergy too much po...

» Энергокомпания: причиной падения напряжения в США была проблема на ЛЭП
07/04/15 21:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Российское Информационное Агентство "РИА Новости". © AP Photo/ Manuel Balce Ceneta МОСКВА, 7 апр — РИА ...

» Энергокомпания: причиной падения напряжения в США была проблема на ЛЭП - РИА Новости
07/04/15 21:40 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РИА Новости Энергокомпания: причиной падения напряжения в США была проблема на ЛЭП РИА Новости Ранее представитель Белого дома Джош Эрнест сообщил, что обесточивание Белого дома не...

» Russian nuclear submarine catches fire - video
07/04/15 21:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. Russian state television shows footage of smoke rising from a shipyard in Arkhangelsk after reports a nuclear submarine had caught fire. Russian news agencies have quoted a spokesper...

» Gazprom Profits Drop 70% In January-February
07/04/15 21:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom saw its profits drop some 70 percent in the first two months of this year

» Opinion: Sanctions, drop in oil price best things that ever happened to Russia - MarketWatch
07/04/15 21:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. MarketWatch Opinion: Sanctions, drop in oil price best things that ever happened to Russia MarketWatch In reality, sanctions and a fall in the oil price might have been the best thing...

» When a Preposition is Predetermination – Putin Began His Attack on Ukrainian Statehood in 2004
07/04/15 21:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Staunton, April 7 — Vladimir Putin stopped using the preposition “v” or “in” Ukraine in 2004, reverting to the older form “na” or “on,” in official government documents, an ...

» Few in the Russian Intelligentsia Oppose Putin Even if They Don’t Support Him, Kirillova says
07/04/15 21:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Staunton, April 7 — Many members of the Russian intelligentsia do not support Vladimir Putin and his repression at home and aggression abroad, but a significant and surprisi...

» Czech PM: President Zeman Overreacted to Comments by US Envoy
07/04/15 21:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The prime minister of the Czech Republic and other top officials criticized the country’s president for a rare diplomatic row with the U.S. ambassador to Prague. Prime Minister Bohuslav S...

» Will US Congress Help, Hurt Iran Nuclear Deal?
07/04/15 21:37 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. A growing number of U.S. lawmakers of both political parties say Congress should have an up-or-down vote if a final accord is reached on Iran’s nuclear program. VOA Senate correspondent M...

» Страна помнит Немцова
07/04/15 21:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Страна помнит Немцова О том са...

» Activist: Russian Probe of Nemtsov Flawed
07/04/15 21:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday at the exact spot on Moscow's Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge where opposition politician Boris Nemtsov assassinated 40 days ago. The timing of the commemo...

» Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of London?
07/04/15 21:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. True, there’s much he could do here — starting with the trans fats in fish and chips.

» How The U.S. Thinks Russia Hacked The White House - Huffington Post
07/04/15 21:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. How The U.S. Thinks Russia Hacked The White House Huffington Post Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that perch to penet...

» REPORT: Russia hacked the White House - Business Insider
07/04/15 21:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Business Insider REPORT: Russia hacked the White House Business Insider Russian -hired hackers breached an unclassified White House system and pilfered information about President Oba...

» Lawmakers Take Step to Remove Putin Critic
07/04/15 21:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers took a major step on Tuesday toward ousting Ilya V. Ponomarev, the only member of Parliament who opposed the annexation of Crimea last year and one of the few elected official...

» Обама введет санкции против хакеров, взломавших Белый дом - Газета.Ru
07/04/15 21:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Президент США Барак Обама распоря&...

» UPDATE 1-Russian hackers reached sensitive White House systems -CNN
07/04/15 21:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . &amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-W9SLGS" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp...

» Russian hackers accessed White House...
07/04/15 21:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Google News. Russian hackers accessed White House email Computerworld - ‎5 minutes ago‎ Hackers working for the Russian government were able to access President Obama's email system insid...

» How the US thinks Russians hacked the White House - CNN
07/04/15 21:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Business Insider How the US thinks Russians hacked the White House CNN Washington (CNN) Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months us...

» How to Be Emotionally Intelligent
07/04/15 21:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . What makes a great leader? Knowledge, smarts and vision, to be sure. To that, Daniel Goleman, author of “Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence,” would add the ability to identify and mon...

» Iran and the Obama Doctrine
07/04/15 21:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . In September 1996, I visited Iran. One of my most enduring memories of that trip was that in my hotel lobby there was a sign above the door proclaiming “Down With USA.” But it wasn’t a banne...

» After Beating ISIS in Tikrit, Iraq and U.S. Seek Fighters for Next Front
07/04/15 21:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Emboldened as they mop up the last Islamic State forces in the city of Tikrit, Iraqi military leaders are already vowing to follow up that operation with a much more ambitious one: marching into the vast Sunn...

» Funeral Masses Held for 2 Killed in East Village Explosion
07/04/15 20:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . They were four years apart, but death came for them in the same instant: in an explosion in the East Village on March 26, engulfing a block in smoke and shattering three buildings on Second Avenue. Moises Ism...

» Do You Google Your Shrink?
07/04/15 20:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Comments on: Do You Google Your Shrink?. Couch is a series about psychotherapy. campaign: nyt2015_sharetools_mkt_opinion_47K78 -- 271975, creative: nyt2014_sharetools_mktg_opinion_47K78 -- 375123, page: bl...

» 4th Brooklyn Man Is Charged in Plot to Join ISIS
07/04/15 18:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . A defendant has been added in the case of a group of Brooklyn men charged with trying to support the Islamic State. Dilkhayot Kasimov, 26, was named in a court document filed on Monday in Federal District Cou...

» Waving Cash, Putin Sows E.U. Divisions in an Effort to Break Sanctions
07/04/15 18:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . NICOSIA, Cyprus — When Cyprus seized hundreds of millions of dollars from bank depositors, many of them Russians, as part of an internationally brokered deal two years ago to rescue its collapsing finan...

» Greece Should Be Wary of Mr. Putin
07/04/15 18:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . The Greek government is facing a series of daunting challenges. It has to come up with money to pay off maturing debts, revive its devastated economy and renegotiate its loan agreements with other countries i...

» Russian Nuclear Submarine Catches Fire During Repairs
07/04/15 18:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — A Russian nuclear submarine caught fire while undergoing repairs in a dry dock outside the city of Arkhangelsk and smoke billowed from it through the day on Tuesday. But emergency officials tol...

» World Briefing: Russian Nuclear Submarine Catches Fire During Repairs
07/04/15 18:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. Emergency officials said that the submarine posed no risk of leaking radiation because its nuclear fuel and armaments had been removed before the work began.

» US to Press Cuba on Human Rights, Basic Freedoms
07/04/15 18:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. President Barack Obama is expected to discuss human rights with Cuban leader Raul Castro when, for the first time, both the U.S. and Cuban presidents attend the Summit of the Americas. U....

» A New Emigration: The Best Are Leaving. Part 1
07/04/15 18:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Institute of Modern Russia. A New Emigration: The Best Are Leaving. Part 1 07 April 2015 Kseniya Semenova Over the last few months, the beginning of a new wave of Russian emigration has sparked debates in ...

» Killing ISIS - YouTube
07/04/15 18:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 7, 2015 Who is arming, funding and training ISIS? An <a href="http://InfoWars.com" rel="nofollow">InfoWars.com</a> exclusive report by Darrin McBreen. Once again, the growth of IS...

» Killing ISIS
07/04/15 18:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Who is arming, funding and training ISIS?

» Saudi Forces Kill 2, Wound 30 at Anti-War Rally
07/04/15 18:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Saudis crack down on demonstrators.

» barrett brown - YouTube
07/04/15 18:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . 22:04 Is The Obama Administration The LEAST Transparent In U.S. History - Duration: 22:04. by Hank Eric 7 hours ago No views David Knight talks with Infowars reporter Joe Biggs about Barrett Brown and the cri...

» Barrett Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
07/04/15 17:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Wikipedia - Recent changes [en]. Barrett Brown Born Barrett Lancaster Brown ( 1981-08-14 ) August 14, 1981 (age 33) Dallas, Texas Education Episcopal School of Dallas Website Barrett Brown (born Augus...

» barrett brown - Google Search
07/04/15 17:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Barrett Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Barrett _ Brown Cached Similar Wikipedia Loading... Barrett Brown (born August 14, 1981) is an American journalist, essay...

» Imprisoned Journalist Barrett Brown Loses Email Privilege For Talking To Infowars
07/04/15 17:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Feds censor Brown once again.

» How The Gov’t Legalizes Theft
07/04/15 17:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Feds take property and money over victimless "crimes."

» Obama Administration: Most Criminal, Least Transparent
07/04/15 17:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Rule by presidential decree.

» Rand Paul Officially Announces Presidential Bid
07/04/15 17:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Rand running on liberty and limited government platform.

» Fourth man charged in NYC over ISIS recruitment plot
07/04/15 17:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Revised indictment unsealed in federal court.

» How America Became an Oligarchy
07/04/15 17:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Our elected representatives are beholden to the moneylenders.

» World Renowned Pianist Censored in Toronto For Questioning Ukrainian Government
07/04/15 17:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Valentina Lisitsa accused of "public incitement of hatred" for challenging mainstream narrative.

» White House, State Department Lose Power Due To Major Outages
07/04/15 17:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Reuters reports there’s no indication of terrorism behind the outages...

» Al-Qaeda militants attack Yemen-Saudi Arabia border post – reports
07/04/15 17:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Residents say Al-Qaeda militants remain in control of around half of the town.

» Президент России
07/04/15 17:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Подписан Указ о назначении руково&...

» oil tanker spill in river - Google Search
07/04/15 17:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results Runaway Ship Rams Two Others on Mississippi River , Causing Oil ... <a href="http://NBCNews.com" rel="nofollow">NBCNews.com</a> - 11 hours ago The river was closed for nine miles as...

» Fire put out on Russian nuclear submarine in shipyard
07/04/15 17:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . &amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-W9SLGS" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp...

» Russian nuclear submarine 'on fire' in Arctic dock
07/04/15 17:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire at an Arctic naval shipyard, Russian media report. Reports say that the fire on the Orel has been contained. Its reactor is not believed to have been at risk. The b...

» Nuclear submarine catches fire at Russian shipyard — RT News
07/04/15 17:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from RT - News. Published time: April 07, 2015 12:23 Edited time: April 07, 2015 19:30 K-266 Oryol Fire has broken out on a Russian nuclear submarine undergoing repair work at a shipyard in Severodvinsk. The bl...

» Russian nuclear submarine ablaze at shipyard in Severodvinsk - YouTube
07/04/15 17:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 7, 2015 A fire has broken out on a Russian nuclear submarine undergoing repair work at a shipyard in Severodvinsk. The cause of the fire is believed to be related to welding work. Firefighter...

» fire on a russian nuclear submarine - Google Search
07/04/15 17:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Search Results In the news Nuclear submarine catches fire at Russian shipyard — RT News <a href="http://RT.com" rel="nofollow">RT.com</a> ‎ - 8 hours ago Fire has broken out on a Russi...

» Russia: Fire on Nuclear Submarine at Repair Yard in Arkhangelsk
07/04/15 17:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Infowars. Not known if nuclear missiles were on board.

How Saddam Hussein's former military officers and spies are controlling Isis

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lives on in Islamic State

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