Thousands flee into Turkey from Syria as Kurds fight Islamic state
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AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Thousands of people crossed from Syria into Turkey on Wednesday to flee a battle pitting Islamist insurgents against Kurdish and opposition forces for the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad.
Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk Digs In To Complex Decommunization Processby noreply@rferl.org (Yulia Ratsibarskaya)
The Ukrainian government is pushing ahead with the rapid implementation of new laws banning public-place names honoring Soviet figures. A committee in the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk has begun the complicated process of rooting out its communist legacy.
President Barack Obama's administration is considering sending about 500 additional forces to Iraq, with many of them focused on training Iraqi troops, a senior administration official told CNN Tuesday.
BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan has blocked a visit by Amnesty International at which it planned to highlight human rights abuses in the south Caucasian republic as it prepares to host the inaugural European Games, Amnesty said on Wednesday.
 Fox News |
Putin visits Italy, pope while US encourages Vatican to condemn Russia
Fox News MILAN – Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting Wednesday with Italian officials and Pope Francis as the U.S. sought to encourage the Vatican to join the West in condemning Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Putin talked with Premier Matteo Renzi in ... Delicate balance for Pope Francis as he meets PutinCBS News Putin says Russia's views not needed any more by world powersReuters Vladimir Putin says he has never made a mistake because God wanted him to ...Times of India Hindustan Times- Chicago Tribune-Economic Times all 289 news articles » |
Since the conflict in Ukraine began last year, Russian warships have regularly entered a zone where cables are being installed to link Lithuania to Sweden’s electricity grid.
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We had just finished up our shoot in Al-Makasib Girls' Elementary School in Baghdad's Saadoun neighbourhood and were loading the gear into the car when a man sitting in a wheelchair across the courtyard beckoned to me.
New intelligence reveals the role of terrorist wives. CNN's Barbara Starr reports.
Mashable |
Prison guards arrested in connection to beating death of Rikers Island inmate
Mashable Ap238900427615_0 This March 16, 2011 file photo shows a barbed wire fence outside inmate housing on New York's Rikers Island correctional facility in New York. Image: Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press. Headshot_2015_meganspecia%20(3). 2 Rikers Island correction officers charged with death, coverup of inmate Ronald ...New York Daily News FBI Arrests Two New York Correction Officers for Beating Death of InmateNewsweek Guard, ex-guard arrested in 2012 death of Rikers inmateChron.com all 52 news articles » |
Kerry Tweets 10 Days After Breaking Legby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
After being out of the public eye for more than a week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has tweeted on his condition from a Boston hospital where he is recovering from a broken right leg. Kerry's message on the social network indicated he was doing well and staying connected with senior staff by telephone. In the photograph, Kerry is seated in a chair, resting his right leg and speaking on the phone. His room at Massachusetts General Hospital has a view of the River Charles that flows through Boston. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Tuesday that Kerry, 71, was receiving therapy, but it was unclear when he would be released. Kerry's tweet appeared to be in response to questions asked of the spokesman at a daily briefing as to why Kerry, an avid bicyclist, has not been in the public eye since a cycling accident in Geneva May 31. Surgery June 2 The State Department had been relatively tight-lipped about Kerry's progress after he underwent surgery on his broken right femur in Boston June 2. When pressed on the lack of public appearances or photographs of Kerry recuperating, Rathke said earlier: "He underwent surgery -- major bone broken... That, of course, takes some time for recovery. And we've described that from the very start." Rathke did not specify when Kerry could be expected back at work in Washington but said the State Department was hopeful he would be able to go to Europe at the end of the month for final negotiations of the historic Iran talks The State Department has said Kerry remains committed to the established timetable for Iran nuclear talks. The major powers negotiating with Iran over a final nuclear agreement in exchange for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran have a self-imposed June 30 deadline to reach a deal. Some material for this report came from Reuters and AFP.
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Modern Russia cannot be compared to the Soviet Union, writes columnist Ivan Sukhov.
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The Aviationist (blog) |
Russia has grounded all its Tu-95 strategic bombers after one Bear skidded off ...
The Aviationist (blog) The Russian Ministry of Defense has suspended all the Tu-95 Bear bomber flights after a strategic bomber suffered an incident in Russia's Far East. “The Tu-95 ran over the runway during acceleration. There was no ammunition onboard. According to ... Russia's Entire Tu-95 Bear Bomber Fleet Grounded After Runway Overshoot ...International Business Times Russia's entire fleet of military bombers GROUNDED after plane engulfed in ...Express.co.uk Iconic Russian 'Bear' strategic bombers grounded after one skids off runway ...RT Deutsche Welle -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty -The Moscow Times all 59 news articles » |
Fox News |
Putin's trip to Rome underscores Russia's special relationship with Italy
The Guardian In his interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Putin emphasised the strong trade relationship between Italy and Russia, noting that it had increased elevenfold in recent years from $4.2bn to nearly $49bn, as well as mutual interests in ... Putin visits Italy, pope while US encourages Vatican to condemn RussiaFox News Russia's Putin tests EU unity with visit to Italy's RenziBBC News Delicate balance for Pope Francis as he meets PutinCBS News Yahoo News all 287 news articles » |
Newsweek |
'Overstretched' Russian air force suffers three crashes in five days
Newsweek A Russian air force TU-95s "Bear" bomber has ignited while on a practice flight, in the third crash of a Russian jet in the last five days, prompting concern that the Kremlin might be overexerting the armed forces to display military might. In the past ... Russia has grounded all its Tu-95 strategic bombers after one Bear skidded off ...The Aviationist (blog) Russia's Entire Tu-95 Bear Bomber Fleet Grounded After Runway Overshoot ...International Business Times Russia's entire fleet of military bombers GROUNDED after plane engulfed in ...Express.co.uk RT -Deutsche Welle -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty all 59 news articles » |
Bloomberg |
U.S. Ousts Russia as Top World Oil, Gas Producer in BP Data
Bloomberg The U.S. has taken Russia's crown as the biggest oil and natural-gas producer in a demonstration of the seismic shifts in the world energy landscape emanating from America's shale fields. U.S. oil production rose to a record last year, gaining 1.6 ... BP plc Data Suggests That US Surpasses Russia As World's Largest Energy ...Bidness ETC Russia and China unite over sanctionswww.worldbulletin.net all 43 news articles » |
U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS in Iraqby By MICHAEL R. GORDON
The Obama administration is planning to send hundreds of additional military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake Ramadi and repel the Islamic State.
With the help of Western globalists, China is actively pursuing a leading role in the New World Order.
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Despite the February ceasefire, Soros is pushing behind the scenes to make sure Ukraine receives top-of-the-line lethal weapons from the United States. Of course it will be up to us to pay the bill because Ukraine is broke.
Spain may soon make history with a mistake of the past: becoming the first Western European nation to freely elect a Marxist government.
G7 leaders urge tough line on Russia at start of summitG7 leaders urge tough line on Russia at start of summit Sunday June 7 th , 2015 at 11:09 AM 1 Share KRUEN, Germany Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations backed a tough line toward Moscow at the start of a summit in the Bavarian Alps, w...
G7 leaders urge tough line on Russia at start of summit Sunday June 7th, 2015 at 11:09 AM 1 Share KRUEN, Germany Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations backed a tough line toward Mosc...
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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Sentenced To Prison - From Incidents, Accidents and Crime ReviewFrom Incidents, Accidents and Crime Review Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Sentenced To Prison Sunday June 7 th , 2015 at 7:27 PM Crime - The Huffington Post 1 Share (Adds context, statement from Phillipos' mother, paragraphs 5 and 9-10) By Scott Malone BOST...
From Incidents, Accidents and Crime Review Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Sentenced To Prison Sunday June 7th, 2015 at 7:27 PM Crime - The Huffington Post 1 Share (Adds context, statem...
» Saudi Supreme Court Upholds Verdict Against Liberal Blogger - Review of Recent Posts and Shared Links:2015-06-03» U.S. Defense Secretary Visits India to Build Military Ties 04/06/15 01:00 from Sunday June 7 th , 2015 at 12:18 PM Mike Nova - Google+ 1 Share 2015-06-03 » U.S. Defense Secretary Visits India to Build Military Ties 04/06/15 01:00 from NYT > Un...
2015-06-03» U.S. Defense Secretary Visits India to Build Military Ties 04/06/15 01:00 from Sunday June 7th, 2015 at 12:18 PM Mike Nova - Google+ 1 Share 2015-06-03 » U.S. ...
US response to terrorism is weakened by lapses in communication - Los Angeles Times | FBI aware of multiple potential victims in Hastert case - CBS News - FBI News Review» US response to terrorism is weakened by lapses in communication - Los Angeles Times 07/06/15 07:02 from james b. comey - Google News Los Angeles Times US response to terrorism is weakened by lapses in communication Los Angeles Times According to FBI Di...
» US response to terrorism is weakened by lapses in communication - Los Angeles Times 07/06/15 07:02 from james b. comey - Google News Los Angeles Times US response to terrorism is weakened by lapses in communication Los Ange...
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» Russia Wields Aid and Ideology Against West to Fight Sanctions 08/06/15 00:00 from NYT > Russia - Russia News ReviewRussia News Review Sources Updated on 3.13.14 » Russia Wields Aid and Ideology Against West to Fight Sanctions 08/06/15 00:00 from NYT > Russia Moscow is leveraging its economic power, financing European political parties and movements, and spreading a...
Russia News Review Sources Updated on 3.13.14 » Russia Wields Aid and Ideology Against West to Fight Sanctions 08/06/15 00:00 from NYT > Russia Moscow is leveraging its economic power, financing European political parties...
Patrick Lynch, Police Union Chief Who Fought de Blasio, Wins a 5th Term - Police News ReviewFrom Police News Review » Crime and Confusion in a Safer New York City 06/06/15 00:00 from NYT > Police The worriers should get a grip, and the mayor and his police commissioner should get on the same page about police staffing and crime-fighting. Patri...
From Police News Review » Crime and Confusion in a Safer New York City 06/06/15 00:00 from NYT > Police The worriers should get a grip, and the mayor and his police commissioner should get on the same page about police staf...
Review: ‘The Great War of Our Time’ by Michael Morell with Bill Harlow | FBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exposes Millions of U.S. Workers | Was China Behind the Latest Hack Attack? I Don’t Think So - U.S. National Security and Military News Review - Cyberwarfare, Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity - News ReviewFBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exposes Millions of U.S. Workers | Was Ch...
FBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exp...
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Modernizing Analytical Training for the 21st Century / ISN | Hacking as Offensive Counterintelligence | The XX Committee | Army Secretary John McHugh to step down, Pentagon says | Sources: Fanning Leading Army Sec Candidate | Ukraine Crisis and Advance of ISIS Dominate Agenda for Group of 7 | Putin warned of fresh sanctions over Ukraine - FT | Obama says Putin on doomed drive to recreate Soviet glories | Détente With Russia Won’t Work This Time | US Weighs Missiles In Europe To Counter Russia | The Election Loss for Turkey’s Erdogan Is a Victory for Democracy | TIME | Belgian security forces arrest 16 in crackdown on Chechen groups | ISIS Is Using Tunnel Bombs in Iraq - U.S. National Security and Military News ReviewU.S. National Security and Military News Review Modernizing Analytical Training for the 21st Century / ISN | Hacking as Offensive Counterintelligence | The XX Committee | Army Secretary John McHugh to step down, Pentagon says | Sources: Fanning Leading A...
U.S. National Security and Military News Review Modernizing Analytical Training for the 21st Century / ISN | Hacking as Offensive Counterintelligence | The XX Committee | Army Secretary John McHugh to step down, Pe...
Obama under fire for saying no ‘complete strategy’ yet for training Iraqis | Fight Against ISIS Militants Lags Because They’re Nimble…and the U.S. Isn’t | TIME | Belgian security forces arrest 16 in crackdown on Chechen groups | Putin warned of fresh sanctions over Ukraine -FT | Russia Wields Aid and Ideology Against West to Fight Sanctions - World News ReviewObama under fire for saying no ‘complete strategy’ yet for training Iraqis | Fight Against ISIS Militants Lags Because They’re Nimble…and the U.S. Isn’t | TIME | Belgian security forces arrest 16 in crackdown on Chechen groups | Putin warned of fresh san...
Obama under fire for saying no ‘complete strategy’ yet for training Iraqis | Fight Against ISIS Militants Lags Because They’re Nimble…and the U.S. Isn’t | TIME | Belgian security forces arrest 16 in crackdown on Chechen g...
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Come on you're not surprised? Just by what's going on in Syria he has his own strategy for Isis and I believe it's working exactly the way you would like it to be! How sad for America how's that Hope and Change working for ya?
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"Hundreds of piglets are on the loose in Ohio after a trailer carrying them overturned... Police, firefighters, local parks and recreation officers and farmers will all drafted in to help rescue the tiny piglets, forming a human chain to pass them across the highway." | The Daily Bell - Hungry FBI Creating Fake Terrorists - FBI News ReviewCounter-terrorism is supposed to let us live without fear. Instead, it's creating more of it How many ‘terrorism plots’ initiated by FBI informants will the agency interrupt before Congress finally performs some oversight? http://www.theguardian.com/comment...
Counter-terrorism is supposed to let us live without fear. Instead, it's creating more of it How many ‘terrorism plots’ initiated by FBI informants will the agency interrupt before Congress finally performs some oversight? ht...
» Putin’s Warlords Slip Out of Control 09/06/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared NewslinksMike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review From The Major News Sources » Putin’s Warlords Slip Out of Control 09/06/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks mikenova shared this story . KIEV — In waging a clandestine war in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin h...
Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review From The Major News Sources » Putin’s Warlords Slip Out of Control 09/06/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks mikenova shared this story . KIEV — In waging a clandestine war...
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Russia-Ukraine Conflict May Last Decades: Ex-NATO Chief | ISIS threatens to “liberate” Baghdad | Iraq's Problem Is So Much Bigger Than Just Training Its Military | Obama on ISIS: ‘We Don’t yet Have a Complete Strategy’ | It's Nearly Impossible to Understand What Motivates Terrorists | How China Is Building the Biggest Commercial-Military Empire in History | US Welcomes Top Chinese Military Official Amid Hacking Allegations | Washington Post Poll: Obamacare Hits Record UnpopularityIraq's Problem Is So Much Bigger Than Just Training Its Military "The biggest obstacle is the president hasn’t articulated what is strategy for “Degrading & Destroying ISIS” is? In his comments the president signaled out the Pentagon for not sending him a c...
Iraq's Problem Is So Much Bigger Than Just Training Its Military "The biggest obstacle is the president hasn’t articulated what is strategy for “Degrading & Destroying ISIS” is? In his comments the president signaled out...
Russia’s INF Treaty Violations Raise Nuclear Alarm for U.S., NATORussia’s INF Treaty Violations Raise Nuclear Alarm for U.S., NATO Fuel depot blaze in Ukraine kills five Tuesday June 9 th , 2015 at 3:53 PM 1 Share VASYLKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A massive fire at a Ukrainian fuel depot killed five people on Tuesday, offi...
Russia’s INF Treaty Violations Raise Nuclear Alarm for U.S., NATO Fuel depot blaze in Ukraine kills five Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 3:53 PM 1 Share VASYLKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A massive fir...
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The evolving challenge of cybersecurity | Cyber War Waged on the United States with Massive Security Breach | FBI Alert Reveals ‘Groups’ Behind OPM Hack | OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY: Scope of fed hack still unknown | The German Government’s Surveillance Hypocrisy | Islamic State Militants Eye Mecca, MedinaCyber War Waged on the United States with Massive Security Breach FBI Alert Reveals ‘Groups’ Behind OPM Hack OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY: Scope of fed hack still unknown Islamic State Militants Eye Mecca, Medina The German Government’s Surveillance Hypocrisy Th...
Cyber War Waged on the United States with Massive Security Breach FBI Alert Reveals ‘Groups’ Behind OPM Hack OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY: Scope of fed hack still unknown Islamic State Militants Eye Mecca, Medina ...
Behind the rhetoric between Nato and Moscow over Ukraine there is little appetite for war - FT | Survey: Western Europe wary of supporting Russia’s NATO neighbors | Sanctions push central Europe's armies further from Russia | U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS in Iraq | Pentagon chief issues new marching orders for ‘Yoda’ officeRussia: Border tensions - FT.com Survey: Western Europe wary of supporting Russia’s NATO neighbors Survey Points to Challenges NATO Faces Over Russia Sanctions push central Europe's armies further from Russia U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS i...
Russia: Border tensions - FT.com Survey: Western Europe wary of supporting Russia’s NATO neighbors Survey Points to Challenges NATO Faces Over Russia Sanctions push central Europe's armies further from Russia ...
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Representatives from Israel and Saudi Arabia have publicly admitted for the first time that they met secretly to discuss their common foe Iran, even though Saudi Arabia does not officially acknowledge Israel’s existence.
By John Ubaldi
Contributor, In Homeland Security
Contributor, In Homeland Security
Speaking at a news conference Monday, President Barack Obama stated that “We don’t yet have a complete strategy,” with regard to ISIS, as the Pentagon hasn’t presented him with a “finalized plan” in how the U.S. should proceed in dealing with the Islamic State.
The president is in Europe as part of the international G-7 summit in Kruen, Germany, Obama continued with his remarks that “because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place.
Russia and China on Friday opposed a US-led request to impose sanctions on two Libyans accused of obstructing UN talks on forming a national unity government, diplomats said.
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Germany has picked the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) for its missile defense needs over the Patriot, providing a much needed shot in the arm for the Lockheed Martin backed MEADS program. MEADS will form the basis of the Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem (TLVS), a tactical air and missile defense system, which replaces Patriot systems in operation since the 1980s.
Russia and Egypt are holding their first-ever joint naval exercises, the defence ministry said Wednesday, in a bid to strengthen ties amid Moscow's confrontation with the West.
CNN |
Is US military becoming outdated?
CNN Stuart Bradin is the president, Keenan Yoho the vice president and Meaghan Keeler-Pettigrew the chief operating officer of the Global Special Operations Forces Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to advance the capability and efficacy of ... and more » |
New York Times |
Top US Military Official Seeks to Assure Israel on Security
New York Times TEL AVIV — The Obama administration on Tuesday increased its efforts to ease Israel's opposition to a possible nuclear deal with Iran, as the top American military leader assured Israeli officials that the United States would further strengthen Israel ... US military chief seeks to reassure Israel on Iran threatReuters US military chief: Iran will increase funds to proxies after nuclear dealYnetnews Dempsey reassures Israel it will keep military edgeMilitary Times all 451 news articles » |
Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project |
NATO Publics Blame Russia for Ukrainian Crisis, but Reluctant to Provide ...
Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project Publics of key member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) blame Russia for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Many also see Russia as a military threat to other neighboring states. But few support sending arms to Ukraine. Moreover ... Survey: Russia Widely Seen As A Military Threat To Its Neighbors [Infographic]Forbes all 109 news articles » |
Last September the Obama administration produced an FBI report that said mass shooting attacks and deaths were up sharply—by an average annual rate of about 16% between 2000 and 2013. Moreover, the problem was worsening. “The findings establish an increasing frequency of incidents,” said the authors. “During the first 7 years included in the study, an average of 6.4 incidents occurred annually. In the last 7 years of the study, that average increased to 16.4 incidents annually.”
The White House could not possibly have been more pleased with the media reaction to these findings, which were prominently featured by the New York Times, NYT 2.16 % USA Today, CNN, the Washington Post and other major outlets. The FBI report landed six weeks before the midterm elections, and the administration was hoping that the gun-control issue would help drive Democratic turnout.
Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott says there is no evidence that crime is rising or that arrests are down nationwide. Photo credit: Getty Images.
But late last week, J. Pete Blair and M. Hunter Martaindale, two academics at Texas State University who co-authored the FBI report, acknowledged that “our data is imperfect.” They said that the news media “got it wrong” last year when they “mistakenly reported mass shootings were on the rise.”
Mind you, the authors did not issue this mea culpa in the major news outlets that supposedly misreported the original findings. Instead, the authors published it in ACJS Today, an academic journal published by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. “Because official data did not contain the information we needed, we had to develop our own,” wrote Messrs. Blair and Martaindale. “This required choices between various options with various strengths and weaknesses.” You don’t say.
John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center—who has studied FBI crime data for three decades—told me in an interview that the FBI report is better understood as a political document than as a work of serious social science. For example, the authors chose the year 2000 as their starting point “even though anyone who has studied these trends knows that 2000 and 2001 were unusually quiet and had few mass shootings.” Data going back to the mid-1970s is readily available but was ignored. How come? Over the past 40 years, there has been no statistically significant increase in mass shootings in the U.S.
Another problem with the study: The data used seemed selectively chosen to achieve certain results. The researchers somehow “missed 20 mass-shooting cases,” Mr. Lott said. “There’s one case where nine people were murdered. You just don’t miss that.” Also, the omissions helped create an “upward trend, because they were primarily missed at the beginning of the period.” This, he said, “is disturbing.”
Mr. Lott told me that he had reached out repeatedly to the FBI and to the authors for an explanation after the original report came out, but none was forthcoming until last week. The Journal recently described Mr. Obama’s tenure as the “least transparent administration in history,” and the White House seems to have no interest in proving its critics wrong.
Following the high-profile mass shootings in 2012 at a cinema in Aurora, Colo., and an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the White House pushed hard for more gun-control legislation. Congress, which at the time included a Democratic-controlled Senate, refused to act. This surprised no one, including an administration well aware that additional gun controls wouldn’t pass muster with enough members of the president’s own party, let alone Republicans.
But the administration also knew that the issue could potentially excite Democratic base voters in a year when the party was worried about turnout. Hence President Obama’s vow in his 2014 State of the Union address “to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters, shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook.”
Ironically, this scare-mongering likely inspired more gun purchases. The Washington Times reported last year that record checks for gun sales hit a new high in 2013: “More than 21 million applications were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System last year, marking nearly an 8% increase and the 11th straight year that the number has risen.”
Since liberals like to link violent crime to the proliferation of guns, it is worth noting that, according to the Justice Department, the violent-crime rate in 2013 fell by 4.4% from 2012 and was 14.5% below the 2004 level.
Mr. Riley is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and Journal contributor.
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“I looked into Mr. Putin’s eyes,” Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) joked after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, “and I saw three things: a ‘K’ and a ‘G’ and a ‘B.’”
McCain was referring to Putin’s earlier career as a skilled operative in the Soviet Union’s intelligence services, stationed in Dresden, East Germany. Despite McCain’s quip, however, Putin seems to lack a key spy asset: an opaque poker face.
Others have attempted to read Putin’s ever so expressive visage. President George W. Bush’s first face-to-face meeting with Putin in 2001 was one much-cited example. After looking into the Russian leader’s eyes, Bush declared, he now had “a sense of his [Putin’s] soul.” After the meeting, Bush said he had found the Russian leader to be “very straightforward and trustworthy.”
In contrast, Vice President Joe Biden, during a 2011 Moscow visit, told Putin to his face, “I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul.” An unfazed Putin, Biden recalled during a later conversation with the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos, replied with a smile, “We understand one another.”
Reading a person’s emotions is crucial to fully understanding them and it is true that people’s faces best reflect and communicate their emotions. There are two reasons why. First, facial expressions are universal — so much so that even a person born blind emotes similarly to everyone else. Facial muscle activity and the emotions they reveal aren’t learned; they’re hard-wired into the brain. Second, the face is the only place in the body where muscles attach to the skin, which provides quick, real-time information about how someone is feeling.
So what does Putin’s face reveal about his personality and likely actions as Russia’s leader?
President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with cultural figures in Yalta, Crimea, August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Chirikov/Pool
The place to start is anger. Putin’s most frequent look involves his eyes narrowing in anger, an aggressive-approach emotion that conveys the impulse to strike out against others. That other can be Georgia, Ukraine, Russia’s internal dissidents – the list is long.
Beyond an aggressive hitting impulse, anger is an emotion about wanting to control one’s own destiny and make what one perceives as progress. The anger grows to the extent that the barriers to progress are perceived as unjust.
Secretary of State John Kerry described Russia’s meddling in Crimea and eastern Ukraine as “a 19th-century act in a 21st-century world.” But Putin’s emoting is decidedly here and now. He frequently brings up Russia’s traditional symbol of a bear, for example, in asserting that the West will “always try to put it in chains.”
Putin’s second most frequent emotion is fear, displayed through raised eyebrows and a mouth pulled wide. Again, this emotion greatly informs how Putin sees the world and how, through the filter of his personality, Russia is likely to act. For Putin, there is a deeply felt sense of a need to escape perceived danger to protect both himself and his country.
President Vladimir Putin (L) and former President Dmitry Medvedev at an inauguration ceremony in Cathedral Square at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 7, 2012. REUTERS/Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool
Fear can make a person freeze and unable to act. But not when it’s in combination with anger. That potent mix suggests survival itself is at stake, which spurs assertiveness despite possible adverse consequences.
Third, Putin can, at times, exhibit smirking contempt — particularly for President Barack Obama and what Putin may view as Obama’s legalistic, overly nice view of the world order.
Yet apart from anger and fear, the other most important emotion to bear in mind in understanding Putin’s psychological makeup is sadness — a sense of disappointment, regret, of feeling forlorn. With Putin, that feeling shows up in closed or lowered eyes, as well as in the down-turned corners of his mouth.
President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, August 15, 2014. REUTERS/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool
As inexorable, as relentless and inflexible as Putin has proven to be in his interactions with the West, so, too, is Russia’s geopolitical isolation. The nation remains forever on Europe’s periphery, never fully belonging. There’s an essential dourness to Eastern Europe that I fully understood only after visiting Russia, the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Given his fundamental wariness, Putin possesses part of this regional trait. He is ever alert to danger, always on duty.
Throughout Eastern Europe, I also noticed a lack of genuine smiles. There seemed a widely shared basic belief that a happy person is an unaware fool.
A joke my translator told me after I gave a speech in Estonia seemed to epitomize this. A man receives a visit from his fairy godmother, the story goes, and she says he can have whatever he wishes for. The catch is that his biggest enemy will get twice the amount of whatever he wishes for. So what does the man request? Why, that one of his eyes gets gouged out.
That bleak joke tells a lot, I believe, as to what the West should actually see in Putin’s face and personality. He is a man who expects tribulations and is ready to claw his way through them. Whatever the precarious, even dubious, reward.
That both the Russian and Ukrainian economies may continue to buckle under the weight of extended hostilities pales in comparison to keeping the bear free.
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“We don’t yet have a complete strategy,” President Obama told a news conference on Monday at the conclusion of a G-7 meeting in Germany.
The words were jarring, coming a year into the fight against the Islamic State, and gave critics, including Republican presidential candidates, a new reason to pounce. But there was nuance and truth in Mr. Obama’s comments that many ignored.
He was speaking specifically about Iraqi troops and the need to improve the speed at which the United States is training them for the fight against the extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Mr. Obama acknowledged that key details are still unresolved because a credible strategy “requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis, as well, about how the recruitment takes place, how that training takes place.”
He cited a lag in recruiting for the security forces by the Iraqi government, especially among Sunni tribes who are more capable of beating back the extremists that have focused on seizing Sunni-dominated areas like Anbar province.
Mr. Obama also blamed Turkey for failing to sufficiently share intelligence and stem the flow of foreign fighters across the Turkish border into Syria.
What he didn’t repeat was the impolitic but searingly honest assessment of his defense secretary, Ash Carter, after the devastating loss of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to ISIS in May. Although Iraqi troops vastly outnumbered the brutal extremists, they “just showed no will to fight,” Mr. Carter said.
There are reasons to fault Mr. Obama and his approach to the Middle East, including the lack of a plan for Syria beyond military air strikes. But Americans don’t want to re-invade Iraq and they are unused to having a president who admits that he and the country cannot fix every problem. If Iraqis, Turks and others in the region don’t fight to defend their own countries against extremists, no American strategy, no matter how brilliantly drawn, will save them.
The decision on Sunday by Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court to uphold a cruel sentence imposed on the blogger Raif Badawi last May by the criminal court in Jeddah is tantamount to sentencing Mr. Badawi to a torturous death for the “crime” of free expression. The criminal court sentenced Mr. Badawi, whose case has invited worldwide condemnation, to 1,000 lashes, 50 to be administered “very harshly,” in public, once a week for 20 weeks. In addition, he is to serve 10 years in prison and pay a fine of 1 million riyals, about $267,000.
There is no further appeal possible in the Saudi courts. At this point, Mr. Badawi’s only hope lies in a pardon from King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
In 2008, Mr. Badawi, now 31 years old, helped found a website, Free Saudi Liberals, that hosted discussion critical of Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment. He was arrested in 2012, charged with cybercrime. His initial sentence of 600 blows and seven years of imprisonment was increased last May after prosecutors deemed his sentence too lenient.
Social media has exploded among Saudi Arabia’s youth, providing a rare outlet for free expression in a society that severely restricts it. It seems clear that the Saudi judiciary intends to make an example of Mr. Badawi.
Mr. Badawi received the first 50 lashes in January. His wounds were so severe that a team of doctors determined he was unfit to receive a second allotment of lashes the following week. Mr. Badawi has not been flogged since, but there is real fear following the Supreme Court’s decision that the punishment may resume as early as this Friday, putting his life at risk.
His death, or his crippling for life, another real possibility, would be a blot that even Saudi Arabia — known for administering harsh physical punishments that include amputations and beheadings — would find difficult to live down.
The United States has called Mr. Badawi’s punishment inhumane. The European Union has vowed to make “every effort to engage the Saudi authorities in a dialogue on the need to recognize and respect freedom of speech for all.”
Mr. Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar and the couple’s three children have been granted asylum in Canada. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins on June 18. This is a good time for King Salman, crowned four months ago, to demonstrate his magnanimity, grant Mr. Badawi clemency and allow him to join his family.
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