AP files lawsuit against feds for FBI's fake news story - Sun Times National
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AP files lawsuit against feds for FBI's fake news story
Sun Times National The Associated Press filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice Thursday in an attempt to force the government to turn over documents relating to an FBI operation in which an agent impersonated one of their reporters and distributed a fake news ... and more » |
CBS News |
Feds sued over access to FBI records involving fake news story
CBS News At issue is a 2014 Freedom of Information request seeking documents related to the FBI'sdecision to send a web link to the fake article to a 15-year-old boy suspected of making bomb threats to a high school near Olympia, Washington. The link enabled ... AP Sues Over Access to FBI Records Involving Fake News StoryABC News all 22 news articles » |
Fox News |
AP sues over FBI ploy involving fake news story
Fox News At issue is a 2014 Freedom of Information request seeking documents related to the FBI'sdecision to send a web link to the fake article to a 15-year-old boy suspected of making bomb threats to a high school near Olympia, Washington. The link enabled ... AP sues over access to FBI records involving fake news storyU.S. News & World Report all 41 news articles » |
AP Sues Over Access to FBI Records Involving Fake News Story
ABC News The Associated Press sued the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday over the FBI's failure to provide public records related to the creation of a fake news story used to plant surveillance software on a suspect's computer. AP joined with the Reporters ... and more » |
Fox News |
AP sues over access to FBI records involving fake news story
U.S. News & World Report WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press sued the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday over the FBI's failure to provide public records related to the creation of a fake news story used to plant surveillance software on a suspect's computer. AP joined ... AP sues over FBI ploy involving fake news storyFox News all 35 news articles » |
Washington Times |
FBI warns art dealers of antiquities looted by Islamic State; stolen art could ...
Washington Times The FBI on Wednesday urged art dealers in the U.S. to take extra precautions when buying artifacts from the Middle East, saying there is evidence that collectors may have been offered priceless artifacts plundered by Islamic State militants in Iraq and ... FBI warns US art dealers about antiquities looted from Syria, IraqReuters ISIL and Antiquities TraffickingFederal Bureau of Investigation (press release) (blog) all 29 news articles » |
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ABC15 Arizona |
FBI informant breaks his silence months after Garland, Texas shooting
ABC15 Arizona PHOENIX - The paid FBI informant linked to a suspected terrorist from Phoenix is breaking his silence months after the cartoon contest shooting in Garland, Texas. In May, agents said Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi left Phoenix and headed to Garland ... |
U.S. News & World Report |
Minnesota FBI: Terror arrests haven't stopped travel plots
U.S. News & World Report Richard Thornton, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Minnesota, poses Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, at his office in Brooklyn Center, Minn. Thornton said the FBI this year's high-profile arrests of young men who were charged with plotting to join ... and more » |
Two Setbacks for Coalition in Afghanistanby By MUJIB MASHAL and TAIMOOR SHAH
Two NATO members, whose nationalities were not immediately clear, were shot on a base in the southern province of Helmand, a coalition statement said.
A photograph taken between 1900 and 1920 shows the ruins where Islamic State militants recently bombed an ancient temple.America’s Dangerous Bargain With Turkeyby By ERIC S. EDELMAN
By attacking Kurds, Turkey is undermining the United States’ strongest ally in the fight against the Islamic State.The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki by By SCOTT SHANE
Four years after the United States assassinated the radical cleric in a drone strike, his influence on jihadists is greater than ever. Was there a better way to stop him?
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Junaid Hussain, ISIS Recruiter, Reported Killed in Airstrikeby By KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURA
Mr. Hussain, a 21-year-old Briton, hacked into American military networks and was a central figure in the Islamic State’s online recruitment campaign.
The generals were killed by two explosives-rigged American-made Humvees, dealing another setback to the faltering campaign to retake Anbar Province.
A Tale of Three Backdoors by Nicholas Weaver
Benjamin Wittes recently asked "Is It Really Technically Impossible?" to build backdoors into security systems.
The tale of three backdoors: TSA locks, the CALEA interface, and the Dual_EC PRNG, all amply illustrate the dangers posed by backdoors in systems. For backdoors may fail catastrophically, degrade national security, and can potentially be used against those who demanded the backdoors in the first place. The scars born by the security field in dealing with failed backdoors provides ample illustration why we find the idea of backdoors troubling and dangerous.
TSA “Travel Sentry” luggage locks contain a disclosed backdoor which is similar in spirit to what Director Comey desires for encrypted phones. In theory, only the Transportation Security Agency or other screeners should be able to open a TSA lock using one of their master keys. All others, notably baggage handlers and hotel staff, should be unable to surreptitiously open these locks.
Unfortunately for everyone, a TSA agent and the Washington Post revealed the secret. All it takes to duplicate a physical key is a photograph, since it is the pattern of the teeth, not the key itself, that tells you how to open the lock. So by simply including a pretty picture of the complete spread of TSA keys in the Washington Post's paean to the TSA, the Washington Post enabled anyone to make their own TSA keys.
So the TSA backdoor has failed: we must assume any adversary can open any TSA "lock". If you want to at least know your luggage has been tampered with, forget the TSA lock and use a zip-tie or tamper-evident seal instead, or attach a real lock and force the TSA to use their bolt cutters.
Telephone systems also have a backdoor thanks to CALEA (the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act). Although CALEA doesn't mandate any particular technology, it mandates that switches support wiretapping, so any phone switch sold in the US must include the ability to efficiently tap a large number of calls. And since the US represents such a major market, this means virtually every phone switch sold worldwide contains “lawful intercept” functionality. Yet this capability doesn't just find use in law enforcement.
In the "Athens Affair" beginning in 2004, some unknown entity compromised Vodafone Greece. This team of skilled attackers surreptitiously enabled the lawful intercept functionality on Vodafone's switches and then used their backdoor access to wiretap the cellphones of prominent Greek politicians and NGOs, including both the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister.
We need to assume that, if someone can perform such an attack against Vodafone, others can (or already have) used the same strategy against Verizon or AT&T. So in the CALEA backdoor we have introduced a weakness into our telephone systems which attackers can exploit with significant national security implications
The final backdoor, Dual_EC_DRBG, was surreptitiously developed by the NSA. This trap-doored pseudo-"random" number generator enables the NSA (or anyone who knows a secret number) to efficiently decrypt communication. Yet as many cryptographers were suspicious of both Dual_EC's poor performance and "backdoor-capable" nature, the NSA also needed to use its market power to encourage adoption, including reportedly bribing RSA Data Security $10M to make it the default pRNG.
Thus the biggest user of Dual_EC backdoored cryptography was probably the US government. Which means that there is a magic number locked away in an NSA computer which, if revealed to a hostile power, enables the bulk decryption of large volumes of unclassified US government communication, communication the NSA was supposed to protect.
Unfortunately, the NSA has a recent history of leakers (its not just Snowden). If a leaker instead wanted to be a spy, the Dual_EC magic numbers, even now, represent a secret the Chinese, Russians, French, or Israelis might pay millions to acquire. That is, assuming that some unknown spy hasn’t already sold this secret.
All three backdoors introduced significant problems. TSA locks can be opened by anyone despite their promise of security, the CALEA interface has been used for nation-state spying, and the biggest potential victim of the Dual_EC backdoor is probably the US government.
We have a difficult enough time building secure systems without backdoors, and the presence of a backdoor must necessarily weaken the security of the system still further. With the dreadful history of backdoors, its little wonder most security professionals believe building backdoors right is practically impossible.
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Today's Headlines and Commentary by Quinta Jurecic
The United States has confirmed that Junaid Hussain, an ISIS recruiter and hacker, was killed Tuesday in a targeted U.S. airstrike. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hussain was instrumentalin ISIS’s online recruitment campaign of “lone wolves” within the United States and would often attempt to goad potential recruits into attacking U.S. servicemembers. As a U.K. citizen, Hussain’s death in a targeted airstrike is somewhat unusual: the Journal indicates that U.K. and U.S. authorities collaborated in identifying him as a legitimate target and in sharing intelligence on his whereabouts. A recent U.K. news report suggested that Hussain had been third on the United States’ list of ISIS leaders to be targeted, but Reuters tells us that U.S. officials denied this.
Speaking of ISIS recruitment, the Journal has put together an informative graphic of “Jihadi Trails”: the various paths taken by some high-profile ISIS recruits to join the militant group in Syria. And the investigative organization Bellingcat has released a new report on the foreign fighters who travel to Syria not to join ISIS, but to fight against it.
Over at the Daily Beast, Shane Harris and Nancy Youssef update us on the recent news that military officials may have been skewing reports of the anti-ISIS campaign in the United States’ favor. Pentagon high-ups have pushed intelligence analysts to present an overly sunny view of the military campaign, either through direct requests to rewrite reports or by creating an environment where self-censorship is encouraged. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, described the situation as the “politicization of the intelligence community.”
Earlier this week, McClatchy reported that Turkish officials may have fed al Nusra Front militants information that allowed the extremist group to kidnap members of the U.S.-trained Division 30 forces. Now, the publication tells us that Turkey has denied the allegations. The office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a statement emphasizing Turkey’s backing of the U.S. program to train Syrian rebels and its view of the al Nusra Front as a terrorist organization, with which it does not collaborate.
A car bomb in southern Turkey has killed the commander of a U.S.-backed Syrian rebel organization.No group has yet claimed responsibility, though the Journal writes that a Turkish official tentatively attributed the incident to “internal strife among the rebel groups inside Syria.” The attack is one of several recent cases in which violence within Syria has spilled across the Turkish border, leading to Turkey’s desire to create a “buffer zone” along the border with Syria.
And speaking of that buffer zone…. ISIS has seized new ground in the border region that Turkey hopes to clear of militants, Reuters reports. The militant group began an offensive in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, along the Turkish border, and has captured several villages that were recently held by the al Nusra Front and transferred to control of other Syrian rebel groups.
But Turkey’s woes may stretch far beyond the violent and porous Syrian border: according to theBangkok Post, Thai police are now investigating 20 Turkish citizens as suspects in the recent bombing of a popular Bangkok shrine. Weeks before the bombing, Turkish protesters linked to an extremist group attacked the Thai embassy in Istanbul in protests of Thailand’s decision to deport over 100 Uighur Muslims to China.
In the New York Times, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman argues that U.S.-Turkey collaboration in the fight against ISIS may be a dangerous misstep: although the two countries share short-term goals, their long-term visions for the future of the region are radically different. And atDefense One, Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations points out that the United States’ use of Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to conduct strikes against ISIS has yet to spearhead any serious strategic developments in the anti-ISIS fight.
An ISIS suicide bomb north of Ramadi killed two Iraqi generals yesterday. The AP reports on the attack, which took place in the midst of an ongoing Iraqi offensive to regain control of Iraq’s Anbar province from ISIS forces. While the offensive has been underway since July, only “modest progress” has been made.
Al Jazeera examines the paradoxical regulations that restrict U.S. military aid from organizations guilty of human rights abuses. While the so-called “Leahy law” might sound good on paper, it has proven difficult to implement consistently. The end result is that the United States continues to supply military aid to the increasingly repressive government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, while holding back aid from the Nigerian military---a decision which, argues Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, has actually worsened the environment for human rights within Nigeria by preventing the government from cracking down on the Boko Haram insurgency.
Al Shabaab militants attacked a government convoy in Somalia on Wednesday, killing at least seven people. The attack took place near Somalia’s border with Kenya, which has struggled to protect itself from violence within Somalia. Reuters has more.
Reuters also tells us that the United Nations may be close to negotiating an end to the rivalry between Libya’s two warring parliaments. According to U.N. special envoy, the two parliaments may be ready to reach an agreement as soon as September 10th. Discord between the governments has allowed chaos in Libya to spiral into a country-wide power vacuum, leading to a rise in prominence for militant groups within the region.
The Yemeni government has indicated that it will not negotiate with the Houthi rebels who have captured much of the country’s territory, the AP writes. Only after the Houthis surrender will government forces be willing to initiate “dialogue and political process with the participation of all Yemeni parties.”
Haaretz reports that the Israeli Air Force attacked a Hamas weapons production site in the Gaza Strip, in response to a rocket launched from Gaza early this morning. The rocket exploded nearby Gaza without incurring any casualties. Following last summer’s war in Gaza, the region has recently experienced relative calm.
The AP brings us news that, according to a group of Toronto researchers, a sophisticated hacking scheme targeting Iranian dissidents traces back to within Iran, presumably to the Iranian government. The setup relied on a phishing scheme to get around Google’s two-step verification process for logging into Gmail accounts, in what the researchers suggest may be one of the first uses of such a system by politically motivated hackers.
Politico gives us the updated whip count for the Senate’s vote on the nuclear deal with Iran. With 29 Senate Democrats committed to voting in favor of the deal out of the 34 needed to uphold the president’s veto of a congressional measure against the deal, the administration is now gunning for extra votes to cut that measure off at the pass: a filibuster-proof 41 Senators. Meanwhile, Dennis Ross and General David Petraeus argue in the Post that meaningful military deterrence is the key to a smooth implementation of the deal.
Speaking of nuclear weapons, the Post also reports on Pakistan’s rapidly growing nuclear arsenal.The country may be building up to 20 nuclear weapons annually and may have as many as 250 weapons within ten years, which would give it the third-biggest nuclear stockpile in the world after the United States and Russia. Pakistani analysts suggest that this estimate may be overblown, though they do acknowledge that the country is focused on expanding its arsenal due to fears of growing Indian nuclear capability.
The Taliban has successfully captured the Afghan district of Musa Qala in Helmand province, Radio Free Europe writes. The area has long been a Taliban stronghold but recently had come under control of Afghan government forces, and its loss is one of numerous recent setbacks to the Afghan government.
Ukraine has reached an agreement with many of its creditors to restructure its foreign debt. TheTimes examines the deal, which would allow Ukraine to significantly reduce its debt and delay some repayments for up to five years. All in all, the agreement is a promising one for the wartorn and economically struggling country---though the question remains whether Russia, which is one of Ukraine’s major creditors, will participate.
The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists have committed to finally implementing a ceasefire beginning September 1st. For those keeping track, this is the same ceasefire that formally began last February, and which has been systematically violated by both sides since then. But only hours later, the Ukrainian government stated that several of its soldiers had been killed in fighting near the eastern cities of Donetsk and Mariupol.
Beginning in mid-2016, Poland will store heavy U.S. military equipment, Reuters reports. The decision marks a continuation of U.S. efforts to reassure its Eastern European allies concerned over a newly aggressive Russia, and will be the first time that the United States has stored heavy equipment in NATO members from the former Soviet bloc.
Europe’s migrant crisis continues to worsen, with reports of boats stranded in the Mediterranean andthe discovery of up to 50 bodies, believed to be migrants, found in a truck along an Austrian highway east of Vienna. In an incident of sickening irony, the discovery coincided with a conference in Vienna on the topic of finding a solution to the crisis; the meeting was attended by German Prime Minister Angela Merkel and regional leaders from the Balkans. The Times has the story.
Defense One brings us a trio of stories on cybersecurity. One: in response to the recent hacking of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s computer network, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has declared that the Pentagon’s cybersecurity measures are in serious need of an update, and hopes to find help from Silicon Valley. Two: the Army will soon begin funneling soldiers into a yearlong cyber training program, which it hopes will produce a new crop of “cyber operations specialists.” The program is designed to shore up the low numbers of qualified cybersecurity professionals currently working for the Army at a time when demand far outstrips supply.
And three: with the Senate soon gearing up to return to session, it’s time to start thinking again about the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. Defense One takes a look at the 22 new amendments added to the bill, which range from OPM security to defining what constitutes a cyber threat.
Parting shot: Sure, we’re all aware of the game of sanctions and counter-sanctions currently being played by Russia and its Western rivals, but just how up-to-date are you on the Kremlin’s most recent anti-Western programs? Take this Guardian quiz and find out.
ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare
David Lake studied the feasibility of suggestions for an Israel-Palestine confederation.
Paul examined the Third Circuit’s decision in FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp.
Bruce Reidel let us know that Saudi forces have captured Ahmed al Mughassil, the mastermind behind the 1996 Khobar Towers attack.
Cody gave us a rundown of the Pentagon’s recently released Asia-Pacific Maritime Security Strategy document.
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us onTwitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAQ and SYRIA
ISIS has seized five villages from Syrian rebels in northern Syria, gaining territory in an area where the US and Turkey intend to open a new front against the Islamist group. [Reuters]
A new 48-hour ceasefire has been agreed to by Syrian rebel forces and government troops to halt fighting in the western town of Zabadani. [Al Jazeera]
A British hacker for the Islamic State has died following a US airstrike in Syria, officials told the Guardian. The man, who fought under the non de guerre Abu Hussain al-Britani, was considered the second-most prominent UK citizen to join ISIS after the man known as “Jihadi John,” reports Spencer Ackerman.
The commander of a US-backed Syrian rebel group was killed by a car bomb yesterday in the Turkish city of Antakya. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. [Wall Street Journal’s Ayla Albayrak and Mohammed Nour Al Akraa]
US terrorism analysts have been “inappropriately pressured” by senior military and intelligence officials to present data about the fight against the Islamic State in positive terms, three sources familiar with the subject told The Daily Beast, report Shane Harris and Nancy A. Youssef.
Experts and medical professionals have given testimony which further supports claims that the Islamic State used a chemical agent – most likely mustard gas – in an attack on civilians in a town close to Aleppo last Friday. [The Guardian’s Kareem Shaheen and Spencer Ackerman]
Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad makes concerted efforts to persuade his people that the country will remain normal as long as he is in control, despite suffering growing losses, an approach which has proven “indispensable” to the regime. [Wall Street Journal’s Raja Abdulrahim]
US-led airstrikes continue. The US and partner nations carried out two airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria on August 26. Separately, military forces conducted a further 18 strikes on targets in Iraq. [DoD News]
US art dealers have been warned by the FBI to take care when purchasing antiquities from the Middle East, citing recent reports that collectors have been offered artifacts plundered by ISIS. [Reuters]
Sir John Chilcot has defended his long-delayed Iraq war inquiry, suggesting that the British government is partly to blame, though still failed to set a publication date, in a new statement. [The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor]
The New York Times editorial board discusses the Islamic State’s crimes in Palmyra, concluding that “however daunting the struggles of the Middle East, ISIS stands out in the threat it poses to humanity.”
“Jihadi Trails: The Circuitous Routes Foreigners Take to Syria and Iraq;” profiles hosted at the Wall Street Journal.
IRAN
Sen Bob Corker said it is “very unlikely that [the GOP will] have a veto-proof majority to disapprove”the Iran nuclear deal, in light of growing support from Senate Democrats, in an interview with The Tennessean.
Sen Susan Collins is the final undecided Republican on the deal, Obama’s “last remaining hope” for a vote of confidence from a GOP lawmaker, reports Julian Hattem. [The Hill]
The nuclear accord is becoming an “early campaign flash point” for the fight for control of the Senate in 2016, reports Burgess Everett, noting that it is rare for a foreign policy debate to take center stage in Congressional races, at Politico.
Tehran accused the US of holding 19 Iranian citizens on what the foreign ministry described as unfounded charges of sanctions violations, calling for their release. [New York Times’ Rick Gladstone]
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton conceded that she should have used two email accountswhile in office yesterday, taking on a “more conciliatory tone” than some previous statements, reports Laura Meckler. [Wall Street Journal] And a document review by the AP has shown that State Department officials routinely shared secret information through unsecured email servers before Clinton took office.
Seven Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 13 have been wounded during fighting with pro-Russian separatists over the past 24 hours, a military spokesperson said today. [Reuters]
The man suspected of masterminding the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American airmen in Saudi Arabia has been arrested by authorities there, Asharq Al-Awsat reports. And King Salman plans to visit the White House next week, his first trip since ascending to the throne, Saudi officials said. [New York Times’ Gardiner Harris]
Pakistan may have the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal within a decade, according to a new report by two American think tanks, which asserts that Islamabad may be building 20 nuclear warheads annually. [Washington Post’s Tim Craig]
The president of South Sudan has signed a peace deal designed to end the conflict with rebels there. Salva Kiir, who drew threats of UN sanctions due to his delay in signing the accord, expressed “serious reservations” to regional African leaders over the document. [Reuters]
The US will support Sri Lanka’s government in its efforts to investigate alleged war crimes,announcing that it will sponsor a joint resolution at next month’s UN human rights session. [AP’s Krishan Francis]
Egypt is in talks to purchase a pair of warships which France originally built for Russia but refused to deliver following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine, French officials said yesterday. [Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Dalton] And two police officers were killed by gunmen in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula yesterday. [AP]
Palestinians want to raise their flag at the UN next month, a move which could spark diplomatic conflict in the General Assembly. [New York Times’ Somini Sengupta]
President Obama will “no doubt” raise concerns about cybersecurity when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month, the White House said. [Reuters]
The UN Security Council has called for parties to the Libyan conflict to make a “final push” because “time is running out” for leaders as the UN-backed political dialogue enters its final stages. [UN News Centre]
The New York Times editorial board analyzes the de-escalation of tensions between the Koreas,describing the decision to back away from confrontation as “wise.” And Stephen Haggard takes a “forensic look” at the deal struck between North and South Korea, considering what it really means, at the Guardian.
Read on Just Security »
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Stars and Stripes |
Saudis take custody of suspect in '96 bombing that killed 19 US troops
Stars and Stripes The Khobar case was investigated by FBI Director James B. Comey when he was a prosecutor with the Justice Department in the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey was praised for resurrecting the case after it had stalled for years in another U.S ... Saudis Arrest Suspect in '96 Bombing That Killed 19 US ServicemeniFreePress.com (blog) all 357 news articles » |
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The United States Department of Defense is investigating claims that some of its officials doctored intelligence reports to give a falsely optimistic account of the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq.
(Forbes) United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz worries more about cars being hacked than the electric grid being attacked, he said this morning in Las Vegas.
The post US Energy Secretary: We Should Worry About Hacked Cars appeared first on In Homeland Security.
The FBI is asking for help in preventing looted and stolen art and antiquities from reaching the market and in preventing any transfer of funds from benefiting ISIL.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by a US-led coalition airstrike campaign, have retaken 10 villages from self-proclaimed Islamic State militants in the Kirkuk province on Wednesday.
Now that the beleaguered F-35 fighter is finally somewhat close to being operational, the Pentagon can’t even agree on how many it wants to buy.
WASHINGTON — AFTER a year of intense diplomatic negotiations, the Turkish government is now permitting the United States to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, which will allow American aircraft to fly missions in Syria and Iraq with greater operational effectiveness and economic efficiency.
The price of this agreement, however, may well be too high in the long run, both for the success of America’s anti-Islamic State campaign and for the stability of Turkey.
That’s because the Turkish government’s recent change of heart and its sudden willingness to allow American access to the Incirlik base was driven by domestic political considerations, rather than a fundamental rethinking of its Syria strategy.
Shortly after granting access to the base, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched a wave of airstrikes on Kurdish targets, reigniting a conflict that had been on the road to resolution. To make matters worse, Turkey has struck hard at Syrian Kurds who have, until now, been America’s most reliable ally in fighting the Islamic State, often called ISIS, in northern Syria.
American and Turkish policies toward Syria were always rooted in different visions of what Syria would look like if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell.
Washington’s policy has been inconsistent and vague, but it always envisioned a post-Assad Syria that would be pluralistic and guarantee minority rights. Turkey recognized early on that Mr. Assad’s brutal policies would lead to radicalization, but the Turkish policy of seeking a Sunni-dominated Syria, governed by forces rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood, has not helped matters.
Mr. Erdogan’s preference for Sunni dominance explains Turkey’s lax border policies over the past four years, as well as its tacit support for the extremist Sunni group the Nusra Front, and its failure to take the Islamic State seriously as a threat until the fall of Mosul and the beheadings of Western hostages. Even then, Turkey was reluctant to change course and fully back the American goal of degrading and defeating the militant group.
Mr. Erdogan’s overriding objective has instead been to achieve a parliamentary supermajority that will grant him an executive presidency and solidify what is rapidly becoming a one-party state. Since his party lost its governing majority in the June elections, dashing his desires, he has focused on forcing early elections — now set for November — to regain control of Parliament.
To do so, Mr. Erdogan hopes to tar the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party as a terrorist front and steal votes from the Nationalist Movement Party. He has used the current crisis as a smoke screen behind which to launch an air war against militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., in Iraq and artillery strikes on the Democratic Union Party, or P.Y.D., in Syria. He has also unleashed a new wave of repression aimed at Kurds in Turkey, which risks plunging the country into civil war.
This strategy might help Mr. Erdogan win an election, but it is severely undermining the fight against the Islamic State. By disrupting logistics and communications links between the P.K.K. in Iraq and the P.Y.D. in Syria, Turkey is weakening the most effective ground force fighting the Islamic State in Syria: the Kurds.
We would do well to remember that it was P.Y.D. forces, with logistical support and reinforcement from the P.K.K., that liberated the city of Kobani last year and recently retook Tal Abyad, cutting off a key route for infiltration of arms and foreign fighters for the Islamic State.
America’s agreement with Turkey might yield more effective airstrikes, but that will come at the cost of losing the valuable real-time intelligence provided by Kurdish forces that is so crucial for targeting purposes.
In the long run, undercutting the Kurds will be extremely damaging to the anti-Islamic State effort since allowing Turkey to create a no-go zone for Kurdish forces will not carve out territory for moderate fighters; instead, it risks creating a safe haven for Islamist groups like the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, whose growing strength will exacerbate the toxic sectarianism and ethnic violence that has plagued Syria for the past four years.
Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter’s recent declaration that “we do want Turkey to do more in the fight” against the Islamic State prompted a pledge by Turkey’s foreign minister to step up its airstrikes against the group. But this raises the question of whether or not Turkey will call off its war against the Kurds.
If not, America’s deal with Turkey will prove to be a Faustian bargain. Short-term operational convenience is not worth the long-term danger of destabilizing Turkey and demoralizing the Kurdish forces that have carried the bulk of the burden in fighting militants.
An ally racked by violence and insurgency simply can’t play the role that the United States needs a secular, democratic Turkey to play in the turbulent Middle East.
Fortunately, America does have leverage. Turkish officials desperately crave the approval of their counterparts in Washington; the United States must not grant it.
Instead, the Obama administration should restrict Turkey’s access to senior-level meetings, reduce intelligence cooperation and withhold American support for Turkey in international financial institutions in the likely event that Mr. Erdogan’s policies precipitate an economic crisis.
Getting Turkish leaders to change course will be extremely difficult, but it is imperative to pressure them if Turkey is to avoid being sucked into the vortex created by a failed Syria policy and Mr. Erdogan’s dogged quest for absolute political power.
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Moscow says it has urged Tehran to revoke a lawsuit previously filed over Russia’s failure to meet contractual commitments to deliver S-300 air defense systems to Iran.
A Russian-language website has caused a stir with a report asserting that more than 2,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his second visit to Moscow in three months.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s name won’t appear on any of the ballot papers Turks will be presented with on November 1.
An official has admitted Iranian aviation companies’ interest in Russia’s Superjet passenger planes amid Tehran’s quest for new aircraft to build up the country’s aging fleet, the Fars news agency says. Vice President for science and technology Sorena Sattari also…
In line with the Pentagon's so-called Pacific pivot, the US Army wants to buy a new fleet of boats to replace its Vietnam-era "Mike Boat," the service's first major watercraft procurement in 15 years.
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