Coalition Debates Expanding ISIS Fight | ISIS Encyclopedia of Terror: The secrets behind Islamic State's 'information Jihad' on the West revealed | Iran Takes Control of Cargo Ship; U.S. Sends Destroyer to Persian Gulf | Iranian general says Saudi Arabia will soon be toppled - World | U.S. Attacks in Afghanistan Go Beyond White House’s Pledges | Saudi King Salman purging monarchy of Abdullah's inner circle - Middle East - Israel News | Whistleblower Targeted for Exposing UN Troops Raping Children | Jeb Bush Visits Puerto Rico in Hopes of Reconnecting With Hispanic Voters | Ex-DOJ Official: Obama Using Amnesty to Win Elections for Democrats | Obama Inflamed Race Tensions, Vilifying Cops 'Fundamentally Wrong | Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore prompt demonstrators to march in New York | Want to fix Baltimore? “End the drug war,” says David Simon | New York Times Co. Reports a Loss
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Coalition Debates Expanding ISIS Fight |
ISIS Encyclopedia of Terror: The secrets behind Islamic State's 'information Jihad' on the West revealed |
Iran Takes Control of Cargo Ship; U.S. Sends Destroyer to Persian Gulf |
U.S. Attacks in Afghanistan Go Beyond White House’s Pledges |
An Eroding Syrian Army Points to Strainby By ANNE BARNARD, HWAIDA SAAD and ERIC SCHMITT
The erosion of the Syrian army, which had struggled to replenish its ranks, is forcing the government to rely on Syrian and foreign militias, especiallyHezbollah.
A Pentagon official said that the ship, the Maersk Tigris, was intercepted by Iranian patrol boats while traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
Readers discuss the lack of information and recourse for members of the military who have complaints about medical treatment.
U.S. Attacks in Afghanistan Go Beyond White House’s Pledgesby By AZAM AHMED and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Interviews with U.S. and Western officials in Kabul and Washington offer a picture of a more forceful range of military operations against the Taliban in recent months.Search Results
For the Record | Saudi Cabinet Session – Apr 27th
SUSRIS-Apr 27, 20151- Dr. Fahd bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al-Khuder transferred from ... 16- Dr. Bandar bin Mohammedbin Hamza Asaad Hajjar, Minister of Hajj.
Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the ...
The Independent-Jul 12, 2014How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern ... Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful ...
ISIS: The monster that grew in plain sight of Washington and Riyadh
al-Akhbar English-Sep 16, 2014The Islamic State (IS/ISIS) did not become the monster it is today by ... When the Saudi king chargedBandar bin Sultan with handling the Syrian ...Remember me on this computer
The New Republic-Sep 15, 2014... the prominence—on the Saudi side of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, ... President Obama's "teachers and pharmacists" through to IS, ISIS, ISIL ...
The Saudis Helped Create a Monster They Can't Control in Iraq
Slate Magazine (blog)-Jun 16, 2014... role of wealthy funders in the Gulf in helping ISIS rise to prominence. ... chief and Syria point man Prince Bandar bin Sultan earlier this year, ...Saudi Arabia warns of civil war in Iraq with “unpredictable ...
World Socialist Web Site-Jun 18, 2014
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After the first purge carried out by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in January, a few days after the death of his predecessor King Abdullah, comes the second round. It is not likely to be the last.
The first to be ousted was Abdullah’s inner orbit of loyalists, including his bureau chief, Khaled al-Tuwaijri, his two sons, Mashal (governor of Mecca) and Turki (governor of Riyyad), his intelligence chief Khalid bin Bandar and the latter’s father, Bandar bin Sultan, who headed the National Security Council.
The current round aims to ensure the line of succession. Among others, Salman ousted the crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz – Abdullah’s favorite – replacing him with the powerful Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef. The king appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince – that is, the man who will inherit the kingdom if Mohammed bin Nayef departs.
These moves are not surprising. From the beginning of Salman’s rule, it was clear that Prince Muqrin, once the failed intelligence chief, would not remain crown prince for long. Even Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as deputy crown prince was expected, and not only because of his diplomatic skills and expertise on terrorism, which he acquired in numerous courses he took at the FBI Academy.
The distancing of Abdullah’s loyalists and strengthening of the Sudairi branch of the ruling family, of which Mohammed bin Nayef is a member, is part of a settling of scores with King Abdullah, whose reign saw a waning of the influence of the Sudairi princes – the sons of Hassa al-Sudairi, one of the 10 wives of Saudi Arabia’s first king, Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud).
If there is a surprise appointment, it is that of Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister, replacing Saud al-Faisal, who designed and implemented Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy for four decades. Al-Faisal, 75, has Parkinson’s disease and it seems his request to leave office was authentic. Jubeir is the first Saudi foreign minister who is not a member of the royal family.
No change in foreign policy due
These appointments are part of internal housekeeping; they do not change the kingdom’s foreign policy. King Salman, despite his own health issues – he apparently suffers from Alzheimer’s – immediately made his mark when he intensified official public discourse against Iran, supported the establishment of an Arab intervention force and initiated the attack on the Houthis in Yemen to root out Iran’s influence in that country.
The strong man in the kingdom is no doubt Nayef, who will continue to serve both as interior minister and head of the National Security Council. He is the man who will implement foreign policy, one of whose principles is the effort to establish a “Sunni axis” against Iran.
As part of this effort, Saudi Arabia has changed its policy toward Turkey, and despite the rift between Egypt and Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was invited to visit the king. Nayef, who met with Erdogan in Turkey before that visit, set its agenda.
It seems that as part of the efforts toward a “Sunni axis,” Saudi Arabia will encourage Hamas to cut itself off entirely from Iran and return to the “Arab fold,” despite the ongoing enmity between Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s ally, and Hamas.
Salman’s son Mohammed, who is defense minister, is in his 30s, too young to be seen as successor to the throne, but that could change.
The main challenge before the new regime is to absorb the strategic changes expected to accompany the emerging nuclear agreement with Tehran, and the rapprochement between Iran and the United States. If and when sanctions on Iran are lifted, new oil will flow that is expected to grab an important share of the Saudi market. Saudi Arabia will also have to build up its influence in Syria and Iraq as a bulwark against Iranian power in those countries, especially if Iran proposes its own solution to the crisis in Syria.
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Bandar bin Sultan still in business
Intelligence Online (subscription)-Apr 29, 2015After being roundly excluded when the official roles were allocated by the new regime in Saudi Arabia, Bandar Bin Sultan, the former national ...
New Saudi Foreign Minister Well-Wired in Official Washington
Bloomberg-3 hours ago... U.S.-educated al-Jubeir, who began his diplomatic career as an aide to flamboyant Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar bin Sultan.Saudi King Salman purging monarchy of Abdullah's inner circle
In-Depth-Haaretz-8 hours ago
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Although it is a NATO member, geographically a bridge between Europe and Asia, Turkey's present leadership is tilting away from the United States. In most respects this is ironic, since President Obama was fond of saying his closest ally on the foreign stage is Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. That friendship has not stood the test of time.
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The unwillingness of the United States to assist the rebels in Syria was a disappointment to Erdoğan; but even more crucial in undermining the once cozy relationship is the present rapprochement with Iran. Negotiations with Iran over the enrichment of uranium have led to the justifiable belief that the United States will countenance an Iranian bomb. This belief — gaining traction throughout the region — is that a Shiite Crescent, the imperial Persian dream, may be realized with complicit American action.
So profound is this sentiment that tectonic alternations are underway in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has made it clear it does not want a seat in the U.N. Security Council as long as negotiations with Iran continue. Moreover, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a long standing ally of the United States, has turned against American foreign policy with outspoken vengeance. He has even suggested the U.S. nuclear umbrella is unreliable and has prompted discussion with Pakistan over the acquisition of nuclear weapons should Iran be given a green light for further enrichment of uranium.
It is not coincidental that Turkish foreign policy positions follow a Saudi script, since capital from Riyadh underwrites much of the faltering Turkish economy. Should Saudi Arabia obtain nuclear weapons, Turkey will be waiting its turn with open arms.
Egypt, once firmly registered in an alliance with the U.S., is now turning to Saudi Arabia for aid and has turned to Russia for military assistance. Emerging from this chaotic Middle East equation is a Sunni alliance composed of Turkey, the nation with the largest army and most formidable air force in the region; Saudi Arabia, the richest of the Gulf states; and Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, in a critical geographic location.
Whether this Sunni alliance can hold is another matter. Erdoğan did support the Muslim Brotherhood, later overthrown by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Egyptian military. The new Egyptian government has vowed to reinforce the peace treaty with Israel that former President Mohamed Morsi pledged to abrogate, a move Erdoğan has publicly criticized. And Saudi Arabia's ascension to a leadership position because it pays the bills may not last if fracking and new technologies replace the global reliance on Middle East oil.
Notwithstanding this fragility, there is an impending Iranian threat that unites Sunni brethren. Erdoğan is not a beloved figure in this shaky alliance. He has one foot in the camp of moderates and one in the miasma of terrorists. He is known to be unreliable. He is also in a precarious electoral position at home. A corruption scandal, a dramatic increase in interest rates to forestall a precipitous decline in the lira, demonstrations on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara and the end of the Turkish economic miracle — which gave Erdogan a free ride as prime minister from 2002 to 2008 — contribute to an unpredictable and dangerous period ahead.
Turkey has a history of deposing popularly elected governments with military coups. This scenario cannot be ruled out despite efforts by Erdoğan to purge the military of prospective opponents. The debt bomb is ticking, and Erdoğan's friends at home and abroad may believe it is time for him to go. Recent polls indicate he has lost support across the country.
In many respects, Turkey in its present position is an exemplar of the Middle East. It is divided by geography, religious loyalties and politics. It is moderate in many ways, going back to the secular program of the first Turkish President Kemal Atatürk, and also extreme, as the Erdoğan program for Islamization would suggest. It wants to reside in the 21st century, but continually looks into the rear-view mirror at the former Ottoman Empire. It is pro-West and anti-West. It has been with the United States and now against it. It was an economic miracle, the darling of Wall Street for a decade, but is riddled with debt. In fact, at any given moment, almost anything one says about Turkey could be true.
London is president of the London Center for Policy Research.
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The man accused of killing two police officers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, received guns, cash and instructions from the Islamic State, Saudi officials said.
Iraq: ISIS Kills an Army Commanderby By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fighters from the Islamic State group ambushed an Iraqi Army convoy on Friday with a bulldozer packed with explosives.
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Yemen Crisis Looms as Kerry Meets With Iranian Counterpart
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/.../" rel="nofollow">www.nytimes.com/.../</a>iranian-general-says-saudia-arab...3 days ago - A coalition of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, is trying to push back ... GeneralJafari is officially in charge of protecting Iran's revolution and ...
The New York TimesLoading...- TEHRAN — A senior Iranian general said Monday that the leadership of Saudi Arabia, a regional rival, was on the edge of collapse and would ...
- Latest from IranPress TV - 2 days ago
- Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen runway 'to stop Iranian flight landing' (VIDEO) — RT News<a href="http://RT.com" rel="nofollow">RT.com</a> - 2 days ago
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A senior Iranian military official says the Al Saud regime deserves a “severe punishment” for attacking neighboring Yemen with deadly assaults.
On Tuesday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi slammed Riyadh for perpetrating serious crimes against the oppressed Yemeni nation, stressing that Saudi Arabia “deserves a harsh punishment” for its military aggression.
He further censured the United States, the United Nations and Britain for supporting the Saudi regime in its military campaign against Yemen.
“Unfortunately, the UN Security Council, the US and the UK have blatantly violated the legal rights of Yemeni people” by supporting Saudi Arabia in massacring Yemeni civilians and razing the country’s cities to the ground, added the senior Iranian commander.
He further referred to Saudi Arabia’s intercepting of airplanes carrying humanitarian aid to the innocent civilians in Yemen, saying such a move needs a “proportionate response.”
He stressed that Saudi Arabia has no justification for the numerous crimes it has committed against the Yemeni people, slamming some regional governments and international organizations for taking sides with the oppressors.
On Monday, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari lashed out at the Saudi aggression against Yemen, saying Riyadh is on the verge of collapse.
“Today, Saudi Arabia is brazenly and obnoxiously bombarding and massacring a nation, which is seeking the denial of the hegemonic system,” the IRGC chief said.
Saudi Arabia launched its air campaign against Yemen on March 26 - without a United Nations mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The air campaign started amid the gains by Yemeni popular committees, backed by Ansarullah fighters, against al-Qaeda.
On April 21, Riyadh announced the end of the first phase of its military operation, which has left over 1,000 people dead so far, but airstrikes have continued with Saudi bombers targeting different areas across the country in a new phase.
IA/MKA/SS
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The New York Times Company posted a $14 million net loss for the first quarter of 2015, driven by a pension settlement charge and a drop in lucrative print advertising. But digital subscriptions continued to show solid growth, the company said Thursday, and digital advertising grew at a double-digit pace.
Adjusted operating profit grew to about $59 million, from about $57 million in the same quarter last year, with cost reductions helping to offset a drop in revenue.
In its quarterly earnings, the Times Company said it added 47,000 new digital subscribers, for a total of about 957,000, a 20 percent increase from the first quarter of 2014. It was the strongest quarter for these subscriptions since the fourth quarter of 2012. Digital subscriptions were responsible for $46 million in revenue in the quarter, up 14 percent from the same quarter last year.
Total revenue decreased 1.6 percent, to $384 million. Circulation revenue increased by about 1 percent, as an increase in home delivery price helped offset a decline in print copies sold.
Digital advertising increased 11 percent. But print advertising, which makes up a greater proportion of revenue, at a higher profit margin, dropped 11 percent. Overall advertising revenue was off 5.8 percent.
Other revenue, including from the company’s conference business, was up 6.5 percent.
Shares in the company were up slightly in early trading Thursday.
“We got off to a solid start in early 2015,” said Mark Thompson, the company’s chief executive, “as our company maintained its digital momentum.”
He attributed the digital consumer growth to “improved retention and higher traffic to the website, partially as a result of our recent audience development efforts.” The increase in digital advertising, he said, was driven by growth across mobile, native advertising and video.
The Times, like most legacy news media organizations, is trying to offset dropping print advertising revenue with increases in digital and other revenue. It recently promoted Kinsey Wilson to executive vice president, product and technology, to oversee strategy and innovation, and Meredith Kopit Levien to chief revenue officer, overseeing the generation of advertising and subscription revenue.
Though cost management will remain a focus in 2015, Mr. Thompson said, the company “will continue to make digital investments.”
On Wednesday, The Times announced that Clifford J. Levy, a Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter and one of the architects of the NYT Now mobile app, would join the newspaper’s masthead as an assistant editor, to oversee the presentation of the report on all digital platforms.
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Secretary of State John Kerry held his first meeting with his Iranian counterpart on Monday since an initial nuclear accord was announced in Lausanne, Switzerland, early this month.
Yet while the main focus was on overcoming the obstacles to a final agreement to constrain Iran’snuclear program, the crisis in Yemen also cast a shadow over the meeting.
“I am confident that Yemen will be mentioned,” Mr. Kerry told reporters shortly before meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran.
“Yemen’s future should be decided by Yemenis,” Mr. Kerry added, “not by external parties and proxies.”
More than 1,000 people have been killed since Houthi rebels, who practice a variant of Shiite Islam, swept from Yemen’s north, taking advantage of years of infighting among Sunni leaders. A coalition of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, is trying to push back the Houthis, who American officials assert have been sent arms and money by Iran.
Last week, Saudi Arabia announced that it was shifting to a new phase of military intervention in Yemen in which its airstrikes might be suspended if the Houthis ceased their attacks. But the clashes and the bombing have continued.
On Monday, Jamal Benomar, the departing United Nations envoy on the crisis, warned of a new danger — that efforts to impose an arms embargo on Yemen might worsen the humanitarian crisis.
Mr. Benomar said that he had told the Security Council in a private meeting that the application of a new targeted arms embargo “could inadvertently restrict the flow of much-needed commercial goods and humanitarian assistance to Yemen, including food, fuel and medical supplies among others.”
So far, there are no signs that the differences over Yemen have interfered with the United States’ and Iran’s push for a nuclear agreement, which has a deadline of the end of June for completion. Iran badly wants economic sanctions to be lifted as soon as possible as part of a nuclear accord.
And the Obama administration has been at pains to persuade Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states that its quest for a nuclear agreement does not mean that it is naïve about Iran’s support for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, its backing of militias in Iraq or its aid to the Houthis.
Yet the crisis has underscored the sharp divide between the United States and Iran on regional issues, even though they share a common foe in the Islamic State.
In his remarks on Monday, Mr. Kerry defended Saudi Arabia’s handling of the crisis, saying the Saudis had been prepared to engage in political talks until the Houthis pressed their offensive.
A guide to help you navigate the talks between Western powers and Tehran.
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“What happened was the Houthi began to take advantage of the absence of air campaign, moving not only additionally on Aden, but moving in other parts of the country and shifting artillery,” Mr. Kerry said, referring to the Yemeni port city of Aden. “So that elicited a further response.”
In Tehran, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the 150,000-strong Islamic Revolutionary GuardsCorps, said that the Saudi airstrikes were “shameless.” He asserted that the Saudi leadership was on the verge of collapse and would be toppled soon, “God willing.”
General Jafari is officially in charge of protecting Iran’s revolution and leadership, and of directing the regional efforts of the elite Quds Force, the unit involved in supporting, advising and, some say, leading Shiite and other militias in the region.
In a sign of deteriorating relations, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly attacked Saudi Arabia for the first time in a speech recently, naming the country directly and saying that it was as bad as Israel.
Mr. Kerry’s meeting with Mr. Zarif was held in the residence of the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations and on the margins of a review conference on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Afterward, a State Department official said little beyond calling the meeting “productive.”
The Obama administration’s efforts to negotiate deeper cuts in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia have been stymied by Moscow. So Mr. Kerry announced a modest gesture to try to show that the United States was still interested in more far-reaching measures. The dismantlement of nuclear warheads that are being taken out of service, Mr. Kerry said, would be stepped up by 20 percent.
Mr. Zarif used his speech to the nonproliferation treaty conference to lash out at Israel. Israel’s “possession of nuclear weapons,” he charged, was the greatest danger to the treaty.
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TEHRAN — A senior Iranian general said Monday that the leadership of Saudi Arabia, a regional rival, was on the edge of collapse and would be toppled soon, “God willing.”
Saudi-led bombardments on Yemen are “shameless and rude and an affront to all Islamic values,” General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of the 150,000-strong Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said during a speech in Tehran.
Last week, Saudi Arabia announced a halt to its operations in Yemen, which started a month ago, only to restart bombing a day later. More than 1,000 people have been killed after the Houthi rebels, who are financially supported by Iran, swept through Yemen, taking advantage of years of infighting among Sunni leaders.
A coalition of Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, is trying to push the Houthis back using airstrikes.
“The traitor Saudi Arabia is following the path of Israel,” Jafari said, according to the semiofficial news agency Tasnim.
“Saudi Arabia is bombarding this country without any coordination with international bodies,” he added. “We can no longer stay silent.”
Iran and Saudi Arabia have had long-simmering tensions over influence in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, predominantly Sunni, has been stocking up on weaponry sold mostly by US companies, while Iran, largely Shi’ite, has been increasing its influence over crucial militia groups in several countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Jafari predicted that Saudi Arabia’s campaign in Yemen would backfire. The general is officially in charge of protecting Iran’s revolution and leadership, and of directing the regional efforts of the elite Quds force, the unit involved in supporting, advising and, some say, leading Shi’ite and other militias in the region.
Jafari also commented on Iran’s rising power in the region, saying that “with the passing of time, all the tricks of the Islamic republic’s enemies are deciphered.” Iran’s ideology prescribes an export of the revolution, the general said.
“The final cause and goal of the Islamic Revolution is creating an Islamic civilization,” he said. “And we do our best to develop in the path of creating Islamic civilization.”
In a sign of deteriorating relations, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attacked Saudi Arabia for the first time in a speech recently, naming the country and saying that it was as bad as Israel.
Jafari joined other Iranian officials in predicting that the Saudi leadership would be toppled by a popular uprising.
“The House of Saud is on the edge of disintegration and collapse,” Jafari said, referring to the Saudi royal family. “Regional and international analysts have talked about it a lot, and we hope that it will come true.”
In Syria on Monday, Islamic insurgents overran a military base at a former factory in the northwestern part of the country on Monday, carting off tanks and other weapons in the latest blow to President Bashar Assad’s forces in the region, the Associated Press reported, citing activists.
The opposition offensive in Idlib province has captured the provincial capital, a strategic town, as well as villages and military bases since it began last month. An array of anti-Assad armed factions from across the ideological spectrum has demonstrated a degree of sustained coordination previously unseen in northern Syria, contributing to the campaign’s success.
The fall of the base is the latest in a string of defeats for Assad’s forces in Idlib. Government troops already have been pushed out of the city as well as the town of Jisr al-Shughour.
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A lengthy United States government report into the post-9/11 communications interception program by the National Security Agency says it was limited in both usefulness and effectiveness.
Emphasizing his foreign policy differences with Hillary Clinton — and with most of his Republican senate colleagues — GOP presidential contender Rand Paul Monday told a group of about 30 Orthodox Jewish leaders in Brooklyn that overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq was a “mistake."
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Calling the illegals invited into our nation "undocumented Democrats" may be a joke, but the reality is that the plan to fast-track them to voter status is already underway.
United Nations “peacekeeping” troops deployed on a UN “peace” mission in the Central African Republic were systematically raping and sexually exploiting starving young children, according to a leaked internal report that the global organization was seeking to conceal. Because UN leadership failed to take action against their soldiers' widespread sexual abuse of children — some of whom were less than 10 years old — an aid worker with the organization in the war-torn African nation handed the document to French authorities. As has become the norm when UN military forces are exposed raping, abusing, and murdering the populations they are ostensibly supposed to “protect,” the UN responded to the leak by suspending the whistleblower from his post and trying to cover it all up.
The Intelligence Time Machine by Marshall Erwin
On Tuesday, members in the House and Senate introduced new versions of the USA Freedom Act that would prohibit bulk collection of records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the FISA pen register authority, and national security letter statutes. The legislation, if passed, would result in significant changes to the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records program, raising questions about the impact such prohibitions could have on the Intelligence Community (IC). This makes it a good time to revisit analyses of the utility of bulk collection programs. The National Research Council Read on Just Security »
Democratic presidential candidate calls for an end to rioting in Baltimore, offers a detailed vision for criminal justice reform
Iranian navy vessels harassed a US-flagged merchant ship days before it detained a ship flagged to the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon confirmed today, the latest news in a tense stand off between Iran and the US.
In comments Bloomberg reporter Josh Rogin described as “blustery and self righteous,” Zarif told the New York crowd that a nuclear agreement would entail the lifting of all sanctions against Iran only a few days after a final agreement has been signed. Zarif also insisted that any future U.S. government would have to abide by the nuclear agreement and that the U.S. Congress cannot have a say in the manner.
Zarif said:
As a foreign government, I only deal with the U.S. government. I do not deal with Congress. The responsibility of bringing that into line falls on the shoulders of the [P]resident of the United States. That’s the person with whom we are making an agreement.
“Whether Senator [Tom] Cotton likes it or not,” the U.S. has to comply with the lifting of sanctions following a nuclear agreement, demanded the Iranian Foreign Minister.
Regarding Israel’s concerns with the nuclear deal, the Ayatollah’s representative said it is “laughable” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has become everybody’s non-proliferation guru.” Zarif also refused to answer whether Iran would be willing to recognize Israel, the Times of Israel reports.
Outside of the event, anti-regime protesters were holding a mock party celebrating Iran’s 1,000thhanging in the past 18th months.
“If anyone deserves to be humiliated and punked, it is a regime that hangs gays, murders poets and tortures bloggers,” said the event’s organizer, David Keyes, who is the executive director of Advancing Human Rights.
This was not the first time the American-educated Iranian Foreign Minister visited the United States on behalf of the Ayatollah’s regime. In a 2006 visit to New York’s Columbia University, Zarif exposed himself as a Holocaust revisionist when he refused to agree that six million Jews were murdered during the WWII genocide.
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Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is firing back at comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif about sanctions. In a statement posted on his Senate website, and followed by a series of sharply worded tweets, Cotton goes so far as to call Zarif “cowardly.”
In his statement, Cotton noted that President Barack Obama had “promised sanctions would only be lifted when Iran’s compliance with restrictions on their nuclear program were verified.” However, Zarif has contradicted Obama, issuing his own statement that mentioned Cotton, who had led a group of 47 Senators to sign a letter opposing the deal with Iran unless it was ratified by Congress:
If we have an agreement on the 30th of June, within a few days after that, there will be a resolution before the UN Security Council under Article 41 of Chapter 7 which will be mandatory for all member states whether Senator Cotton likes it or not.
Cotton came right back at Zarif, saying that the controversy was not about him, but what would “keep America safe from a nuclear-armed Iran,” and attacking the comments by Zarif and other Iranian officials as “demonstrat[ing] why Iran cannot be trusted:”
Sanctions relief isn’t about what I like, but what will keep America safe from a nuclear-armed Iran. But I suspect Foreign Minister Zarif is saying what President Obama will not because the President knows such terms would be unacceptable to both Congress and the American people. The repeated provocative statements made by members of the Iranian leadership demonstrate why Iran cannot be trusted and why the President’s decision to pursue this deal and grant dangerous concessions to Iran was ill-advised from the beginning. These aren’t rhetorical tricks aimed at appealing to hard-liners in Iran; after all, Mr. Zarif was speaking in English in New York. Rather, they foreshadow the dangerous posture Iran will take and has taken repeatedly—including as recently as yesterday with the interception of a U.S.-affiliated cargo ship—if this deal moves forward.More, they reaffirm the need for Congress to approve any final deal and to conduct oversight over the Obama Administration’s actions. As we consider the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, I urge my colleagues to ensure we pass legislation strong enough to stop a bad deal in its tracks and protect the American people from a nuclear Iran.
The Senator then took to Twitter to address Zarif personally, challenging him to come to Washington, D.C. to “debate Iran’s record of tyranny, treachery, & terror” but mocking Zarif’s “cowardly character,” as exhibited by how he “hid in US during Iran-Iraq war while peasants & kids were marched to die.”
Cotton left his law practice after the September 11, 2001 attacks to serve in the United States Army. He served nearly five years on active duty as an Infantry Officer, including two combat tours in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, and Ranger Tab for his service.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.
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WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday blamed President Barack Obama for the racial tensions and unrest unrolling across the U.S., including the current turmoil in Baltimore, Maryland.
“President Obama, when he was elected, he could have been a unifying leader,” Cruz lamented in a question and answer session hosted by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Instead, the presidential candidate argued, Obama “has made decisions that I think have inflamed racial tensions, that have divided us rather than bringing us tougher.”
As evidence of Obama’s poor record on the matter, Cruz pointed to vice president Joe Biden’s comments during the 2012 campaign, in which Biden claimed Republicanswould put African-Americans “back in chains.” Pressed by reporters at the Chamber of Commerce event to name a specific case where the president inflamed racial tensions, Cruz cited the 2011 “beer summit,” in which Obama invited black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to have a beer at the White House with white police Sgt. James Crowley, who had arrested Gates at his home.
Obama “has not used his role as president to bring us together,” Cruz said. “He has exacerbated racial misunderstandings.”
The conservative firebrand also accused Obama of “building a straw man of the opposition to vilify and caricature” the Republican Party.
Cruz said that the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who died from a spinal injury while in the custody of Baltimore police, needed to be properly investigated. But he argued that portraying law enforcement officers in a negative light did a disservice to minorities.
“The vilification of law enforcement has been fundamentally wrong and it has hurt the minority community,” Cruz said.
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New York Police Department officers detain a protester during a march through the Manhattan borough of New York City calling for social, economic and racial justice April 29, 2015. Reuters/Mike Segar
Last Updated Apr 30, 2015 2:38 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- Several hundred people gathered in New York on Wednesday to protest the death ofFreddie Gray, a Baltimore man who died in police custody, and more than 100 were arrested as demonstrators shut down roads and officers clashed with protesters around Manhattan, reports CBS New York.
In Baltimore and several other cities from Boston to Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., thousands of people hit the streets to protest. While they were mostly peaceful, there were some arrests, including 18 in Baltimore, reports the CBS station in that city, WJZ-TV.
CBS Baltimore says more than 2,000 troops from the National Guard remained scattered across city streets Wednesday night and early Thursday, helping to enforce the the second night of a citywide curfew.
Most of the crowds had dispersed by just before midnight, the station reported. The curfew went back into effect at 10 p.m.
The demonstrators in Baltimore during the day Wednesday were mostly high school and college students, CBS Baltimore says. High school students were blamed for much of the trouble there Monday night.
In Denver, police used pepper spray to control some of the about 100 protesters, and nine people were arrested on charges that range from officer assault to obstructing roadways.
Protesters returned to Ferguson, Missouri for a second night. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports several dozen people marched down West Florissant Avenue in the St. Louis suburb Wednesday night protesting Gray's death.
That same area was the site of numerous protests after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, by a white Ferguson police officer in August.
Three people were shot during protests in Ferguson Tuesday night and four police cars were damaged by rocks and chunks of asphalt thrown by demonstrators, reports CBS St. Louis affiliate KMOV-TV.
In New York Wednesday, protesters first rallied in Manhattan's Union Square, where they chanted "no justice, no peace" and "hands up, don't shoot," a reference to the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last year. Police officers watched.
A police helicopter hovered overhead, and a police loudspeaker warned the protesters that they would be arrested if they marched in the street.
New York Police Department officers detain a protester during a march through the Manhattan borough of New York City calling for social, economic and racial justice, April 29, 2015.
Reuters/Mike Segar
A group of protesters spilled into the street, disrupting traffic. Dozens of police officers moved in with plastic handcuffs and began making arrests while officers with batons pushed the crowd back onto the sidewalk.
Bottles were thrown at officers on the West Side Highway, and several protesters were arrested, CBS New York reports.
Some of the protesters were lifted off the ground and carried to a waiting police van, reminiscent of what police officers did this month to Gray, who suffered a fatal spine injury in their custody and died days later.
Still, hundreds of people stayed defiant and determined, CBS New York reports.
"They're obstructing us," one man said. "We would like to march. These are our streets."
The man said it did not matter that police did not want protesters in the street.
"This is what justice is," he said. "Sometimes it's not pretty, but it has to happen."
A line of police officers stood along the edge of the sidewalk as protesters shouted "The whole damn system is guilty as hell. Indict. Convict. Send those killer cops to jail."
Comrade Shahid said he showed up Wednesday because he believes "the police have become out of control."
"If you kill somebody, it's murder. If the police kill you, it's nothing," Shahid said. "It's making this country's youth anarchists."
Later, smaller groups of protesters split off. One group marched north to Times Square, where it held a die-in by lying on the ground. Another group marched to the entrance of the Holland Tunnel, where it was stopped by police.
Gray's arrest was recorded on cellphone videos by bystanders. His death has led to protests, rioting and looting in Baltimore.
Baltimore police say they chased Gray when he fled at the sight of an officer in a drug-infested neighborhood this month. Officers pinned him to the sidewalk and then lifted him and took him, his legs dragging on the ground, to a police van.
Gray, who asked repeatedly for medical help during the half-hour ride to a police station, died a week later.
Police say Gray died of a "significant spinal injury." An attorney for Gray's family says his spine was "80 percent severed in the neck area."
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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ISIS terrorists are arming extremist 'sleeper cells' in Britain with the expertise to remain undetected, spread propaganda and brainwash new recruits, the Mirror Online can reveal today.
We have gained access to a huge cache of documents which demonstrate the frightening level of ease with which the Islamic State's undercover operatives can access highly technical expertise.
The brutal regime has spent years building up an online terrorism library filled with an enormous range of material designed to help extremists based in the West.
But much of this material was updated in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations that caused an international sensation - because he revealed many of the spies' secrets tactics.
In post-Snowden Britain, police and security services admit they are struggling to keep up with the level of sophistication they are faced with - and that Britain is now embroiled in digital guerrilla warfare.
These documents illustrate how ISIS supporters try to stay one step ahead of spies and police, Mirror Online has confirmed in consultation with security services.
A security source said: "Members of ISIS grew up in a different generation to Al Qaeda. They learned how to use the internet and smartphones whilst at school and are at that age where using tech is part of everyday, normal life.
"They change they way they communicate all the time, constantly using different apps or platforms.
"This presents an evolving challenge to intelligence services in the UK and overseas."
Mirror Online was alerted to the existence of the document cache by a group of hackers splintered from the hacktivist group Anonymous, which calls itself Global Vigilance.
Our source - who wished to remain unnamed - founded the group after enduring the ordeal of seeing former friends from a pro-Palestinian wing of Anonymous converted to extremism.
"ISIS uses digital guerrilla warfare tactics online which cannot be fought in the normal manner," he said.
"We can go where others can't and bring back information and data which other people miss.
"Extremists are able to recruit with impunity using a variety of platforms. Our research brings home the level of sophistication employed by the extremists.
"Knowledge is power. The more we have, the better we can fight them."
With the cache, we can reveal:
- The Islamic State teaches extremists to wipe out their digital footprint and avoid detection by all security services
- This means they reveal how to disseminate footage of atrocities without being traced
- Warns extremists of the spy devices they should look out for, ranging from cameras hidden inside clocks to tiny bugs which can which be drilled into walls
- Potential recruits in the West use a Russian social network to contact high-level extremists in Syria and Iraq
- British ISIS recruits are taught how use the "dark web" to communicate with a global network of terrorists
- Supporters have call centre-style lists of prefabricated religious arguments to use during radicalisation attempts
The Mirror has discussed some of the documents to one of the world's leading experts in terrorism and digital radicalisation, Jamie Bartlett of the thinktank DEMOS.
He described them as 'extremely useful' to already radical undercover ISIS operatives as well as serving as an introduction for wannabe jihadis looking to join the extremists' brutal war.
We also shared the training manuals with a police source at a specialist cyber crime division, which is currently working to smash the ISIS online recruitment ring.
"These are very close to the bone - and they are all too easy to find if you know where to look," he told us.
The Terrorism Act 2006 lists as offences under Section 1:
1 Encouragement of terrorism
2 Dissemination of terrorist publications
So while the legislation exists giving security services the ammunition to prosecute, the reality is much more difficult, confirmed our police source.
"It's possible to shut these websites, but it is difficult to stop them (the documents) from popping up elsewhere," he said.
"There is no restriction on accessing them."
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Coalition Debates Expanding ISIS Fightby By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
Maintaining the unity of the coalition against the Islamic State may require the United States to agree to a broadening of the campaign to include terrorist groups that have declared themselves to be “provinces” of the Islamic State.
No, The Wire does not explain what's happening in Baltimore this week, as my colleague Alyssa Rosenberg wrote yesterday. Still, the show's creator and former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon knows a lot more about the city than most of us. And in a wide-ranging and riveting interviewwith The Marshall Project today, he offers an unequivocal assessment of how to turn things around in that city today.
"So do you see how this ends or how it begins to turn around?" Bill Keller asks him.
"We end the drug war," Simon says. "I know I sound like a broken record, but we end the [expletive] drug war. The drug war gives everybody permission to do anything. It gives cops permission to stop anybody, to go in anyone’s pockets, to manufacture any lie when they get to district court... Medicalize the problem, decriminalize [it] — I don't need drugs to be declared legal, but if a Baltimore State’s Attorney told all his assistant state’s attorneys today, from this moment on, we are not signing overtime slips for court pay for possession, for simple loitering in a drug-free zone... then all at once, the standards for what constitutes a worthy arrest in Baltimore would significantly improve."
Simon traces the arrest and death of Freddie Gray to a police culture that's long since abandoned any pretense of probable cause when it comes to stopping and arresting young black men in the city. "The drug war — which Baltimore waged as aggressively as any American city — was transforming in terms of police/community relations, in terms of trust, particularly between the black community and the police department," he says. "Probable cause was destroyed by the drug war."
In the growing concern over drug use in the 1980s and 1990s, political leaders -- in Baltimore and in cities all over the country -- began throwing people in jail on flimsy suspicions, Simon argues. "Too many officers who came up in a culture that taught them not the hard job of policing, but simply how to roam the city, jack everyone up, and call for the wagon."
Simon reservers his harshest words for Martin O'Malley, the former Baltimore mayor who touted reductions in the crime rate under his tenure on his way to the governor's mansion in Annapolis -- and, perhaps, in his burgeoning candidacy for the White House.
"The stake through the heart of police procedure in Baltimore was Martin O'Malley," Simon says. "He destroyed police work in some real respects. Whatever was left of it when he took over the police department, if there were two bricks together that were the suggestion of an edifice that you could have called meaningful police work, he found a way to pull them apart."
He flat-out accuses the O'Malley administration of manipulating arrest statistics in its quest to show "improbable" decreases in crime -- statistics he still cites on the stump today. While crime rates did indeed fall during O'Malley's tenure, it's unclear to what extent the mass arrests favored by the former mayor contributed to that. He also tends to not mention that the Baltimore murder rate sank to its lowest level well after he was out of office, and after his successors implemented radically different policing policies.
But if O'Malley makes a strong showing in the Democratic primaries -- perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless possible -- expect these statistics to keep coming up. And expect David Simon to have plenty to say about them.
Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center.
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Cash Shortage Seen in Puerto Rico in 3 Monthsby By MICHAEL CORKERY
A letter from the Government Development Bank urged officials to negotiate a tax overhaul to clear the way for a bond deal.
Speaking in both Spanish and English, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, urged Republicans to “show respect and to listen” to Latino communities.
Mr. Bush’s trip was the latest stop on his Spanish-language Republican redemption tour.
"If Bush decides to run for President, he will not be the first candidate to firmly endorse statehood forPuerto Rico. As a candidate, President Ronald Reagan explained in a February, 1980 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that ...
 New York Times (blog) |
Political News, Now.
New York Times (blog) SAN JUAN, P.R. – Jeb Bush visited Puerto Rico on Tuesday and spoke in personal terms about “the power of the immigrant experience” as he challenged his party to be more respectful of Latino communities if it ever hopes to win back their votes. and more » |
Wall Street Journal |
Puerto Rico Needs to Finish Tax Overhaul, Officials Say
Wall Street Journal Puerto Rico's government may run out of money and have to shut down in the next three months, with a “devastating impact” for the U.S. commonwealth's economy, officials at the island's Government Development Bank warned this week. In an April 21 letter ... |
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