Top Army leader: Russia is "most dangerous" threat facing U.S.: Washington (CNN)The outgoing Army chief of staff said Wednesday that Russia posed the "most dangerous" threat facing the United States today, thanks to its "sophisticated" operations in Ukraine. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who is leaving his post, estimated that only a third of U.S. brigades are capable of operating at the level of the hybrid warfare Russia is undertaking there. And he worries that Russia could next intervene in NATO allies like Latvia or Estonia.
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Washington (CNN)The outgoing Army chief of staff said Wednesday that Russia posed the "most dangerous" threat facing the United States today, thanks to its "sophisticated" operations in Ukraine.
Gen. Raymond Odierno, who is leaving his post, estimated that only a third of U.S. brigades are capable of operating at the level of the hybrid warfare Russia is undertaking there. And he worries that Russia could next intervene in NATO allies like Latvia or Estonia.
"They are more mature than some other of our potential adversaries, and I think they have some stated intents that concern me in terms of how the Cold War ended," Odierno said of Russia when asked by CNN. "They have shown some significant capability in Ukraine to do operations that are fairly sophisticated, and so, for me, I think we should pay a lot of attention."
Odierno explained that he's concerned that Russia underestimates the extent to which NATO partners would defend the Latvians and Estonians, a miscalculation that could lead to conflict. The solution, he argued, would be to increase response capabilities in order to deter any possible Russian aggression.
"We have deterrent there and I think we're doing a good job with that," he said. "What we have do in the next several years is continue to increase that so the risk goes up for anybody who might consider operations in Eastern Europe."
 CNN International |
Top Army leader: Russia is "most dangerous" threat facing US
CNN International Washington (CNN) The outgoing Army chief of staff said Wednesday that Russia posed the "most dangerous" threat facing the United States today, thanks to its "sophisticated" operations in Ukraine. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who is leaving his post, estimated ... and more » |
Former President Carter Says He Has Cancerby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Former President Jimmy Carter announced Wednesday that he has cancer, discovered during recent liver surgery. Carter, 90, announced the diagnosis in a short statement. He did not specify what type of cancer he has, only that it is in "other parts" of his body. "A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week," he said. The 39th president will undergo treatment at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. Carter underwent surgery August 3...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States launched its first manned air strikes against Islamic State targets from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.
 NBCNews.com |
Bumble Bee to Pay $6 Million Over Employee Cooked in Tuna Oven
NBCNews.com Bumble Bee Foods will pay $6 million in the 2012 death of an employee who was cooked in an industrial oven with tons of tuna — the biggest settlement ever in a California for workplace safety violations involving a single victim, prosecutors said ... Bumble Bee Foods to pay $6 million over worker killed in tuna ovenReuters Tuna company agrees to $6M settlement in worker oven deathFox News $6 million paid in case of worker killed in Bumble Bee pressure cookerLos Angeles Times ABC News -OCRegister all 111 news articles » |
Frustration Lies Behind 'Black Lives Matter'by webdesk@voanews.com (Molly McKitterick)
Increasingly, when there are protests against U.S. racial injustice, like in Ferguson, Missouri, and at political rallies like the one for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that was halted in Seattle on Saturday, they are associated with the group Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a young grass-roots activist movement that began in July 2013 after the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. The movement...
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Mexican prosecutors seek arrest of 22 in 2009 fire at day care center that killed 49 children
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fight against Islamic State rebels is at a stalemate and if the U.S. military does not see progress in the coming months it should consider putting support troops on the ground with Iraqi forces, Army General Ray Odierno said on Wednesday.
1 inmate killed, 5 taken to hospital following riot at Northern California prison
 New York Daily News |
1 Inmate Killed in Northern California Prison Riot
ABC News One inmate was killed and five others were taken to an outside hospital to be treated for stab wounds after a riot Wednesday at a Northern California state prison. The fight involving about 100 maximum-security inmates began when one inmate attacked ... Inmates Riot At State Prison In Folsom; 1 DeadCBS Local One inmate dead in stabbing melee at New Folsom prisonSacramento Bee Inmate killed during riot at Folsom Prison; several others injuredKABC-TV News10.net -KCRA Sacramento all 21 news articles » |
The former president had surgery earlier this month to remove a small mass in his liver
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(WASHINGTON) — The Obama administration doesn’t plan to invite Cuban dissidents to Secretary of State John Kerry’s historic flag-raising at the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Friday, vividly illustrating how U.S. policy is shifting focus from the island’s opposition to its single-party government. Instead, Kerry intends to meet more quietly with prominent activists later in the day, officials said.
The Cuban opposition has occupied the center of U.S. policy toward the island since the nations cut diplomatic relations in 1961. The Cuban government labels its domestic opponents as traitorous U.S. mercenaries. As the two countries have moved to restore relations, Cuba has almost entirely stopped meeting with American politicians who visit dissidents during trips to Havana.
That presented a quandary for U.S. officials organizing the ceremony to mark the reopening of the embassy on Havana’s historic waterfront. Inviting dissidents would risk a boycott by Cuban officials including those who negotiated with the U.S. after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente on Dec. 17. Excluding dissidents would certainly provoke fierce criticism from opponents of Obama’s new policy, including Cuban-American Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio.
Officials familiar with the plans for Kerry’s visit, the first by a sitting U.S. secretary of state to Cuba since World War II, told The Associated Press that a compromise was in the works. The dissidents won’t be invited to the embassy event but a small group will meet with Kerry at the U.S. chief of mission’s home in the afternoon, where a lower-key, flag-raising ceremony is scheduled.
Their presence at the embassy would have risked setting back the new spirit of cooperation the U.S. hopes to engender, according to the officials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about internal planning and demanded anonymity. But not meeting them at all, they said, would send an equally bad signal.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if North American diplomats prioritize contacts with the Cuban government,” said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a relatively moderate dissident group. “If we show up, they leave.”
The Obama administration says it is normalizing ties with Cuba after more than 50 years of hostility failed to shake the communist state’s hold on power. It argues that dealing directly with Cuba over issues ranging from human rights to trade is far likelier to produce democratic and free-market reforms over the long term.
Key dissidents told the AP late Tuesday that they had not received invitations to any of Friday’s events.
Dissident Yoani Sanchez’s online newspaper 14ymedio has received no credential for the U.S. embassy event, said editor Reinaldo Escobar, who is married to Sanchez.
“The right thing to do would be to invite us and hear us out despite the fact that we don’t agree with the new U.S. policy,” said Antonio Rodiles, head of the dissident group Estado de SATS.
In a statement Wednesday, Rubio called the embassy omissions “a slap in the face” to Cuba’s democracy activists.
“Cuban dissidents are the legitimate representatives of the Cuban people and it is they who deserve America’s red carpet treatment, not Castro regime officials,” Rubio said.
The cautious approach is consistent with how Obama has handled the question of support for dissidents since he and Castro announced a prisoner swap in December and their intention to create a broader improvement in relations. The process has resulted in unilateral steps by Obama to ease the economic embargo on Cuba and last month’s formal upgrading of both countries’ interests sections into full-fledged embassies.
When senior diplomat Roberta Jacobson held talks in Havana in January, she met several government critics at the end of her historic trip but was restrained in her criticism of the government. Since then, American politicians have flooded Havana to see the sights, meet the country’s new entrepreneurs and discuss possibly ending the U.S. embargo with leaders of the communist government.
According to an AP count that matches tallies by leading dissidents, more than 20 U.S. lawmakers have visited Cuba since February without meeting the opposition groups that were once obligatory for congressional delegations.
This week, after Cuba briefly rounded up dozens of protesting dissidents, the U.S. didn’t suggest such action would delay Kerry’s trip or cool relations.
“The United States will continue to advocate for the rights to peaceful assembly, association and freedom of expression and religion, and we’re going to continue to voice our support for improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms in Cuba,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Along with the flag-raising events, Kerry will meet Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. The pair could hold a joint news conference, in what would surely be a first since the Cuban Revolution toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Kerry also plans a short walk around Cuba’s 500-year-old capital, officials said.
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Experts say they have "never seen anything like" the newly-discovered species, which also gives its prey a tap on the shoulder.
A CDC survey finds that nine out of 10 Americans now have health insurance
Jim Hoagland’s Aug. 9 Sunday Opinion commentary , “Vladimir Putin, failed spy,” provided useful information about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of success as a KGB officer. However, its implication that the Russian president is pursuing a policy that will ultimately undermine his support from the Russian population and lead to his failure ignored that his actions and policies are deeply rooted in Russian traditions. While it is difficult for Americans to understand, the Russian people throughout history have tolerated the most ruthless regimes, from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin, responding from a combination of fear and respect. Read full article >>
The personal email accounts of several high-ranking White House officials have been directly targeted by Chinese cyberspies — and some are still actively under attack, according to U.S. intelligence reports.
NBC News obtained a classified document from an internal National Security Agency presentation given last year that suggests China ...
SAN DIEGO (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard has seized more cocaine off Latin America's Pacific coast over the past 10 months than in the previous three years combined as it rebounds from budget cuts and combats smugglers increasingly moving drugs on the high seas, officials said Monday.
The service ...
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The Obama administration's move to partner with Turkey to carve out a "safe zone" in northern Syria is drawing increasing criticism from national security insiders on both the left and right who see a gaping hole in the plan: There aren't enough U.S.-friendly rebels on the ground to secure and ...
As a strategist who has delighted in trying to divide the Republican Party, Sen. Charles E. Schumer now finds himself a divisive figure in the Democratic Party over his opposition to the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran.
Progressive groups are circulating online petitions denouncing the New York Democrat as ...
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The San Jose Police Department may soon be one step closer to being able to use a drone as part of a one-year pilot program.
KNTV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1hvAS14 ) that the San Jose City Council on Tuesday is expected to approve the program for the ...
The Pentagon says that a Joint Chiefs of Staff computer network taken offline last week after it was discovered to have been infiltrated by hackers is once again up and running.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense said on Monday that the Pentagon's cybersecurity team had purged the infected ...
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson won't be hauled into federal court to explain his department's botched execution of President Obama's deportation amnesty program, but the judge said Tuesday he still doesn't consider the issue settled.
Judge Andrew S. Hanen had threatened to force Mr. Johnson to appear personally later this ...
SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Military and security officials in Yemen say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed five suspected al-Qaida militants traveling in a vehicle near the extremist-held coastal city of Mukalla.
The officials said the attack Wednesday happened east of the city. Al-Qaida's Yemen branch, considered by Washington ...
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TOKYO (AP) - A U.S. Army helicopter crashed off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Wednesday, injuring seven people aboard the aircraft, officials said.
The others aboard the helicopter were uninjured, said Japanese coast guard spokesman Shinya Terada. The conditions of the injured were not immediately known, he said.
...
Tensions between Russia and NATO are at their highest since the end of the Cold War and the two may be ramping up for armed conflict with one another, a new report said.
Rival exercises by the Russian armed forces and NATO have led to several near-miss incidents that could ...
CAIRO (AP) — An online image circulated Wednesday purported to show the beheading of a Croatian hostage held by the Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, the first such killing of a foreign captive in Egypt since the extremists set up a branch here.
The killing of the 30-year-old oil and ...
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The San Jose Police Department is one step closer to using a drone for hostage or search-and-rescue incidents.
KNTV reports (http://bit.ly/1N3i7iG ) Wednesday that the San Jose City Council late Tuesday approved a one-year pilot program allowing police to use a drone.
The bomb squad ...
 Politico |
Report: John Brennan drafted apology to senators for CIA hacking
Politico Last July, CIA Director John Brennan nearly apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) in a letter for the CIA's hacking into the computer network of committee staffers, ... and more » |
Syrian rebels shelled the country’s capital city, killing at least one person, just hours before the arrival of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif in the war-torn nation, according to regional reports.
“Zarif was scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon in Damascus,” according to Israel Hayom. “Rebels long have been shelling Damascus, but Wednesday’s bombardment was the most intense in weeks and lasted for about two hours during the capital’s morning rush hour.”
Iran is the primary sponsor of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Islamic Republic has provided financial resources to Assad and also sent military advisers to help battle rebel forces seeking to see Assad deposed.
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Hezbollah by fredslibrary
Title: Hezbollah
Author: Matthew Levitt
Levitt, Matthew (2013). Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God. Washington DC : Georgetown University Press
LCCN: 2013002933
JQ1828.A98 L48 2013
Subjects
Date Posted: August 12, 2015
Former CIA operations officer Robert Baer wrote in his memoir that by 1997, he had concluded that the April 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut—an attack that killed more than 60 people, including several CIA officers—was the work of Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyah.[1] Matthew Levitt, a former FBI analyst and assistant secretary of the treasury for intelligence analysis, writes in his new study, Hezbollah, that the terrorist group denied Mughniyah’s very existence until it erected a memorial to him after his assassination in 2008. Levitt goes on to affirm Baer’s judgment and to document Mughniyah’s role in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, noting the Mughniyah watched the explosion from a nearby rooftop. (pp. 3, 28)
In this first comprehensive examination of Hezbollah (Party of God) from its beginning to the present, Levitt uses the Mughniyah storyto explain the group’s origins in the early 1980s as an Iranian Shiite surrogate in Lebanon. He shows how Hezbollah developed multiple identities as it became the dominant political faction in Lebanon and successfully expanded its social and religious programs. Hezbollah’s paramilitary units also began operating in Lebanon, carrying out bombings and frequent airplane hijackings. Then, with Iranian support, Hezbollah gradually expanded its terrorist activities to other parts of the Middle East, as well as Europe, Central and South America, South Asia, and Africa. Special units were created for suicide attacks in Israel and Iraq, often in support of Hamas and the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad). While the main purpose of the attacks was to harm those perceived as anti-Shi’a or pro-Israeli, they often had additional goals, including freeing captured militants.
Hezbollah provided personnel and most of the financial and logistical support for its operations. Levitt describes Hezbollah’s criminal enterprises—mainly narcotics trafficking and money laundering—conducted in Africa and the United States to meet these goals. Still, its dependence on Iran was substantial and its operations were reduced as sanc-tions on Iran began to bite.
Levitt devotes considerable attention to one of Hezbol!ah’s principal objectives, the extension of its global reach. The likelihood of future successful Hezbollah terrorist operations, Levitt suggests, may have been reduced because of a series of costly failures “in places like Azerbaijan, Egypt and Turkey,” (p. 360) the increasingly effective opposition of Western and Sunni governments, and Hezbollah’s support of the Assad regime in Syria. But Levitt concludes that Hezbollah’s international terrorist activities must be taken seriously lest it find ways to export its operations to Western countries, particularly the United States.
[1] Baer, Robert (2002). See No Evil: The True Story of A Ground Soldier in The CIA’s War on Terrorism. New York: Three Rivers Press
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More than 35,000 combat veterans have had their health care delayed by a Department of Veterans Affairs computer program that automatically put them in limbo — many for years. Yet the VA says it lacks the authority to override the system.
Turkey ↔ U.S.
The United States has sought Turkey’s help in the fight against ISIS since last year. Turkey, which has been a NATO member since 1952 and is considered by American officials to be critical to weakening the Islamic State in Syria, was reluctant to participate. Turkey finally agreed to assist, but with some conditions, including the creation of an ISIS- and Kurdish-free zone in Syria on the Turkish border.In return, the United States will be allowed to launch military operations against the Islamic State from Incirlik Air Base and other bases in Turkey “within a certain framework,” according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. American officials have been careful not to offend Turkey and have publicly supported its campaign against the P.K.K..In a statement on Twitter, Brett H. McGurk, President Obama’s envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, said, “We fully respect our ally Turkey’s right to self-defense.”
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With President Bashar al-Assad of Syria facing battlefield setbacks, diplomats from Russia, the United States and several Middle Eastern powers are engaged in a burst of diplomatic activity, trying to head off a deeper collapse of the country that could further strengthen the militant group Islamic State.
Russia, Mr. Assad’s most powerful backer, has built new ties with Saudi Arabia, a fervent opponent, and even brokered a meeting between high-ranking Saudi and Syrian intelligence officials. On Tuesday, the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, met with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Moscow, wrangling over the fate of Mr. Assad.
Unusual meetings have come in quick succession. Last week, the top Russian, American and Saudi envoys held their first three-way meeting on Syria; Russian officials briefed Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem. He then met officials in Oman, whose ties to both Saudi Arabia and Iran raised the prospect of talks between those archrivals. Russia stopped blocking an international inquiry into who has used chemical weapons in Syria, a longstanding American priority.
The flurry of diplomacy suggests that Russia and the United States, whose differences have long jammed efforts to resolve the conflict, are making newly concerted strides toward goals they have long claimed to share: a political solution to Syria’s multisided civil war and better strategies to fight the Islamic State.
Russia has played the most prominent public role so far in the new diplomacy. Some analysts say that the discussion reflects a softening of the Obama administration’s long-held position that “Assad must go,” and a fear, shared with Russia, that the Islamic State could be the primary beneficiary if Mr. Assad’s government continues to weaken, as they expect, or even to collapse entirely, which they view as less likely but increasingly possible.
The Syrian government has been jarred by a series of defeats on the battlefield and difficulty recruiting for its forces, even among members of Mr. Assad’s minority Alawite sect. Having lost large sections of the country to the Islamic State and various rebel forces, it is concentrating its remaining military strength in the capital, Damascus, and other crucial cities in western Syria.
Mr. Assad’s opponents, too, have reason to reassess strategy; American efforts to build a proxy force in Syria have largely failed, insurgent groups have their own attrition problems, and Saudi Arabia and Turkey face political and security blowback at home.
As the military situation continues to deteriorate, the major powers are growing increasingly nervous. Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies and a vociferous critic of Mr. Assad, said the United States was letting Russia take the lead because “they don’t want to own this.” If anything, Mr. Hokayem added, “it’s the United States that has moved closer to Russia’s position” that Mr. Assad could be part of the transitional government that is the stated goal of any negotiations.
Regional news outlets have attributed the outburst of diplomatic activity to the aftermath of the tentative nuclear deal with Iran, which has “has thrown a great stone into the region’s waters,” as the Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad put it. The pan-Arab daily Rai al-Youm went so far as to declare that “a political resolution is taking shape with notable speed.”
But analysts in the region, across the political spectrum, strongly caution that no breakthroughs can be expected soon. Fundamental disconnects remain, and in the diplomatic dance, each side claims that its adversaries are coming around to its point of view.
Russian and Iranian officials suggest that Saudi Arabia, the United States and allies like Turkey are coming to realize that fighting terrorism is more important than ousting Mr. Assad, though Mr. Jubeir insisted after his meeting with Mr. Lavrov that “there is no place for Assad in the future of Syria.” Conversely, American and Turkish officials, who contend that his rule drives radicalism, say that Russia has grown more willing to see him replaced.
And even if real consensus can be reached, any agreement would have little meaning right now, when many forces on the ground still believe they can gain by fighting. Any deal that emerges would be likely to cover only the government-held western spine of Syria and parts of the south, where relatively moderate insurgents are strongest. It is virtually inconceivable that the Islamic State, entrenched in eastern Syria, or the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria and a powerful force in the northwest, would be included.
What is nonetheless taking place internationally is a shift in tone, a sense of movement below the surface. That alone is notable in a context of divides that can seem unbridgeable, after four and a half years of fighting that has killed at least a quarter-million people and driven the worst refugee crisis in a generation.
Of all the recent diplomatic exchanges and openings, none is more important than the apparent new spirit of cooperation between Russia and the United States. Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of a council that advises the Kremlin on foreign policy, said that conversations were returning to the topic of Syria after a year of exclusive focus on the Iran deal, with each side a bit “less firm” in its position.
“Saudi still believes that Assad should go, but now they are a little less sure that the alternative will be better,” he said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “Russia still believes he should stay, but cannot ignore that the general situation is changing, that the strategic position for Syria is much worse now than before.”
Senior American officials say Russian officials have appeared to be more open in recent weeks to discussions about replacing Mr. Assad. These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic deliberations, say Moscow is increasingly worried about Mr. Assad’s precarious position and the rise of extremist groups, which have recruited several thousand Russian citizens to fight in Syria.
But the discussions are tentative, and the officials said that if Russia someday agreed to broker a deal to move Mr. Assad aside, it would almost certainly insist on another Alawite, a member of Mr. Assad’s minority sect.
“It’s encouraging, but we’re still a long ways off,” said one senior American official.
Russian officials strongly deny their position has changed.
Mr. Hokayem and other analysts note the Obama administration has recently echoed some Russian positions, treating extremist groups as a more urgent threat than Mr. Assad, and saying that Iran, Syria’s close ally, would have to buy into any political solution.
That is how Syria’s government has framed the new diplomacy, with the deputy foreign minister, Fayssal al-Mekdad, calling it “a clear and explicit recognition from the countries leading the war on Syria that they have erred and must step back and take responsibility in this regard.”
There have been subtle shifts of diplomatic language that suggest the United States and its allies could even be backing off one of their main demands — that Mr. Assad step down as a prerequisite for forming a transitional government.
That has been the critical difference in how Russia and the United States interpret the internationally agreed Geneva framework, which calls for the transfer of power to a transitional government acceptable to all sides but does not specify whether Mr. Assad can be part of it. The United States and its allies have long said no; Russia says yes, adding that Mr. Assad’s departure cannot be a precondition for talks.
The pro-government newspaper Al Watan noted that at last week’s three-way meeting in Qatar, Secretary of State John Kerry did not repeat the American demand that Mr. Assad step aside. He declared only that the Syrian leader had “lost his legitimacy.”
And even the Saudi newspaper Al Watan — no connection to the Syrian one — used a notable phrase, saying that while Mr. Assad’s government was to blame for Syria’s troubles, a solution could come “ either by reforming it, or by removing it immediately, or in stages.”
Such shifts have driven an emerging theory about the outlines of an eventual compromise — albeit one that could take years to achieve.
The gist is that a new government would be formed including elements of the current government — perhaps including Mr. Assad for a finite period — and moderate Syrian opposition figures. The army would absorb some insurgents from relatively moderate groups. Alawites and majority Sunnis would both be represented.
Then, as the Syrian analyst Ibrahim Hamidi put it in the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, “the government and army will have the necessary political legitimacy and sectarian representation to ‘unite against terrorism.’ ”
That scenario fits in with a plan that Iran put forward amid last week’s flurry of meetings, calling for an immediate cease-fire, the formation of a national unity government, a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of all Syria’s ethnic and religious groups, and internationally supervised elections.
But how that would actually look would undoubtedly be hard to agree on.
As the Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad concluded, with grudges “dug deep over half a decade, with all the blood spilled and hatred that has been spread,” ending conflict among entrenched armed groups will mean “offering concessions and dealing in details, each one of which contains a thousand devils!”
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Hillary Clinton’s family foundation quietly updated its list of donors last week, significantly reducing the amount that it says has been given by a Mexican telecom tycoon whose company was recently accused of deceptive U.S. advertising.
The little-noticed update to the website of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation added contributions made in the first half of this year. But it also dramatically reduced listed contributions from billionaire Carlos Slim.
Prior to the update, Slim was listed as a $1 million to $5 million contributor. The updated version of the site says he has donated between $250,000 and $500,000.
A spokesman for the group declined to speak on the record about the change, but a foundation official who asked to remain anonymous acknowledged the change. “If needed, we correct the attribution on our list to accurately reflect the source of the support,” the official said.
The Clinton Foundation voluntarily discloses its donors, but the lack of any legal disclosure requirement makes it difficult to know whether its publicly available list of contributors is accurate and complete.
Slim, the world’s second-wealthiest man, runs a number of telecommunications companies in his native Mexico. One of them, TracFone, is a prominent U.S. federal government contractor. The company paid $40 million to the Federal Trade Commission in January to settle allegations of deceptive advertising practices.
TracFone has donated between $5 million and $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to its website.
Another Slim company, Inmobiliaria Carso, appeared on the Clinton Foundation’s donor lists for the first time this year. The company contributed between $1 million and $5 million, according to the foundation’s website.
A charitable group associated with Slim’s Telmex, which controls most of Mexico’s landline phone market, has donated another $1 million to $5 million, including contributions in 2015 (the dates of its contributions, and the extent of its support this year, are not known).
The foundation appears to have used the update to its website to correct other discrepancies in its donor rolls.
Clinton supporter Ira Lessfield was listed last year as a $250,000 to $500,000 donor. His Leesfield Foundation was listed as having given just $1,000 to $5,000. However, the latter’s tax filingsrevealed it has given at least $200,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
The updated donor list merges the two, putting “Ira H. Leesfield and Leesfield Family Charitable Foundation, Inc.” in the $250,000 to $500,000 category.
The website appears to have corrected a similar discrepancy with respect to Fred Eychaner, combining the Chicago media mogul’s personal and foundation giving into one line item.
Unlike the Eychaner and Lessfield updates, however, Slim’s revised contribution numbers reveal a new vehicle for his donations to the foundation in Inmobiliaria Carso, which had not previously appeared on the foundation’s donor list.
The company’s donations are also of note given controversy over ties between the foundation and the New York Times. Inmobiliaria Carso is the investment vehicle through which Slim owns his sizable stake in the New York Times Company, according to publicly available financial statements.
Slim did not respond to a request for comment made through his personal website.
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No matter how advanced, American aircraft can go only as fast as their less experienced, much slower partners on the ground: the Iraqi security forces.
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President Obama has railed against congressional Republicans for opposing his administration's nuclear deal with Iran to score partisan points, but the president has a bigger problem: The American public generally opposes it, too.
Polling since the agreement was announced July 14 has consistently shown more people opposing the accord than ...
WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite a track record of misjudgments about weapons of mass destruction, U.S. intelligence officials say they are confident they can verify Iran's compliance with the recently completed nuclear deal.
The main reason, according to a classified joint intelligence assessment presented to Congress, is that the deal requires ...
BEIJING (AP) - British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday that an international agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program could give impetus to efforts aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Hammond, who is in Beijing for talks on security cooperation and climate change, made the comments during a ...
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) further explained his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal that he announced last week, saying Monday that the inspections regime being trumpeted by the Obama administration had “lots of holes in it” and thus did not merit his support.
“This was one of the most difficult decisions that I had to make,” he said. “I studied it long and hard, read the agreement a whole bunch of times … I found the inspections regime not ‘anywhere, anytime’ but with lots of holes in it. Particularly troublesome, you have to wait 24 days before you inspect. That will allow some of the radioactivity to be seen but not nonradioactivity that goes into building a bomb, all of the kinds of other things that you need.”
Schumer is one of the Senate’s top Democrats and also one if its most prominent Jewish members. Schumer’s decision not to support Obama’s push for the nuclear deal was met with anger at the White House, with the suggestion that he may lose support to become the party’s Senate leader in 2016.
The White House is blocking the release of a Pentagon risk assessment of Russia’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, according to a senior House leader.
Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, disclosed the existence of the Pentagon assessment last month and said the report is needed for Congress’ efforts to address the problem in legislation.
“As we look to the near-term future, we need to consider how we’re going to respond to Russia’s INF violations,” Rogers said in an Air Force Association breakfast July 8. “Congress will not continue to tolerate the administration dithering on this issue.”
Rogers said the assessment was conducted by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, and noted that it outlines potential responses to the treaty breach.
However, Rogers noted that the assessment “seems to stay tied up in the White House.”
At the Pentagon, spokesman Capt. Greg Hicks said: “The Chairman’s assessment of Russia’s Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty violation is classified and not releasable to the public.”
Hicks said, however, that steps are being taking “across the government to address Russia’s violation of the treaty, including preserving military response options—but no decision has been made with regard to the type of response, if any.”
At the White House, a senior administration official said: “The United States continues to consider diplomatic, economic, and military responses to Russia’s violation of the INF Treaty.”
Adm. Cecil Haney, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said in Omaha recently that a range of options is being studied.
“Clearly as a nation, we have options and we explore those options,” Haney told the Washington Free Beacon, declining to provide details.
The four-star admiral who is in charge of U.S. nuclear and other strategic forces said he hopes the INF breach can be solved diplomatically.
“But clearly there are other options involving economics and as well as militarily that are considered,” he said July 29.
Haney said Russia has “walked away” from international norms and treaties and “that is very problematic.”
“While at the same time I get to see and witness [Russia’s] very forthright execution that is occurring with the New START treaty that they are adhering to completely, this piece on the INF treaty is very problematic and we have to continue to encourage Russia to get back into compliance with the treaty,” Haney said.
The treaty violation was first disclosed by the State Department last year and details remain shrouded in secrecy.
The Pentagon assessment likely reflects the sentiments of NATO commander Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who has stated that the INF violations “can’t go unanswered.”
“We need to first and foremost signal that we cannot accept this change and that, if this change is continued, that we will have to change the cost calculus for Russia in order to help them to find their way to a less bellicose position,” Breedlove said in April 2014.
Critics in Congress have charged that the administration covered up the violation for several years, including during debate on the 2010 New START arms treaty with Russia.
A department arms compliance report stated that the breach involved a new missile that violates the limits set by the treaty. The treaty bans holding, producing, or flight-testing ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges of between 310 miles and 3,418 miles.
Rogers was asked what steps Congress should take if the administration continues to ignore the treaty violation.
“Well, the fact is we haven’t been doing enough so far,” he said. “It was only about a year and a half ago that the administration finally acknowledged that Russia has been violating the INF Treaty. But we know they’ve been violating it for several years.”
Rogers said President Obama has stated “in his normal dilatory fashion,” that he has directed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to consider options for U.S. response.
“Those were given to him last December,” Rogers said. “The president is still pondering what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs told him we should do.”
The current defense authorization bill for Fiscal Year 2016 contains a requirement for the Pentagon to include anti-cruise missile defenses at bases built for that purpose in Poland and Romania, in response to the Russian violation.
The current bill would authorize $220.2 million for the missile defense base in Poland.
“What we are trying to do this year is put money in the budget for DoD to come up with some consequences that the Congress can implement to force some pain as a result of those actions,” Rogers said of the INF violation.
A House Armed Services Committee spokesman said the counter-INF violation provisions, including a requirement to protect the Polish and Romanian bases from Russian cruise missile attacks, is currently being debated in the House-Senate conference on the final bill.
The House report on the bill states that the defenses are needed to “provide defense against Russian aircraft and cruise missile attacks.”
“Russia has repeatedly threatened to attack these sites and the U.S. personnel who man them, and the Committee believes we have a moral obligation to defend our personnel against any threat,” the report said.
Additionally, the bill would direct the Pentagon to undertake research and development for responses to the INF violation.
The current legislation calls on the president to begin developing military capabilities that include unspecified “counterforce” weapons that would “prevent intermediate-range ground-launched ballistic missile and cruise missile attacks.
Also, the bill calls for building “countervailing strike capabilities” that also were not specified.
The bill states that the secretary of defense may use funds for research, development, testing, and evaluating responses recommended by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs that could be deployed in two years.
The legislation also would require a report to Congress within six months on the Pentagon’s plans for deploying new forces to counter the Russian INF violation.
Michaela Dodge, a military analyst with the Heritage Foundation, stated in a recent research report that the violation appears to involve Moscow’s development and testing of the R-500 cruise missile.
Moscow’s refusal to return to compliance with the accord indicates it should be abandoned.
“Russia’s aggressive and illegal behavior and the inability of the United States to bring Russia back into compliance with the INF Treaty indicate that the treaty has outlived its utility and is no longer in the U.S. interest,” she said.
Dodge said the president, State Department, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have raised the INF violations with Russian counterparts “to no avail.”
“The administration did not properly communicate deadlines to Russia for coming back into compliance with the treaty, and has failed to hold Russia accountable. As a consequence, Russian violations have gone unreported and unpunished for years,” Dodge said.
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Secretary of State John Kerry admitted Tuesday that Iran can purchase conventional weapons in violation of a current U.N. embargo without triggering snapback sanctions under the nuclear deal.
“If Iran violates the U.N. sanctions—the arms embargo, the restrictions on ballistic missile development—will there be a snapback of U.N. sanctions?” Reuters bureau chief Louis Charbonneau asked Kerry at an event hosted by the wire service.
“No,” Kerry said. “Specifically, the arms embargo is not tied to the snapback; it is tied to a separate set of obligations. So they are not in material breach of the nuclear agreement for violating the arms piece of it.”
The Iran deal—more accurately, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) considered by Congress—does not specify that the arms embargo is to be kept in place for five years. That stipulation only appears in the Security Council Resolution that affirmed the deal at the United Nations on July 20.
The U.N. resolution affirming the nuclear deal does not have the same enforcement mechanisms as the JCPOA, which means that Iran can effectively flout the arms embargo on day one without triggering consequences under the deal.
Reports indicate that Iran is already taking advantage of the loophole by shopping around for weapons despite the embargo.
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani visited Russia, the second-largest arms exporter in the world after the U.S., just days after the nuclear agreement was reached. It has been speculated that this trip was meant to facilitate further arms sales between the two countries.
Some of the weapons purchased by Iran in violation of the arms embargo will likely make their way to Iran’s proxies and allies, which include the Assad regime in Syria and the terrorist group Hezbollah.
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