Turkey's rising tension with Russia over Kurds puts Erdoğan in a corner - by Simon Tisdall
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Syrian Kurdish party opening a Moscow office marks new nadir in relations, and could lead to Turkish forces crossing border
Escalating tension between Russia and Turkey will reach a new high when the Democratic Union party (PYD), the leading Kurdish political organisation in north-eastern Syria, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group, opens a representative office in Moscow on Wednesday at Vladimir Putin’s personal invitation.
The development comes amid a dangerous tug-of-war between Russia and the US for power and influence in strategic areas along the Turkey-Syria border. Washington backs the Syrian Kurds in fighting Islamic State (Isis) jihadis. Moscow’s priority is to thwart western-backed efforts to topple Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime.
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RT |
'Worst in decades, no way to improve for now' – Kremlin on Russia-Turkey relations
RT And we regret to conclude so,” Peskov told journalists Thursday, adding that it's not Russia who is to blame for the current situation. He added that Turkey has committed “aggressively treacherous actions against Russia” in the recent months, alluding ... What does Russia want in Syria? 5 reasons Putin backs AssadCNN The Latest: Turkey criticizes Russia for bombing civiliansFox News Russia Shows 'Tremendous' Capabilities in Syria - US Defense Intel AgencySputnik International Press TV- Jerusalem Post Israel News- The Moscow Times (registration) all 2,958 news articles » |
WASHINGTON — Hackers, making good on a threat, published contact information for 20,000 FBIemployees Monday afternoon, just one day after posting similar data on almost 10,000 Department of Homeland Security ...
Computerworld |
DoJ fiddles while FBI & DHS burn (after trivial hack of US employee data)
Computerworld U.S. DHS and FBI staff see their directory info stolen by pro-Palestine hacktivists. The self-styled DotGovs group says it broke into DoJ networks to leech the data, via spear-phishing plus social engineering. The hackers also say they still have a ... Hackers publish contact info of 20000 FBI employeesCNN Justice, Homeland Security Probe Hack of DHS, FBI Employee DataNBCNews.com Hack Brief: Hacker Leaks the Info of Thousands of FBI and DHS EmployeesWIRED GeekWire -Motherboard -Mashable all 234 news articles » |
NBCNews.com |
Justice, Homeland Security Probe Hack of DHS, FBI Employee Data
NBCNews.com The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department are investigating a claim that personal data related to thousands of DHS and FBI employees was hacked and has been posted online, an agency spokesman said on Monday. The tech ... Hackers publish contact info of 20000 FBI employeesCNN DoJ fiddles while FBI & DHS burn (after trivial hack of US employee data)Computerworld Hack Brief: Hacker Leaks the Info of Thousands of FBI and DHS EmployeesWIRED GeekWire -Mashable -Gizmodo all 241 news articles » |
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Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified on Tuesday that Iran’s ballistic missile launches since the nuclear deal was inked last summer constituted a “deliberate message of defiance.”
Clapper told Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) during an Armed Services Committee hearing that he expects Iran will continue an “aggressive program to develop their missile force.”
“What do you make of the fact that the Iranians did in fact, post-JCPOA, in violation of existing U.N. resolutions, make two launches of ballistic missiles?” Ayotte asked. “I think you were asked about the sanctions that were put in place. Let’s just be clear. Those sanctions weren’t very tough. Do you think that those are going to deter Iran from continuing to develop its ICBM program?”
“Well, the Iranians have conducted some 140 launches since the original U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929. It was imposed in 2010,” Clapper said. “And so, 70 of those, about half of them, were done during the negotiations … As far as these two launches are concerned, I think this was a deliberate message of defiance, and that the Iranians are going to continue with their aggressive program to develop their missile force.”
Iran’s ballistic missile launches were banned in 2010 by the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929, and Fox News reported the day after Iran signed the nuclear deal with the U.S. and five other world powers, the U.N. passed Resolution 2231, “which compels Iran to refrain from any work on ballistic missiles for 8 years.”
The post Clapper: Iran’s Ballistic Missile Launches Are ‘Deliberate Message of Defiance’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
The US Navy is absorbing a $7 billion reduction in fiscal 2017 funding.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified to lawmakers Tuesday that Iran sees the nuclear deal it struck with the United States and five other world powers as a way to remove burdensome sanctions while simultaneously maintaining a strong nuclear infrastructure.
Clapper made his statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing in which the intelligence chief discussed the intelligence community’s annual assessment of worldwide threats to U.S. interests and national security.
Part of Clapper’s testimony focused on the threats posed by the Islamic Republic and how the Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), affects the country’s relationship with America going forward.
“Iran probably views the JCPOA as a means to remove sanctions while preserving nuclear capabilities,” Clapper told lawmakers.
He added that “Iran’s perception of how the JCPOA helps it achieve its overall strategic goals will dictate the level of its adherence to the agreement over time.”
The nuclear deal was signed in July and implemented on Jan. 16, at which time Iran received an estimated $50 billion to $150 billion in sanctions relief after it took steps to curb its nuclear program.
Some experts have said Iran’s objective throughout negotiations was to ensure the removal of sanctions that were crippling its economy while retaining a nuclear weapons capability to possibly exercise at a future time.
One argument critics of the JCPOA make is that the agreement grants Tehran large-scale sanctions relief while allowing it to have a vast nuclear infrastructure whose most important restrictions have clear expiration dates, after which time Iran could breakout to a nuclear weapon in little time.
The Obama administration maintains that the deal ensures Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and is at least a year away from producing one.
Clapper’s testimony comes upon his release of the annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” which outlines the current array of challenges threatening U.S. national security.
The report says the intelligence community “continue[s] to assess that Iran does not face any insurmountable technical barriers to producing a nuclear weapon, making Iran’s political will the central issue.”
Directly addressing Iran’s political will, the document adds that “Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei continues to view the United States as a major threat to Iran, and we assess that his views will not change, despite implementation of the JCPOA deal … Iran’s military and security services are keen to demonstrate that their regional power ambitions have not been altered by the JCPOA deal.”
The assessment also describes how Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is part of its “overarching strategic goals of enhancing its security, prestige, and regional influence.”
Beyond the nuclear deal, the intelligence assessment calls the Islamic Republic the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Clapper explained to lawmakers how Iran’s aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere is dangerous to American interests and national security, as well as its growing missile arsenal and cyber capabilities.
The intelligence community, according to its assessment, views Iran as “an enduring threat to US national interests” and a country that sees itself as leading an “axis of resistance” against American influence and the influence of U.S. allies.
“Tehran might even use American citizens detained when entering Iranian territories as bargaining pieces to achieve financial or political concessions in line with their strategic intentions,” the report added.
The post Clapper: Iran Views Deal as ‘Means to Remove Sanctions While Preserving Nuclear Capabilities’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Allentown Morning Call (blog) |
Scam alert: Callers impersonating FBI agents
Allentown Morning Call (blog) The FBI is the latest agency being impersonated by fraudsters trying to scare people into paying them. The agency's Philadelphia office issued a warning recently about the calls, which demand immediate payment for school loans, back taxes and parking ... and more » |
The IRS has kept $4.75 billion in overpayments from taxpayers who can no longer legally claim them back, according to an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
When a taxpayer sends a payment to the IRS, and the IRS is unable to determine which taxpayer’s account the payment is for, the money is applied to the unidentified remittance file. This usually happens when a taxpayer submits a payment to the IRS but does not file a tax return.
A rule within the IRS, known as the refund statute, puts a deadline on how long taxpayers can claim a refund on their overpayment of taxes. If the taxpayer doesn’t turn in a tax return to the IRS within that deadline, the payment is moved to the excess collection file.
Currently, the excess collection file holds $5.81 billion, a figure that has increased by 23 percent since January 2010. Eighty-two percent of that money, or $4.75 billion, consists of overpayments that can no longer be claimed by the taxpayer, because of deadline restrictions. The rest could be returned to taxpayers.
Because the excess collection file has grown in the past years, the audit was initiated to see whether the unapplied taxpayer credits were exposed to fraud and abuse and whether or not improper transactions had been efficiently prevented. The audit evaluated cases where taxpayer credits exceeding $15,000 were taken out of the excess collection file.
The audit found that IRS employees could inappropriately generate funds from the file due to insufficient controls within the system. In 24 cases of the 28 that were reviewed, there was no proof of taxpayer correspondence prior to a payment being made. The money reviewed in these 24 cases totaled $4 million.
“Without proper documentation, management does not have evidence to determine if the actions taken on the cases were appropriate,” states the audit. “These control weaknesses increase the risk that fraudulent or improper [excess collection file] transfers will not be prevented or detected.”
According to IRS policy, money within the excess collection file must remain there for up to seven years but should be purged from the system after that to reduce the likelihood of potential fraud. Yet, the audit found that overpayments were held in the excess collection file for longer than seven years, with some still there from the 1980s, 1970s, and even the 1960s. When asked by the auditors, the IRS could not explain why the credits were maintained for so long.
“Weaknesses in the administration of the [excess collection file] can create an environment in which unapplied taxpayer credits are vulnerable to loss and can either overstate or understate potential Government obligations,” states the report. “These control weaknesses increase the risk of undetected fraud.”
The IRS did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The post IRS Kept $4.75 Billion in Overpayments That Taxpayers Can No Longer Claim Backappeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told lawmakers Tuesday that Iran will purchase new, advanced Russian weapons systems after receiving large-scale sanctions relief with the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and will utilize these military capabilities in the Syrian civil war in the near future.
Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart made this statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom were on Capitol Hill to testify about the newly-release annual “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,” which details the current array of threats posed to American interests and national security.
During the congressional hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) asked Stewart to elaborate on an earlier comment he made that Iran “is unlikely in the short term to increase its military capability” with the estimated $50 billion to $150 billion it received in sanctions relief.
“It is unlikely immediately because I think the focus will be on internal economic gains,” Stewart said. “However, after 35 years of sanctions, Iran has developed … the most capable missile force in the region. It has extended its lethality, its accuracy. It has all the ranges covered. It can reach all of its regional targets.”
Stewart added that in the long term he “fully expects” Iran “ will invest some of the money into improving the rest of their military capabilities.”
Blumenthal asked how many years Stewart means by “long-term” and what the U.S. response should be to Iran’s growing asymmetrical and conventional military capabilities.
“The long term might not be as long as five years,” Stewart said in response. “We’ve already seen an agreement between Iran and Russia for the S-300 air defense system. We’re seeing Russia demonstrate tremendous capabilities as they’ve done their out-of-area deployment into Syria.”
The general described how “there’s lots of weapons technology being displayed, and I suspect within the next two to five years, we can expect Iran to invest in some of those weapons technology that’s being displayed on the Syrian battlefield by the Russians today.”
Iran has spent billions of dollars and deployed its own troops, Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, and recruited Shiite fighters from around the Middle East to support embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and ensure he remains in power.
Syria has been embroiled in a brutal civil war since 2011 when Assad fired on peaceful protesters to crush dissent, triggering a large uprising that has so far killed 250,000 people and created a refugee crisis with millions of people being forced from their homes.
The Syrian conflict has become the center of gravity in the Middle East, with regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Turkey aiding the opposition to Assad, creating a proxy war between Iran’s axis of influence and Sunni Arab states, as well as the Turks.
Assad’s forces were losing ground and the regime appeared on the verge of collapsing when Russia intervened militarily in September of 2015 to help the Syrian leader. Since then, Iran and Russia have formed an alliance of sorts and helped the Syrian regime retake territory and push back rebel forces, which include moderate, Western-backed entities as well as Sunni jihadist groups.
The United States has helped support some rebel forces, and President Obama has called for Assad to leave power since 2011. In recent months since the Russian intervention, however, Washington has softened its stance on Assad, saying he may have a political future in Syria within a transitional or national unity government of some kind.
As Iran and Russia are changing facts on the ground to give it leverage in ongoing diplomatic efforts led by Washington to end the civil war, the U.S. has had difficulty convincing the Syrian opposition to agree to sit down at negotiations with the Syrian regime.
Some analysts fear that the fighting may only get worse as Iran, Russia, and their allies gain more influence in the Middle East while the U.S. is perceived to be disengaging from the region.
The intelligence community’s annual threat assessment expressed concern that both Iran and Russia pose significant threats to the United States, as does the ramifications from the ongoing Syrian conflict, which includes the strengthening of the Islamic State jihadist group.
Beyond security cooperation, Russian companies more broadly are flocking to Iran to increase economic ties, indicating a relationship that extends beyond defense issues.
The post DIA Chief: I Expect Iran to Purchase New Russian Weapons and See Them in Syria in Two Years appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Reuters |
Cyber a top national security threat to US: intelligence director
Reuters WASHINGTON Disruptions in cyberspace and attacks by "homegrown" terrorists are the most imminent security threats facing the United States in 2016, James Clapper, the top U.S. intelligence official, told two Senate committees on Tuesday. In his annual ... US intel chief offers warning about N. Korea nuclear threatCBS News North Korea Has Resumed Weapons-Grade Nuke Work, Intel Chief SaysNBCNews.com Intelligence chief warns of threats from AIThe Hill ABC News all 186 news articles » |
The United States is sending hundreds of additional troops to the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where the Taliban is threatening to overrun several districts.
U.S. intelligence agencies said Tuesday that global instability will continue in 2016, as domestic terror threats persist and a number of weak countries throughout the Middle East and Asia face a risk of faltering.
U.S. Intelligence Chief: 'Assertive' Russia Will Keep Pressure On Ukraine in 2016 by support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL)
U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper says that Russia remains intent on pursuing an "assertive foreign policy" in 2016, including hampering Ukraine's Western aspirations.
American Marines in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2014 after withdrawing from a military complex in Helmand Province, where Afghan forces are now being pressed by the Taliban.
Dramatic video from an RAF aircraft shows the moment two Brimstone missiles hit a building controlled by Isil near Ramadi in Iraq
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US Spy Chief: N. Korea Has Restarted Plutonium Reactorby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
The U.S. spy chief told Congress Tuesday that North Korea has restarted a plutonium reactor that could provide fuel for nuclear weapons. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Pyongyang has been operating the reactor long enough that it could capture the plutonium from the reactor's spent fuel "within a matter of weeks to months." Clapper said North Korea has followed through on its 2013 announcement that it planned to restart its nuclear facilities,...
Turkey's Erdogan Issues Ultimatum to USby webdesk@voanews.com (Dorian Jones)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has issued an ultimatum to the United States to choose between Turkey and Syrian Kurds. U.S. forces have been working closely with the Syrian Kurdish group the PYD in the battle against Islamic State. The ultimatum followed a visit by the head of the anti-IS coalition, Bret McGurk, a week earlier to the Syrian town of Kobani, where he met with members of the PYD and its militia, the YPG. U.S. forces have been supporting the YPG in its...
Obama Proposes Controversial New Tax on Oilby webdesk@voanews.com (Jim Randle)
President Barack Obama has proposed a controversial new $10 a barrel tax on crude oil sold in the United States in the budget he presented to Congress Tuesday. He says the tax revenue would accelerate "a transition toward a cleaner energy economy" by improving transportation and boosting research and investment in "energy sources of tomorrow." Obama recently told journalists that oil prices are certain to eventually rise from their current low levels. That means...
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Damascus aims to secure Syria's border with Turkey and recapture the city of Aleppo with its latest military offensive, a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday.
People in the mostly Muslim north Caucasus say the Russian government’s often heavy-handed measures to head off the threat of terrorism at home are instead creating potential recruits for Islamic State.
2nd outside report says Mexico students not burned at dumpby E. Eduardo Castillo | AP
A group of Argentine forensic experts says it has determined there’s no biological or physical evidence to conclude that 43 students who disappeared in southern Mexico in 2014 were incinerated at a trash dump as government investigators initially claimed.
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Mexican authorities have arrested three suspects in the case of a 7-month-old baby who was shot and killed along with his parents as they left a convenience store in the city of Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca state.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - When Iran and the United States sealed the implementation of a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program with a prisoner exchange last month, Siamak Namazi was among the detainees some expected to be freed by the Iranian authorities.
ANKARA, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish soldier was killed and three wounded on Tuesday in clashes between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Cizre, the military said.
Turkey has summoned the U.S. ambassador to “convey unease” a day after the U.S. State Department spokesman said that, unlike Turkey, Washington doesn’t recognize Syrian Kurdish forces as “terrorists.”
Turkey has summoned the U.S. ambassador after a State Department spokesman said Washington did not regard Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be a terrorist organization.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test last month and launched a long-range rocket on Saturday, could begin to recover plutonium from a restarted nuclear reactor within weeks, the director of U.S. National Intelligence said on Tuesday.
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When it comes to sanctions relief for Russia, the last step might be the most difficult.
After the U.S. and Europe dangled the prospect of an easing of sanctions for the first time last month, the political deadlock in Ukraine and renewed tensions over Syria are dousing expectations of a breakthrough.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Russia, which is mired in its longest recession in at least two decades amid a collapse in oil prices to a 13-year low. Obstructing the way is a failure by both sides to implement their obligations under a peace deal signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk a year ago.
“The grim economic realities make a reset of relations with the West a dire necessity for Russia,” said Lilit Gevorgyan, senior economist at IHS Global Insight in London. While there’s “certainly a momentum” to push through the Minsk deal “as Russia is showing more flexibility, forced by the worrying economic outlook,” the “chances of a successful settlement of the conflict are not looking good, because a great deal of cooperation is required not only from Russia but also Ukraine.”
More than 9,000 people have died and several million fled their homes during nearly two years of fighting in eastern Ukraine that sparked the worst crisis between Russia and its former Cold War adversaries since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The European Union will review its sanctions in June, while the U.S. measures remain in place until repealed. The sanctions and plunging crude prices have pushed Russia toward a second year of recession, its worst contraction of the Putin era, with the ruble hitting record lows against the dollar and a ballooning budget deficit.
Shaky Truce
The Ukraine cease-fire remains shaky a year after the peace deal. International monitors last week warned of an increase in violence, while the insurgents are keeping observers out of border areas where Ukraine suspects heavy weapons and Russian troops remain. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, beset by economic troubles and divisions within his government, seems unable to deliver on a pledge to offer more autonomy to pro-Russian secessionists.
Hopes of greater cooperation between Russia and the West are also foundering after the collapse of Syrian peace talks last week as Europe faces an upsurge in refugees fleeing a Russian-backed offensive. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she’s “not just shocked but outraged” by the human suffering caused by the offensive, including Russian airstrikes.
There isn’t “any credible evidence” to support Merkel’s criticisms of Russia’s air campaign, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “We didn’t hear similar assessments two or three years ago about the barbaric actions of terrorists” in Syria, he said.
Munich Meetings
Russia is “engaged in two military operations, one in Ukraine and one in Syria” and it “wants some kind of resolution of both these crises,” William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said in a Bloomberg radio interview Monday. This comes as the plunge in oil prices is having “a devastating impact on a variety of different countries, most notably Russia.”
The U.S. and European states will seek to move the Ukraine peace process forward on the sidelines of this weekend’s annual Munich Security Conference, which Poroshenko and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are due to attend. Merkel, who together with French President Francois Hollande helped to negotiate the peace deal, was downbeat about the prospects for progress last week.
Poroshenko can’t muster the two-thirds majority in parliament for constitutional changes granting more powers to the separatists, with three of four parties in the ruling coalition opposed, a senior presidential official in Kiev said. The government suffered a new setback last week when Aivaras Abromavicius, its reform-minded economy minister, quit, complaining that his efforts to fight corruption were being sabotaged.
Troops, Talks
Russian officials say privately that they don’t expect any breakthrough. A senior European diplomat in Moscow said there’s skepticism about progress without a major compromise even though the Russians have begun to show they really want financial sanctions lifted.
Russia, which has opposed Ukraine’s efforts to move toward joining the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has denied U.S. and European accusations that it backed the insurgents with troops and weapons, though President Vladimir Putin said in December that some Russian military were in the neighboring country.
The Kremlin raised hopes that it wants the peace accord enforced by naming a political heavyweight with access to Putin, former parliament Speaker Boris Gryzlov, as its new envoy in December to a contact group charged with implementing the deal. Gryzlov went to Kiev to meet Poroshenko last month and that was followed by a series of meetings between the U.S., Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine to try to break the logjam. Still, the latest peace talks in late January failed to deliver progress, with the government in Kiev blaming Russia for delays in the accord’s implementation.
With major companies cut off from international financing and restrictions on its energy industry, Russia is “pretty desperate” to get the sanctions lifted, said Tim Ash, head of EMEA credit strategy at Nomura International Plc in London. The economy in 2016 will contract for a second year, by 0.7 percent, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Even so, the stalemate is hard to overcome, said Joerg Forbrig, senior program director at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in Berlin. “Russia still wants to get a Ukraine resolution on its terms,” Forbrig said. “But the Ukrainians are quite stubborn.”
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