WAR 06-06-2015-to-06-12-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

[Housecarl]

(166) 05-16-2015-to-05-22-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...22-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(167) 05-23-2015-to-05-29-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...29-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

(168) 05-30-2015-to-06-05-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...05-2015_____****THE****WINDS****of****WAR****

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For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.eurasiareview.com/06062015-middle-east-and-the-sectarian-divide-oped/

Middle East And The Sectarian Divide – OpEd

June 6, 2015
By Arab News
By Abdulrahman Al-Rashed

The Middle East is going through a chaotic phase. The situation is worse than what the region had witnessed during the two world wars. From primitive weapons like knives to the most high-tech ones like drones are currently being used in the ongoing regional conflicts.

The most dangerous of all these weapons is the use of religious rhetoric, as it is capable of mobilizing communities and brainwashing armies of young people willing to lay down their lives. It is similar to a nuclear bomb, as its impact is likely to be felt long after the end of the conflicts. The radiations emitted by the nuclear bombs killed many even after years they were dropped on the two ill-fated Japanese cities. The same could be predicted about sectarian wars. Their negative effects would be felt for decades to come.

Mesmerized by propaganda, people are lured into civil wars after centuries of coexistence. If you want to understand your opponent, put yourself in his shoes. Ever since their failure in Syria and the ever-worsening situation in Iraq; Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime have been keen on transmitting the sectarian bacteria to the Gulf countries.

Daesh, the terrorist organization, is using the same trick by inciting people (read its followers) against Shiites. Uncivilized people with a poor understanding of religion have been dragged into sectarian clashes. Unfortunately, many clerics have also fallen into this trap and knowingly or unknowingly promoting the interest of such deviant groups. That is exactly what Iran, the Syrian regime and Daesh want.

Those who are blindly engaged in the war do not understand that they are cheap soldiers unconsciously fighting against their own interests. They cannot see beyond the end of their nose. Sowing strife within communities through hate speech and websites would only lead to fighting in the streets and destruction of countries. Why do people destroy their homes with their own hands? This is willful ignorance, to say the least.

We have witnessed Sunni, Shiite and Alawite conflicts because of the exploitation of religion. Hezbollah, Daesh and Al-Qaeda are all political organizations with deviant ideologies. Violence is not limited to sectarian groups. It was used by Baathist, nationalist and communist parties, which hijacked planes, led suicide operations, booby-trapped cars and plotted assassinations. Most of their battles were directed against their own people such as the Abu Nidal group, which often targeted Palestinians and Arabs despite claiming to be anti-Israel. This applies to Al-Qaeda and Daesh today. Despite the similarities between leftist and anarchist organizations and the sectarian ones today, and despite their excessive use of violence — claiming that the end justifies the means — religion-driven groups are the most dangerous.

Political disagreements between countries could be resolved in one night, but the use of religion in conflicts causes deep wounds that are difficult to heal. That is why religious communities affected by war, such as in Iraq, will suffer for a long time.

The war in Syria was not religiously driven until the regime decided to classify it as such. The war against the Iraqi Baath party would have only been against its practices and crimes were it not for Iranian interference that led to a sectarian war. Daesh, like Hezbollah, is using sectarianism as a weapon to mobilize people.

Facing sectarian wars requires the awareness of those working in the religious field. They should be warned that they are being used by external forces to destroy their countries. This should not be tolerated.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.politico.eu/article/saudi-arabias-widening-war/

Saudi Arabia’s widening war

Obama is trying to make peace with Iran. The new Saudi king is on the course for war.

By Gary Sick | 6/6/15, 5:24 AM CET | Updated 5/6/15, 9:29 PM CET

The level of turmoil in the Middle East is greater than at any other time in my nearly fifty years of watching this region. Amid this perfect storm comes the most dramatic shift in Saudi policy since at least World War II — marking a critical turning point in Saudi Arabia’s relations with its historical protector, the United States, and with its neighbors in the Middle East. The Saudi regime’s insistence on seeing threats to the Kingdom in fundamentally sectarian terms — Sunni vs. Shia — will put it increasingly at odds with its American patrons and could lead the Middle East into a conflict comparable to Europe’s Thirty Years War, a continent-wide civil war over religion that decimated an entire culture.

Driving the Saudi strategy is fear of Iranian regional hegemony. This wariness of Iran is nothing new, but, since the early days of the Clinton administration, Saudi Arabia has been able to rely on Washington to contain Iran. The United States surrounded Iran with its bases and troops, and imposed ever-increasing economic punishment on the Iranian revolutionary state. This policy began after the George H.W. Bush administration completed its brilliant military victory over Saddam Hussein’s forces, and as the Soviet Union was collapsing, leaving the United States as the sole military power in the Persian Gulf.

The Clinton administration had briefly considered balancing Iran or Iraq against the other as a way to maintain a degree of regional stability and to protect the smaller, oil-rich Arab states on the southern side of the Gulf. Policy of this sort had prevailed for the two decades prior to the Persian Gulf War. However, Martin Indyk, chief of Middle East policy at Clinton’s National Security Council, formally rejected this policy and announced a new “dual containment” policy. With Iraq boxed in by UN sanctions, and Iran nearly prostrate after eight years of war with Iraq, the United States had the “means to counter both the Iraqi and Iranian regimes,” declared Indyk. Now, he said, “we don’t need to rely on one to balance the other.”

The U.S. attempt to contain Iraq effectively ended when the Iraq War began. But United States continued its containment strategy with Iran. This U.S. task became more difficult after the George W. Bush administration invaded Afghanistan and scattered the Taliban, Iran’s worst enemy to the east, and then attacked Saddam Hussein, Iran’s worst enemy to the west, and replaced him with a Shia government that was friendly to Iran. Although Iran’s contribution to this process was minimal, it became almost overnight the most influential state in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s regional influence continued to expand even as the United States applied ever-heavier sanctions.

Importantly, the US installation of a Shia government in Iraq also gave credence to the notion of an ongoing Iranian takeover of the Middle East and to the explanation of much of the turmoil that followed as a sectarian war inflamed by Iran. This perception has likely fed into Saudi Arabia’s momentous strategic reassessment.

President Obama is in the process of replacing the policy of containment with a policy of limited engagement with Iran. In effect, the United States has indicated that it will no longer be responsible for keeping Iran in “a box,” to use the metaphor Madeleine Albright applied to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. This policy shift has attracted vociferous opposition from almost every regional state, from Israel to Saudi Arabia. Countries in the region long ago grew accustomed to the U.S. acting as the regional sheriff, single-handedly ensuring that Iran remained isolated, politically neutralized and under pressure.

The Sunni Arab states of the region, ironically, adopted the rhetoric of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Iran was actively seeking development of a nuclear weapon and that would potentially represent a threat to any state that opposed Iran’s actions in the region. Partly in response to such concerns, the United States pursued negotiations to cut off Iranian access to a nuclear weapon. To the surprise of almost everyone, that effort resulted in a detailed preliminary agreement in November 2013 and a formal declaration of the parameters of a final agreement in Lausanne on April 2, 2015. The drafting of the final agreement is well underway.

Although this prospective agreement would dramatically reduce the likelihood of Iran developing a nuclear weapon, the reaction to it from Israel and the Arab Gulf states has been close to hysteria. This reaction strongly suggests that the underlying concern of the Gulf states, and of Israel, was not really the danger of Iranian nuclear weapons, but rather the threat of Iran’s burgeoning political influence in the region, from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon and lately even to impoverished Yemen. Apparently the fear was that the relief from sanctions, along with Iran’s demonstration of skill in negotiating an agreement with the most powerful nations on earth, would enhance Iran’s political influence throughout the region.

Israel’s security elite has for the most part rejected Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cries of imminent peril, and the top Arab leaders of the Gulf apparently found reassurance in their recent meeting with President Obama at the White House and Camp David. In reality, neither the Arabs nor Israel has any practical alternative to alliance with the United States. Still, resistance to Obama’s policy shift remains very powerful in the U.S. Congress, in the Israeli leadership and in a skeptical Sunni Arab world that sees its interests and regional influence at risk in the face of an ascendant Iran.

Given the specter of a rising Iran, and a US shift from a policy of containment to partial engagement, it’s not surprising that Saudi Arabia would re-evaluate its foreign policy. But the speed of the strategic shift, and its magnitude, have been stunning.

For many decades, Saudi Arabia had played the classic role of a weak state with a single compelling resource — oil money. It cultivated powerful protectors and used its influence behind the scenes to promote outcomes that it could not hope to produce on its own. Saudi caution was legendary, and with a very few prominent exceptions it avoided taking the lead or putting itself out in front of controversial policies.

Indeed, the United States and many other countries owe a great deal to the sober and conscientious policies that Saudi Arabia has followed, particularly with regard to all-important oil policies. I’m sure that every serious Middle East observer could find examples of what they would regard as Saudi missteps or missed opportunities. But what other authoritarian state in that troubled region would you chose to manage a pool of resources with profound effect on every person and every economy in the world?

That quiet diligence appears to be vanishing after a change at the helm — the succession to the throne of King Salman and his installation of a notably young array of deputies and ministers. Within only the first three months of his reign, the new king has transformed the structure of the Saudi government and has resolved what most Saudi watchers considered the most complicated issue facing the Kingdom — how to make the leap from the old generation (the sons of the founding king) to the next generation. For the past 83 years, the Saudi crown has been passed from brother to brother rather than from father to son. King Salman, at 79, will likely be the last of his generation to rule.

The new crown prince, the King’s nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, is fifty-five and the deputy crown prince — the King’s favorite son Mohammed bin Salman — is about thirty. These two not only command the line of succession but also, via two new super-committees, are in charge of virtually every major institution in the Kingdom (with the key exception of the National Guard). The younger generation has gone almost instantly from being princes-in-waiting to controlling the main elements of power in the Kingdom.

With that power, the new regime almost immediately launched a military initiative in Yemen that will likely come back to haunt it and may set in motion forces that threaten its very survival. Saudi Arabia spends more per capita on its military and security forces than virtually any other country in the world, but that very expensive instrument had seldom been put to the test. The decision to build an international coalition and launch a full-fledged air campaign in Yemen against the Houthi rebels was a remarkable departure.

This initiative is intriguing in more than one way. First, the controversial decision was taken with no apparent consensus building or even consultation within the Royal Family. So were other critical decisions. (The replacement of the previous Crown Prince was accomplished and announced in the middle of the night.) No one doubts the King’s authority to deploy force, but such a critical decision in the past would have been at least shared with other key members of the sprawling Royal Family.

There are also questions about military strategy. The Houthis are a tribal militia in collaboration with some segments of the Yemeni armed forces. The wisdom of trying to defeat such a group by bombing is dubious. As the United States learned in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no substitute for ground forces when it comes to taking and holding territory. But Saudi Arabia has discovered that neither of its principal coalition partners— Egypt and Pakistan — was willing to commit ground forces, further evidence that this campaign was hastily conceived.

Sadly, and perhaps predictably, the most significant accomplishment of weeks of bombing has been the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the deaths of many innocent people, and the creation of a massive humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the world. The Houthis control more territory today than they did at the start of the campaign, and the level of brutality in the conflict has grown rapidly. In humanitarian terms, Yemen is the new Syria.

The objective of the Saudi campaign seems to be to show strength against Iran wherever its hand appears, even if that hand’s actual influence is unclear. Iran does support the Houthis, but that does not necessarily translate into control, and Iran is reported to have counseled the Houthis against overthrowing the Yemeni government, only to be ignored.

Already this attempt to counter a perceived Iranian threat has come at a cost to Saudi Arabia’s security, strengthening its enemy Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). With US counterinsurgency operations against AQAP having waned amid the chaos in Yemen, the Houthis are the main bulwark against AQAP. And with the Houthis under siege by the Saudi alliance, AQAP has managed to gain control of a southern regional capital in Yemen.

All of this suggests that Saudi Arabia now places the threat of Iran’s growing political influence, and its association with non-Sunni minorities, above the threat of radical Sunni Islamism as manifest in Al Qaeda, ISIL, and other groups. Further evidence of this unarticulated doctrine can be found in Saudi Arabia’s unwillingness to assist the U.S. coalition fighting ISIL in Iraq on the grounds that this would strengthen the hand of a Shia government in Baghdad that is friendly to Iran.

Of course, the past year isn’t the first time Saudis have indicated that they fear Iran more than they fear radical Sunni Islamism. For several years now the Kingdom has supported radical Sunnis in Syria who are fighting to overthrow an Iranian ally, Bashar al-Assad. But this prioritization of the Shia over the Sunni threat now has region-wide manifestations and, in Yemen, features the open use of Saudi military force. We seem to be entering a new era.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to place the political threat from Iran above the actual military and ideological threat from radical Sunni Islamism is questionable at best. Both Al Qaeda and the self-styled Caliph of the Islamic State have openly proclaimed their intent to overthrow the corrupt Saudi royal family and take control of the two holy places — Mecca and Medina — that define the Islamic credentials of Saudi rule. Indeed only last week ISIL claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia that killed more than 20 people.

This threat from radical Sunni Islamism is the only credible external threat to Saudi independence and territorial integrity. No other movement, state or institution in the Middle East has undertaken anything remotely like this concerted anti-Saudi campaign. The Iranian regime has never evinced an aspiration to destabilize, much less attack, Saudi Arabia or any other Sunni state. Iran’s horrific eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s came in response to an outright invasion by Saddam Hussein, explicitly supported and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies.

Today, Saudi Arabia, together with Qatar and Turkey, is supporting and funding radical Sunni Islamists in Syria (Nusra Front and other al-Qaeda affiliates). This effort may well achieve its goal of overthrowing the Assad regime, or at least carve out a mini Sunni state within Syria, but the result would be to empower a vicious and uncontrollable coalition of extremists whose policies make them essentially indistinguishable from ISIL. Deposing Assad will not end the Syrian civil war; it will simply reverse the players, turning many current regime supporters into insurgents while fueling a contest for supremacy among the Al-Qaeda militias and ISIL.

The world is rightly appalled at Assad’s indiscriminate use of chlorine gas and barrel bombs, but there is no reason to believe that an ISIL-like replacement government (or rival governments) in Syria would be more humane or show greater restraint. And Syria’s conflicts on its borders — particularly with Lebanon and Iraq, but also potentially with Turkey, Jordan and Israel — would not subside once radical Islamist forces were entrenched in Syrian territory.

Just as US and Saudi support for the mujahideen in Afghanistan came back to haunt America in the form of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, those who have been encouraging Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria will not be immune to the inevitable blowback. It is an illusion to believe that these groups can be contained or controlled by their paymasters and arms suppliers.

Perhaps most worrying of all, some influential Saudis are envisioning a much wider campaign against Iran if not, indeed, against the Shia more broadly. Veteran Saudi columnist Jamal al-Khashoggi has called for a Saudi jihad that “expels sectarian Iran from our world,” takes the Afghan mujahedeen as a model, and pursues “dialogue with moderate forces in Al-Qaeda such as Al-Nusra Front.” And former Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Bandar told a senior British security official, with regard to the Shia, “more than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them.”

Antipathy toward Persians and Shia is nothing new in Saudi Arabia or other lands where the austere Wahhabi doctrine is preached and practiced. However, that has not prevented private social interaction and intermarriage among Sunnis and Shia over the centuries, and it has even permitted political cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Iran on occasion. The new Saudi leadership, by casting its policies in starkly sectarian terms, appears to be burning those bridges. They will be very difficult to rebuild.

The United States seems tempted to lend support to these new Saudi policies — or at least to look the other way — in an effort to win support for the prospective nuclear agreement with Iran. This may seem to be an acceptable price to pay for short term political goals. But that is an illusion. The sectarian hatreds being unleashed today in the Middle East will not simply vanish when they cease to be convenient. This is a long game, and the countries involved need to understand that the consequences of their actions will be felt for generations.

Gary Sick, a scholar at Columbia University, served on the National Security Council under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. This article is published in collaboration with the American Foreign Policy Project.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-...onals-to-make-chemical-weapons-bishop/6527020

Islamic State recruiting 'highly trained professionals' to manufacture chemical weapons, Julie Bishop warns

By political reporter Jane Norman

Updated about 5 hours ago

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has warned the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group is recruiting "highly trained professionals" to make chemical weapons and has already used chlorine in an attack.

Addressing the Australia Group in Perth overnight, Ms Bishop ramped up her warnings about IS, also known as Daesh, describing the group as one of the "gravest security threats we face today".

"They seek to undermine and overthrow that order and as we have seen, are prepared to use any and all means, any and all forms of violence they can think of to advance their demented cause," she said.

"That includes use of chemical weapons."

Ms Bishop said the use of chlorine by IS and the recruitment of "highly technically trained professionals", including from the West, revealed serious efforts to develop chemical weapons.

"Daesh is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons," she said.

Cabinet Minister Mathias Cormann said it would be "absolutely terrible" if IS was able to get hold of "chemical, biological or, even worse, nuclear weapons".

"Countries around the world that are as committed as we are to defeating this threat have got to continue working together to make sure this doesn't happen," he said.

Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen described the reports as "very concerning" and said the Opposition would be seeking a briefing on the developments.

"Of course the Labor Party has given full bipartisan support to measures from the Australian Government to lend support to the government of Iraq to deal with the scourge of Daesh and that would continue and, of course, I would have thought we would get a briefing on these latest developments as a matter of some urgency," he said.

Ms Bishop was speaking at the 30th anniversary of the Australia Group which is an informal alliance of countries that seeks to prevent the export of materials that can be used in the development of chemical weapons.

She told the forum that despite ongoing efforts, "we have not yet won the struggle against the ruthless and amoral individuals, organisations, and regimes that seek to develop and deploy such weapons".

"Chemical weapons often receive less public attention than nuclear and biological threats," she said.

"However, toxic chemicals were, by far, the most widely used and proliferated weapons of mass destruction in the 20th century."

More than 100 Australians are believed to be fighting alongside the IS group in Syria and Iraq and the Government believes another 150 are supporting them at home.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm.......

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Eco...Abe-picks-Mie-over-Hiroshima-for-2016-meeting

June 6, 2015 12:36 am JST
G-7 summit

Abe picks Mie over Hiroshima for 2016 meeting

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday that next year's Group of Seven summit will take place in Mie Prefecture, southwest of Nagoya.

Mie, home to the traditional Shinto site Ise Grand Shrine, "will let the world leaders get a feel for Japan's beautiful nature, rich culture and traditions," Abe told reporters at Tokyo's Haneda airport before leaving for Ukraine and then Germany, where he will attend this year's G-7 summit. The Ise-Shima area often welcomes the royal family and the prime minister, so the local police have ample experience in security for high-profile visitors.

Geographical advantages were also a factor. The area's proximity to Chubu International Airport makes it possible for summit participants to reach the venue in helicopters, and Kashikojima island -- slated to be the main site -- is reached from land by only two bridges, making access restrictions easy.

In fact, Mie was the last to step forward among eight candidate localities. Prefectural Gov. Eikei Suzuki initially sought to host minister-level meetings and not the summit. But Abe strongly suggested that Mie be considered when he visited the Ise Shrine this past January.

Mie vs. Hiroshima

Hiroshima was another key candidate, as Abe sought to send a political message in selecting a venue. The 2016 summit will coincide with the upper house election period, so whether he can take advantage of the occasion to garner public support is a key consideration for Abe.

With this year marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, he apparently wanted to host the summit in Hiroshima, where the atomic bomb was dropped, along with Nagasaki, thereby sending a message for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

At the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty held in New York last month, Japan tried to incorporate in the conference text that world leaders should be encouraged to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This did not materialize amid opposition from China.

A Hiroshima summit would have given Abe another opportunity. Due to reservations from other countries such as the U.S., however, Mie was picked instead.

Besides Hiroshima and Mie, Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture and Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture were also contenders. By late May, Abe had apparently narrowed the choice to Hiroshima or Mie.

Abe and his G-7 counterparts are meeting in Germany for this year's summit on Sunday and Monday. The Japanese government will soon set up a task force to prepare for next year's event.

(Nikkei)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinker...e-g7-s-growing-global-security-role-1.1530321

Summit will underline G7’s growing global security role

By Andrew Hammond, Special to Gulf News
Published: 16:40 June 5, 2015

The G7 summit in Dresden, Germany, which starts tomorrow, comes at a moment of growing international alarm over the Greek crisis. While the issue is not formally on the agenda, it will be a key area of discussion, including on the sidelines of the meeting, given the continued possibility of a default by Athens and potential exit from the Eurozone (Grexit). (Yesterday, Greece skipped 305 million euros, or Dh1.25 billion euros, payment to the International Monetary Fund.)

For the second year running, it will be only the G7 (US, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy) rather than the wider G8 (which includes Russia) which meets. Russia had joined the summits from 1997 to 2013, but following the annexation of Crimea last year, Moscow will only be allowed to rejoin if “it changes course and an environment is once again created in which it is possible for the G8 to hold reasonable discussions”.

This year’s G7 summit has a significant economic agenda, including fighting tax evasion. However, geopolitical issues will also feature prominently from Ukraine and energy security, through to enhancing cross-border coordination on terrorist funding, including by asset freezes.

The latter issue is prominently on the minds of world leaders, following increasing use by terrorists, including Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), of a broader range of financing methods to raise and transfer money. These span the use of digital or virtual currencies, through to the trading of sometimes very expensive antiquities. It is estimated that Daesh had around $2 billion (Dh7.35 billion) of assets at its disposal last year and perhaps more now. For instance, the group reportedly took last year some $36 million of assets, including antiquities, from Al Nabuk alone, in the Qalamoun mountain area to the west of Damascus.

Germany is keen to secure G7 support for the clampdown, following a similar push it made with France earlier this year to expand controls on terrorist financing flows within the European Union (EU). The European-level measures that Paris and Berlin are advocating include Brussels developing an EU ‘asset freeze system’ to coordinate national enforcement; enhancements to Europe’s exchange of banking information; and coordinated EU action on flows of precious metals and stones sales.

As well as the terrorist initiatives under discussion, Ukraine remains high on the G7 agenda given the fragile ceasefire between pro-Moscow forces and pro-Kiev fighters. Underlining yet again the key orchestration role that the G7 has played in the West’s response to the crisis, G7 finance ministers last week gave their support to Ukraine in talks to restructure its debt and at least one G7 leader (Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will host the 2016 G7 summit) will meet President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev before the Dresden meeting.

Some differences remain between G7 leaders on Ukraine, for instance over potential intensification of the sanctions regime against Moscow. However, they will all be keen to use the summit platform to bolster the Kiev government’s position, given that the situation in the country could yet deteriorate significantly in the coming months.

The prominence of such geopolitical issues in G7 meetings underlines the organisation’s growing, and often under-appreciated, importance as an international security lynchpin. This despite the fact that the group (which began as the G6, without Canada) was originally conceived in the 1970s to monitor developments in world economy and assess macroeconomic policies.

This growing track record of international security initiatives has come not without criticism. Some, for instance, highlight that the G7 lacks the legitimacy of the United Nations, and/or is a historical artefact given the rise of new economic powers, including China, India and Brazil, which have larger economies than many existing G7 members.

An early example of the potentially powerful security role that the G7 can play was in the 1970s and 1980s when it helped coordinate western strategy towards the then-Soviet Union. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, the G8 assumed a key role in the US-led ‘campaign against terrorism’.

This began with coordinated activities helping to root out sources of finance for terrorism, a topic which has assumed prominence again with the rise of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. Later, a ‘Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction’ was launched by G8.

The latter initiative was aimed primarily at preventing the spread of nuclear material from the former Soviet Union. G8 leaders also committed to “prevent terrorists, or those who harbour them, from acquiring or developing nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological weapons; missiles; and related materials, equipment and technology”.

This included the interdiction of missiles and suspected components of weapons of mass destruction during transportation. Reflecting the George W. Bush administration’s concern about missile sales, particularly by North Korea, this measure was intended to stop proliferation of the technologies needed to produce weapons of mass destruction.

However, the G8 played perhaps its most important security role to date, aside from Ukraine, during the Kosovo crisis of 1999. Following unsuccessful efforts to seek agreement in the UN Security Council, a compromise was ultimately reached between the West and Russia in the G8. Foreign ministers then drew up a resolution that was swiftly agreed upon by the UN Security Council.

Taken overall, this track record underlines that the G7’s role as an international security actor will continue and could yet grow in significance. This may be especially likely if the situation deteriorates badly in Ukraine in the coming months, which could require intensification of European and US sanctions against its former G8 partner, Russia. Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS (the Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy) at the London School of Economics, and a former UK Government Special Adviser

 

[Housecarl]

War Breaks Out on Border: USA Chopper Struck by Gunfire from Mexico
Started by JohnGaltfla‎, Today 03:47 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...der-USA-Chopper-Struck-by-Gunfire-from-Mexico

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...ots-fired-at-border-patrol-copter-near-mexico

June 06, 2015, 11:04 am

Shots fired at border patrol copter near Mexico

By Mark Hensch
Comments 46

Shots were fired at a Customs and Border Protection (CPB) helicopter flying Friday evening over the border between Texas and Mexico, according to reports.

Officials said gunfire erupted around 5:30 p.m. local time near the Rio Grande River in North Laredo, according to the local NBC News affiliate.

Witnesses reported the shots coming from Mexico’s side of the border.

Five shots were fired, but just two struck the aircraft.

Border Patrol spokesperson Sara Melendez said Friday evening that no one was injured and the helicopter landed safely, according to The Laredo Morning Times.

NBC News’ local affiliate said the shooting’s proximity to international boundaries had pulled the border patrol’s main headquarters into the incident.

Local law enforcement officials helped secure the area, it added, but federal entities will handle the case going forward.

The news station said the scene took place at the intersection of Aguero and Bernadette Lane near the Wolf Creek subdivision in North Laredo.

Police were guarding the area near the Rio Grande riverbank when the helicopter was fired upon, it said.

The aircraft was making its third pass of the region when shots rang out.

“They did about two turns, and then they just flew away,” area resident Juan Maya told NBC News’ affiliate.

“Then maybe ten minutes later it came back but it was a lot higher,” he said.

Adriana Alvarez, another area resident, said Friday evening the incident was unusual for North Laredo.

“Well, we’ve always had helicopters around here, but there’s never been a shooting or anything,” she said. “Because here it’s always very peaceful.”

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.gulf-times.com/us-latin ...blight-mexico-polls-as-govt-fails-on-security

Murders blight Mexico polls as govt fails on security

10:11 PM
5 June 2015
Reuters/Acapulco, Mexico

Violence in the run-up to Mexico’s mid-term elections this weekend has killed at least seven candidates and forced another 20 out of the race, battering the government’s record on law and order.

Drug gangs battling for control of Pacific coast trafficking routes have murdered or intimidated candidates, while militant teachers opposed to education reforms have threatened to sabotage voting stations in much of southwestern Mexico.

The violence flies in the face of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s pledge when he took office in December 2012 that his government would restore order to the country.
Fear has hamstrung candidates and voters alike across vast swathes of Mexico.

“I watch where I go, who I go with, and when I go,” Hector Astudillo, gubernatorial candidate for Pena Nieto’s ruling party in the state of Guerrero, said in the beach resort of Acapulco, one of Mexico’s most violent cities.

Guerrero, where 43 trainee teachers were abducted and almost certainly massacred last year by a drug cartel in league with local police, has been hardest hit by the electoral violence, in spite of pledges by Pena Nieto to restore order there.

In Chilapa, a few miles east of the college where the 43 trainee teachers studied, the PRI candidate for mayor was shot dead by armed men at the start of May. To the northeast, in Ahuacuotzingo, a woman running for mayor for a rival party was decapitated by suspected drug gangsters earlier in the race.

At least 20 other people went missing in May in Chilapa. After the murder of PRI mayoral candidate Ulises Fabian Quiroz campaigning all but petered out in the lawless area where drug trafficking has long been a favoured escape route from poverty.

Along with the seven candidates, at least nine campaign officials have been killed in different areas of the country.

“These are the dirtiest elections since the advent of democracy in Mexico,” said Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Still, in Sunday’s legislative elections, polls forecast the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, should retain a slim working majority in the lower house of Congress, partly as the main opposition parties are riven by division.

Pena Nieto is a few seats short of a majority in the Senate, which is not up for re-election until 2018.

Under his presidency, the murder rate has fallen in troubled parts of northern Mexico, but violence has jumped in western areas, including the country’s second biggest city, Guadalajara.

On May 1, a drug gang staged a string of concerted blockades and attacks around the city, and shot down a military helicopter in another part of the same state. Three weeks later, the government hit the gang hard, killing 42 suspected members.

Not only a worry to investors who could help lift Mexico’s misfiring economy, the violence is eroding faith in the country’s political parties. Independent candidates have begun to push the PRI hard in traditional bastions.

The lower house of Congress, nine state governorships and more than 1,000 posts in state legislatures and mayors’ offices are up for grabs in tomorrow’s election, which has also been hit by violent protests by teaching unions who oppose teacher evaluations, a central plank of Pena Nieto’s education reform.

Trying to calm the protests, the government abruptly suspended the measure last week.

 

[Housecarl]

Afghanistan Starts to Fall: Taliban captures district in northeast Afghanistan
Started by JohnGaltflaý, Today 04:12 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...an-captures-district-in-northeast-Afghanistan

Goes to something that's been repeatedly stated on this board. You can't "fix" Afghanistan without Pakistan getting straightened out. TPTB in Islamabad see the Taliban as a tool to be manipulated for their own advantage. Until they are completely "disabused" of that line of thinking the Taliban are going to get support and sanctuary in and from Pakistan. Without it, these guys can't prosper.

__

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.newindianexpress.com/wor...Warns-Islamabad/2015/06/06/article2852880.ece

Stop Backing Afghan Taliban, Kabul Warns Islamabad

By IANS
Published: 06th June 2015 10:01 PM
Last Updated: 06th June 2015 10:01 PM

ISLAMABAD: In a sign that Afghanistan is rethinking its outreach efforts to Pakistan, President Ashraf Ghani has demanded that Islamabad end its longstanding support for the Afghan Taliban.

In a letter to Pakistani civilian and military leaders, Ghani has requested specific steps to end the Taliban's sanctuary in their country and help in addressing their violent campaign inside Afghanistan.

Sources at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul have confirmed that Ghani wrote a letter to Pakistani leaders this week asking them to prove their sincerity in backing the Afghan peace process by taking seven steps in the next three weeks.

"Islamabad should issue an official declaration condemning the launch of the Taliban (spring) offensive," an Afghan official familiar with the letter told RFE/RL's Gandhara website on Saturday.

Pakistan should "extend counter-terrorism operations to the Haqqani network and arrest those responsible for the recent terrorist activities inside Afghanistan", the official said.

In one of the most revealing demands, Ghani has asked Pakistan's military leadership to issue a "directive" to deny sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban.

For the past 14 years, Kabul and its Western allies have accused the Pakistani military of turning a blind eye or even supporting the remnants of the Afghan Taliban regime hiding in and operating from Pakistan.

Another major demand included "placing Quetta and Peshawar shura (the Taliban leadership council) members under house arrest and initiating legal proceedings against them for threatening security of friendly states", said the official, who requested anonymity.

He said Ghani has also asked Islamabad to agree to an exchange of prisoners, deny Taliban combatants medical treatment inside Pakistan, and limit the sale of fertilisers and electrical switches that can be used in detonating improvised explosive devices (IEDs) -- a common killer of Afghan troops and civilians.

The letter was a marked turnaround for the Afghan leader, who made cultivating a cooperative, bilateral relationship with Pakistan one of his key foreign policy initiatives -- and a way of ending his country's decades-old war -- after assuming office in September.

During the past seven months, Ghani has worked hard to improve relations between the two neighbours from what he termed "undeclared hostilities" by clandestinely nudging insurgents toward friendship by invoking regional cooperation and trust between the two nations.

To address Pakistani suspicions, he has toned down Afghanistan's traditional alliance with India and even attempted unprecedented security cooperation with Islamabad despite facing a crescendo of domestic opposition.

Pakistani civilian and military leaders, however, have made pragmatic statements. Afghan officials were elated when Pakistan's powerful army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, declared that the "enemies of Afghanistan are enemies of Pakistan" during a visit to Kabul in February.

But their hopes of seeing decisive action against the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan were dashed when the insurgents announced their spring offensive on April 24.

With the start of the Taliban "Azm" (determination) campaign, insecurity rapidly increased as the Taliban turned to more conventional tactics in an effort to control territory.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.ibtimes.com/taliban-captures-remote-district-northeast-afghanistan-1955532

Taliban Captures Remote District In Northeast Afghanistan

By Amy Nordrum †y@amynordrum ‰Òa.nordrum@ibtimes.com on June 06 2015 12:16 PM EDT

Hundreds of Taliban fighters launched an attack on a district headquarters in a remote province in northeastern Afghanistan early Saturday. Seven hours later, the Islamic fundamentalist group had seized control, allowing the Taliban to claim a quick success during its annual spring offensive to expand its territory.

However, Afghanistan government reinforcements are already gearing up to assist the local police force and reclaim Yamgan district in Badakhshan province from the fighters, Al Jazeera reported. Last year, the Taliban secured the same territory, but lost it in subsequent battles with government forces, the New York Times said.

As Afghanistan¡¦s government took aim at the Taliban Saturday, Sediq Sediqqi, a representative of the country¡¦s Ministry of Interior Affairs, posted on Twitter :

Between seven and 10 police officers were killed in Saturday¡¦s fight, which was led by Maulavi Amanuddin, the Taliban¡¦s leader in Badakhshan province, the New York Times reported. The mountainous district, bordering China and Pakistan, is a largely roadless and sparsely populated area of the country.

800px-Badakhshan_in_Afghanistan

Highlighted in red is Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. Wikimedia Commons

Civilians in the area are also at risk -- their casualties during ground offensives in the country rose by 8 percent in the first quarter of 2015, compared with the same period in 2014. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has reported 655 civilian casualties since the beginning of this year.

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibt...public/2015/06/06/civilians.jpg?itok=n4MtrMiu

Civilians

More civilians in Afghanistan were killed or injured during ground offensives in the first three months of this year than in the same period of last year. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

 

[Housecarl]

Well this is going to get "interesting"......

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/06/middleeast/egypt-hamas-terrorist/

Egyptian court rules that Hamas is not a terrorist organization

By Greg Botelho, CNN
Updated 11:30 AM ET, Sat June 6, 2015

(CNN)—Hamas should no longer be classified as a terrorist organization in the eyes of Egyptian authorities, an appeals court ruled Saturday, overturning a decision made months earlier about the Palestinian Islamist group.

The appeals court in Cairo threw out the February 28 decision by a lower court because it "lacked jurisdiction to issue the ... ruling," the state-run Ahram Online news outlet reported.

This development could be significant given the makeup of Egypt's current government -- which took over after the military ousted Muslim Brotherhood leader-turned-president Mohammed Morsy -- and Hamas' prominent, controversial place in the Middle East, including its control of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Hamas evolved from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, having formed in 1987 with a goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of Israel, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center.

That hasn't happened, though Hamas managed to takeover Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority government headed by President Mahmoud Abbas is in charge of the West Bank. Gaza borders Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which has seen considerable violence -- including the recent killing of three judges and their driver as they headed to a courthouse -- since Morsy's 2013 ouster.

This bloodshed can't all necessarily be pinned on Hamas, which denies interfering in Egyptian internal affairs. One group blamed for the killings of hundreds security personnel in Sinai, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, has been tied to ISIS.

Still, Hamas controls Gaza. The Cairo government has accused it of supporting the insurgents, and Hamas -- and especially its military wing, al Qassam Brigades -- has received substantial criticism for allegedly spearheading violence.

When the U.S. State Department created its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997, Hamas was one of the first names on it. The Egyptian government has been at odds with the group repeatedly, with longtime President Hosni Mubarak lashing out at the group and refusing to recognize Hamas' rule in Gaza.

The relationship between Hamas and Egypt improved significantly during Morsy's brief time in power, only to deteriorate rapidly when the military took over.

In fact, Morsy was sentenced to death last month for having allegedly collaborated with Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah to break into several prisons across Egypt in January 2011. These actions, at the start of the revolution that spurred Mubarak's fall, facilitated the escape of Morsy and 20,000 others.

Saturday's Ahram story noted a court early this year ruled al Qassam Brigades specifically a terrorist organization because it "supports and finances terrorist attacks in Egypt."

And several Hamas members face death sentences for the jailbreak case -- which includes convictions for arson, murder and looting in addition to freeing prisoners -- that Morsy is also caught up in. Egypt has also banned the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested hundreds of its members.

This history notwithstanding, Hamas cheered Saturday's ruling and expressed hope it would help its relations with the Egyptian government led Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the North African nation's former military chief and now president.

"We consider this a correction to the previous mistake," Hamas said on its official Twitter feed. "This decision confirms Egypt's steadfast towards its ethnic role towards Palestine and without doubt will have its positive effect on bilateral relations."

CNN's Anas Hamdan contributed to this report.

 

[Housecarl]

Main Russia/Ukraine invasion thread - NATO: Russian Tanks and Artillery Enter Ukraine
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ian-Tanks-and-Artillery-Enter-Ukraine/page415

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Hummm......

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-06/dont-be-afraid-of-russia-putin-tells-west/6527576

Ukraine conflict: Don't be afraid of Russia, Vladimir Putin tells West

Updated about 2 hours ago

Russia is not a threat to the West, president Vladimir Putin insisted in an interview published on Saturday, saying he was still committed to a Ukraine peace deal after a fresh flare-up in the country's east.

"I would like to say - there's no need to be afraid of Russia," Mr Putin told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, ruling out a major conflict between Russia and NATO member countries.

"The world has changed so much that people in their right mind cannot imagine such a large-scale military conflict today.

"We have other things to do, I can assure you," the Russian president said.

"Only a sick person - and even then only in his sleep - can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO."

The Russian president spoke ahead of his visit to Italy next week that will include a meeting with Pope Francis.

In the interview, Mr Putin stressed Russia merely sought to defend itself from outside threats.

He pointed out that NATO members have defence expenditures that are 10 times Russia's military spending, adding the US military budget was the biggest in the world.

To ensure a strategic balance, Russia will develop "systems to overpower anti-missile defences", Mr Putin said.

"We have made significant progress in this direction," he added, without providing further details.

Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year has jangled nerves in Europe, with Baltic and Nordic countries reporting an increase in Russian military activity over the past year.

Pentagon officials said on Friday the United States was considering a range of moves to beef up security, including bolstering missile defences or even deploying land-based missiles in Europe.

Speaking about the Ukraine crisis, Mr Putin accused Kiev authorities of being unwilling to implement a European-brokered peace deal agreed in February in Minsk and enter into dialogue with pro-Moscow rebels.

"The problem is that representatives of the current Kiev authorities do not even want to sit down to talks with them," Mr Putin said.

"And there is nothing we can do about it," he added, urging the West to prod Kiev into negotiating with the rebels.

"The leaders of the self-proclaimed republics have publicly said that under certain conditions - that is the implementation of these Minsk agreements - they are ready to consider the possibility of considering themselves part of Ukraine.

"I believe this position should be considered as a serious, good preliminary condition to start serious negotiations," he said, urging the European Union to provide "greater financial assistance" to Kiev.

Ties between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War, with Moscow being accused of inciting a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

One killed, ten wounded in 24 hours: Ukraine military

Meanwhile, One Ukrainian serviceman has been killed and ten others wounded as a result of fighting in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours, Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

Earlier the Ukrainian military said pro-Russian rebels had fired artillery repeatedly at government troop positions overnight with areas north-west of separatist-controlled Donetsk among the worst hit.

Both sides accuse the other of using heavy weapons banned under a four-month-old ceasefire deal, which came under fresh strain last week with some of the worst fighting in months.

The separatists said Ukrainian forces had bombarded Donetsk overnight with artillery.

"The sound of heavy weapon fire could be heard in practically all districts," separatist press agency DAN reported the rebel-controlled city administration as saying.

On Friday, a senior monitor for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the security situation in eastern Ukraine had deteriorated in recent days and accused both sides of putting civilians at risk by positioning military forces alongside civilian areas.

From other news sites:
•BBC: President Vladimir Putin tells West not to fear Russia

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/ap/2015/06/07/437824/Putin-key.htm

Putin key to Ukraine success with IMF loan, despite Crimean crisis

By Steven R. Hurst ,AP
June 7, 2015, 12:20 am TWN

WASHINGTON -- So far, the International Monetary Fund is giving Ukraine a passing grade on early efforts at political and economic reforms as it spends a first installment from a four-year, US$17.5 billion loan program. But in the end, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds the trump cards in Ukraine's drive to extract itself from Moscow's orbit.

Until Wednesday, there had been a lull in the war between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed Russian separatists in the key industrial and coal-mining region in eastern Ukraine. The heavy fighting on Wednesday diminished at the end of the week, and it appeared that Putin was not ready yet to play his trump. So far, more than 6,400 people have died in the on-again-off-again battles that have severely damaged the Ukraine economy and disrupted critical trade with Moscow.

Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment says the IMF is in a race against time.

"The fragility of the Ukrainian state is such that if Moscow significantly ratchets up the pressure it may be very hard for the (Ukrainian President Petro) Poroshenko to deliver on ambitions for significant economic reform and changes in the political system," Weiss said. "If you take that pressure alongside of the bad habits and business-as-usual conduct of the Ukrainian elite who have led the country for most of the past 25 years, the prospects for the reformist movement in Ukraine look quite challenging."

The IMF sees things differently.

At the end of a May 12-29 assessment visit, IMF Ukraine mission chief Nikolay Gueorguiev said goals set for Ukraine in March had been met and "all structural benchmarks due in the spring are on course to be met, albeit some with a delay." The IMF was not specific about goals.

Even so, Gueorguiev issued a mixed first review of Ukraine's progress in using the fund's first US$5 billion tranche of the loan to reverse the former Soviet republic's slide into bankruptcy and to root out endemic corruption.

The Bad and Good News

The bad news: The IMF projected a 9 percent contraction in the Ukrainian economy this year, with inflation topping 46 percent.

The good news: The shrinking GDP forecast actually suggested signs of stabilization, given that it includes a 17.6 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2015. And Gueorguiev said the Kiev government's "commitment to the reform program remains strong."

The IMF put Ukraine under what is known as an Extended Fund Facility, the US$17.5 billion loan program, after earlier and more limited IMF assistance programs failed under the leadership of ousted pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovych. He was forced from office after months of protests by Ukrainian activists disgusted with the corruption and his having reneged on promises of closer ties to the European Union. He fled to Moscow, and new elections put Poroshenko in the president's office.

Ukraine had been under Moscow's thumb because of a deep history of trade links during Soviet times. And the bulk of its energy supplies has come from Russia. Now the country is struggling to build a system of other suppliers.

What's more, Putin took revenge for Yanukovych's ouster by seizing the strategically important Crimean peninsula. The United States and other Western allies claim that he also began sending arms and troops to mainly Russian-speaking separatists in eastern Ukraine. Putin denies Russian involvement in the fighting.

At stake for the 188 member-nation IMF is repayment of the US$17.5 billion loan. The government must show it is meeting goals for the next tranche of US$1.7 billion.

"In recent months, signs that economic stability is gradually taking hold are steadily emerging," Gueorguiev said in his statement about the review.

And the forecast for a big jump in inflation, he said, was mainly the result of one-time currency devaluation and a big boost in energy prices as the government cut back on subsidies for oil and gas.

Another big snag that could upend the IMF program, beyond a resumption of all-out war, is the expectation that Kiev will be able to get out from under, or reschedule, US$15.3 billion indebtedness and interest payments. Negotiations with debt-holders are said to be going badly.

Putin won't be on the guest list when President Barack Obama and other world leaders assemble in Germany this weekend. Russia was kicked out of the group of powerful countries, then known as the G-8 (now the G-7) because of its actions in Ukraine. It appears unlikely, however, that the U.S. and Europe will toughen sanctions on Moscow without a major increase in Russian aggression. European nations with strong financial ties with Russia fear the sanctions could damage their own economies.

 

[Housecarl]

3 Ways China and the U.S. Could Go to War in the South China Sea
Started by JohnGaltfla‎, Today 03:59 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...e-U.S.-Could-Go-to-War-in-the-South-China-Sea

The chinks hacked the US Office of Personnel Management
Started by mzkitty‎, 06-04-2015 02:40 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...d-the-US-Office-of-Personnel-Management/page2

Philippines wants defense pact for Japanese troops
Started by Housecarl‎, Yesterday 06:31 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ppines-wants-defense-pact-for-Japanese-troops

FUNG WAR ADVISORY #2: China....Back Down or We'll Wage War Against CONUS
Started by doctor_fungcool‎, 05-25-2015 05:15 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ck-Down-or-We-ll-Wage-War-Against-CONUS/page3

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China warns NK may already have an arsenal of 20 NUKE warheads; could double by next year
Started by Heliobas Disciple‎, 04-22-2015 09:23 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...NUKE-warheads-could-double-by-next-year/page3

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-06/06/c_134303251.htm

DPRK slams S.Korea for "war moves"

English.news.cn 2015-06-06 21:57:07

PYONGYANG, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) slammed South Korea on Saturday for what it says are "war moves" against the north.

In a statement issued by the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, Pyongyang condemned Seoul for recently laying out four operation principles with Washington, which Seoul said are to cope with missile launches from the DPRK.

However, the statement said these newly devised principles are aimed at "a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK." It also slammed Seoul for staging combined anti-submarine drills off South Korea's Jeju Island.

The statement blasted again the test fire of a medium-range missile on Wednesday by South Korean military, which Seoul claimed to be able to cover the whole Korean Peninsula.

Editor: xuxin

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://news.yahoo.com/n-korea-nuclear-test-unlikely-until-fall-us-052856007.html

N. Korea nuclear test unlikely until fall: US think-tank

AFP
12 hours ago

Recent satellite imagery suggests North Korea is unlikely to conduct a fresh nuclear test in coming months, according to a US think-tank.

The Stalinist state recently turned up the volume on its hostile rhetoric and boasted of its nuclear and missile capability, claiming it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile last month.

But the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said satellite pictures indicate no signs of preparations for its fourth nuclear test being made at this time.

"Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates that North Korea is conducting regular spring construction and maintenance activities at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site," the institute said in a report by analyst Jack Liu on its website 38 North.

"There are no indications of nuclear test preparations at this time. Given the time and effort such preparations require, North Korea is unlikely to conduct another nuclear test until at least fall 2015 at the earliest," it said.

The North has conducted its three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, all at the Punggye-ri site in the country's northeast.

Digging of a new test tunnel at the site which began around April 2013, paused in November 2013 and resumed in February 2014 has stopped.

But it remains unclear whether work has been completed or has just simply paused, the report said.

Last month, North Korea ramped up its nuclear threat, boasting of its ability to deliver miniaturised warheads on high-precision long range rockets.

A US National Security Council spokesman rejected the claim but agreed Pyongyang was "working on developing a number of long-range missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, that could eventually threaten our allies and the homeland".


View Comments (9)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://news.yahoo.com/hezbollah-vows-displace-millions-israel-lebanon-attacked-193928544.html

Hezbollah vows to displace 'millions' in Israel if Lebanon attacked

AFP
22 hours ago

Beirut (AFP) - The head of Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah threatened on Friday that his group would displace "millions" in Israel if the Jewish state attacks Lebanon.

Hassan Nasrallah made the threat in a televised address weeks after an Israeli army official warned that Israel would "have to" target civilian areas in Lebanon in a future confrontation with Hezbollah.

"If they threaten to displace 1.5 million Lebanese, then the Islamic resistance in Lebanon (Hezbollah) threatens to displace millions of Israelis," Nasrallah hit back.

"We are not afraid of your war or of your threats," he said.

"If you assume that we are busy in Syria, then you are wrong -- because this changes nothing in how we deal with our enemy."

For more than two years, Hezbollah has been fighting in Syria on behalf of embattled President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to journalists on May 13, the Israeli army official said all villages in south Lebanon are a "military stronghold" where Hezbollah stockpiles rockets capable of hitting his country.

"Each (village) is a military stronghold. Next time we have a war with Hezbollah, we will have to attack each one of these targets, and we hope the population will not be there," he said.

Hezbollah fought a deadly month-long war with Israel in the summer of 2006 which killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Nasrallah also spoke about Hezbollah's ongoing battle with Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, in the Qalamun region that straddles the Syrian-Lebanese border.

He said Hezbollah had managed to "liberate dozens of square kilometres" of land in the area, pushing back Al-Nusra Front and its allies.

And he vowed that Hezbollah will next turn its sights on the Islamic State group which has seized chunks of Syria and Iraq.

"The next battle is in the... parts (of Qalamun), which are controlled by Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

"Daesh is on our borders," he said, branding the group as a "threat" to Lebanon's existence.

Hezbollah insists it is fighting in Syria to prevent extremist groups from entering Lebanon.

On Friday, the Syrian army said it had seized numerous villages and strategic hilltops in Qalamun with Hezbollah's help, Syria's state television reported.

The army statement said it was "tightening the noose on terrorist positions" in the area.

View Comments (1846)


Related Stories

1. Lebanon's Hezbollah urges backing for fight against IS AFP
2. Hezbollah 'tightening noose on jihadists on Lebanon frontier' AFP
3. Hezbollah widens offensive in Syria border area, seizes hilltops Reuters
4. On Syria-Lebanon border, Hezbollah in 'hardest' battle AFP
5. Syrian troops battle to repel Islamic State attack on city Reuters

 

[Housecarl]

P5+1 + Iran Announces Reaching Solutions on Key Parameters for Agreement
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...lutions-on-Key-Parameters-for-Agreement/page4

Main Islamic State (ISIS) thread
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?451597-Main-Islamic-State-(ISIS)-thread/page114

ISRAEL heating up again...
Started by Lilbitsnanaý, 12-24-2014 03:58 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?461079-ISRAEL-heating-up-again.../page29

ISIS (Gaza cell) is lobbing rockets at Israel and have sporadically over the last month
Started by Lilbitsnanaý, Today 12:42 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...ael-and-have-sporadically-over-the-last-month
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Saudi Arabia/10 Nation coalition are bombing YEMEN
Started by Lilbitsnanaý, 03-25-2015 04:28 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-10-Nation-coalition-are-bombing-YEMEN/page28

IRAN MOVES TO CONTROL SUEZ CANAL AND YEMEN 1-21-2015
Started by Doomer Dougý, 01-21-2015 05:16 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-CONTROL-SUEZ-CANAL-AND-YEMEN-1-21-2015/page8

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/06/yemen-security-saudi-idUSL5N0YS02Z20150606

Industries | Sat Jun 6, 2015 3:15pm EDT
Related: Yemen, Industrials

UPDATE 6-Scud missile fired at Saudi Arabia as 38 Yemenis reported killed

* Saudi says its Patriot missiles shoot down Yemeni Scud

* First ballistic missile launch in over two months of war

* Saudi-owned TV reports escalation of border clashes

* U.N. says peace talks will be launched on June 14 (adds reported death toll in bombings)

By Noah Browning and Mohammed Ghobari

DUBAI/SANAA, June 6 (Reuters) - Yemen's dominant Houthi group and its army allies fired a Scud missile at Saudi Arabia which the kingdom said it shot down on Saturday, in a major escalation of two months of war.

Arab air strikes and shelling after the attack killed 38 Yemenis in provinces near Saudi Arabia, according to reports in the Houthi-controlled state news agency Saba which could not be immediately confirmed.

In the first reported use of a ballistic missile in the conflict, the Scud was fired on Saturday morning at the city of Khamees Mushait in the kingdom's southwest and was intercepted by two Patriot missiles, a statement by the Saudi military said.

The area is home to the largest air force base in southern Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, but there are no oil facilities in the vicinity.

Al Masira, the Houthi group's official channel, confirmed the launch and said it targeted the King Khaled air base.

An alliance of Gulf Arab nations has been bombing Yemen's Houthi militia and allied army units loyal to powerful ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh since March 26 in an attempt to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

Yemen's official Saba news outlet said Saudi shelling and air strikes hit a camp for displaced people, a medical centre and a school in the border province of Hajja, killing 28 people, and bombings elsewhere in the north killed 10 others.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the reports among residents of the remote border areas, which are cut off from telephone lines and are often the scene of clashes between Houthi and Saudi forces.

Saturday's violence came despite progress toward United Nations-backed peace talks planned for Geneva this month, to which both the exiled government and the Houthis have agreed.

The United Nations said on Saturday it would convene the talks on June 14, and renewed a call for a pause in hostilities. "This could also help create an atmosphere that is more conducive for peaceful dialogue," a spokesman said.

The coalition has said a main goal of its war effort is to neutralise the threat that rockets in Yemen pose to Saudi Arabia and its neighbours.

The alliance's spokesman, Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, said in April that it had removed the threat from heavy weapons. He later appeared to step back from that assertion, saying that 80 percent of the 300 or so missiles had been destroyed - a figure he repeated on Saturday.

"Praise God, we have air defence forces capable of blocking these kinds of rockets, destroying them and thwarting attempts like this," he added.

The Sunni Muslim coalition states fear the Houthi movement, from a Shi'ite sect in north Yemen, will act as a proxy for their arch-rival in the region, Shi'ite Iran.

Iran and the Houthis deny any military or economic links, and the Houthis say their seizure of the capital Sanaa in September and their advance southward is part of a revolution against a corrupt government.


BORDER BATTLE

Arab air strikes have pounded arms and missile stores in the capital Sanaa and other military bases in Yemen almost daily.

The 11-metre-long (35-foot) Scuds have ranges of 300 km (200 miles) and more. The Cold War era ordnance has been used in internal conflicts in Syria and Libya and was fired by Saddam Hussein's Iraq at Saudi Arabia in the 1991 Gulf War.

Saleh, Yemen's autocrat president from 1978 to 2012, was forced to step down amid Arab Spring street protests but retains most of the army's loyalty and has joined forces with the Houthis in combat with Hadi's armed backers in Yemen's south.

His forces traded Scud missile fire with southern separatists in a 1994 civil war.

Al Arabiya TV described overnight ground fighting along the border as the largest attack yet by Houthi forces and Yemen's republican guard, a unit close to Saleh.

"It was the first confrontation undertaken by Saleh's (Republican) guard, and coalition planes and Saudi Apache (helicopters) undertook ground fire for 10 hours," said Al Arabiya's correspondent in the southern Jizan region.

Hamed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi spokesman, indicated that the group was escalating attacks along the border. "We've only just begun, and next time will be stronger," he said on his Twitter page.

Saudi-led forces said on Friday that four Saudi soldiers, including two officers, were killed after an attack was launched from the Yemeni side on border areas in Jizan and Najran.

Residents in the southern city of Aden said heavy artillery battles resumed after a pause of several days on Saturday, in clashes which killed around 10 Houthi fighters and three pro-Hadi militiamen.

Ahead of the U.N. peace talks, a Houthi delegation left on Saturday for talks in Russia on the situation in Yemen, Houthi official Daifallah al-Shami said, without providing details.

Russia was the only country in the 15-member United Nations Security Council that abstained from a resolution in April calling on the group to recognise Hadi's authority and quit Yemen's main cities. (Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Mostafa Hashem; Editing by William Hardy and Dominic Evans)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Midd...shot-down-Scud-missile-fired-from-Yemen-video

How Saudi Arabia shot down Scud missile fired from Yemen (+video)

Two missiles launched from a Saudi Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud missile fired Saturday, probably by Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis in Yemen.

By Abduallah Al. Shihri, Associated Press June 6, 2015

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia said it shot down a Scud missile fired by Yemen's Shiite rebels and their allies early Saturday at a Saudi city that is home to a large air base, marking a major escalation in the months long war.

Two missiles launched from a Patriot missile battery shot down the Scud around 2:45 a.m. Saturday (2345 GMT, 7:45 p.m. EDT Friday) around the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The agency did not report any casualties in the attack, the first use of a Cold War-era Scud by the rebels since Saudi-led airstrikes began in March.

Recommended: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

Khamis Mushait is home to the King Khalid Air Base, the largest such facility in that part of the country. Saudis on social media reported hearing air raid sirens go off around the city during the attack.


Test your knowledge| Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

Photos of the Day| Photos of the day 06/05


The agency blamed Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis and their allies in forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen's state news agency SABA, now controlled by the Houthis, said the rebels and their allies fired the Scud.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition targeting the rebels in airstrikes that began March 26 in support of the country's exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Those strikes have targeted arms caches and Scud missile sites around the country.

The coalition responded to Saturday's attack by targeting and damaging the launcher, which was located south of the Houthi stronghold of Saada, according to the news agency.

Yemeni security officials said coalition planes launched at least six airstrikes early Saturday against a Houthi convoy heading toward Saada. Airstrikes also hit a convoy in Amran province, which Houthi and tribal officials said was transporting livestock. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to brief journalists.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter. Its major oil fields are located in the east of the country, far from Khamis Mushait.

The United States has provided logistical support to the mostly Arab coalition. U.S. military officials in the region had no immediate comment.

The Houthis began their advance in September, sweeping into the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and taking over government ministries and other areas. They held top officials, including Hadi, under house arrest until Hadi fled, first to the southern port city of Aden, then to Saudi Arabia as the rebels closed in backed by forces loyal to Saleh.

The Saudi-led air campaign and ground fighting have killed more than 1,000 civilians and displaced more than 1 million people since mid-March, the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters Wednesday.

The offensive has so far failed to force the Houthis to withdraw from any territory they hold or blunt their advance in southern Yemen.

In April, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri, implied that the Scud missile arsenal in Yemen had been seriously degraded as a result of the airstrikes. "As coalition forces, we confirm that all Houthi capabilities were targeted, foremost their ballistic missiles," Asiri said.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University, said Saturday's attack was a way for the Houthis and the allies to signal that they still have fight left despite weeks of airstrikes. The Emirates is a member of the coalition.

"Of course, it is an escalation," Abdullah said. "It is clear now there has not been a knockout and a complete demolition of Houthi firepower. So we have to contend with this."

On Friday, the Houthis and Saleh's forces launched a ground offensive targeting the Saudi border, which saw the kingdom fire artillery and launch Apache attack helicopters, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The agency reported "scores" of rebel forces being killed in a battle that lasted from dawn to noon Friday, with four Saudi soldiers killed in the fighting.

The Saudis and Western powers accuse the Houthis of receiving military support from Shiite power Iran as part of a larger proxy war between the Sunni kingdom and the Islamic Republic across the Mideast. Tehran and the rebels deny the allegations, though Iran has acknowledged sending humanitarian aid to the Houthis.

The strikes, as well as a Saudi-led air and sea blockade, have caused food, water and medicine shortages, sparking a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world's poorest country.

The Soviet Union developed Scuds during the Cold War and exported the ballistic missiles to several countries, including Yemen.

A website allied with Saleh says the Yemeni army possesses 300 Scud missiles, most of them under the control of the Houthis and Saleh's forces.

Scud strikes in Saudi Arabia have been fatal in the past. On Feb. 25, 1991, an Iraqi-fired Scud evaded a Patriot strike and hit a U.S. base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 American soldiers.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, and Jon Gambrell and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

 

[Doomer Doug]

Damn, the level of global chaos is astounding.

We are going to see a Russian general offensive into the Ukraine and settle Porky's hash in the next few days/weeks.

We are now seeing a general offensive by Iran's proxy Houthi forces clearly directed at taking out the House of Saud. I KNEW when that damn fool of a House of Saud leader sent in the troops to search the Shia Mosques the full wrath of the Shia would be unleashed. The damn fool didn't understand it would be like sending in the 82nd Airborne and storming the Vatican. The level of hatred between the Shia and Sunni Muslims is now off the scale and will unleash complete chaos in the entire Middle East.

I don't see how we are going to make it till Labor Day without a regional war breaking out in the Middle East.

 

[China Connection]

Well if Syria launches an attack on Israel then both sides will join in against Israel.

 

[Housecarl]

Well if Syria launches an attack on Israel then both sides will join in against Israel.

Considering the size of the territory that the Assads' are holding onto at this point, the last thing they need is to start shooting at the Israelis. Heck, even Hamas is going to extremes to say "It wasn't our rocket" and the Israelis are going after them anyways.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33038788

World

Ukraine crisis to dominate G7 summit in Germany

6 hours ago
From the section World

Leaders from the world's richest countries are due to attend the annual G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps in Germany.

They are expected to use the meeting to maintain diplomatic pressure on Russia over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Greece's debt crisis and how to tackle global warming will also be on the agenda.

Russia has been excluded from what was previously known as the G8, since the annexation of Crimea last year.

President Vladimir Putin will be a major focus of attention, due to concerns that he is deliberately building up further military pressure in eastern Ukraine.
Nothing to fear

Germany, Britain and the United States want to reach an agreement to offer support to any EU member state tempted to withdraw backing for the sanctions on Moscow, which are hurting the Russian economy.

The West has been increasing its military presence in eastern European countries in response to concerns about Russian interference.

But Mr Putin said on Saturday that Russia was not a threat and had "other things to worry about".

He told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: "Only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack Nato.

"The world has changed so drastically that people with some common sense cannot even imagine such a large-scale military conflict today."

Ahead of the G7 gathering, thousands of protesters marched in the nearby town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, sparking sporadic clashes with police.

Several marchers were taken to hospital with injuries, but the violence was minor compared to some previous summits.

US President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, UK PM David Cameron French President Francois Hollande, Canada's PM Stephen Harper and Italian PM Matteo Renzi will be greeted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Bavaria, under the presence of 17,000 police officers.

Mrs Merkel will also be hoping to use the summit to discuss her plans for radical reform of global responses to pandemics like Ebola.

She wants to streamline and re-focus the World Health Organization, widely judged to have been ill-equipped when Ebola hit, and build up an international reserve force of doctors and scientists for deployment in a future crisis.

On Monday, the summit is also due to discuss militant threats from groups like Islamic State and Boko Haram with the leaders of Nigeria, Tunisia and Iraq, who form part of an "outreach" group of non-G7 countries.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

Turkey elections


News_Executive ‏@News_Executive 6m6 minutes ago

BREAKING: With more than 50% of votes counted,HDP will pass the 10% electoral threshold in #Turkey, marking the end to AKP's one party rule

 

[Housecarl]

Turkey elections


News_Executive ‏@News_Executive 6m6 minutes ago

BREAKING: With more than 50% of votes counted,HDP will pass the 10% electoral threshold in #Turkey, marking the end to AKP's one party rule

06.07 Turkish Elections Today: Erdogan's Bid to Reach Super Majority/Change Constitution
Started by JohnGaltfla‎, Today 09:30 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...d-to-Reach-Super-Majority-Change-Constitution

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://theweek.com/speedreads/55927...arty-loses-majority-parliament-after-13-years

Turkey's Islamist ruling party loses majority in parliament after 13 years

12:33 a.m. ET

Burak Kara/Getty Images

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wanted his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to win a huge majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday, giving him the votes to change the constitution and increase the power of the presidency. Instead, Turkish voters stripped the AKP of its parliamentary majority for the first time since Erdogan won power as prime minister 13 years ago.

With 99.9 percent of the votes counted, the AKP won about 41 percent of the vote, according to state-run TRT television, down from almost 50 percent in 2011 elections. That would give the party an estimated 258 seats in the 550-seat Grand National Assembly, down from 327 currently and a far cry from the 400 Erdogan had set as his goal. In second place was the secular Republican People's Party, with about 25 percent. The nationalist MHP, the AKP's likely new governing partner, won about 16 percent.

In many ways, the election's big winner was the predominantly Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), which won about 13 percent of the vote, putting it for the first time above the 10 percent threshold needed to win seats in parliament. The HDP expanded its reach by running female, gay, and other minority candidates, and by pitching itself as a check on Erdogan's push for more power.

"The outcome is an end to Erdogan's presidential ambitions," said Soner Cagaptay at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Along with Erdogan, the big loser was Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose political future is now uncertain. He declared victory anyway, telling a crowd of supporters on Sunday that "everyone should see that the AKP is the winner and leader of these elections." No party, he added, "should try to build a victory from an election they lost." Peter Weber

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/irans-ballistic-missiles-could-derail-nuke-deal/article/2565549

Iran's ballistic missiles could derail nuke deal
By Charles Hoskinson | June 8, 2015 | 12:01 am

As international negotiators work to meet a July 1 deadline for a deal designed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Iran's growing missile program threatens to derail the talks.

The Obama administration and its partners have agreed to keep discussions of ballistic missiles out of the nuclear talks after Tehran refused to continue them if that issue was not excluded. Administration officials insist, however, that they will press Iran on the issue outside of those discussions.

But concerns about the Middle East's largest and most diverse missile arsenal, and North Korea's role in helping Iran develop that arsenal, is a major concern in Congress and among the U.S. public, and could affect support for any nuclear deal. Those concerns focus on Iran's growing ability to use that arsenal to strike not just Israel, but Europe and eventually the United States — an ability that could quickly become critical if Tehran decides to break out of any nuclear deal.

"The missile program of Iran is something that never has even seemed to be seriously discussed throughout the course of these negotiations. And it's a very, very significant issue," said Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.

Though the administration has acknowledged the nexus between nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles' ability to deliver them, refusing to discuss Iran's program was a major concession that will represent "one of the biggest strikes against" any deal once it is submitted to Congress, he said.

"This agreement is something that I think is going to meet with a lot of stiff resistance in Congress, and one of the reasons should be Iran's missile program," DeSantis said. "Their missile arsenal undermines regional and international security."

Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, initially developed with North Korea's help, has been steadily expanding in size and quality, in spite of the U.N. Security Council's prohibition of the program. That cooperation has continued with the recent visit of North Korean experts to Iran, according to an Iranian exile group that has exposed clandestine elements of that country's nuclear program.

State Department officials say they are investigating the allegations, but would not give details.

"I don't have more to say on these specific allegations, which we are examining," spokesman Jeff Rathke said on May 28, refusing even to confirm or deny that the allegations have been raised in the nuclear talks.

Experts believe that Iran already has developed missiles capable of hitting Europe, and may have intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States by the end of the decade if the program continues to advance.

"Missiles are a cost-effective way for a country like Iran to pose an asymmetric threat to much more militarily sophisticated countries like the U.S. and are powerful weapons for coercion; therefore, Iran is motivated to keep and improve its arsenal," Rebecca Heinrichs, of the George C. Marshall Institute, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in March.

"Iran wants more than a nuclear weapon. Iran wants to be able to credibly threaten its enemies with a nuclear missile," she said. "Any deal focused on Iran's nuclear program must include its missile program."

Missiles are not usually considered integral to efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But the development of intermediate- or long-range ballistic missiles has proven to be an accurate litmus test of a country's nuclear intentions, as with Pakistan or North Korea, said Naval War College professor David Cooper.

"Time and again, real-world experience has demonstrated that the long-term time horizons, the vast expense and the international taboo of long-range ballistic missile programs ... really only make economic, political or military sense in the broader context of an ambition to become a nuclear weapons power," he said.

"This is arguably the most absolute indicator of whether a state's nuclear programs are peaceful, or are associated with nuclear weapons ambitions," he said. "Iran does say that their nuclear weapons programs are peaceful, but I would argue that the missiles may tell a different story."

http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.washingtonexaminer.biz/web-producers/060815Defense_graf.jpg

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2015/06/08/26/0401000000AEN20150608000251315F.html

(LEAD) U.S. believes N. Korea has secret nuclear facilities

2015/06/08 11:30

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, June 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is believed to have secret nuclear facilities unknown to the outside world in addition to those at the country's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, the State Department said in a report.

The department's 2015 Report on Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments also said that Pyongyang appears to have no intention to comply with its denuclearization commitments.

The Yongbyon complex houses the North's 5-megawatt reactor and other facilities that have provided the communist regime with weapons-grade plutonium, with which the regime has conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

The North also has a light water reactor under construction and uranium enrichment facilities at the complex that could provide the country with a second source of fissile material that can be used in building nuclear bombs.

In addition to these facilities at Yongbyon, the communist nation has long been suspected of running clandestine nuclear facilities in other parts of the country, such as additional uranium enrichment facilities.

"The United States believes there is a clear likelihood of additional unidentified nuclear facilities in the DPRK," the State Department report said, referring to the North by its official name: Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The report also noted that the North restarted the 5-megawatt reactor in 2013 and that the light water reactor under construction could give the North "a justification to possess uranium enrichment technology that could potentially be used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons."

"The United States consistently urged North Korea to respond to diplomatic efforts to create the conditions necessary for the resumption of the six-party talks, premised on a demonstrated DPRK commitment to make meaningful progress toward denuclearization," the report said.

"DPRK statements and activities during the reporting period did not signal any intention or commitment to denuclearization."

Asked about its assessment, South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said on Monday that the intelligence authorities of Seoul and Washington "have been closely tracking and watching the relevant development regarding North Korea's nuclear tests." It did not elaborate.

The communist country has conducted three known rounds of underground nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and has vowed to carry out "a new form" of test.

jschang@yna.co.kr

graceoh@yna.co.kr

(END)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.breitbart.com/national-s...-in-afghanistan-beheads-10-taliban-militants/

ISIS in Afghanistan Beheads 10 Taliban Militants

by Adelle Nazarian
7 Jun 2015
Comments 85

The Islamic State beheaded at least 10 Taliban militants in Afghanistan this week in a remote area in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar region, where the jihadist groups are locked in an intense battle for control over many of the surrounding provinces.

ISIS and the Taliban officially declared war against each other in April of this year, when the Islamic State carried out its first attack there.

According to India.com, a dozen Taliban militants were captured while retreating and trying to flee, following a gun battle with the Afghan security forces. Numan Hatifi of the 201st Corps of the Afghan National Army reportedly said that ISIS has taken control from the Taliban in several regions, even replacing them completely in one district, since May and has begun recruiting candidates for its aspirations of creating a worldwide Islamic Caliphate spawning from the Middle East.

The Taliban has long sent a message to the world that Afghanistan should only be controlled by Afghanis, evidenced by their history of fierce resistance to foreign invasions. Yet, the Islamic State’s creeping infiltration could virtually reshape the security measures implemented in that region. The Taliban have expressed countless times their intent to maintain their scope of influence in Afghanistan and not beyond its borders.

ISIS’s recent inroads there may have been an incentive for the Taliban to send a delegation to Iran recently. Although initial reports surfaced suggesting it was not immediately clear why they would open such dialogue when considering the Taliban’s Sunni practice of Islam views Iran’s Shia version as apostasy, it increasingly seems to be a possibility that they are seeking Iran’s help to thwart the Islamic State’s creeping influence there.

ISIS has been administering the same strategy in Afghanistan that they used in Syria, for example, when they fought with the more established units affiliated with al-Qaeda before overtaking them.

Dozens of insurgents have reportedly died or been injured in the last few weeks in armed clashes between the Taliban and ISIS to gain control over several regions of Nangarhar—one of 34 provinces in the country. Jalalabad is the capital and it is bordered with Pakistan, which is of strategic importance to Islamic State jihadists.

In the most recent issue of their magazine, Dabiq, ISIS claimed it has access to nuclear weapons through Pakistan. They expressed their intent to then take those weapons, transport them through Nigeria, and then smuggle them into the United States by way of illegal trafficking networks through Mexico.

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm......

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.breitbart.com/national-s...-of-conflict-brewing-between-china-and-india/

Ominous Signs of Conflict Brewing Between China and India

by John Hayward
7 Jun 2015
Comments 3

What else has China been up to lately, besides annexing disputed islands in the South China Sea and raiding U.S. government computer systems? First Post of India worries that China might be contemplating a “short border war with India, as in 1962.”

China has told India it is “not interested in clearly delineating a line of actual control (LAC) on the border, pending a final settlement,” according to First Post. “This shows that it wants to change the status quo and take some territory from us. No willingness to agree on the LAC means China will not settle the border except on its terms.”

Those terms include blocking Indian development in both the Chinese and Pakistani-controlled portions of the Kashmir region, as well as the South China Sea, where China has been throwing around so much weight lately. China seems fond of a two-stage tactic for annexing disputed areas: Prevent other parties from making any practical use of the area, then suddenly drop a huge amount of Chinese construction on them.

First Post comes close to blaming China for stirring up terrorist violence in disputed areas as well. “Yesterday (4 June), 18 armymen were killed in an ambush in Manipur, and last month a similar attack took place in Nagaland, where eight Assam Rifles jawans being killed. While there may be no direct China hand in this resurgence of terrorism (or, at least, none that we know of), ask yourself a simple question: who benefits the most from bringing the North-East back to boiling point? It suits China to keep our army tied up in various insurgencies, especially when Indo-Bangladesh ties are improving and Sheikh Hasina has taken a strong line on containing anti-India forces.”

Toss in a few border incursions by Chinese troops, who even indulged in a bit of vandalism while roaming around on the wrong side of the border, and “there are good reasons to believe that China may not be beyond contemplating another short war with India.”

“We should be on an extraordinary alert for Chinese war signals, preparations or indications of hostile intent,” First Post advises the Indian government, noting that China has incentives to force such a confrontation sooner rather than later, because the Indian military is beginning to reduce its huge deficit of power against the People’s Liberation Army. India’s strengthening ties with regional allies such as Vietnam and Japan must be considered as well. If China wants to spark up, contain, and swiftly conclude a limited border conflict, it will want to act soon.

“China’s calculations could revolve around a quick surgical strike to capture Tawang — despite adverse terrain — or a bigger grab in Kashmir to use as a bargaining chip to gain Tawang,” the article speculates. “It may also be betting that India will not fight too hard for Tawang or threaten nuclear mayhem in retaliation. India has made the mistake of not developing tactical nuclear weapons unlike Pakistan, which will have no qualms about using them if we make territorial gains on the western front.”

__

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~sbhatnag/Nature/warunachal/Maps/wapLayout.jpg

 

[Housecarl]

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-independent-wins-in-Mexico-elections-(6-8-15)

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150608/lt--mexico-elections-b9d9353611.html

Ruling party leads, 1st independent wins in Mexico elections

Jun 8, 1:46 AM (ET)

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO and KATHERINE CORCORAN

(AP) Teachers belonging to a dissident union burn ballot boxes and ballots in the city of...
Full Image

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican voters elected their first independent gubernatorial candidate, seen as a protest against party politics, while giving the ruling party an inadvertent boost in congress, sending mixed messages in midterm elections.

President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, lost seats in congress, according to official voting trends released late Sunday by the electoral institute. But a strong and controversial campaign by the Green Party, a PRI coalition ally, boosted the Greens to as many as 20 seats, and was close to giving the ruling party a voting majority for the first time in nearly two decades.

"The PRI lost, but not very much," said Jesus Cantu, political analyst at the Monterrey Institute of Technology.

In an election marred by sporadic violence, independent Jaime Rodriguez, known as "El Bronco," was declared the unofficial winner of the governor's race in Nuevo Leon, ousting the PRI from a key state that is home to the powerful business hub of Monterrey. His popularity was attributed to voters' disgust with all political parties, each with its own corruption scandals.

(AP) Electoral volunteers count ballots after the polls closed in the country's midterm...
Full Image
"I think in the whole country, this will help the political parties to renew and transform themselves so they can be better," said Rodriguez, adding he would give them a "six-year vacation."

He said his first action as governor will be to attack corruption: "We have to investigate the entire previous government."

It was the first election in Mexico to allow unaffiliated candidates, thanks to an electoral reform last year.

The horseback-riding, boot-clad, tough-talking Rodriguez earned his nickname after he survived two assassination attempts that left his car bullet-ridden as mayor of a suburb of Monterrey. He said the attacks were from a drug cartel.

His support harkens back to 2000, when another plainspoken cowboy candidate, Vicente Fox, managed to topple the PRI's 71-year rule and win the presidency for the opposition National Action Party.

(AP) A pick-up truck is engulfed in flames after it was set on fire by unknown assailants...
Full Image
Sunday's vote came amid widespread discontent with politicians in Mexico, where a series of corruption scandals, a lackluster economy and human rights concerns related to the missing students and suspected army massacres have tarnished Pena Nieto's image and fed anti-government protests.

Green Party ads were everywhere during the campaign as it marketed itself as a fresh alternative, and the party was fined millions for violating campaign laws. But the strategy paid off. The Green Party votes in lockstep with the PRI and critics called it a time-worn practice by the PRI to bolster a small ally when it is down in the polls.

Thousands of soldiers and federal police guarded polling stations where violence and calls for boycotts threatened to mar the vote for 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, nine of 31 governorships and hundreds of mayors and local officials.

Protesters burned ballot boxes in several restive states of southern Mexico. A statement from a team of election observers from the Organization of America States, headed by former Costa Rican President Laura Chincilla, said the incidents didn't prevent people from voting.

"There were those who wanted to affect the elections, including with violence in the previous days designed to discourage the public," President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a national address. "But the mandate Mexicans gave to authorities today was to reject violence and intolerance."

(AP) Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto waves to the press at a poll station after...
Full Image
The midterm elections drew a 47 percent turnout, and attention was unusually high this time as a loose coalition of radical teachers' unions and activists vowed to block the vote.

Protesters burned at least seven ballot boxes and election materials in Tixtla, the Guerrero state town where the teachers' college is located.

Soon after, there was an exchange of rock-throwing between protesters and hundreds of people who said they intended to defend their right to vote. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Ballot boxes were also destroyed in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. In Oaxaca's capital, masked protesters emptied a vehicle of ballots, boxes and voting tables and burned the material in the main square.

The state government reported 88 arrests related to the destruction of election materials and disturbances in the capital, Tuxtepec and Salina Cruz.

In Monterrey, two political parties reported that armed men were intimidating voters in three towns near the border with Texas.

Violence ahead of the elections has already claimed the lives of three candidates, one would-be candidate and at least a dozen campaign workers or activists.

---

Associated Press journalists Jose Maria Alvarez and Jose Antonio Rivera in Tixtla, Mark Stevenson in Oaxaca, Porfirio Ibarra in Monterrey and Christopher Sherman, Maria Verza and Peter Orsi in Mexico City contributed.

 

[energy_wave]

B-2, B-52 bombers deploy to Europe for military exercises
By Oriana Pawlyk, Staff writer 6:46 p.m. EDT June 7, 2015

Two U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bombers on Sunday joined B-52s in Europe for additional exercises.

The Spirits and airmen from the 509th and 131st Bomb Wings traveled from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, to RAF Fairford, England, and conducted hot-pit refueling and engine-running crew change skills tests, according to an Air Force news release.

The events were meant to demonstrate the "ability of the aircraft to forward deploy and deliver conventional and nuclear deterrence anytime and anywhere," the release said. The release did not say how long the B-2s would remain in the region.

On Friday, three B-52 bombers deployed to Europe where they will fly training missions over the Baltic Sea.

The Stratofortresses and 330 airmen, assigned to 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, will participate in multinational exercises Baltic Operations 15 (BALTOPS) and Saber Strike 15 during their month-long deployment to RAF Fairford.

The aircraft will demonstrate the "United States' long-range global strike capability" in the region in addition to coordinate training with partners and allies at a time when Russian-backed separatists have increased their offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Recently, Russian aircraft acted aggressively toward American warships in international waters. The Navy released footage last week of Russian Su-24 aircraft flying past the USS Ross in the Black Sea.

NAVY TIMES

War of words erupts after DDG's encounter with Russians

The bombers "will integrate into several exercise activities, including air intercept training, simulated mining operations during Saber Strike, inert ordnance drops during BALTOPS, and close air support" over international waters in the Baltic Sea and the territory of the Baltic states and Poland, according to a news release.

"This deployment to RAF Fairford was specifically designed and closely coordinated with the United Kingdom and our regional allies to ensure maximum opportunities to synchronize and integrate our bomber capabilities with their military assets," Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, U.S. Strategic Command commander, said in the release.
A B-52 Stratofortress assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing,

A B-52 Stratofortress assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, N.D., arrives June 5 at Royal RAF Fairford, United Kingdom. During the short-term deployment, three Minot-based B-52 bombers, supported by more than 330 Air Force Global Strike Command airmen, are scheduled to conduct training flights with ground and naval forces. (Photo: Senior Airman Malia Jenkins/Air Force)

"Participation of B-52s in Exercises BALTOPS and Saber Strike demonstrates our nation's steadfast commitment to promoting regional stability and security, fostering cooperation and increasing interoperability as we work alongside our allies toward mutual goals," he said.

Last June, the Pentagon sent two B-2s and three B-52s to Europe for similar training events days after President Obama announced he would increase the U.S. military presence in the region following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/...oy-to-europe-for-military-exercises/28598701/

 

[Housecarl]

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150608/ml--gaza-jihadi_threat-a8ec2d5769.html

A nervous Hamas takes on jihadi threat

Jun 8, 2:23 AM (ET)
By FARES AKRAM

(AP) In this Tuesday, May 5, 2015 photo, a Palestinian Hamas police officer monitors the...
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Still recovering from a devastating war with Israel last summer, Gaza's Hamas rulers now find themselves confronting a new internal threat: jihadi militants who support the Islamic State group and appear intent on provoking Israel in order to pressure and embarrass Hamas.

While these Salafi groups are not strong enough to threaten Hamas, they are making life increasingly difficult for the ruling Islamic militant group. Hamas accuses them of being behind a series of mysterious explosions aimed at Hamas security posts, as well as recent rocket launches that have drawn Israeli reprisals and threats of tougher military action. A Hamas crackdown on the Salafists killed a wanted fugitive during an arrest raid last week, appearing to erase any hopes of reconciliation in the near term.

The fugitive, Younis al-Hunnor, had been wanted for months, and his death has prompted angry calls for revenge.

"Hamas are infidels," says a spray-painted message written on the stairway of al-Hunnor's apartment building in southern Gaza. "No condolences before revenge," said another message.

(AP) In this Tuesday, May 5, 2015 photo, Palestinian Hamas police officers monitor the...
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On a recent day, blood stains were still visible outside the apartment, and al-Hunnor's mother, Basma, fully covered in a black gown and veil, pointed to several bullets holes at the entrance. "They killed him here. They executed him," she said.

She said her son, the first fatality in Hamas' month-old crackdown, supported the Islamic State ideology, but that he had never acted against Hamas. "Even if he pays allegiance to the Islamic State, what gives them the right to execute him?" she said.

Salafists include a number of ultraconservative Islamic groups that seek to turn Gaza into an Islamic caliphate. These groups have created a headache for Hamas in recent years, accusing it of being too soft on Israel and of failing to adequately impose religious law.

Hamas has generally tolerated the Salafists since they emerged in Gaza a decade ago, though there have been occasional confrontations. In 2009, Hamas killed a Salafi leader who declared an Islamic emirate in the southern town of Rafah. Since then Hamas has worked quietly to dismantle the groups.

"Now, they are scattered groups, sometimes made up of 10 people who have an ideological problem with Hamas," said Adnan Abu Amer, an analyst from Gaza. "They could not find a popular incubator to contain them in Gaza."

(AP) In this Tuesday, May 5, 2015 photo, Palestinian Hamas police officers monitor the...
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But in recent months, Gaza's Salafists have been emboldened by the rise of the Islamic State group, which seized about a third of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it controls. At the same time, Hamas has been weakened by last year's war while a stifling blockade of Gaza's borders by Israel and Egypt remains in place.

Analysts believe there are about 1,000 Salafi loyalists — too few to pose a threat to Hamas but enough to cause persistent problems. Their preachers deliver anti-Hamas sermons, and Salafi fighters have claimed responsibility for several recent rocket strikes on Israel. These attacks have caused no casualties, but have strained a 10-month-old cease-fire.

Wary of the rising threat, Hamas has launched a crackdown on the most radical groups, demolishing a makeshift mosque where a preacher had praised the Islamic State group, arresting dozens of activists and religious leaders, searching houses for wanted men and confiscating weapons.

At night, Hamas security forces can be seen manning checkpoints on main roads, checking ID cards and opening car trunks in search of suspects.

Mushir al-Masri, a local Hamas official, said such steps are a last resort. "We are not interested in the existence of tension."

(AP) In this Tuesday, May 5, 2015 photo, a Palestinian Hamas police officer monitors the...
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But after the crackdown, particularly last week's killing of al-Hunnor, a 27-year-old father of three, tensions are running high.

Abu Mohammed, a Salafi activist, said the Salafists "love, support and defend the Islamic State" and said anyone who opposes the group is "intentionally or unintentionally taking part in the war against Islam." He refused to provide his full name, fearing retribution from Hamas.

A visit to al-Hunnor's home provides a rare glimpse into the insular world of the Salafists. The apartment was filled with books by al-Qaida and Islamic State clerics, and the Islamic State group's black flag is spray painted on the wall.

Elsewhere, a colored poster explains 17 violations of Islam, ranking them in order of seriousness. The poster urges prayer for less serious crimes, whippings for more serious offenses and shows a picture of a sword — symbolizing the death penalty — for the most serious crimes, such as homosexuality and witchcraft.

Like many Salafis, al-Hunnor began as a member of Hamas' military wing. His family said he was wounded during fighting against Israel in 2008-2009, and had collected a pension for wounded fighters. Relatives said he left Hamas afterward over "ideological differences."

Another Salafi, identifying himself only as Abu Ahmed, said the jihadists are relatively weak and disorganized. Unlike Hamas, which has received help from Iran and other regional allies, he said the Salafists receive no weapons or money from abroad.

Wearing a black robe and bushy black beard, Abu Ahmed said the group has no interest in battling Hamas since it is a fellow Islamic movement.

"Our problem with Hamas is that it wants to dominate, it wants to control, it wants to let everybody work according to its own interest. Hamas wants us to fight the Jews when it wants to, and prevents us from fighting when it has an interest," he said. "This is the main problem. We can't be tools."

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33047544

Africa
Eritrea ruled by fear, not law, UN says

1 hour ago
From the section Africa

Eritrea's government may have committed crimes against humanity, including a shoot-to-kill policy on its borders, a UN investigation says.

"It is not law that rules Eritreans - but fear," says the report, which details extrajudicial killings, sexual slavery and enforced labour.

The situation has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country, says the report.

Eritrea declined to take part in the investigation, the UN says.

It has previously denied committing human rights abuses and says those leaving the country are economic migrants.

President Isaias Afewerki has governed the East African nation for 22 years, and the country has never held elections since gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

Eritreans account for the second-largest group of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, after Syrians, with an estimated 5,000 fleeing every month.

The policy of military conscription for Eritreans once they reach the age of 18 is thought to be one of the main reasons people flee the country.

The UN says many conscripts are made to remain in the army indefinitely, where they receive very little pay, and are subject to forced labour and torture as a form of punishment.

A shoot-to-kill policy on the country's borders, announced by the government in 2004 to prevent Eritreans fleeing the country, cannot be said to have been "officially abolished", the report said.

Despite several eyewitness reports and government statements suggesting that the policy was no longer being implemented, witnesses who tried to cross the border this year and in 2014, told the commission that they had been shot at by soldiers.

The year-long investigation by the UN commission of inquiry accuses Eritrea of operating a vast spying and detention network, holding people without trial for years, including children.

Neighbours and family members are often drafted to inform on each other, according to the report.

"When I am in Eritrea, I feel that I cannot even think because I am afraid that people can read my thoughts and I am scared," said one witness interviewed for the report, describing the fear and paranoia created by the state's mass surveillance programme.

The inquiry said that "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed in Eritrea under the authority of the Government".

The investigators are to present their findings to the UN Human Rights Council on 23 June.


More on this story

Inside secretive Eritrea
13 March 2015
Eritrean life in pictures
15 March 2015
The lone seven-year-olds leaving Eritrea
23 February 2015
Eritrea country profile - Overview
4 May 2015

 

[Housecarl]

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http://www.ibtimes.com/uk-could-hos...in-white-house-weighs-response-russia-1956573

The UK Could Host US Nuclear Weapons Again, As White House Weighs Response To Russia

By Christopher Harress †y@Charress ‰Òc.harress@ibtimes.com on June 08 2015 9:55 AM EDT

In a throwback to the Cold War, the U.K. government could be open to hosting U.S. nuclear weapons again should the West's relationship with Russia deteriorate further, said British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. The move, which Hammond warned is currently a hypothetical one and could unnecessarily provoke a dangerous Russian reaction, comes amid U.S. concerns that Russia has allegedly violated a Cold War nuclear treaty.

"We have got to send a clear signal to Russia that we will not allow them to transgress our red line," Hammond said during a live interview on Sunday, when asked if the U.K. would consider a plan to host American intermediate-range nuclear weapons. ¡§We would look at the case. We work extremely closely with the Americans. That would be a decision that we would make together, if that proposition was on the table.¡¨

Hammond¡¦s admission that the U.K. might be open to hosting the weapons comes three days after the White House began drawing up plans in response to Russia¡¦s alleged violation of a Cold War era nuclear treaty, including sending nuclear weapons back to Europe.

The U.S. says that the consideration is in direct response to continued Russian military action in the eastern Ukraine war, its annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and what the U.S. deems hostile military maneuvers across international airspace and waters near Western European NATO member nations.

The U.S. also contends that Russia's test of a ground-launched cruise missile in 2014 breached the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a 1987 agreement that banned all of its nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles.) Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter reiterated the U.S. claim in Senate confirmation hearings in February this year. He noted that Russia¡¦s disregard for the treaty would open up options for the U.S. to do the same. In addition, the State Department said last July that Russia had broken the treaty.

Russia has denied violating the treaty, instead claiming violations by the United States in erecting a missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

The U.K. hosted U.S. weapons at the Greenham Common base of the Royal Air Force throughout the Cold War, despite mass protests that lasted for a decade and included a 14-mile human chain of protestors in 1983. The U.S. withdrew the weapons after signing a 1991 arms-reduction treaty with the USSR.

 

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150608/eu--obama-75adf3c7e8.html

Obama: US lacks 'complete strategy' for training Iraqis

Jun 8, 5:38 PM (ET)
By JULIE PACE and NEDRA PICKLER

(AP) U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a media conference at the conclusion of...
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ELMAU, Germany (AP) — Acknowledging military setbacks, President Barack Obama said Monday the United States still lacks a "complete strategy" for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State. He urged Iraq's government to allow more of the nation's Sunnis to join the campaign against the violent militants.

Nearly one year after American troops started returning to Iraq to assist local forces, Obama said the Islamic State remains "nimble, aggressive and opportunistic." He touted "significant progress" in areas where the U.S. has trained Iraqis to fight but said forces without U.S. assistance are often ill-equipped and suffer from poor morale.

IS fighters captured the key Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi last month, prompting Defense Secretary Ash Carter to lament that Iraqi troops lacked "the will to fight." That was a strikingly negative assessment of a military that has been the beneficiary of billions in U.S. assistance dating back to the war started during the administration of U.S. President George. W. Bush in 2003.

Still, Obama indicated that simply increasing the number of Americans in Iraq would not resolve the country's issues. The U.S. currently has about 3,000 troops there for train-and-assist missions.

(AP) Marine One with US President Barack Obama aboard lifts from the landing zone as he...
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"We've got more training capacity than we have recruits," he said at the close of a two-day Group of Seven meeting at a luxury resort tucked in the Bavarian Alps.

G-7 leaders invited Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to join them Monday for talks on the security situation in the Middle East. Obama and Abadi also met one-on-one shortly before the president departed for Washington.

In both public and private, Obama urged Abadi and his Shiite-led government to allow more Sunnis to fight the Islamic State. The White House has long blamed Iraq's sectarian divisions for stoking the kind of instability that allowed the militants to thrive.

"We've seen Sunni tribes who are not only willing and prepared to fight ISIL, but have been successful at rebuffing ISIL," Obama said by the U.S. government. "But it has not been happening as fast as it needs to."

In Washington, the highest-ranking Sunni in Iraq's government said Sunni tribes are still receiving insufficient training and inferior weapons compared to the national army. Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri put the onus for fixing that on Baghdad, saying it should provide clear assurances that the tribes will receive the necessary weapons.

(AP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama at Schloss...
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"Guarantees create confidence, and we need confidence," al-Jabouri told a small group of reporters, speaking through an interpreter.

An early opponent of Bush's war in Iraq, Obama withdrew U.S. forces in late 2011 and has vowed that he won't send Americans back into combat there. The U.S., along with coalition partners, is launching airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria, but is banking on local ground forces to supplement that effort.

A six-week U.S. combat training course instructs Iraqi forces in how to shoot, communicate and move about on the battlefield. They are also given individual military equipment.

Col. Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday that the U.S. wants to be able to increase the number of Iraqi troops being trained, but to do that the Iraq government has to increase the number of troops it provides. As of June 4, the U.S. had trained 8,920 Iraqi troops at the four sites, and 2,601 more are undergoing training, Warren said.

Beyond Iraq's sectarian divisions, senior defense officials said, training is hindered because Iraqi security forces have difficulty getting to training sites. Not only are they consumed with fighting, but there are also risks in the travel itself, from Islamic State fighters to roadside bombs and blocked roads.

(AP) US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, left,...
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Some Republicans in the U.S. say the Islamic State's strength is a result of what they see as Obama's muddled and ineffective strategy. The president was sharply criticized in August for saying the U.S. didn't have an overall strategy for fighting the Islamic State, and his comments Monday about plans for training the Iraqis sounded similar.

"We aren't winning the fight against ISIL because we don't have a winning plan," Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. "The president can't delay anymore, especially as ISIL continues to make major gains."

The campaign against the Islamic State was one of several security issues on the agenda during the G-7 talks. Leaders also spent significant time discussing the crisis in Ukraine, where the West alleges Russia continues to sow instability.

In a joint statement, the leaders vowed to keep sanctions in place until a fragile peace agreement is fully implemented. They also said sanctions could increase if Russia escalates its aggression, despite the fact that the economic penalties have done little to change Vladimir Putin's approach so far.

Until last year, Russia had joined the U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan in the bloc of leading industrial nations. But those nations kicked Russia out last year as part of its punishments for actions in Ukraine.

---

Pace reported from Telfs, Austria. AP writers Bradley Klapper and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

 

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/08/us-belgium-security-idUSKBN0OO1HN20150608

World | Mon Jun 8, 2015 3:20pm EDT
Related: World

Belgium raids suspected Islamists, fails to confirm attack plot

BRUSSELS | By Robert-Jan Bartunek

Belgian police raided suspected Islamist militants, mostly of Chechen origin, on Monday but found no evidence to confirm suspicions that they were planning an attack, prosecutors said.

The police carried out 21 coordinated raids as part of investigations of two groups of suspects.

One group, in or near the university city of Leuven, were suspected of plotting an attack, while a second group located on the Belgian coast was thought to include people who had returned from fighting in Syria, prosecutors said.

"The different raids have not so far produced evidence to confirm initial indications that an attack was being prepared in Belgium," prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors said initially that 16 people had been detained.

But in a later statement, they said that two people from the group believed to have connections with the Syrian civil war had been placed under formal arrest. The remaining suspects were freed after questioning.

Prosecutors began investigating a suspected plot in January, after intercepting communications on the mobile messaging service WhatsApp with the help of U.S. authorities.

The investigation into the coastal group began in February after a person suspected of joining jihadist fighters in Syria returned to Belgium wounded to seek medical treatment.

Prosecutors said they had carried out the coordinated action because of contacts between the two groups, whose members were believed to have trained in Syria, Chechnya and Afghanistan.

In January, Belgian police killed two men who opened fire on them during a series of raids against an Islamist group that federal prosecutors said was on the point of launching attacks across the country.

Prime Minister Charles Michel praised the work of police and justice departments. "We will not allow any place in our democracy for those people who represent a menace for our citizens," he said.


(Additional reporting by Clement Rossignol, Adrian Croft, Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

 

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-feffer/reviving-the-iran-north-k_b_7538310.html

http://www.lobelog.com/reviving-the-iran-north-korea-axis/

John Feffer
Director, Foreign Policy In Focus and Editor, LobeLog

Reviving the Iran-North Korea Axis

Posted: 06/08/2015 4:41 pm EDT Updated: 19 minutes

When George W. Bush put Iraq, Iran, and North Korea into his infamous "axis of evil" speech in 2002, the three countries seemed to have little to do with one another -- except that Washington didn't like them (and they didn't like Washington). Iran and Iraq were enemies, not allies, and the inclusion of North Korea was meant largely to underscore that the "global war on terror" was not a war on Islam.

With the Obama administration and the P5+1 racing to conclude a final nuclear agreement with Iran this summer, critics of the deal are also hurrying -- to demonstrate that Iran remains a committed anchor in a revived "axis of evil." In Iraq, crumbling under the weight of assaults from the Islamic State, Iran has expanded its influence in an effort to contain the spread of Sunni radicalism. For some commentators, Iran's efforts in Iraq are part of a serious bid for regional hegemony. But the sad truth is that Washington needs Iran's help to keep Iraq from becoming a failed state, so this part of a revived "axis of evil" has diminished traction.

Iran's relationship with North Korea is a different problem altogether. Thousands of miles separate the two countries. There is no religious or ideological overlap. One country is negotiating in earnest with Washington while the other is maintaining an officially hostile attitude toward the United States. And yet the two countries have certain common interests. They both have nuclear programs, are subject to international sanctions, and have struggled with pariah status. Much of their cooperation is shrouded in mystery.

Because of this mystery, the Iran-North Korea relationship is ripe for exploitation, particularly by those who are eager to find a hammer to destroy the impending nuclear agreement with Iran. But if this is the only implement that critics can find to inflict damage, they're scraping the bottom of their toolbox of destruction.

Allegations of Nuclear Cooperation

Iran and North Korea cooperate. On this point, there is no debate. They engage in bilateral trade, though Iran doesn't make it onto the official list of North Korea's top 10 trade partners. They signed a technical cooperation agreement in September 2012. Foreign ministry officials from both countries have made reciprocal visits. They occasionally make statements about their shared distrust of the United States.

As part of their bilateral trade, North Korea has supplied Iran with missile components, including two shipments since fall 2014, according to anonymous sources in the U.S. government. One common but unconfirmed estimate of the value of North Korea's missile sales is $2 billion a year, which would vault Iran into second place behind China as a trading partner. Also unconfirmed is the assertion that Iran has provided North Korea with centrifuges that have been a central part of Pyongyang's effort to acquire a second path to a nuclear weapon through highly enriched uranium.

Technical cooperation -- and here we are moving further into more speculative territory -- has included Iranian presence at North Korea's nuclear tests, and North Korean experts providing unspecified assistance inside Iran. The latest claim, trumpeted by anti-engagement activists like Alireza Jafarzadeh, is quite detailed:


A seven-member North Korean delegation, comprised of experts in nuclear warhead design and various parts of ballistic missiles including guidance systems, spent the last week of April in Iran. This was the third such nuclear and missile team to visit Iran in 2015. The next delegation is scheduled to secretly arrive in Iran in June and will be comprised of nine experts.


Moving further into the terrain of speculation, journalist Don Kirk writes in Forbes:


North Korea is able to assist Iran in miniaturizing warheads to fit on missiles -- a goal the North has long been pursuing -- and also can supply uranium and other metals mined in its remote mountain regions.

"North Korea continues to supply technology, components, and even raw materials for Iran's HEU weaponization program," says Bruce Bechtol, author of numerous books and studies on North Korea's military and political ambitions. Moreover, he says, "They are even helping Iran to pursue a second track by helping them to build a plutonium reactor."



Based on this history of cooperation, critics of the nuclear negotiations with Iran have suggested that North Korea will offer a way for Iran to sneak out of its commitments. Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz argued back in November 2014:


f Iran under an agreement can have some kind of research and development, knowledge exchange and participation in other countries like North Korea, then this is also the way to bypass an agreement by simply not doing it alone in Iran, but by cooperating with North Korea or other rogue countries.

Finally, at the furthest edge of plausibility, Tzvi Kahn argues in a recent Foreign Policy Initiative bulletin that Iran and North Korea have a "broader goal of undermining U.S. global leadership." Here is the most unvarnished update of the Bush-era axis of evil, which goes beyond mere cooperation on nuclear issues to a concerted effort to oppose the United States at every turn.

Unraveling the Axis

Added together, these claims appear quite convincing. Not only is North Korea cooperating actively with Iran with conventional military hardware, but it is also helping the country acquire a nuclear capability right under the noses of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in violation of several sanctions regimes.

But this apparent open-and-shut case for a return of the axis of evil minus Iraq is full of holes. Let's take another look at the evidence.

North Korea and Iran may indeed conduct a brisk trade in ballistic missiles, though the figure of $2 billion seems particularly squishy. More careful analysts estimate that North Korea makes $1 billion to $2 billion from all its missile sales. The U.S. government estimated that between 1990 and 2000 North Korea made $1 billion for all its Scud sales, and that included barter as well as hard currency.

The figures are not only inflated but also outdated. "Iran has likely exceeded North Korea's ability to develop, test, and build ballistic missiles," observed the Congressional Research Service in a 2014 report. Even though Iran still may receive occasional inputs for its short-range missiles, "Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper stated during a February 11, 2014, Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that Iran is not currently receiving assistance with its ICBM program."

CRS is being rather polite. Relying on North Korea's ballistic missile capability, particularly its long-range rockets, would be like importing your sushi from a landlocked country. Most of Pyongyang's long-range missile tests have been duds (failed tests in 2006, 2009, and 2012; one possible success in 2012). If Washington wanted to ensure that Iran is saddled with an ineffective missile program, it should probably encourage missile cooperation with North Korea.

Perhaps most importantly, however, although such trade violates various sanction regimes and regional compacts, it does not constitute nuclear cooperation. The United States might not be happy that Iran imports or exports missiles to North Korea. But this issue is not currently on the table in the negotiations any more than Iran's human rights situation, its military presence in the Middle East, or the nature of the government in Tehran.

The Nuclear Non-Link

CRS concludes that, despite speculation that Iran and North Korea have collaborated in various ways on their nuclear programs, “there is no evidence that Iran and North Korea have engaged in nuclear-related trade or cooperation with each other.” One major reason is that Iran, according to US intelligence estimates, stopped pursuing a nuclear program for military purposes in 2003. But even if there has been cooperation since then, for instance around North Korea’s nuclear tests, it would be of limited value for Tehran:


Although some analysts have argued that Pyongyang could provide nuclear test data to Tehran, the extent to which Iran could benefit from such data is unclear. North Korea’s nuclear weapons program to date has apparently been based on plutonium; Iran would most likely use weapons-grade HEU, rather than plutonium, as fissile material in nuclear weapons, at least in the short term. Although Tehran could provide Pyongyang with access to Iran’s enrichment technology, such access would be of limited benefit to North Korea because North Korea’s centrifuge appears to differ from the two types of centrifuges that Iran has installed.

If their centrifuge programs are different, did Iran really help North Korea with its program? The evidence suggests that North Korea indeed relied on imported technology in the early days of the program but from Pakistan, Russia, China, and even an infamous attempted shipment from Germany, not from Iran. More recently, North Korea has shifted to indigenous manufacture for its HEU program.

There has been one report of North Korea shipping weapons-grade uranium to Iran (it allegedly caused a spill at the Khomeini International Airport in 2002). And Israeli intelligence has also alleged that North Korea is helping Iran build a plutonium reactor. Although frequently cited, neither claim has been substantiated. The uranium shipment, if it took place, happened before the date when the United States has acknowledged that Iran abandoned its quest for a nuclear weapon. The plutonium reactor, the pressurized heavy water reactor at Arak, will not have the capability of producing weapons-grade plutonium as long as the final agreement with Iran goes forward—so North Korean cooperation on this issue is moot.

What about the very specific details of Iranian delegations visiting North Korea? The source of this information is Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), the Iranian resistance group that resembles a cult more than a collection of dissidents and has received a “terrorist” designation from the U.S. government. MEK has proven quite unreliable in the past, for instance in its assertion in 2010 of a secret nuclear site near the Iranian city of Qazvin. More recently, MEK supplied equally detailed revelations about a secret centrifuge facility underneath a Tehran suburb. In his debunking of the claims, Jeffrey Lewis concluded in Foreign Policy that:


The MEK highlights Iran’s nuclear programs — real, imagined, and downright fabricated — as a way to build support for regime change in Tehran. Hemming in the Iranian nuclear program through diplomacy removes one of the MEK’s most effective talking points in favor of bombing Iran. They won’t go down without a fight.

To continue the fight, MEK has brought in a heavy: North Korea. But note that the reports describe a North Korean delegation that includes experts in both nuclear warhead design and ballistic missiles. If such a delegation has visited, they may well have focused entirely on ballistic missiles. After all, although the North Korean government has claimed to have mastered the miniaturization necessary to put a nuclear warhead on a missile, the jury is still out on whether these claims are true. There is also a big difference between having a capability and sharing that capability (note Kirk’s elision of this difference when attempting to make the nuclear link in his Forbes column).

In any case, the State Department responded immediately to the most recent allegations of Iran-North Korean nuclear cooperation that “we don’t have any information at this time that would lead us to believe that these allegations impact our ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.”

A Weak Partnership

So, if the arguments for past nuclear cooperation are thin at best, where does that leave the case for North Korea helping Iran “sneak out” of any agreement with the P5+1 countries? As an argument against the impending agreement, this is a particularly weak one. Let’s assume the worst-case scenario that the two countries have had such cooperation since 2003, despite evidence to the contrary. Bringing Iran into a compliance regime is the best way of monitoring any future bilateral nuclear cooperation with North Korea.

True, North Korea could supply Iran with data from its nuclear tests or perhaps slip some documents to Iranian officials of its reportedly successful efforts at miniaturization. But as long as Iran’s facilities are subject to inspections and its nuclear material kept to a low level of enrichment, this information will be of dubious benefit. Without an agreement, meanwhile, Iran and North Korea could cavort beneath the sheets and we’d have no way of monitoring their conjugal visits.

And finally, there is the least plausible assertion: that North Korea and Iran share a broader goal of undermining U.S. global leadership. This is a particularly odd argument to make when Iran is sitting down to negotiations with Washington. The leadership in Iran must be crafty indeed to believe that giving up a nuclear option and providing the Obama administration with a diplomatic victory will ultimately hobble the United States.

But the argument doesn’t hold up with respect to North Korea either. Pyongyang certainly indulges in extremely vitriolic anti-American rhetoric (including blatantly racist comments about President Obama himself). But North Korea has never cared very much about U.S. global leadership. It has much more parochial concerns – preserving its system, getting a leg up on South Korea, weaning itself from its dependency on China, and combatting Japanese hegemony. To achieve any or all of these goals, an accommodation with the United States could in fact be helpful. If Washington offered Pyongyang a deal it couldn’t refuse, North Korea would sever relations with Iran in a heartbeat (indeed North Korea seriously considered a missile buyout package from Israel back in 1993-4).

The new “axis of evil” with Iran at its center has even less explanatory utility than the fiction had on its debut in 2002. The attempt to drag North Korea in as a diabolus ex machina to destroy the incipient détente between the United States and Iran only underscores the paucity of arguments that the critics have at their disposal.

Photo: Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong of North Korea meets with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif of Iran

 

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Activists: Syrian air raids kill 49 in northwestern village

Jun 8, 12:14 PM (ET)
By BASSEM MROUE

(AP) In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian Prime...
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BEIRUT (AP) — Government airstrikes on a northwestern Syrian village Monday killed at least 49 people and left survivors screaming in anguish as they pulled bodies from the rubble, according to activists and videos of the chaotic aftermath.

The Local Coordination Committees said two air raids on the village of Janoudiyeh in Idlib province killed 60 people and wounded others. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air raid killed 49 people, including six children. It said the death toll could rise as some people are still missing.

Conflicting reports often emerge in the chaotic aftermath of such events.

The Observatory said the air raid struck a public square in Janoudiyeh, near the town of Jisr al-Shughour, which was captured by insurgents in April. It said the village has become home to many displaced people from nearby areas.

(AP) Map locates village of Janoudiyeh in Idlib province, Syria.; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm...
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A video uploaded onto the Internet by activists showed a chaotic, smoke-filled scene, with people running past damaged cars, and bodies scattered on the street. Women screamed as men hurriedly covered bodies and pulled wounded people from the rubble before an ambulance arrived.

"My son was killed!" a man screamed. "We need cars!" another man shouted, as a third, covered in blood, sat on the debris.

Another amateur video showed dead bodies lined up on a floor. Activists asked people who recognize the bodies to inform local authorities. A body covered with a blanket had a paper that read "unknown woman."

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting.

Activists say thousands of people have been killed in government airstrikes since Syria's conflict began in March 2011. The war has killed more than 220,000 people.

The latest air raids came shortly after Syria's prime minister called on young men to fulfill their mandatory military service obligation, promising better pay for troops on the front lines as well as one hot meal a day.

President Bashar Assad's army has faced a severe shortage of manpower as thousands of soldiers have deserted or dodged national service. Analysts have said the military's dwindling ranks are a key factor behind the advance of the Islamic State group as well as rebels and other insurgents in recent months.

"Today we must unite more than ever in backing our army and to fulfill the call of duty through mandatory military service," Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi told parliament, adding that the army "is the real guarantor for the unity of our land."

Syrian men with university degrees must spend 18 months in the military, usually after graduation, while those with a high school degree or less must serve for two years starting at age 18. Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, many have been forced to extend their service, according to residents and activists.

In March, insurgents seized the northern city of Idlib -- the second provincial capital to fall out of the government's hands -- and last month the Islamic State group overran the historic central town of Palmyra. Rebels in southern Syria captured a border crossing with Jordan and a nearby strategic town earlier this year.

"Losing any city or any area in Syria does not mean that the war is lost," al-Halqi said. He added that the army will strike back against militants, saying "wherever they step will be their graves."

He said that on the orders of Assad himself, a plan is being drawn up that would pay an extra 10,000 Syrian pounds ($35) per month to soldiers on the front lines, starting next month.

He added that "the heroes standing on the front lines will receive a meal of hot food."

There have been complaints on social media that the troops' diet mainly consists of bread, as well as boiled eggs or potatoes.

 

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150609/as--india-maoist_rebels-a4b103be74.html

Indian police kill 12 Maoist rebels in eastern stronghold

Jun 8, 11:08 PM (ET)
By INDRAJIT SINGH

PATNA, India (AP) — Police killed at least 12 Maoist rebels in a clash early Tuesday in one of their strongholds in eastern India.

The police attacked the rebels as they were on their way to extort money from several mining contractors in Palamau district in Jharkhand state, said police Inspector-General S.M. Pradhan.

Pradhan said the police recovered 12 bodies and eight automatic guns in a forested area, nearly 300 kilometers (200 miles) south of Patna, the capital of neighboring Bihar state. He said there were no police casualties.

In April last year, Maoist rebels ambushed a police vehicle in the same region in Jharkhand state and killed six police officers during voting in India's national elections.

The rebels, who have been fighting for more than three decades, say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

They are considered India's biggest internal security threat, operate in 20 of India's 28 states and have thousands of fighters.

 

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150608/lt--mexico-elections-3c9ffc85a9.html

Mexico president poised for majority despite discontent

Jun 8, 5:36 PM (ET)
By PETER ORSI and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

(AP) Poll workers count ballots by the light of a cell phone and street lights, at an...
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Despite widespread disillusionment with his government, President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday emerged from midterm elections with an expected congressional majority that will let him forge ahead with his reform agenda without compromising with opponents.

With 95 percent of the ballots counted, Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and its two coalition partners received about 40 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.

Under Mexico's mixed system of direct and proportional elections for congressional seats, analysts predicted the PRI coalition will ultimately control 245 to 263 seats in the 500-seat legislature.

"I can assure you that Pena Nieto will be able to put together a majority with certainty," said Roy Campos, director the Mitofsky polling firm. "Having 251, which is what he needs, is practically a done deal."

(AP) Electoral volunteers count ballots after the polls closed in the country's midterm...
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But "if the government measures the electoral result as an endorsement," Campos added, "that means they didn't understand this vote."

Halfway through Pena Nieto's six-year term, the election was widely seen as a referendum on a government whose approval ratings have been hit by scandals over real estate deals with government contractors, a less dynamic economy than expected and ongoing security concerns, as well as suspected massacres of civilians and the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students who were grabbed by police last September.

A recent poll signaled that 91 percent of Mexicans surveyed distrusted the country's political parties, while over half disapproved of Pena Nieto's governance.

But a schism in the country's main leftist Democratic Revolution Party caused by former two-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador breaking off to launch his own party, known as Morena, cost the left seats and benefited the PRI.

A year after it was formally recognized, Morena will have its first representation in Congress while Democratic Revolution, which was winning less than 11 percent of the vote in the preliminary results, could lose about a dozen seats.

(AP) A riot policeman use extinguishers to put out the flames of a burning pick-up truck...
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The third main political force, the conservative National Action of the Party that produced Mexico's two previous presidents, maintained more or less steady support with about 21 percent of the vote.

Analysts noted that in many places around the country there were no local elections for mayor or governor, and voters were casting ballots for unknown congressional candidates. In such races, the PRI enjoys an advantage because of its large, entrenched political machine.

"It's a sigh of relief (for the PRI), yes...," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst and professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching. "What was not reflected was discontent with the government and the parties. All the indicators of discontent did not appear ... except at the local level."

The most notable example was the election of Jaime Rodriguez, known as "El Bronco," who became the first independent candidate in Mexico to win a governor's race, in Nuevo Leon state. This was the first year independents could seek office under a recent electoral reform.

In doing so, the horseback-riding, boot-clad Rodriguez ousted the PRI from a key state that includes the business hub of Monterrey.

(AP) In this Jan. 22, 2015, file photo, former Mexican soccer star Cuauhtemoc...
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Rodriguez filled a void where fed-up voters felt that traditional parties weren't responsive to their needs, and it could set a precedent for similar candidacies in the future, Crespo said.

"The independent gives you hope, an expectation, simply because it's something different," he said, "even though we have no proof that he will be more effective."

In the city of Cuernavaca outside the Mexican capital, recently retired soccer star Cuauhtemoc Blanco was ahead in the vote for mayor and poised to take over an office previously held by the PRI. He represented the tiny Social Democratic Party, which doesn't exist in most other states.

And the major city of Guadalajara turned its back on the traditional powers, the PRI and National Action, by giving an overwhelming victory to Enrique Alfaro of the center-left Citizens Movement, which barely registers in polls in much of the country.

Pena Nieto was boosted by a bump in support for the allied Green Party, which jumped from about 6 percent of the vote to 7 percent following a controversial campaign in which it was fined millions for ignoring campaign finance laws. That could give the Greens as many as 20 new seats.

Protesters burned ballot boxes in several restive states in southern Mexico, but officials said they were isolated incidents.

Electoral officials will issue final, certified results later in the week. Returns so far show the PRI losing some of its six governorships up for a vote, while winning back others.

 

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/re...ummons-U-S-ambassador-Muslim-Brotherhood.html

Egypt summons U.S. ambassador over Muslim Brotherhood

By Reuters
Published: 19:07 EST, 8 June 2015 | Updated: 19:07 EST, 8 June 2015
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By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - Egypt summoned the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials did not intend to meet the group although they had met some Brotherhood figures that came to Washington in January.

The tensions reflect a clash between U.S. diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, as army chief, toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.

The sources declined to say precisely when U.S. Ambassador Stephen Beecroft was call in by the Egyptian government, though one said it was in recent days. Egypt sought the meeting to make clear its unhappiness at U.S. dealings with the Brotherhood.

State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke declined to say whether Beecroft was summoned by the Egyptian authorities or whether U.S. officials would meet Brotherhood figures visiting Washington, telling reporters he was aware of media reports of such a visit but that "I don't have any meetings to announce."

He said it continued to be U.S. policy to engage with people from across the political spectrum in Egypt.

The United States has had ambivalent dealings with Sisi, prizing the stability has brought to Egypt while cautiously criticizing Egypt's human rights record and the authorities' crackdown on the Brotherhood.

Sisi, who was elected president in a 2014 landslide but with lower-than-expected turnout that raised questions about his mandate, regards the Brotherhood as part of a terrorist network that poses a threat to the Arab and Western world.

The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful movement.

The fall of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, a long-time U.S. ally ultimately abandoned by Washington, paved the way for the Brotherhood to rule the most populous Arab country, something that was unthinkable for decades.

Mohamed Mursi, who rose through the Brotherhood's ranks before winning the presidency in 2012, was a polarizing figure during his troubled year in office. His policies alienated secular and liberal Egyptians, who feared the Brotherhood was abusing power.

In January, the State Department said its officials met a group of visiting Egyptian former parliamentarians, including former members of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political wing. The Brotherhood was banned by an Egyptian court in 2013 after Mursi was ousted. (Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin, Yara Bayoumy and Shadi Bushra in Cairo; Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 

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http://www.france24.com/en/20150609-under-siege-villagers-fear-malis-bandit-country

09 June 2015 - 07H36

Under siege: villagers in fear in Mali's bandit country

BINTAGOUNGOU (MALI) (AFP) -

Only the poor, old and sick have stuck around, holed up at home, trembling at the slightest noise, in the once-thriving Malian settlement of Bintagoungou, now little more than a ghost town.

The village to the west of Timbuktu in the country's restive north has been attacked three times in recent months by hordes of armed men who have killed and looted before shrinking back into their desert hideouts.

Those with the means have paid the 100,000-CFA franc ($170, 152-euro) fare to hang out the back of an overloaded truck to safety in the town of Goundam, 40 kilometres (25 miles) further south.

The only authority left in the desolate village is the ailing traditional chieftain, Hamad Mamadou.

Blind and walking with difficulty, he needs an interpreter to speak to the Malian captain and two French officers who have come to spend a few hours in Bintagoungou.

"Almost everyone has fled because of fear. We never sleep, day or night. At the slightest vehicle approaching, we hide in our houses," he tells the soldiers as they sit together under a canopy.

"Staying here is very dangerous. Especially today, market day. This is often when they come. Now they will not dare, because you are here.

"But when you leave it will be worse. The bandits will come to find out what you said, what your plans are."

- 'No security' -

Mamadou says he has no idea who these "bandits" are.

"They come from the Sahara in the night in Toyotas. They have weapons, scarves cover their faces. Those who dare to look see only their eyes," he says.

At midday, under an unforgiving desert sun, sand and litter blows across deserted streets. The local school is closed and the health clinic shuttered.

On Thursdays it was once a challenge to push through the crowds to get to the other side of the market square, but now most of the stalls are empty.

"There is no security, day or night," butcher Assibit Yattara tells AFP as he dices pieces of goat meat.

"As soon as I have got together enough money, I'm taking my family away from here."

Living as a refugee in Goundam, Bintagoungou mayor Hama Abacrine has a clear idea of the identity of the assailants.

"They are not foreigners. They are Malians -- Arabs, Tuareg," he says.

"There are even blacks among them. We know them, some were our neighbours. They are thieves, robbers. Banditry has no ethnicity."

Abacrine fled three weeks ago, convinced that staying would have cost him his life.

"It's simple -- the land was abandoned to thieves. This is why two-thirds of my constituents are here," he tells AFP.

- 'Worse than the terrorists' -

"If you fight against them, 100 of them come back and burn everything. They steal money, vehicles, stores, equipment.

"As a result, people say they miss the days when Bintagoungou was, like the whole region, in the hands of the Islamists, because they kept order and stopped theft. For the people, thieves are worse than terrorists."

Northern Mali -- a vast swathe of desert around the size of France -- was seized by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda for around 10 months in 2012.

They were ousted by a French-led military intervention launched in January 2013, but large areas of the north remain beyond the control of the Malian authorities.

Aminatou Bourri, 34, also fled Bintagoungou to seek refuge with her children in Goundam, where she is originally from.

"I would have made the journey on foot if I'd had to. The rebels, terrorists, thieves, Tuareg -- I do not know exactly who they are -- they take everything: food, animals, children's clothes.

"I'm lucky -- my family is here. There are people here who have no one, camped near the Niger river."

Bintagoungou was attacked on April 30, half an hour after the Malian army left, according to the mayor.

"We need the army back. After two weeks, thieves will have understood, and will have gone to attack somewhere else."

Captain Sheikh Bayala, who has just been appointed to Goundam, watches the mayor uneasily, then looks at his feet, making no promises.

by Michel Moutot