Sunday, November 3, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
chemical weapons were used by Syrian forces in an attack near Damascus
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have made a preliminary assessment that chemical weapons were used by Syrian forces in an attack near Damascus this week, likely with high-level approval from the government of President Bashar al-Assad, according to American and European security sources.
The early intelligence finding could increase pressure for action by President Barack Obama, who made clear that he planned to tread cautiously even as his aides sought to narrow their differences in debate over possible military responses to the Syrian government.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the assessment was preliminary and, at this stage, they were still seeking conclusive proof, which could take days, weeks or even longer to gather.
But with a mounting international outcry over the apparent mass poisoning of hundreds of people, the issue appeared to have taken on a sense of urgency for the Obama administration.
In his first public comments since Wednesday's attack in the Damascus suburbs, Obama called the incident a "big event of grave concern" and one that demanded U.S. attention, but said he was in no rush to get war-weary Americans "mired" in another Middle East conflict.
Obama's wary response, which underscored a deep reluctance by Washington to intervene in Syria's 2-1/2-year-old civil war, came as senior U.S. officials weighed choices ranging from increased international sanctions to the use of force, including possible air strikes on Assad's forces, administration sources said.
A meeting of members of Obama's National Security Council, the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies was held at the White House late on Thursday, but made no decisions on what to recommend, officials said.
With further talks planned as early as this weekend, a senior U.S. defense official said a decision on a course of action could come soon. But it appeared unlikely any military response would take place without extensive consultation with allies and further review of U.S. intelligence about the attack.
One U.S. official acknowledged that the participants aired "differing viewpoints," but pushed back against the notion that the administration, whose Syria policymaking has been marked by internal dissent in the past, was sharply divided on a response.
"It's not like people were screaming at each other," the official said.
International powers - including Russia, which has long shielded Assad from U.N. action - have urged Assad to cooperate with a U.N. inspection team that arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons attacks.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was "some evidence" of chemical weapons use in the latest incident, but stopped short of saying an official conclusion was reached.
The Syrian government denies being responsible and has in the past accused rebels of using chemical weapons, an allegation that Western officials have dismissed.
CROSSING THE 'RED LINE'
While the preliminary U.S. assessment was that Assad loyalists carried out Wednesday's attack with high-level authorization, one U.S. source closely monitoring events in the region said it was also possible that a local commander decided on his own to use gas to clear the way for a ground assault.
"What we've seen indicates that this is clearly a big event, of grave concern," Obama said in an interview on CNN's "New Day" program that aired on Friday, as anti-Assad rebels braved the front lines around Damascus to smuggle tissue samples to U.N. inspectors from victims of Wednesday's apparent mass poisoning.
Asked about his comment - made a year and a day before the toxic fumes hit sleeping residents of rebel-held Damascus suburbs - that chemical weapons would be a 'red line' for the United States, Obama expressed caution.
"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it," Obama said. "The notion that the U.S. can somehow solve what is a sectarian complex problem inside of Syria sometimes is overstated."
At Thursday's White House meeting, which lasted more than three hours, Obama's aides had a "robust discussion" of the diplomatic and military options available to the president, U.S. officials said.
Among the military options under consideration are targeted missile strikes on Syrian units believed responsible for chemical attacks or on Assad's air force and ballistic missile sites, U.S. officials said. Such strikes could be launched from U.S. ships or combat aircraft capable of firing missiles from outside Syrian airspace, thereby avoiding Syrian air defenses.
Seen as more risky - and unlikely - would be a sustained air assault, such as the one conducted in Libya in 2011.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who took part in Thursday's meeting by secure video link, advocated the use of air strikes in White House meetings in early June preceding an announcement of military aid to the rebels, a person familiar with the talks said. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey argued that such a mission would be complex and costly.
The White House on Friday reiterated Obama's position that he did not intend to put "boots on the ground" in Syria, and an administration official said Thursday's meeting also steered clear of the idea of enforcing a "no-fly" zone there.
Another possibility would be to authorize sending heavier U.S. weaponry, such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rockets, to the rebels in addition to lighter arms approved in June. But even those limited supplies have yet to start flowing to the rebels.
The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee urged Obama on Friday to order air strikes against Assad's government.
Representative Eliot Engel cited Obama's statement that the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces would cross a "red line" and cause the United States to act to halt such violations of international law.
"If we, in concert with our allies, do not respond to Assad's murderous uses of weapons of mass destruction, malevolent countries and bad actors around the world will see a green light where one was never intended," Engel wrote in a letter to Obama and obtained by Reuters.
'CREDIBILITY ISSUE'
With Obama's international prestige seen on the line, a former senior U.S. official said the suspected chemical attack was likely to prompt Obama to use limited force, but he did not expect him to try to topple Assad.
"They will feel obliged to do something because … the credibility issue is very high here," the former official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Something like a finite use of stand-off force is quite possible here."
Obama's failure to confront Assad with the serious consequences he has long threatened would likely reinforce a global perception of a president preoccupied with domestic matters and unwilling to act decisively in the volatile Middle East, a picture already set by his mixed response to the crisis in Egypt.
The consensus in Washington and allied capitals is that a concerted international response can only succeed if the United States takes the lead.
But Obama has shown no appetite for intervention. Polls by Reuters/Ipsos and others have shown that most Americans, weary of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are increasingly aware of the Syria conflict but remain opposed to U.S. involvement there.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Vicki Allen, Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)
The early intelligence finding could increase pressure for action by President Barack Obama, who made clear that he planned to tread cautiously even as his aides sought to narrow their differences in debate over possible military responses to the Syrian government.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, cautioned that the assessment was preliminary and, at this stage, they were still seeking conclusive proof, which could take days, weeks or even longer to gather.
But with a mounting international outcry over the apparent mass poisoning of hundreds of people, the issue appeared to have taken on a sense of urgency for the Obama administration.
In his first public comments since Wednesday's attack in the Damascus suburbs, Obama called the incident a "big event of grave concern" and one that demanded U.S. attention, but said he was in no rush to get war-weary Americans "mired" in another Middle East conflict.
Obama's wary response, which underscored a deep reluctance by Washington to intervene in Syria's 2-1/2-year-old civil war, came as senior U.S. officials weighed choices ranging from increased international sanctions to the use of force, including possible air strikes on Assad's forces, administration sources said.
A meeting of members of Obama's National Security Council, the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies was held at the White House late on Thursday, but made no decisions on what to recommend, officials said.
With further talks planned as early as this weekend, a senior U.S. defense official said a decision on a course of action could come soon. But it appeared unlikely any military response would take place without extensive consultation with allies and further review of U.S. intelligence about the attack.
One U.S. official acknowledged that the participants aired "differing viewpoints," but pushed back against the notion that the administration, whose Syria policymaking has been marked by internal dissent in the past, was sharply divided on a response.
"It's not like people were screaming at each other," the official said.
International powers - including Russia, which has long shielded Assad from U.N. action - have urged Assad to cooperate with a U.N. inspection team that arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons attacks.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was "some evidence" of chemical weapons use in the latest incident, but stopped short of saying an official conclusion was reached.
The Syrian government denies being responsible and has in the past accused rebels of using chemical weapons, an allegation that Western officials have dismissed.
CROSSING THE 'RED LINE'
While the preliminary U.S. assessment was that Assad loyalists carried out Wednesday's attack with high-level authorization, one U.S. source closely monitoring events in the region said it was also possible that a local commander decided on his own to use gas to clear the way for a ground assault.
"What we've seen indicates that this is clearly a big event, of grave concern," Obama said in an interview on CNN's "New Day" program that aired on Friday, as anti-Assad rebels braved the front lines around Damascus to smuggle tissue samples to U.N. inspectors from victims of Wednesday's apparent mass poisoning.
Asked about his comment - made a year and a day before the toxic fumes hit sleeping residents of rebel-held Damascus suburbs - that chemical weapons would be a 'red line' for the United States, Obama expressed caution.
"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it," Obama said. "The notion that the U.S. can somehow solve what is a sectarian complex problem inside of Syria sometimes is overstated."
At Thursday's White House meeting, which lasted more than three hours, Obama's aides had a "robust discussion" of the diplomatic and military options available to the president, U.S. officials said.
Among the military options under consideration are targeted missile strikes on Syrian units believed responsible for chemical attacks or on Assad's air force and ballistic missile sites, U.S. officials said. Such strikes could be launched from U.S. ships or combat aircraft capable of firing missiles from outside Syrian airspace, thereby avoiding Syrian air defenses.
Seen as more risky - and unlikely - would be a sustained air assault, such as the one conducted in Libya in 2011.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who took part in Thursday's meeting by secure video link, advocated the use of air strikes in White House meetings in early June preceding an announcement of military aid to the rebels, a person familiar with the talks said. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey argued that such a mission would be complex and costly.
The White House on Friday reiterated Obama's position that he did not intend to put "boots on the ground" in Syria, and an administration official said Thursday's meeting also steered clear of the idea of enforcing a "no-fly" zone there.
Another possibility would be to authorize sending heavier U.S. weaponry, such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rockets, to the rebels in addition to lighter arms approved in June. But even those limited supplies have yet to start flowing to the rebels.
The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee urged Obama on Friday to order air strikes against Assad's government.
Representative Eliot Engel cited Obama's statement that the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces would cross a "red line" and cause the United States to act to halt such violations of international law.
"If we, in concert with our allies, do not respond to Assad's murderous uses of weapons of mass destruction, malevolent countries and bad actors around the world will see a green light where one was never intended," Engel wrote in a letter to Obama and obtained by Reuters.
'CREDIBILITY ISSUE'
With Obama's international prestige seen on the line, a former senior U.S. official said the suspected chemical attack was likely to prompt Obama to use limited force, but he did not expect him to try to topple Assad.
"They will feel obliged to do something because … the credibility issue is very high here," the former official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Something like a finite use of stand-off force is quite possible here."
Obama's failure to confront Assad with the serious consequences he has long threatened would likely reinforce a global perception of a president preoccupied with domestic matters and unwilling to act decisively in the volatile Middle East, a picture already set by his mixed response to the crisis in Egypt.
The consensus in Washington and allied capitals is that a concerted international response can only succeed if the United States takes the lead.
But Obama has shown no appetite for intervention. Polls by Reuters/Ipsos and others have shown that most Americans, weary of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are increasingly aware of the Syria conflict but remain opposed to U.S. involvement there.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Vicki Allen, Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)
Damascus regime, Syria have leashed chemical weapons attacks UN children's agency UNICEF
1 hour ago
As the regime's international allies and foes traded barbs over the reported atrocity, US President Barack Obama said the alleged use of chemical weapons was "clearly a big event of grave concern".
The UN children's agency UNICEF said, meanwhile, that one million Syrian children now live as refugees abroad as a result of the relentless fighting between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
The opposition said the regime of Assad, an ally of Moscow, used chemical weapons east and southwest of Damascus in attacks Wednesday that killed hundreds of people.
The regime denies it unleashed any chemical attacks.
Harrowing footage distributed by activists showing unconscious children, people foaming around the mouth and doctors apparently giving them oxygen to help them breathe has triggered revulsion around the world.
A day after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged a reaction "with force" if a massacre involving chemical weapons is confirmed, his British counterpart said his government believed Assad's regime was behind the attacks.
"We do believe this is a chemical attack by the Assad regime on a large scale, but we would like the United Nations to be able to assess that," said Britain's William Hague.
His televised statement came after Russia's foreign ministry branded as "unacceptable" calls for use of force against the Damascus regime.
"Against the background of another anti-Syrian wave of propaganda, we believe calls from some European countries to apply pressure on the UN Security Council and already now take a decision on the use of force are unacceptable," the ministry said.
It said evidence was mounting that the attack was "clearly provocative in nature" and that Internet footage said to implicate the regime had been posted before it took place. It also accused the rebels of "directly impeding an objective investigation" of the incident.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a statement issued after he held a telephone conversation with his US counterpart John Kerry, said Moscow "called on the Syrian government to cooperate with the UN chemical experts".
Lavrov also appealed for rebels to allow the UN inspectors on the ground in Syria probing three other suspected chemical attack sites safe access to areas where the latest alleged attacks occurred.
Both Lavrov and Kerry agreed on the need for an "objective investigation," the Russian ministry said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said there was "no time to lose" in probing the alleged attacks, and urged Damascus to allow the UN team in Syria to begin an investigation without delay.
Obama said the latest opposition allegations of chemical weapons use were more serious than previous ones against Assad's regime.
"We are right now gathering information about this particular event," he said, while warning against the United States intervening hastily and getting "mired in very difficult situations".
One year ago, Obama warned the use of chemical weapons in Syria would cross a "red line" and have "enormous consequences".
Damascus has denied it unleashed chemical weapons, while playing down the likelihood of the UN team going to the area of the latest alleged attacks.
"On the international level, there is increasing conviction that if there was a chemical weapons attack, it was perpetrated by terrorists, but it may be that this is a great charade," a security official told AFP.
The UN inspectors on the ground "are working on a programme that has been set in advance," said the official.
The opposition National Coalition says more than 1,300 people were killed in gas attacks southwest and east of the capital.
An activist speaking to AFP from Moadamiyet al-Sham, the rebel-held town southwest of Damascus where the deadliest attack allegedly took place, said he helped bury dozens of civilians who died of "suffocation".
Videos posted online by the activists have provoked shock and condemnation around the globe.
None could be verified but AFP analysed one of the most striking images showing the bodies of children using specialised software.
It showed the picture was not manipulated and was taken, as presented, on August 21.
Experts said convulsions, pinpoint pupils and laboured breathing seen in the footage could be symptoms of nerve gas. But they insisted only blood and urine samples could provide definitive proof.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since its uprising flared in March 2011. Millions more have been forced to flee their homes.
UNICEF said on Friday that one million Syrian children now live as refugees abroad, and two million more have been internally displaced.
"This one millionth child refugee is not just another number. This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend," agency chief Anthony Lake said.
UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned the conflict is "the biggest threat to peace and security in the world".
Monday, July 1, 2013
Gusty, hot winds an Arizona blaze blew out of control in a forest northwest of Phoenix killing 19 firefighters
Gusty, hot winds blew an Arizona blaze out of control Sunday in a forest northwest of Phoenix, overtaking and killing 19 members of an elite fire crew in the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years.
The "hotshot" firefighters were forced to deploy their emergency fire shelters — tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were caught near the central Arizona town of Yarnell, state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told The Associated Press.
The fire also destroyed an estimated 200 homes, Morrison said. Dry grass near the communities of Yarnell and Glen Isla fed the fast-moving blaze, which was whipped up by wind and raced through the homes, he said.
The fire still burned late Sunday, with flames lighting up the night sky in the forest above Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. Most people had evacuated from the town, and no injuries or other deaths were reported.
The fire started after a lightning strike on Friday and spread to at least 2,000 acres on Sunday amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said that the 19 dead firefighters were a part of the city's fire department.
"We grieve for the family. We grieve for the department. We grieve for the city," he said at a news conference Sunday evening. "We're devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet."
Hot shot crews are elite firefighters who often hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and fires. They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn in the direction of homes and cities.
The crew killed in the blaze had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona, Fraijo said.
"By the time they got there, it was moving very quickly," he told the AP of Sunday's fire.
He added that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when "something drastic" occurred.
"One of the last fail safe methods that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective — kinda looks like a foil type — fire-resistant material — with the desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it," Fraijo said.
"Under certain conditions there's usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive," he said. "It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions."
The National Fire Protection Association had previously listed the deadliest wildland fire involving firefighters as the 1994 Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., which killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by a sudden explosion of flames.
U.S. wildfire disasters date back more than two centuries and include tragedies like the 1949 Mann Gulch fire near Helena, Mont., that killed 13, or the Rattlesnake blaze four years later that claimed 15 firefighters in Southern California.
President Barack Obama called the 19 firefighters heroes and said in a statement that the federal government was assisting state and local officials.
"This is as dark a day as I can remember," Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement. "It may be days or longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous work."
Brewer said she would travel to the area on Monday.
Chuck Overmyer and his wife, Ninabill, said they lost their, 1,800-square-foot home in the blaze.
They were helping friends flee when the blaze switched directions and moved toward his property. They loaded up what belongings they could, including three dogs and a 1930 model hot rod on a trailer. As he looked out his rear view mirror he could see embers on the roof of his garage.
"We knew it was gone," he said.
He later gathered at the Arrowhead Bar and Grill in nearby Congress along with locals and watched on TV as he saw the fire destroy his house.
"That was when we knew it was really gone," he said.
He later fielded a phone call from a friend in which he said, "Lost it all, man. Yep, it's all gone."
Morrison said the fire grew in intensity when winds began gusting at up to 24 mph in the late afternoon.
"You get some winds, and it can take off on you," he said.
Two hundred firefighters were working on the fire Sunday, but several hundred more were expected to arrive Monday when a new fire management team takes over.
The fire has forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. It was zero percent contained late Sunday.
The Red Cross has opened two shelters in the area — at Yavapai College in Prescott and at the Wickenburg High School gym.
Prescott, which is more than 30 miles northeast of Yarnell, is one of the only cities in the United States that has a hot shot fire crew, Fraijo said. The unit was established in 2002, and the city also has 75 suppression team members.
The "hotshot" firefighters were forced to deploy their emergency fire shelters — tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were caught near the central Arizona town of Yarnell, state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told The Associated Press.
The fire also destroyed an estimated 200 homes, Morrison said. Dry grass near the communities of Yarnell and Glen Isla fed the fast-moving blaze, which was whipped up by wind and raced through the homes, he said.
The fire still burned late Sunday, with flames lighting up the night sky in the forest above Yarnell, a town of about 700 residents about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. Most people had evacuated from the town, and no injuries or other deaths were reported.
The fire started after a lightning strike on Friday and spread to at least 2,000 acres on Sunday amid triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.
Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said that the 19 dead firefighters were a part of the city's fire department.
"We grieve for the family. We grieve for the department. We grieve for the city," he said at a news conference Sunday evening. "We're devastated. We just lost 19 of the finest people you'll ever meet."
Hot shot crews are elite firefighters who often hike for miles into the wilderness with chain saws and backpacks filled with heavy gear to build lines of protection between people and fires. They remove brush, trees and anything that might burn in the direction of homes and cities.
The crew killed in the blaze had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona, Fraijo said.
"By the time they got there, it was moving very quickly," he told the AP of Sunday's fire.
He added that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when "something drastic" occurred.
"One of the last fail safe methods that a firefighter can do under those conditions is literally to dig as much as they can down and cover themselves with a protective — kinda looks like a foil type — fire-resistant material — with the desire, the hope at least, is that the fire will burn over the top of them and they can survive it," Fraijo said.
"Under certain conditions there's usually only sometimes a 50 percent chance that they survive," he said. "It's an extreme measure that's taken under the absolute worst conditions."
The National Fire Protection Association had previously listed the deadliest wildland fire involving firefighters as the 1994 Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., which killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by a sudden explosion of flames.
U.S. wildfire disasters date back more than two centuries and include tragedies like the 1949 Mann Gulch fire near Helena, Mont., that killed 13, or the Rattlesnake blaze four years later that claimed 15 firefighters in Southern California.
President Barack Obama called the 19 firefighters heroes and said in a statement that the federal government was assisting state and local officials.
"This is as dark a day as I can remember," Gov. Jan Brewer said in a statement. "It may be days or longer before an investigation reveals how this tragedy occurred, but the essence we already know in our hearts: fighting fires is dangerous work."
Brewer said she would travel to the area on Monday.
Chuck Overmyer and his wife, Ninabill, said they lost their, 1,800-square-foot home in the blaze.
They were helping friends flee when the blaze switched directions and moved toward his property. They loaded up what belongings they could, including three dogs and a 1930 model hot rod on a trailer. As he looked out his rear view mirror he could see embers on the roof of his garage.
"We knew it was gone," he said.
He later gathered at the Arrowhead Bar and Grill in nearby Congress along with locals and watched on TV as he saw the fire destroy his house.
"That was when we knew it was really gone," he said.
He later fielded a phone call from a friend in which he said, "Lost it all, man. Yep, it's all gone."
Morrison said the fire grew in intensity when winds began gusting at up to 24 mph in the late afternoon.
"You get some winds, and it can take off on you," he said.
Two hundred firefighters were working on the fire Sunday, but several hundred more were expected to arrive Monday when a new fire management team takes over.
The fire has forced the closure of parts of state Route 89. It was zero percent contained late Sunday.
The Red Cross has opened two shelters in the area — at Yavapai College in Prescott and at the Wickenburg High School gym.
Prescott, which is more than 30 miles northeast of Yarnell, is one of the only cities in the United States that has a hot shot fire crew, Fraijo said. The unit was established in 2002, and the city also has 75 suppression team members.
The Murder of American of Andrew Driscoll Pochter in Egypt
Thursday, April 25, 2013
GRIEFING MOTHER FROM Chechnya Her Sons Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Committed Murder Crimes
The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Thursday that he is soon leaving Russia for the United States, to visit one son and lay the other to rest. Their mother said she was still thinking over whether to make the journey.
"I am going there to see my son and bury my older one," Anzor Tsarnaev said in an emotional meeting with journalists. "I have no bad thoughts, I'm not planning any bombings, I don't want to do anything. I'm not offended by anyone. I want to know the truth, what happened. I want to work it out."
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a gun battle with police, while his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Their parents returned last year to Dagestan, one of several predominantly Muslim provinces in southern Russia, where the family lived briefly before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.
The elder suspect spent the first half of 2012 in Russia's Caucasus, which has been ravaged for years by an insurgency led by religious extremists. Anzor Tsarnaev said his son stayed with him for at least three months in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and spent one month with relatives, but he was unclear on where his son was for the remaining time.
U.S. investigators have been trying to determine whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalized during his stay in the Caucasus, where he regularly prayed at a Makhachkala mosque.A team of investigators from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has questioned both parents in Makhachkala this week, spending many hours with the mother in particular over the course of two days. Tsarnaev said the questions were mostly about their sons' activities and interests.
The father, who wore dark aviator sunglasses during Thursday's news conference, said he was leaving "today or tomorrow" for the United States. But the family later said his travel may be delayed because he was not feeling well.
The suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer, said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested, but said she was still deciding whether to go.
Tsarnaeva, wearing a headscarf and dressed all in black, said she now regrets moving her family to the U.S. and believes they would have been better off in a village in her native Dagestan.
"You know, my kids would be with us, and we would be, like, fine," she said. "So, yes, I would prefer not to live in America now! Why did I even go there? Why? I thought America is going to, like, protect us, our kids, it's going to be safe."
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the Boston bombings should spur stronger security cooperation between Moscow and Washington, adding that they also show that the West was wrong in supporting militants in Chechnya.
"This tragedy should push us closer in fending off common threats, including terrorism, which is one of the biggest and most dangerous of them all," Putin said during his annual call-in show on state television.The Russian government contacted first the FBI and then the CIA in 2011 with concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, U.S. officials said. The FBI said it had asked for more information from Russia, but none was provided.
Putin said Thursday that the Russian special services had no information to give because the Tsarnaevs had spent so little time in Russia.
Putin warned against trying to find the roots for the Boston tragedy in the suffering endured by the Chechen people, particularly in mass deportations of Chechens to Siberia and Central Asia on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's orders. "The cause isn't in their ethnicity or religion, it's in their extremist sentiments," he said.
The suspects are ethnic Chechens and their father's family was deported to Central Asia in the 1940s. The Tsarnaev family moved back to Chechnya in the early 1990s, but soon fled back to Kyrgyzstan after fighting broke out between Chechen separatists and Russian troops, whose bombs and artillery pummeled Chechen cities and town.
Putin criticized the West for refusing to declare Chechen militants terrorists and for offering them political and financial assistance in the past.
"I always felt indignation when our Western partners and Western media were referring to terrorists who conducted brutal and bloody crimes on the territory of Russia as rebels," Putin said.
The U.S. urged the Kremlin to seek a political settlement in Chechnya and criticized rights abuses by Russian troops during the two separatist wars. It also provided humanitarian aid to the region during the fighting in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Russian officials have claimed that rebels in Chechnya have close links with al-Qaida.
Putin said the West should have cooperated more actively with Russia in combatting terror.
"We always have said that we shouldn't limit ourselves to declarations about terrorism being a common threat and engage in closer cooperation," he said. "Now these two criminals have proven the correctness of our thesis."
___
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Bloody Iraq is the Capital of Murder and executions in the World
(BAGHDAD) — Iraq’s Justice Ministry says authorities have executed 21 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges and links to al-Qaeda.
The ministry said Wednesday the executions were carried out on Tuesday by hanging. It says all the men were Iraqi al-Qaida operatives who were involved in bombings, car bomb attacks and assassinations.
The hangings brought the number of prisoners executed in Iraq so far this year to 50.
Iraq has dismissed calls from international human rights organizations to reconsider capital punishment. Executions are usually carried out by hanging.
Last year, Iraq executed 129 people, triggering concerns among rights groups on whether defendants received a fair trial.
According to the London-based Amnesty International, Iraq was ranked fourth among the top five executioners in the world in 2011, after China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and U.S.
On August 8, 2004, capital punishment was reinstated in Iraq. Iraqi law states that no person over the age of 70 can be executed, despite people like Tariq Aziz, sentenced to death at the age of 74.There is an automatic right to appeal on all such sentences. Iraqi Law requires execution within 30 days of all legal avenues being exhausted. The last legal step, before the execution proceeds, is for the condemned to be handed a red card. This is completed by an official of the court with details of the judgment and a notice that execution is imminent.http://world.time.com/2013/04/17/iraq-executes-21-men-convicted-of-terrorism/#ixzz2QjVKR4we
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Iraq
Monday, April 15, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Anne Smedinghoff Slain diplomat in Afghanistan April-08-2013
Still, Tom Smedinghoff said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, "we're just in total shock."
Smedinghoff, 25, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of River Forest, Ill., was delivering books for schoolchildren in Afghanistan's Zabol province on Saturday when she was killed, along with four other Americans. The vehicle they were riding in was attacked by a suicide car bomber, officials said. She was the first U.S. diplomat killed since the attacks last fall on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and was among six Americans killed in two attacks in Afghanistan the same day.
Another of those attacks prompted a North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrike on Taliban militants that also killed 11 Afghan civilians, at least 10 of them children, according to Afghan authorities.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who said he had met Smedinghoff during a recent trip to Afghanistan, spoke movingly about her Sunday at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey. "I think that in this tragedy, there is a stark contrast for all of the world to see between two very different sets of values," he said.
"On the one hand, you have Anne, a selfless, idealistic young woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to schoolchildren, to bring them knowledge, children she had never met, to help them to be able to build a future. And Anne and those with her were attacked by Taliban terrorists who woke up that day not with a mission to educate or to help, but with a mission to destroy."
Tom Smedinghoff said his daughter had been in Afghanistan since July and was working with the local population to improve opportunities for women and to assist schools and businesses.
"She really felt she was making a difference," he said.
Smedinghoff said his daughter went into the Foreign Service directly after graduation from Johns Hopkins University. Her first post was in Venezuela, and she eventually volunteered to go to Afghanistan. He said she loved her work there.
"She was living in a compound that was heavily fortified and she was always trying to get out and do things for the population," he said.
Smedinghoff's family used to chide her about her job as a diplomat in Afghanistan, asking why she didn't get posted to someplace more comfortable, like London or Paris.
"She said, 'What would I do in London or Paris? It would be so boring,'" her father recalled in an interview with the Associated Press.
Anne Smedinghoff was to finish her Afghanistan assignment in July. Already fluent in Spanish, she was reportedly planning to learn Arabic in preparation for assignments in the Middle East.
Her family issued a statement about her, which said, in part: "The world lost a truly beautiful soul today. Our daughter, Anne, a U.S. Foreign Service officer, died in the service of her country.... We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world. She was such a wonderful woman — strong, intelligent, independent and loving. Annie, you left us too soon.
"http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-diplomat-20130408,0,224323.story?track=lat-email-topofthetimes
Smedinghoff, 25, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of River Forest, Ill., was delivering books for schoolchildren in Afghanistan's Zabol province on Saturday when she was killed, along with four other Americans. The vehicle they were riding in was attacked by a suicide car bomber, officials said. She was the first U.S. diplomat killed since the attacks last fall on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and was among six Americans killed in two attacks in Afghanistan the same day.
Another of those attacks prompted a North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrike on Taliban militants that also killed 11 Afghan civilians, at least 10 of them children, according to Afghan authorities.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who said he had met Smedinghoff during a recent trip to Afghanistan, spoke movingly about her Sunday at a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey. "I think that in this tragedy, there is a stark contrast for all of the world to see between two very different sets of values," he said.
"On the one hand, you have Anne, a selfless, idealistic young woman who woke up yesterday morning and set out to bring textbooks to schoolchildren, to bring them knowledge, children she had never met, to help them to be able to build a future. And Anne and those with her were attacked by Taliban terrorists who woke up that day not with a mission to educate or to help, but with a mission to destroy."
Tom Smedinghoff said his daughter had been in Afghanistan since July and was working with the local population to improve opportunities for women and to assist schools and businesses.
"She really felt she was making a difference," he said.
Smedinghoff said his daughter went into the Foreign Service directly after graduation from Johns Hopkins University. Her first post was in Venezuela, and she eventually volunteered to go to Afghanistan. He said she loved her work there.
"She was living in a compound that was heavily fortified and she was always trying to get out and do things for the population," he said.
Smedinghoff's family used to chide her about her job as a diplomat in Afghanistan, asking why she didn't get posted to someplace more comfortable, like London or Paris.
"She said, 'What would I do in London or Paris? It would be so boring,'" her father recalled in an interview with the Associated Press.
Anne Smedinghoff was to finish her Afghanistan assignment in July. Already fluent in Spanish, she was reportedly planning to learn Arabic in preparation for assignments in the Middle East.
Her family issued a statement about her, which said, in part: "The world lost a truly beautiful soul today. Our daughter, Anne, a U.S. Foreign Service officer, died in the service of her country.... We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world. She was such a wonderful woman — strong, intelligent, independent and loving. Annie, you left us too soon.
"http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-diplomat-20130408,0,224323.story?track=lat-email-topofthetimes
Friday, April 5, 2013
Five people died Wednesday in an attack by a U.S. unmanned aircraft April-05-2013 in northwest Pakistan
Five people died Wednesday in an attack by a U.S. unmanned aircraft in northwest Pakistan, regional officials told EFE.
The drone strike took place shortly after midday in the tribal region of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border. The aircraft launched six missiles, a liaison official for the tribal regions told EFE from the nearby city of Peshawar.
It was at least the seventh U.S. drone attack this year in Pakistan and the cumulative death toll from the strikes has already topped 40.
The U.S. military mounted fewer than 50 drone strikes in Pakistan during all of 2012.
The use of drones escalated dramatically after U.S. President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 and reached a peak in 2010 before declining slightly in subsequent years.
North and South Waziristan are bastions of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.
U.S. officials insist most of those killed by drones are militants, using the term “militant” to designate any military-age male who is not proven to be a non-combatant.
Pakistani activists and Western analysts say hundreds of civilians have died in drone strikes.
EFE
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=673489&CategoryId=12395
http://www.laht.com/index.asp
Sunday, March 17, 2013
وزارة العدل العراقية اليوم عن تنفيذ حكم الإعدام بحق 20 محكومًا
كشف مصدر في وزارة العدل العراقية اليوم عن تنفيذ حكم الإعدام بحق 20 محكومًا ينتمون إلى محافظات الأنبار وديالى وكركوك المحتجة على سياسات المالكي.
وأكد المصدر أن "جثث المعدومين نقلت يوم الخميس إلى دائرة الطب العدلي في بغداد، ولم يستطع ذوو المعدومين تسلم جثثهم إلا صباح أمس السبت"، ولفت إلى أن ساحة اعتصام الرمادي شهدت عملية تشييع لجثمان اثنين من الذين تم إعدامهم كما نقلت عنه وكالة "المدى بريس".
ومن جانبه، قال المتحدث الرسمي باسم اللجان التنسيقية في ساحة اعتصام الرمادي عدنان مشعل: "وصلت الحقيقة إلى ساحة العزة والكرامة.. جثتان لمعتقليْن أعدما ظلمًا في سجون الحكومة".
وأضاف: "إننا نستغرب ما قامت به الحكومة في الوقت الذي نعتقد أنها تريد حلاًّ للأزمة، تحاول تصعيد الأزمة وتقوم بقتل أبنائنا في السجون للاستهانة بأهل السنة ولإسقاط هوية أهل السنة باعتبارهم مستضعفين من قبل الدولة".
وأوضح مشعل أن "هناك مجموعة أخرى قد أعدمت في سجون الحكومة ولم يستطع أهلهم أن يأتوا بجثثهم بسبب طلب فدية منهم من القوات الأمنية مقابل تسليم الجثث لهم، وهذه نعتبرها جريمة لا تغتفر".
وحذَّر قائلاً: "لقد نفذ صبرنا ووصلنا إلى طريق مسدود؛ إما أن يأتوا بحل ويهدئوا هذه الجماهير أو أن هذه الجماهير المنتفضة ستكون بركانًا يتفجر في وجوههم، وسيكونون في بغداد في الأيام القليلة المقبلة". وقال: "أبناؤنا يقتلون في السجون ونرى من التعذيب ما لم نره وما لم يره الناس أجمع، فنحن نسأل أين حقوق الإنسان؟ فلماذا هذا التجاهل لحقوق الإنسان؟".
وتأتي هذه الإعدامات بالتزامن مع تصعيد كبير تشهده ساحات الاعتصام في المحافظات ذات الغالبية السنية التي تطالب منذ 25 كانون الأول (ديسمبر) الماضي بإطلاق سراح المعتقلين، وإلغاء قانوني المساءلة والعدالة ومكافحة الإرهاب، وتشريع قانون العفو العام، وتعديل مسار العملية السياسية، ووقف التهميش والإقصاء، وإعادة النظر بالأحكام وخصوصًا أن العديد من الاعترافات انتزعت من المتهمين تحت التعذيب والتهديد.
ومن جانبه، أكد رئيس مجلس النواب العراقي أسامة النجيفي في الخامس من الشهر الحالي أن حملات الاعتقال والتعذيب في السجون تجري على قدم وساق، كاشفًا عن "أربع وفيات بين السجناء خلال الشهر الماضي من جراء التعذيب".
Friday, March 15, 2013
Assad of Syria Forces Increases the Murder and Rapes of Civilians
The violence and bloodshed in Syria have surpassed anything seen in the Middle East since the days of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, according to independent investigators in a report released on Monday. There are also reports of sexual violence, including at checkpoints or while being held by intelligence agencies.
The new report, which urges a political solution to what has become an increasingly militarized and sectarian conflict, described the conflict as reaching “new heights of destruction.” The report, released by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, disturbed members of the United Nations Security Council, according to the commission's chairman, Paulo Pinheiro.
“If the national, regional, and international actors fail to find a solution to the conflict and stop the agony of millions of civilians, the alternative will be the political, economic and social destruction of Syria and its society, with devastating implications for the region and the world,” Mr. Pinheiro warned, speaking on behalf of the four-member commission.
http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?page=37
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Powerful Death takes over us and we are Helpless Hugo Chavez
نيكولاس مادورو قبل وفاته خليفة له
هوجو تشافز
الأربعاء، 6 مارس 2013 - 01:21
هوجو تشافز
Scary picture.
Illness and death[edit]
.jpg)
Chávez was diagnosed with cancer following the discovery of a mass in his pelvic region in June 2011. He traveled to Havana, Cuba where he underwent a surgical operation which removed a malignant cancerous tissue mass 'about the size of a baseball' from his waist. He underwent a second surgical operation in Venezuela one month later. Over the next 12 months, the President followed a cycle of chemotherapy that had obvious effects on his body (hair loss, some weight loss and bloating, etc.) during the Presidential Election campaign in mid-2012. The type of cancer Chávez was diagnosed with was never made public which fueled speculation over his condition (with speculations from being prostate cancer to colon cancer among others). Following the presidential election in October 2012 (where he was re-elected to a fourth term), he was flown back to Cuba for medical treatment and to return to Venezuela and stay at an army hospital only weeks before his death. Successive announcements of his return and updates of his health were criticised by the country's opposition that the population were unaware of the president's health and location. The fact that the cancer had metastasised was not made public during the campaign, and strongly denied by Government officers. After the first lung infection (pneumonia) in the last stages of his life, the President was intubated nearing the end of December. His breathing worsened until his death was announced at 16:25 VET (20:55 UTC) on 5 March 2013. Hugo Chávez died in Caracas, almost two years after he was first diagnosed. The opposition has long argued that the President was artificially kept alive, presumably in a coma, up to the start of his next term, to avoid triggering a new election.
Vice-president Nicolás Maduro announced Chávez's death on a mandatory television cadena (a decree forcing all broadcasters to relay State television content).[3]In an emotional eulogy Maduro said: "Let there be no weakness, no violence. Let there be no hate. In our hearts there should only be one feeling: Love."[4] Maduro indicated that Chávez had died "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years."[3] He added that police and troops would be deployed across the country 'to guarantee the peace.' The head of the presidential guard said Chávez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and had inaudibly mouthed his desire to live. In an interview to the Associated Press he said that Chávez could not speak but he said it with his lips ... "I don't want to die. Please don't let me die".[5] The BBC reported isolated incidents of violence following the announcement of Chávez's death. Although pro-Chavez supporters attached and burned tents of students who had camped demanding more official information about Chávez's health, there were no reported injuries.[4] Vice-president Maduro indicated he had "no doubt" of foul play by "the historical enemies of our fatherland" behind Chávez's illness and death.[3] Defence Minister Diego Morelo Bellavia[6] said that the "Bolivarian" armed forces would be loyal to the vice president and National Assembly and urged supporters and opposition to remain calm.[4]
Thursday, February 28, 2013
U.S. Steps up Aid to Syrian Opposition, Humaniterian
In a significant policy shift, the Obama administration said Thursday it would for the first time provide non-lethal aid directly to rebels who are battling to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, announcing an additional $60 million in assistance to Syria's political opposition.
The modest package of aid to the military wing of the opposition will consist of an as yet undetermined amount of food rations and medical supplies for members of the Free Syrian Army who will be carefully screened to ensure they do not have links to extremists.
The move was announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at an international conference on Syria in Rome, and several European nations are expected in the coming days to take similar steps in working with the military wing of the opposition in order to ramp up pressure on Assad to step down and pave the way for a democratic transition. However, a number of Syrian opposition figures expressed disappointment with the limited assistance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/world/middleeast/us-pledges-60-million-to-syrian-opposition.html?ref=world
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21612130
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-europe-move-expand-role-syrian-conflict-18610860
Syria: Unlawful Missile Attacks Kill More Than 140
The Syrian government launched at least four ballistic missiles that struck populated areas in the city of Aleppo and a town in Aleppo governorate during the week of February 17, 2013. The attacks killed more than 141 people, including 71 children, and caused immense physical destruction.
The extent of the damage from a single strike, the lack of aircraft in the area at the time, and reports of ballistic missiles being launched from a military base near Damascus overwhelmingly suggest that government forces struck these areas with ballistic missiles. Human Rights Watch visited the four attack sites, all in residential neighborhoods. Human Rights Watch found no signs of any military targets in the vicinity of any of the four sites, which would mean that the attacks were unlawful.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/26/syria-unlawful-missile-attacks-kill-more-140
http://www.presstv.com/
The extent of the damage from a single strike, the lack of aircraft in the area at the time, and reports of ballistic missiles being launched from a military base near Damascus overwhelmingly suggest that government forces struck these areas with ballistic missiles. Human Rights Watch visited the four attack sites, all in residential neighborhoods. Human Rights Watch found no signs of any military targets in the vicinity of any of the four sites, which would mean that the attacks were unlawful.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/26/syria-unlawful-missile-attacks-kill-more-140
http://www.presstv.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)