Month: January 2019

Thousands of Women Expected in US Capital for 3rd Annual March

Posted on by SeeUS

Thousands of women are gathering in cities in the United States and around the world Saturday for the third annual Women’s March to demand gender equality and call attention to environmental concerns and immigrant rights, among other issues.

The beginning

The first Women’s March was held in 2017, the day after Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States.

On Trump’s first full day in office, hundreds of thousands of women descended on Washington in a display of popular opposition to the new administration and its policies. Sister marches were held in more than 600 locations in the U.S. and across the globe in solidarity with the marchers in Washington.

Peter Newsham, Washington’s interim police chief at the time, said of the march in the U.S. capital, “The crowd stretches so far that there’s no room left to march.”

Many of the women wore knitted pink “pussycat” hats, featuring small catlike ears, to show their solidarity with the anti-Trump sentiments and as an oblique reference to vulgar comments Trump was known to have made years before he entered politics.

​Moment to movement

In 2018, organizers of the Women’s March sought to build on the first rally by focusing on politics and the power of women voters. They held the second march in Nevada, a battleground state for the midterm elections later in the year. The rally touting the message “Power to the Polls” focused on voter registration, featuring activists and members of Congress as speakers.

As in 2017, sister marches were held in cities across the U.S. and thousands of women also marched in London, Paris, Sydney and other European and Australian cities.

In 2019, the organizers are bringing the march back to Washington. Hopes were high for this year’s turnout, especially after a record 102 women were elected to the House of Representatives in the midterms at the end of last year.

​A growing controversy

Several prominent women’s and civil rights organization are absent from the list of partners published on the Women’s March website.

Among those that had partnered with the group in the past, but missing in 2019, are civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center and the political action committee Emily’s List. By late Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee had also withdrawn its name from the list of partners.

The controversy surrounds several Women’s March leaders who have been accused of holding racist and anti-Semitic views.

Organizers have repeatedly denied all accusations of misconduct or using inappropriate speech.

The issue resurfaced when two of the march’s organizers appeared on ABC talk show The View on Monday and refused to denounce Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has made repeated anti-Semitic and anti-white remarks.

When asked why she had posted a photo of Farrakhan on Instagram with a caption that included the hashtag for the title “Greatest Of All Time,” Women’s March’s co-president Tamika Mallory said, “I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric. I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities.”

Mallory’s co-president, Bob Bland, denied allegations printed in The New York Times and the Jewish magazine Tablet that members of the organization had expressed anti-Semitic beliefs at a meeting behind closed doors.

“The people that the journalist spoke to did not tell the truth, period, full stop,” Bland said. “The Women’s March unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism, bigotry, transphobia. … We condemn any statements of hate.”

​Going forward

Some marchgoers say they are not deterred.

“The controversy has certainly influenced conversations around my decision to attend or not. Though it never was going to stop me, even more so I feel it’s important to attend,” said Naomi Zipursky of San Francisco, who is attending the local march there Saturday.

“By not showing up, I don’t even allow the conversation to begin and only create a bigger gap.”

“The thought that I, as a Jewish woman, wouldn’t be welcome or would need to leave part of my identity at the door in order to attend the march is disheartening and frankly, alienating,” Zipursky said. “(But) I also believe that what one person may say or do doesn’t necessarily represent what an entire organization may stand for.”

A separate “March for ALL Women” is planned for Saturday in the U.S. capital, with organizers rallying those who may feel the main march is divisive and not inclusive.

Many participants don’t think the marches will ever compare to the first one. 

“It’s going to be very hard to pull off the momentum of the first women’s march,” said Mary Tablante, communications officer at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice. “I am still going (this year) because I do think they are trying to improve it. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the movement.”

Despite the controversy, marches are planned in almost every U.S. state. ABC News reports some states will hold multiple marches: California plans to have more than 30 marches, New York 15, Texas, 13 and Florida 11. Michigan will host eight and Pennsylvania seven.

Marches are also planned in more than a dozen European nations, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Israel, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa, among others.
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As US-China Relations Cool, Iowa Farmers Hope History With Chinese Preserves Trade

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The trade war between Washington and Beijing is hurting farmers who grow huge amounts of soybeans in Iowa for export to the massive Chinese market.

Farmers in Iowa hope that the strong commercial and close personal relationships that China and the U.S. farm state have nurtured for many years will help the two sides overcome complications like the record U.S. trade deficit with China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited Iowa farmers repeatedly over the past couple of decades and former Iowa governor Terry Branstad is now the U.S. ambassador to Beijing.

The close ties have been strained by Washington’s allegations that China unfairly manipulates markets, steals American intellectual property, and creates bureaucratic obstacles to trade. China also accuses the United States of unfair practices.

​Tariff war

The United States imposed tariffs on Chinese exports, and Beijing retaliated with tariffs on American agricultural products.

That meant that Iowa soybeans were more expensive and less competitive on global markets.

Demand for U.S. soybeans — and prices paid to U.S. farmers — plunged $85 a metric ton.

An Iowa farmer who manages several farms, including 153 hectares of soybeans, says his profits fell 100 percent for 2018. David Miller is not happy to lose money but says without the tariffs, China would not pay any attention to the talks.

​Needing each other

China really needs what Iowa produces, according to Grant Kimberley, the marketing manager for the Iowa Soybean Association, who has been to China more than 20 times.

“China needs soybeans … because their middle class has grown, and that means they are eating more protein in their diet, more meat, and if you have more meat production, you have to have more soybeans to feed those animals,” he said.

Kimberley’s family runs a 600 hectare farm, 48 kilometers from Des Moines, which was one of the places visited by Xi, who saw that it uses more advanced equipment and technology than is available to Chinese farmers.

The former director of Iowa’s department of natural resources, Roger Lande, and his wife, Sarah, have twice hosted Xi, at their home in the small town of Muscatine.

Roger Lande says sometimes China does things “we don’t like,” but all relationships, with family, friends and business associates, have ups and downs.

Kimberley is optimistic things will work out. 

“Because that’s a long-standing relationship that’s been in place for 35 years,” he said. And “I think the overall underlying support and the people that are involved between the states and the province is still strong. And, and everybody recognizes that, over the long term, eventually this will get resolved,” he added.

Nevertheless, some farmers and U.S. experts worry that a lengthy dispute could mean American farmers permanently lose much of this crucial market. 

As tariffs raised the cost of U.S. soybeans, Chinese pork producers have bought more beans from Brazil and other nations. In the future, they might also encourage Chinese farmers to boost production, or use more corn to feed their livestock.
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Graham: US, Saudis Cannot Move on Until Prince ‘Dealt With’

Posted on by SeeEA

Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said Saturday the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is “dealt with,” without being more specific.

Speaking in Ankara a day after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Graham also said Congress will reintroduce sanctions against those involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“The relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is dealt with,” Graham said.

Khashoggi was a prominent Saudi journalist and U.S. resident who wrote opinion columns for The Washington Post. He was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

Riyadh initially denied knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance, then offered contradictory explanations, including that he was killed in a rogue operation.

Saudi officials have said the crown prince knew nothing of the killing. Saudi Arabia said last year that 21 Saudis were taken into custody in relation to the Khashoggi case, 11 of whom have been indicted and referred to trial.

Crown Prince Mohammed’s top aide Saud al-Qahtani was dismissed after overseeing the operation.

The United States imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials in November for their role in the Khashoggi killing.

The Senate voted in December to move ahead with a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen, and lawmakers vowed to push for sanctions against the kingdom in the new year.
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US Court Holds Iranian-American Journalist as Material Witness

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A U.S. court has confirmed that an Iranian-American anchorwoman who works for Iran’s state television has been jailed in the United States as a material witness but has not been charged with any crime.

Court officials say they expect Marzieh Hashemi to be released immediately after her testimony to a grand jury in Washington.

Officials have not released details about the criminal case in which Hashemi has been named as a witness.

Iran has protested the arrest of Hashemi, who was born in the United States and is a presenter on Iran’s English-language Press TV. Hashemi, 59, married an Iranian man and converted to Islam.

Federal agents detained Hashemi last Sunday in the St. Louis airport after she visited with relatives in the area.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, unsealed documents related to Hashemi’s detention on Friday, which said she has twice appeared before the court and has been appointed an attorney.

The media rights group, Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement early Friday expressing concern over Hashemi’s detention. The New York-based group asked the Justice Department to disclose the reason for her arrest and noted that “Iran routinely jails journalists.”

U.S. law allows judges to detain witnesses if they are considered unlikely to respond to a subpoena and are believed to be a flight risk.
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Safari Club Event Vendors Sold Products Made From Threatened Wildlife

Posted on by SeeAF

Photos and video taken by animal welfare activists at a recent trophy hunting convention show an array of products crafted from the body parts of threatened big-game animals, including boots, chaps, belts and furniture labeled as elephant leather.

Vendors at the Safari Club International event last week in Reno, Nevada, also were recorded hawking African vacations to shoot captive-bred lions raised in pens. The club has previously said it wouldn’t allow the sale of so-called canned hunts at its events.

The hidden camera footage was released Friday by the Humane Society of the United States. Both federal and state laws restrict the commercial sale of hides from African elephants, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Safari Club spokeswoman Rachel Harris did not respond Friday to a phone message seeking comment. The group also didn’t respond to emailed questions about what steps it takes to ensure exhibitors at its events are following the law.

The club denied a request earlier this month from The Associated Press for a media credential to attend its annual conference, billed as the nation’s premier big-game hunting show.

​‘Hunters’ heaven’

“This hunters’ heaven has everything the mind can dream of and occupies more than 650,000 square feet of exhibit space,” the group’s web site boasts. “Six continents are under one roof where SCI members come to book hunts, rendezvous with old friends and shop for the latest guns and hunting equipment.”

Humane Society investigators purchased tickets to the conference and prowled the exhibit booths with concealed cameras. They recorded racks of clothing and other products made from the hides, bones and teeth of imperiled African wildlife.

“Making money off the opportunity to kill these animals for bragging rights is something that most people around the world find appalling,” said Kitty Block, acting president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s an elitist hobby of the 1 percent, and there is no place for trophy hunting in today’s world.”

The wares included oil paintings of big-game animals painted on stretched elephant skins, bracelets woven from elephant hair and an elephant leather bench. There was also a coffee table made from the skull of a hippopotamus and boxes filled with hippo teeth.

Under a state law, it is illegal in Nevada to purchase, sell or possess with intent to sell any item that contains the body parts of elephant, lion, rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, hippopotamus and other imperiled wildlife.

The Humane Society has provided its undercover video and photos to state wildlife officials in Nevada.

​Trump reversed restrictions

Though President Donald Trump has decried big-game hunting as a “horror show,” his administration reversed Obama-era restrictions on the importation of elephant and lion trophies for personal use or display. But federal law still prohibits the sale or use of the body parts from such international protected species for commercial purposes.

The Safari Club has actively lobbied the Trump administration to loosen restrictions on the importation of wildlife trophies, arguing that the fees paid to African countries by American hunters help to fund anti-poaching and conservation programs. A licensed two-week African hunting safari can cost more than $50,000 per person, not including airfare, according to advertised rates.

The AP reported last year that a federal advisory board created by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to advise his agency on the issue was stuffed with big game hunters. At least seven of the 16 members of the International Wildlife Conservation Council are Safari Club members, including the group’s president.

In a February 2018 media release, the Safari Club said it would no longer support the practice of breeding lions in captivity so they can be shot for trophies, saying the practice “has doubtful value to the conservation of lions in the wild.” The club also pledged not to accept advertising from the operators of such canned hunts or allow such trips to be sold at its annual convention.

In the video released by the Humane Society of Friday, multiple vendors at the Safari Club conference were recording salesmen pitching hunts of captive-bred lions in South Africa, describing how the lions would be “placed” where they could be easily shot. Vendors also described hunts where lions were baited using the meat from giraffes or other animals, with one guide bragging that a customer had shot a lion in less than 90 minutes.
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Greeks Plan Massive Rally to Protest Deal With Macedonia

Posted on by SeeEU

Demonstrators in Greece are planning a massive rally Sunday to protest a deal that would normalize Greek relations with Macedonia.

Greeks have been divided over the deal, in which Macedonia will change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia and Greece will drop its objections to the Balkan country’s joining NATO and the European Union.

The U.S. State Department said in a tweet Friday that Sunday’s demonstration in Athens is expected to draw 150,000 or more participants.

Greek identity

Greek protesters say Macedonia’s new name represents an attempt to appropriate Greek identity and cultural heritage. Macedonia is the name of Greece’s northern province made famous by Alexander the Great’s conquests.

Opposition to the deal is particularly strong in the Greek province of Macedonia, where many people have put up posters urging local lawmakers to vote against the agreement.

A nationwide poll in Greece this week found that 70 percent of respondents oppose the deal.

The agreement has caused Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to lose his four-year coalition in parliament after his nationalist allies defected to protest the deal. Following the upheaval, Tsipras narrowly won a confidence vote in parliament Wednesday.

Tsipras has called for a televised debate on the planned name deal with Macedonia before parliament votes on the agreement.

The Greek prime minister and his Macedonian counterpart, Zoran Zaev, brokered the compromise in June to end a 27-year name dispute between the two neighbors.

​Macedonia approves

Last week, Macedonia’s parliament approved a constitutional revision to change the country’s name. The agreement has also caused protests in Macedonia, with critics there saying the government gave up too much in the deal.

Tsipras has argued the Macedonia deal will bolster stability in Europe’s Balkan region. European Union countries have also strongly backed the deal.
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IS Vows More Attacks on Manbij 

Posted on by SeeEA

The Islamic State terror group is promising to keep targeting U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in the northern Syrian town of Manbij, where a suicide attack this week killed four Americans and five coalition soldiers. 

 

The claim, published in IS’s most recent online newsletter, Naba, comes as U.S. defense and intelligence officials are questioning whether the terror organization’s security and intelligence networks run deeper and remain more intact than previously thought. 

 

“The Attacks of the Mujahedeen Will Continue in Manbij Until Sharia Governance Returns,” the newsletter proclaimed, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. 

 

IS “began executing attacks against the apostates months ago,” it added, citing an interview with an IS fighter who is part of one of several “security detachments operating in the area.” 

 

Previous targets included coalition-backed military and intelligence officials, the newsletter claimed, along with several unsuccessful attempts to attack U.S. forces. 

 

“ISIS remains an adaptive and dangerous adversary,” a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told VOA, using an acronym for the group. 

 

And while IS’s claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack in Manbij has yet to be confirmed, “we believe the claim is authentic,” the official said, calling the attack “very typical” of IS insurgent activities. 

​Detail, coordination demonstrated 

 

A key concern for some officials and analysts are the levels of detail and coordination demonstrated in the Manbij attack. 

 

“There were several photos, videos and detailed discussions identifying the coalition aircraft posted on social media immediately after the attack,” said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities. 

 

“This may present an enduring challenge for the coalition in countering the insurgents because Islamic State intelligence capabilities, in particular, prolong the group’s ability to target individuals perceived as threats to the survival of their terrorist organization,” she added. 

 

The IS newsletter, Naba, itself detailed how the group’s fighters or informants have been watching U.S. forces at their bases around Manbij, noting how and when they move, and how they interact with members of the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. 

 

And the IS suicide bomber struck just as the U.S. patrol approached a restaurant known to have been frequented by the American forces.  

Just as troubling to former officials is that all this took place in an area that was liberated from IS more than two years ago. 

 

“Manbij should have been a showcase of how stability comes back and ISIS can be contained and defeated, and it’s not,” former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said during a conference call on U.S. Syria policy. 

 

“These ethnic tensions that I’ve talked about, the economic grievances … will always give ISIS a recruiting base,” he said. 

Sleeper cells

 

The most recent U.S. estimates have put the overall number of IS fighters in Syria at 13,000 to 14,500, many of them outside areas controlled by U.S.-backed forces. U.S. military officials have also said many IS fighters have been content to lie low, hiding in remote areas or as part of sleeper cells, waiting until the opportune moment to activate and strike. 

 

The attack Wednesday in Manbij appears to have been one of those moments. 

 

Defense officials Friday identified three of the Americans killed in the attack as Army Green Beret Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Farmer, 37; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent, 35; and Defense Intelligence Agency operations support specialist Scott Wirtz, 42. 

 

A fourth American, civilian contractor Ghadir Taher, also was killed, her company, Valiant Integrated Services, confirmed. 

 

Taher’s family told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the 27-year-old had emigrated to the U.S. from Syria as a child and was working there as an interpreter. 

 

“As Wednesday’s attack demonstrates, ISIS remains a threat,” acting chief Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. said Friday. “We will continue to hit the remnants of ISIS hard to destroy any residual networks and ensure its enduring defeat.” 

​Equipment withdrawal 

 

The Pentagon has already begun pulling some equipment from Syria as part of a withdrawal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last month. 

 

But Summers insisted that despite the mandate to get the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria back home, there was no timetable for their return. 

 

“The withdrawal is based on operational conditions on the ground, including conversations with our allies and partners,” he said, adding that the number of troops in Syria “will fluctuate during this process.” 

 

But critics of the Trump administration have complained that any withdrawal will be more complicated given the president’s announcement that U.S. forces will be returning home.  

 

“His recent choices, unfortunately, are already giving the Islamic State — and other American adversaries — new life,” Brett McGurk, former U.S. envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat IS, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post Friday.

“The Islamic State and other extremist groups will fill the void opened by our departure, regenerating their capacity to threaten our friends in Europe — as they did throughout 2016 — and ultimately our own homeland,” he added. 
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Sudanese-American Politician Who Organized Protests Goes Missing

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A Sudanese-American politician who organized recent anti-government protests in Sudan remained missing Friday, two days after disappearing on the streets of the capital, Khartoum, his wife said.

Rudwan Dawod, a political activist with the group Sudan of the Future Campaign, vanished hours before large protests were slated to begin Thursday, Nancy Dawod said.

Nancy Dawod, who lives in Eugene, Ore., said she learned of her husband’s arrest through a Sudanese lawyer who told her that he and Rudwan Dawod had been arrested together, but Sudanese authorities released the lawyer because he had no prior arrests.

Nancy Dawod said the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum was trying to call Sudanese authorities to confirm her husband’s whereabouts and that officials would go to the headquarters of the National Intelligence and Security Services on Saturday morning to request access to all American citizens being detained in Sudan.

Nancy Dawod said the lawyer, who prefers not to be identified for safety reasons, claimed he had been beaten around his head. She said she feared for her husband’s safety.

“I’m pretty worried about him. Because of his love for the people there, he just continues the struggle and is usually out in front,” she said, adding she was “hoping and praying” security forces would not harm her husband. “Because he is such a well-known public figure, I’m hoping he will be treated better.”

Nancy Dawod said she also hoped pressure from the United States would help ensure his safety.

Previous arrests

Rudwan Dawod was arrested shortly before Christmas in Sudan, then released. He was arrested on another occasion last year and detained for close to six weeks, Nancy Dawod said. He was never charged with a crime during either arrest, she added.

Rudwan Dawod returned to Sudan about two years ago.

Nancy Dawod said she, her husband and their 6-year-old daughter, Sudan, are U.S. citizens. Dawod said she spoke to her husband a few hours before his arrest but that he was being “very cautious,” knowing that his arrest was “something that we knew could happen.”

Nancy Dawod said her husband was a candidate for first vice president of Sudan until his Sudan of the Future Campaign withdrew from elections scheduled for 2020. She said they stood with other opposition political parties “to end [Sudanese President Omar al-]Bashir’s brutal regime and enter into a transitional government” until a democratic election is held.

Plea to U.S.

Nancy Dawod called on the U.S. officials “to pivot their policy on Sudan and to support freedom and justice there,” adding there is “no betting with this bloody regime. It needs to end.”

For nearly four weeks, protesters have been demanding the resignation of Bashir, who has said that will not happen.

The U.S. decided to remove economic sanctions on Sudan last October.

Sudan’s economy has been in crisis for several months, with inflation soaring and people struggling to survive.

The protests began over rising prices for bread and fuel and morphed into a demand for Bashir to give up his 30-year autocratic rule over Sudan. Bashir has withstood large-scale protests before.

Nadia Taha contributed to this report.
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Russians Plunge Into Icy Waters to Mark Feast of Epiphany

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Across Russia, the devout and the daring are observing the Orthodox Christian feast day of Epiphany by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers.

Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God through his baptism in the River Jordan.

Russian believers imitate the baptism by entering the water and ducking themselves three times either on the evening before Epiphany or on that Jan. 19 feast day. Many make the sign of the cross, some others hold their noses.

Some of the people who do it scurry out quickly and wrap themselves in large towels. But many seem unfazed by it all and extol the practice as strengthening both the soul and the body.

The ritual is watched by priests who have blessed the water. Emergency workers are also on hand in case anyone succumbs to the heart-racing shock of the icy immersion.

There’s usually a contingent of warmly dressed onlookers, too, maybe wondering if they’ll have the boldness to try it next year.

Some Orthodox pilgrims get to dunk themselves in the actual River Jordan, which is a whole lot warmer.
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Airstrike on IS-Held Area in Eastern Syria Kills 20

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An airstrike hit militants and civilians trying to flee the last area controlled by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria on Friday, killing at least 20, the country’s state media and opposition activists reported.

The airstrike on the IS-held village of Baghouz comes as the offensive against the extremists by U.S.-backed fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has intensified over the past few weeks. It also comes as the United States begins the process of withdrawal from Syria.

Thousands of civilians have fled from the area near the Iraqi border recently as IS has steadily lost ground.

State news agency SANA said 20 people were killed in the airstrike on Baghouz, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 23 people were killed. It said 10 IS members were among the dead.

Both blamed the U.S.-led coalition that has been providing air cover to the SDF in their monthslong offensive to capture the area from the extremists.

“Most of those killed were Syrians displaced from nearby areas,” said Europe-based activist Omar Abu Layla of the DeirEzzor 24 monitoring group. He added that the dead included three families who were trying to flee the IS-held area to districts controlled by SDF.

Erdogan, Graham meet

Meanwhile in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to discuss the situation in Syria as the U.S. begins the withdrawal process.

Graham was also expected to speak with Erdogan and other Turkish officials about a proposal for the creation of a “safe zone” in northeast Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday that any solution on Syria’s northeast border with Turkey needs to take into account three principles — the unity and territorial integrity of Syria, legitimate security concerns, and recognition of Syria’s diversity “to allow for a voice to be given to the different components of that population.”

The visit by Graham, who has a prominent voice on U.S. foreign affairs, comes days after a suicide bombing, claimed by IS, killed two U.S. service members and two American civilians in the northeastern town of Manbij.

Graham has said he is concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s troop withdrawal had emboldened Islamic State militants and created dangerous uncertainty for American allies.

3 American victims identified

The Pentagon identified three of the four Americans killed in the suicide bomb attack in Manbij — Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, from upstate New York and based at Fort Meade, Maryland; and civilian Scott A. Wirtz, from St. Louis.

The Pentagon hasn’t identified the fourth casualty, a civilian contractor.

In northwest Syria, the observatory also said an explosion outside an office belonging to an al-Qaida-linked group killed another 11 people Friday, including seven members of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or Levant Liberation Committee. Smart news agency, an activist collective, said 12 people were killed, many of them militants.

Both said the blast occurred on the southern edge of the rebel-held city of Idlib.

A week ago, members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took control over wide parts of Idlib province and the surrounding countryside after forcing rival insurgents to accept a deal for a civil administration run by the militants in their areas.
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Pentagon IDs 3 Americans Killed in Syria Suicide Bomb Attack

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The Pentagon has identified three of the four Americans killed in a suicide bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group in Syria this week.

They are Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, from upstate New York and based at Fort Meade, Maryland; and a civilian, Scott A. Wirtz, from St. Louis. 

The Pentagon hasn’t identified the fourth casualty, a civilian contractor. The four were killed in the northern Syrian town of Manbij on Wednesday. The attack also wounded three U.S. troops and was the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in Syria since American forces went into the country in 2015.
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US Senator Hopes Trump Slows Withdrawal From Syria

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A day after meeting with Turkey’s president, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said that he hopes U.S. President Donald Trump would not completely withdraw from Syria until the Islamic State is crushed.

Graham said Saturday in Ankara, “The goal of destroying ISIS is not yet accomplished.”  

The U.S. lawmaker said a U.S. withdrawal from Syria without a plan would lead to chaos and an “Iraq on steroids.”

The meeting Friday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Graham in Ankara was the latest effort to defuse bilateral tensions over Syria.

Turkish forces remain massed on the northeast Syrian border, poised to launch an offensive against the YPG Kurdish militia, a critical American ally in the war against Islamic State. Ankara deems the YPG terrorists linked to an insurgency inside Turkey.

Differences over Syria saw Erdogan shun U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton earlier this month when he visited Ankara. Graham met not only with Erdogan but with Turkey’s defense and foreign ministers and intelligence chief.

Ahead of his visit, Graham appeared to reach out to Ankara by addressing key Turkish concerns.

“I have long contended that there are elements among the Syrian Kurds that represent a legitimate national security threat to Turkey. Turkey’s concern regarding YPG elements must be addressed in a real way to ensure that Turkey’s borders are secure and are protected from any threats,” wrote Graham.

The meeting Friday marks the senator’s second with Erdogan in six months. Graham is a member of four powerful Senate committees: Foreign Relations, Budget, Appropriations and chairman of the Judiciary. Analysts suggest the senator’s relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump explains Ankara’s warm reception.

“He is very close to Donald Trump, he is a man of confidence to Trump,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “He is more politician than John Bolton who is considered more a diplomat. So Graham’s visit is a higher level of meeting in Ankara’s eyes, so it’s welcomed in Ankara. I am sure Trump has sent him,” Bagci added.

Analysts point out Erdogan sees Trump as his only trusted interlocutor, blaming U.S. officials for the current bilateral tensions. Erdogan welcomed Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria; however, the Turkish president condemned what he said were attempts by senior U.S. officials to delay the withdrawal and link it to conditions including guaranteeing YPG security.

Graham has criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria, claiming it was premature in the war against Islamic State. The senator’s talks in Ankara reportedly focused on America’s Syria withdrawal and Ankara’s threatened military operation in Syria.

Ankara is seeking common ground with Trump’s proposal to create a buffer zone in Syria between the Kurdish militia and the Turkish border.

Erdogan welcomed the proposal but maintains that Turkish forces will create the 30-kilometer deep zone into Syria. The YPG leadership is strongly opposed, warning it would resist.

Turkish pro-government media are filled with reports of American conspiracies. “Their steps with respect to forming a 32-kilometer safe zone on our Syria border is a new distraction trick,” wrote columnistTamer Korkmaz in Turkey’s Yeni Safak newspaper, Friday. “They want to delay Turkey’s possible military operation, and if possible, prevent it. Would they accept the kind of buffer zone Turkey wants?” he continued.

Since Trump has proposed the Syrian buffer zone, no details have been provided by Washington on how it will be created or enforced. Graham reportedly discussed the zone during his talks in Ankara.

Analysts warn Ankara could also face pushback from Arab countries in the region if it acted unilaterally.
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Prince Philip, 97, Recovering After Car Crash

Posted on by SeeEU

Queen Elizabeth II’s 97-year-old husband was recovering Friday at the royal Sandringham estate after the Land Rover he was driving rolled on a nearby highway in a collision with another vehicle.

Witness Roy Warne told the BBC he was driving home from work when the accident involving Prince Philip’s black Land Rover and a compact car unfolded in front of him. Warne said he helped free a baby from the second car, a Kia, before helping the prince out of his vehicle, which was lying on its side.

“I saw a car, a black [Land] Rover, come out from a side road and it rolled and ended up on the other side of the road,” Warne said. “I saw it careering, tumbling across the road and ending up on the other side.”

Warne found Philip trapped in the car, but persuaded him to move one leg at a time to get out. He then pulled him out of the Land Rover through the windscreen or sun roof. The prince was able to immediately stand and walk around.

“He was obviously shaken, and then he went and asked if everyone else was all right,” Warne said.

Police conducted breath tests on the drivers after the accident, shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday. Both tested negatively.

The driver of the Kia, a 28-year-old woman, suffered cuts to her knee while her passenger, a 45-year-old woman, suffered a broken wrist. Both were taken to the hospital and released. A 9-month-old baby in the Kia was not injured.

The prince was checked by a doctor after the accident and determined to be fine, Buckingham Palace said.

“We are aware of the public interest in this case, however, as with any other investigation it would be inappropriate to speculate on the causes of the collision until an investigation is carried out,” Norfolk Constabulary said in a statement.

By coincidence, authorities in the area had planned to consider improving safety on the road, the A149. Norfolk County Council will discuss reducing the speed limit on the road from 60 mph to 50 mph and installing safety cameras.

Philip has largely retired from public life but is well known for his fierce independence and his love of cars. He has seemed to be in generally good health in recent months.

He and Elizabeth, 92, have been on an extended Christmas vacation at Sandringham, one of her favored rural homes.
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May’s Foes Gather as Britain’s Brexit Stalemate Drags On

Posted on by SeeEU

Prime Minister Theresa May held talks Friday with European leaders and British Cabinet colleagues, but efforts to end Britain’s Brexit stalemate appeared deadlocked, with neither May nor Britain’s opposition leader shifting from their entrenched positions.

May has been meeting with politicians from several U.K. parties this week to try to find a way forward after her European Union divorce deal was overwhelmingly rejected by Parliament.

Despite that, May has been unwilling to move her “red lines” in the Brexit negotiations, which include taking Britain out of the bloc’s customs union. And opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to meet with May unless she rules out the possibility of Britain leaving the EU with no deal — a scenario that many believe would hurt the British economy.

May on Friday also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and planned more calls to European colleagues over the weekend.

But the talks yielded little progress.

The European Commission said tersely that the May-Juncker call was “an exchange of information on both sides” and that the two had “agreed to stay in touch.”

May, who narrowly defeated a no-confidence vote in her Conservative government triggered by Corbyn this week, said it was “not within the government’s power to rule out no-deal” because by law Britain will leave the EU without an agreement on March 29 unless Parliament approves a deal before then.

May is due to publish her revived Brexit blueprint on Monday, before British lawmakers debate it — and doubtless try to alter it — on Jan. 29.

The prime minister is in a bind. Many lawmakers think a “soft Brexit” that keeps Britain in the EU’s single market or customs union is the only plan capable of winning a majority in Parliament. But a large chunk of May’s Conservative Party is vehemently opposed to that idea.

Britain’s political chaos has spurred EU nations to step up preparations for a disorderly British exit. France and other countries are spending millions, hiring thousands of workers and issuing emergency decrees to cope with the possibility that Britain will crash out of the bloc, sparking major disruptions to travel and trade.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Friday inspected some of the country’s preparations for a no-deal Brexit, visiting the Eurotunnel complex and meeting with small businesses on the English Channel coast.

France is paying special attention to the Channel tunnel, which carries millions of passengers annually between Britain and France, as well as freight trucks that play a significant role in Britain’s trade with the continent.

On Friday, a group of high-profile Germans made an emotional appeal to Britain to stay in the bloc. A letter published in the Times of London said “without your great nation, this Continent would not be what it is today: a community defined by freedom and prosperity.”

It went on to list things Germans would miss about Britain, among them “tea with milk” and “going to the pub after work.”

The signatories include Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, Airbus chief Tom Enders and former German national soccer player Jens Lehmann.

Amid the political impasse, May’s domestic opponents are gathering. Brexit-backing former-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson used a speech Friday at a bulldozer factory to accuse May of lacking the “gumption” to get a good deal from the EU.

Johnson, a likely future contender to replace May as Conservative leader and prime minister, urged her to “go back to Brussels and get a better deal,” even though EU leaders have said the withdrawal agreement won’t be renegotiated.

He dodged a question of whether he would support May as party leader if a sudden general election is called, saying instead that Britain does not need a new vote.

“I think most people in this country feel they have had quite enough elections,” he said. “I certainly do.”
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Zimbabwe, DR Congo Top Human Rights Watchdog Concerns

Posted on by SeeAF

The human rights issues of 2018 have spilled over into current events, particularly in two African nations, rights advocates said as they launched the annual Human Rights Watch Africa roundup Thursday in Johannesburg.

This year’s report was meant to be released in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, but was moved after a terror attack on a luxury hotel this week that left more than 20 people dead.

The report raises concerns about violence and suppression in several African nations, including Burundi, Mozambique and eSwatini, the former Swaziland.

But two countries — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, both of which had troubled elections in 2018 — stood out, experts said.

“We have received reports of serious human rights abuses, including beatings, abductions, torture and the involvement of ZANU-PF, the ruling ZANU-PF Party, groups beating up people in the high-density suburbs around Harare,” said Dewa Mavhinga, the rights’ group’s Southern Africa researcher.

Mavhinga said he’s disappointed to report that the new administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, elected last year, has not brought improvement to Zimbabwe.

“Initially, in terms of pronouncements and talks by the new president, Mnangagwa, there were promises that things would improve, that the new dispensation would be respectful of human rights. But that has not been with the case, beginning with the post-election violence of the 1st of August, 2018,” he said. “And there has been no accountability for past abuses and also, the serious abuses of the last few days involving the state security forces have really undermined any efforts at improving human rights in Zimbabwe.”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rights officials say a chaotic, delayed election has raised fears of politically motivated human rights abuses. Carine Kaneza Nantulya, the group’s Africa advocacy director, pointed to a recent U.N. report alleging nearly 900 people were killed in rural eastern Congo.

“So, you have an environment where elections were held but marred with, obviously, violence, voter suppression, etc., that has just heightened the tensions within communities which were, obviously, tense before the election,” Nantulya said.

These two African nations, the rights experts said, share certain worrying characteristics: Free speech has been clamped down on; citizens are angry; and politics are bitter, divisive and increasingly authoritarian. And this, they cautioned, is a worrying global trend.
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UN to Zimbabwe: Stop Violent Crackdown Against Protesters

Posted on by SeeAF

The U.N. human rights office is calling on Zimbabwean security forces to stop their violent crackdown on people protesting the government’s economic austerity measures at a time when commodity prices continue their upward spiral.

U.N. rights officials say Zimbabwe is in a socio-economic crisis, a situation that will not be resolved by violently repressing large-scale protests.

Since the protests began Monday, the U.N. human rights office says violence on both sides has increased. It says some protesters reportedly have burned tires, used rocks to barricade roads, and looted shops and businesses. However, it says these actions pale in comparison to the crackdown by the government’s security forces.

Spokeswoman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani tells VOA the forces have been using live ammunition to quell the protests, resulting in deaths.

“We do not have verification of the exact number of people who were killed or injured, but there are doctors’ associations that are putting numbers out there,” she said. “Like more than 60 people were treated in hospitals for gunshot wounds. This is not the way to react to the expression of economic grievances by the population.” 

Shamdasani says there are worrying reports of security forces mounting night raids in peoples’ homes, beating them up, and generally intimidating and harassing them. She says the minister of national security reports more than 600 people have been arrested across the country, including opposition leaders and prominent civil activists.

The U.N. agency is calling on the government to set up a national dialogue to find solutions to the economic challenges. It says state authorities must allow people to exercise their right to freedom of expression and to protect their right to peaceful assembly.

It is urging the government to carry out investigations into all reports of violence and to make sure those guilty of a crime are held accountable.
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Kenya Seeking Further Suspects in Nairobi Terrorist Attack

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Kenyan security agencies are seeking further suspects over Tuesday’s al-Shabab-claimed terror attack in Nairobi that killed at least 21 people. Media reports say seven people were arrested since authorities Wednesday declared the assault on a hotel and office complex over. Security analysts say the Somali militant group is changing tactics, as Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.
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US House to Probe Report Trump Directed Lawyer to Lie to Congress

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The Democratic chairmen of two House committees pledged Friday to investigate a report that President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about negotiations over a real estate project in Moscow during the 2016 election.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said “we will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.” He said the allegation that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie in his 2017 testimony to Congress “in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date.”

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime.

“The @HouseJudiciary Committee’s job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work,” Nadler tweeted.

The report by BuzzFeed News, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, says that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress and that Cohen regularly briefed Trump and his family on the Moscow project — even as Trump said he had no business dealings with Russia.

The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the BuzzFeed report.

An adviser to Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the substance of the article, saying that he and Cohen wouldn’t answer questions out of respect for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Mueller is investigating Russia meddling in the election and contacts with the Trump campaign.

The BuzzFeed story says that Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.

Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, scoffed at the report, saying in a statement, “If you believe Cohen I can get you a good all cash deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress in 2017 to cover up that he was negotiating the real estate deal in Moscow on Trump’s behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of his cooperation with that probe.

Cohen was recently sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to tax crimes, bank fraud and campaign violations. He is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee February 7.

The report comes as House Democrats have promised a thorough look into Trump’s ties to Russia. Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is true, Trump’s actions could rise to that level.

“If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached,” tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, “that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop.”

William Barr, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, said at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that a president or anyone else who directs a witness to lie is illegally obstructing an investigation. That statement attracted attention given Barr’s expansive views of presidential powers and his belief that presidents can’t be scrutinized by prosecutors for acts the Constitution allows them to take.
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Pelosi Delays Afghan Trip After Trump Leaks Travel Plans

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cancelled plans Friday to fly commercially to Afghanistan after her office said President Donald Trump announced the sensitive travel plans, significantly increasing the security threat on the ground according to a State Department assessment.

A spokesperson for Pelosi’s office said in a statement “the administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well.”

Trump revoked the use of a military plane for Pelosi and Democratic members of Congress’ planned trip to Afghanistan and Brussels late Thursday, the latest maneuver in a bitter political battle over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

In a letter to the speaker of the House, the president denied Pelosi and members of Congress the use of a military plane to meet with NATO allies in Brussels and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, writing “in light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”

 

A spokesperson for Pelosi’s office said the trip would have provided “critical national security and intelligence briefings” as well as served as an opportunity for Pelosi to thank the troops.

The speaker’s office said “in light of the grave threats caused by the president’s action, the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to endanger our troops or security personnel.”

The president’s letter did not directly address Pelosi’s call Wednesday for Trump to delay his scheduled Jan. 29 State of the Union address until government funding is restored and the shutdown ends.

 

“This is completely inappropriate by the president,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters outside Pelosi’s office Thursday. “We’re not going to allow the president of the United States to tell the Congress it can’t fulfill its oversight responsibilities.”

The back-and-forth between the White House and the speaker of the House meant there is no end in sight for a partial federal government shutdown, which will soon enter its fifth week. The shutdown was triggered by a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over funding for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

“While many Democrats in the House and Senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi won’t let them negotiate,” Trump said in a speech at the Defense Department. “Hopefully, Democrat lawmakers will step forward to do what is right for our country, and what’s right for our country is border security at the strongest level.”

 

Democrats insist they will negotiate stronger, more effective border security measures once the government reopens, but that a border wall would be wasteful, ineffective and a blight on America’s image.

 

Pelosi, the top-ranking congressional Democrat, said Trump’s “insistence on the wall is a luxury we can no longer afford.”

Later Thursday, Trump also canceled a planned trip by a U.S. delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  The delegation, consisting  of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer and assistant to the president Chris Liddell, was scheduled to travel next week.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president wanted to make sure “his team can assist as needed” during the government shutdown.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers missed a paycheck last week and are set to miss another next week.

 

“Not only are these workers not paid, they are not appreciated by this administration,” said Pelosi, who leads the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. “We should respect what they do for their country.”

 

Pelosi’s move on the State of the Union drew sharp criticism from Senate Republicans.

 

“By disinviting POTUS for SOTU, Pelosi erased any pretext for her unwillingness to negotiate an end to the shutdown. It is personal, petty, and vindictive,” Senator John Cornyn from Texas tweeted Thursday.

 

Trump has called for more than $5 billion in taxpayer funding for the wall, while Democrats have offered $1.3 billion in new money for border security, but none specifically for a wall.

 
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EU Wants to Exclude Agriculture From Trade Talks With US

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The European Union insisted Friday that agriculture be kept out of the EU-U.S. trade negotiations, despite Washington’s wishes to include the vast sector, and said any overall deal will be limited in scope.

The EU Commission announced its pro posals for a negotiating mandate from the 28 member states and said that the EU negotiations will be “strictly focused on the removal of tariffs on industrial goods, excluding agricultural products.”

EU Trade Chief Cecilia Malmstrom also said that she is preparing a target list of American products it will hit with punitive tariffs if the Trump administration goes through with its threat to impose duties on European auto imports.

Last July, during a period of heightened tensions over trade, U.S. President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to start talks meant to achieve “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies” on non-automotive industrial goods.

With the U.S. criticizing the Europeans for allegedly dragging their feet in the talks, Malmstrom said “the EU is committed to upholding its side of the agreement reached by the two Presidents.”

Any agreement would fall well short of the scope of the free trade deal that had been discussed in recent years — but paused in 2016 after Trump slammed such wide-ranging international deals as unfair to the U.S.

Instead, Malmstrom said, the deal both sides are now looking at could be concluded “quite quickly. We could finalize this and it would be beneficial to all of us.”

 
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Manbij Blast Reflects IS’s Deep Reach in Syria 

Posted on by SeeEA

With a single deadly blast Wednesday, the Islamic State group did more than rattle the calm in the northern Syrian town of Manbij. The terror group also rekindled the debate over its much-heralded demise.

Moments after a suicide bomber was sent into a patrol of U.S. troops and their Syrian counterparts, four Americans and five U.S.-backed fighters lay dead or dying, while images of bodies and blood-splattered walls were being shared across social media, finding their way into news articles and broadcasts. 

 

But to officials and analysts who have been studying the collapse of the self-declared caliphate, the attack, while brutal, likely was not shocking.  

“ISIS maintains the capacity to pursue opportunistic attacks and present itself as an enduring security challenge in Syria,” said Nicholas Glavin, formerly a researcher at the U.S. Naval War College’s Center on Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups, using an acronym for the terror group. 

 

For more than a year, U.S. intelligence and defense officials have warned publicly that IS was finding ways to adapt to its mounting losses, sustaining enough manpower and resources to do damage. 

 

IS in Iraq 

 

In Iraq, where the caliphate had collapsed, IS cells carried out attacks on critical infrastructure, targeting water supplies, power lines and cell towers. 

 

Local officials said other cells carried out campaigns of assassinations and kidnappings. 

 

“They have deep, in some cases, familial links,” Christopher Maier, the director of the Defense Department’s Defeat ISIS Core Task Force, told VOA. “It’s going to be fundamentally, I think, hard to see what these threats look like until they manifest.” 

 

U.S. officials have yet to confirm Wednesday’s deadly attack in Manbij was indeed the work of IS, though they believe it likely was.  

Yet they worry that the way in which it was carried out and the way in which IS moved to capitalize on it could be a sign the group’s network of family, friends and sympathizers are well-placed for a long fight in Syria as well. 

 

For example, despite having been kicked out of Manbij in 2016, IS knew when and where to strike, targeting the patrol near the restaurant where U.S. troops were known to stop to meet with their coalition counterparts. 

 

“There’s a good chance the group had spotters engaged in surveillance in the immediate vicinity who informed Islamic State’s local intelligence and security officials in real time to dispatch the suicide bomber,” said Jade Parker, a former counterterrorism analyst in support of U.S. military activities. 

 

“If this is the case, it appears as though the Islamic State intelligence and security services have not been as thoroughly degraded as some have claimed,” Parker added. 

 

Abilities of IS 

 

The ability of IS to quickly claim responsibility, sharing details such as the name of the suicide bomber and the U.S.-backed coalition’s immediate response, also indicates its propaganda machine is still dangerous. 

 

“Propaganda-wise, ISIS remains extremely intact,” said Raphael Gluck, co-founder of Jihadoscope, a company that monitors online activity by Islamist extremists. 

 

“They may not be releasing the amount of videos they once were, and perhaps content might not be lingering on social media as it used to, but a very steady flow of Islamic State media remains,” Gluck said.    

It is those types of indications of the Islamic State’s resiliency that have long worried defense and intelligence officials, who have repeatedly argued that no one should confuse the collapse of the terror group’s caliphate with its lasting defeat. 

 

“We’re under no illusion that we’re dealing with a long-term challenge,” Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a conference on defeating IS in October. “We know from previous experience that when you relieve pressure on the threat, they will take the ability to reconstitute.” 
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African Union Urges Congo to Suspend Final Election Results

Posted on by SeeAF

The African Union continental body issued a surprise last-minute demand late Thursday for Congo’s government to suspend the announcement of final results of the disputed presidential election, citing “serious doubts.” 

Congo’s constitutional court is poised to rule as early as Friday on a challenge filed by the election’s declared runner-up. Martin Fayulu has requested a recount, alleging fraud. Upholding the results could spark violence in a country hoping for its first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960.

‘Truly incredible’

The AU statement said heads of state and government agreed to “urgently dispatch” a high-level delegation to Congo to find “a way out of the post-electoral crisis” in the vast Central African nation rich in the minerals key to smartphones and electric cars around the world.

“This is truly incredible,” tweeted Jason Stearns, director of the Congo Research Group at New York University. “Usually, the African Union defers to the subregion … in this case they departed dramatically.”

Congo faces the extraordinary situation of an election allegedly rigged in favor of the opposition. There was no immediate government comment.

Fayulu accuses the administration of outgoing President Joseph Kabila of falsifying the results to declare opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner after the ruling party candidate did poorly. Fayulu has cited figures compiled by the influential Catholic Church’s 40,000 election observers that found he won 61 percent of the vote.

Leaked data favors Fayulu

Two sets of leaked data show that Fayulu won the election by a landslide, according to an investigation published this week by Radio France International and other media working with the Congo Research Group.

In the first set of data, attributed to Congo’s electoral commission and representing 86 percent of the votes, Fayulu won 59.4 percent while Tshisekedi received 19 percent. The second set of data, from the Catholic Church’s mission, represents 43 percent of the votes. In it, Tshisekedi and ruling party candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary each received less than 20 percent.

Fayulu, a lawmaker and businessman who is outspoken about cleaning up Congo’s sprawling corruption, is widely seen as posing more of a threat to Kabila, his allies and the vast wealth they have amassed. Tshisekedi, the son of charismatic opposition leader Etienne who died in 2017, is relatively untested and has said little since the Dec. 30 election.

The AU statement was issued after Congo’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister briefed “a number of heads of state and government” from across the continent on the crisis. It said some of the heads of state would join the AU Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, in the urgent mission to Congo.

Pressure from African nations is seen as having more of an impact on Congo’s government, which was annoyed by Western pressure during more than two years of turbulent election delays.

The AU statement reflects serious concern by states about the threat of more unrest in Congo that could spill across borders and destabilize its many neighbors. 

But countries have wavered on how to address the crisis. The AU statement came hours after the 16-nation Southern African Development Community backed off its earlier demand for an election recount, instead urging the international community to respect Congo’s sovereignty. It stressed the need for stability in a country where conflicts over the past two decades have killed millions of people. 

Election troubles reported

The AU statement noted that SADC leaders attended the wider continental talks.

Congo’s election had been meant to take place in late 2016, and many Congolese worried that Kabila, in power since 2001, was seeking a way to stay in office. Barred from serving three consecutive terms, Kabila already has hinted he might run again in 2023.

Election observers reported multiple problems, including the last-minute barring of some 1 million voters in the east, with the electoral commission blaming a deadly Ebola outbreak. That alone undermines the election’s credibility, some observers said.

All of the election results, not just the presidential ones, have been widely questioned after Kabila’s ruling coalition won a majority in legislative and provincial votes while its presidential candidate finished a distant third. 
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UN Peace Monitoring Team in Yemen Attacked   

Posted on by SeeEA

A U.N. team overseeing the truce in the Yemeni port of Hodeida came under fire Thursday. 

No one was injured when bullets struck an armored vehicle carrying chief monitor Patrick Cammaert.

The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels blamed each other for the shooting.

A shared responsibility

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said both sides needed to make sure everyone with the U.N. was safe.

“It is important to add that all the parties in Yemen are also responsible for the safety of all U.N. personnel. … We are dealing with a highly volatile environment in Hodeida.”

Thursday’s shooting came a day after the Security Council approved sending as many as 75 U.N. monitors to Yemen to strengthen last month’s cease-fire agreement for Hodeida. The deal also calls on both sides to withdraw their forces in the city.

The deal has generally held, despite occasional skirmishes, but both the rebels and Yemeni government have been slow to fully implement it.

Iran denies charges

Hodeida has been under rebel control. Nearly all food and humanitarian shipments come through the port. Yemen says the Houthis also get Iranian weapons through the port — a charge Iran has denied.

The fighting in Yemen between government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthis has killed thousands of civilians.

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes targeting the rebels have been indiscriminate, wiping out entire neighborhoods and hospitals.

The fighting has made a dire humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen even worse.

U.N. officials say about 80 percent of Yemeni civilians lack enough food, medicine and clean water.
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US Appeals Court Will Not Delay Net Neutrality Case

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A federal appeals court said Thursday it would not delay oral arguments set for Feb. 1 on the Trump administration’s decision to repeal the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules governing internet providers.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday asked the court to delay the arguments over its December 2017 repeal, citing the partial government shutdown. Without comment, the court denied the request.

The FCC had no immediate comment on the decision.

A group of 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia have asked the court to reinstate the Obama-era internet rules and block the FCC’s effort to pre-empt states from imposing their own rules guaranteeing an open internet.

Several internet companies are also part of the legal challenge, including Mozilla Corp, Vimeo Inc and Etsy Inc, as well as numerous media and technology advocacy groups and major cities, including New York and San Francisco.

The FCC voted to reverse the rules that barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, also known as paid prioritization.

The FCC said providers must disclose any changes in users’ internet access.

‘Misguided’ repeal

The net neutrality repeal was a win for providers like Comcast Corp, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, but was opposed by internet companies like Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc.

Major providers have not made any changes in how Americans access the internet since the repeal.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said on Thursday that the lawsuits are aimed at overturning the agency’s “misguided” repeal of the Obama rules. “The fight for an open internet continues,” she wrote on Twitter.

The panel hearing the case is made up of Judges Robert Wilkins and Patricia Millett, two appointees of Barack Obama, and Stephen Williams, an appointee of Republican Ronald Reagan.

In October, California agreed not to enforce its own state net neutrality law until the appeals court’s decision on the 2017 repeal and any potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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