During a Saturday briefing, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said her city government “gave those who wished to destroy space to do that,” seemingly approving of the rioters who smashed the city’s police vehicles in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray, a man with a drug rap sheet arrested on a weapons conviction, suffered a spinal cord injury–perhaps due to rough handling by police–and died on April 19. Reports are inconclusive, however, and the police are not talking.
Rioters destroyed cop cars in a frenzy, while the police hung back. They attacked a wheelchair-bound woman, and a man wearing a #BlackLivesMatter shirt tried to stab a terrified bystander.
Monday, April 27, 2015
By Pamela Engel
The head of the Islamic State is reportedly injured so badly he can barely move, Kareem Shaheen at The Guardian reports.
"Sources tell us Baghdadi is still alive, but still unable to move due to spinal injury sustained in the March air strike," Shaheen tweeted.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who last year declared himself "caliph" of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh), was reportedly wounded in a US-led air strike in March.
Martin Chulov at The Guardian, who last week broke the news of the air strike, also says his sources tell him that Baghdadi is still alive and is being treated by doctors from Mosul. He has reportedly suffered a spinal injury.
Information on Baghdadi's reported injury and the air strike that supposedly caused it is still sketchy.
Two officials, one Western and one Iraqi, confirmed to The Guardian that the air strike targeted multiple cars in the town of Baaj in northwestern Iraq on March 18, but the Pentagon said the air strike was not aimed at a high-value target and that they "have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi."
Chulov reports that officials didn't know that Baghdadi was in one of the cars targeted in the airstrike. He was reportedly staying in that area of Iraq because he "knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there," a source who is aware of Baghdadi's movements told The Guardian.
Baghdadi is reportedly recovering slowly but has not resumed day-to-day control of ISIS. A former physics teacher from Mosul was installed as ISIS's new temporary leader while Baghdadi recovers, an Iraqi government adviser told Newsweek last week.
ISIS control zones as of April 2015
Newsweek describes Abu Alaa Afri as a "rising star" within ISIS, and the Iraqi government adviser, Hisham al Hashimi, said Afri had become even more important than the injured "caliph" of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Afri will become ISIS' new permanent leader if Baghdadi dies, Hashimi said.
Having a caliph with a background of religious education is important to ISIS, which has shaped its self-proclaimed caliphate around a strict interpretation of sharia law. The group recruits people to come live in its territory by marketing it as an Islamic utopia.
Der Spiegel reported recently that early leaders of ISIS, many of whom are former Iraqi intelligence officers from ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, decided to make Baghdadi caliph because he, as an "educated cleric," would "give the group a religious face."[source]
Thousands of Saudi Forces Flee Bases, Refuse to Participate in Ground Assault on Yemen
Global Research, April 26, 2015
“The intel gathered by the western intelligence agencies showed that
the Saudi military forces have fled their bases, military centers and
bordering checkpoints near Yemen in groups,” diplomatic sources were
quoted as saying by Iraq’s Arabic-language Nahrain Net news website.
The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.
Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.
Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 32 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 3,005 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
On Tuesday the monarchy declared end to Yemen airstrikes after four weeks of bombings, but airstrikes are still underway.[source]
The European sources said that the Saudi forces’ mass AWOL forced Riyadh to declare ceasefire and dissuaded it from launching ground attacks against Yemen.
Other reports also said that over 10,000 soldiers from different Saudi military units have fled the army battalions and the National Guard.
Experts believe that the Saudi army lacks strong morale to launch a ground invasion of Yemen and such an attack would be considered as a suicide for Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 32 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 3,005 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
On Tuesday the monarchy declared end to Yemen airstrikes after four weeks of bombings, but airstrikes are still underway.[source]
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Clinton Foundation Admits Making Mistakes On Taxes
(Reuters) - The Clinton Foundation's acting chief executive admitted on Sunday that the charity had made mistakes on how it listed government donors on its tax returns and said it was working to make sure it does not happen in the future.
The non-profit foundation and its list of donors have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. Republican critics say the foundation makes Hillary Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, vulnerable to undue influence.
After a Reuters review found errors in how the foundation reported government donors on its taxes, the charity said last week it would refile at least five annual tax returns.
"So yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don't happen in the future," Clinton Foundation acting Chief Executive Officer Maura Pally said in a statement.
The errors appeared on the tax forms 990 that all non-profit organizations must file annually with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to maintain their tax-exempt status.
Pally said the foundation did accurately report its total revenue but government grants were mistakenly combined with other donations.[source]
Fighting Escalates Across Yemen, Air Strikes On Capital Sanaa
There were at least five air strikes on military positions and an area near the presidential palace compound in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa at dawn on Sunday, while warships pounded an area near the port of the southern city of Aden, residents said.
"The explosions were so big they shook the house, waking us and our kids up. Life has really become unbearable in this city," a Sanaa resident who gave his name as Jamal told Reuters.
The strikes on Sanaa were the first since the Saudi-led coalition said last week it was scaling back a campaign against the Houthis. But the air raids soon resumed as the Houthis' nationwide gains had not been notably rolled back, and there has been no visible progress toward peace talks.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and arch Sunni Muslim regional adversary of Shi'ite Muslim Iran, feels menaced by the Shi'ite Houthi advance across Yemen since last September, when the rebels captured the capital.
The Houthis later forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. The Saudi-led intervention aims to restore Hadi and prevent Yemen disintegrating as a state, with al Qaeda militants thriving in the chaos and one of the world's busiest oil shipping lanes off the Yemeni coast at risk.
Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited King Fahd airbase in Saudi Arabia's Taif on Sunday and reaffirmed his country's commitment to the Saudi-led coalition. "Our only choice is victory in the test of Yemen," the official WAM news agency quoted him as saying.
WARSHIPS
Fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling alongside the Houthi rebels.
In London, Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen rejected a call for peace talks issued by Saleh on Friday and said the Saudi-led military operation had not ended.
"These calls are unacceptable after all of the destruction Ali Abdullah Saleh has caused. There can be no place for Saleh in any future political talks," Yaseen told a news conference.
"There will be no deal with the Houthis whatsoever until they withdraw from areas under their control," Yaseen said.
Eyewitnesses in Aden said foreign warships shelled Houthi emplacements around the city's main commercial port and dockyard, the first time they had been targeted.
Aden residents reported heavy clashes between local armed militia from Yemen's Sunni south and Houthis backed up by army units loyal to Saleh.
Sources in the militia said they retaliated for the first time with tank and Katyusha rocket fire. Air strikes backed up local militia in clashes near Aden's international airport.
In the southern province of Dalea, militia said they had fought for hours to retake several rural districts from the Houthis with the help of air strikes. The fighting left around 25 Houthis and six local militiamen dead.
A grouping of armed tribesmen and Sunni Islamist fighters in the strategically important central Yemeni city of Taiz took back several districts from the Houthis in heavy fighting, according to residents there.
Medics reported that four civilians were killed when a rocket landed in a street and shelling damaged a main hospital.
The battlefield setbacks for the Houthis occurred in an area they held largely unopposed for more than a month, and suggest that the air campaign has emboldened armed opposition groups.
Other air strikes hit Houthi bastions in Saada province along Yemen's northern border with Saudi Arabia, and Saudi ground forces also shelled the city of Haradh in neighboring Hajja province, residents said.
Iran's navy chief said on Sunday that it would keep warships in the Gulf of Aden for at least several months, a stance that could harden U.S. concerns about Tehran trying to supply advanced weapons to the Houthis.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, said the ships had deployed to protect shipping routes against piracy. The Islamic Republic denies giving military support to the Houthis.
The United States sent an aircraft carrier and a missile cruiser to support seven U.S. warships already near the Gulf of Aden this week, and warned Iran not to send weapons to Yemen that could be used to threaten shipping traffic. [source]
Former U.N. Envoy Says Yemen Political Deal Was Close Before Saudi Airstrikes Began
A Houthi rebel in
San’a, Yemen on Sunday walks past a building damaged by the Saudi-led
air campaign against the Iranian-backed force.
Photo:
khaled abdullah/Reuters.
UNITED NATIONS—Yemen’s warring political factions were on the verge of a power-sharing deal when Saudi-led airstrikes began a month ago, derailing the negotiations, the United Nations envoy who mediated the talks said.
Jamal Benomar, who spearheaded the negotiations until he resigned last week, told The Wall Street Journal the Saudi bombing campaign against Iran-linked Houthi rebels has hardened positions on a key point—the composition of an executive body to lead Yemen’s stalled transition. This will complicate new attempts to reach a solution, he said.
“When this campaign started, one thing that was significant but went unnoticed is that the Yemenis were close to a deal that would institute power-sharing with all sides, including the Houthis,” said Mr. Benomar, a Moroccan diplomat.
Mr. Benomar is scheduled to address the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors on Monday and report on the suspended political talks.
Most Yemeni political factions agree talks were progressing in the run-up to the Saudi air campaign, but their views vary on Mr. Benomar’s assertion that a deal was close.
This round of U.N.-brokered talks—which began in January and included 12 political and tribal factions—represented a crucial part of a mission to install a unified government in Yemen, the poorest Arab country and home to al Qaeda’s most dangerous offshoot.
The Houthi rebels, who have overrun significant parts of the country in the past eight months, had agreed to remove their militias from the cities they were occupying under the deal that had been taking shape. The U.N. had worked out details of a new government force to replace them, Mr. Benomar said.
In exchange, Western-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has since fled the country, would have been part of an executive body that would run the country temporarily, Mr. Benomar said.
The Houthis had agreed to that reduced role for Mr. Hadi until the Saudi military intervention began on March 26. At that point, the Houthis hardened their position on this key point and opposed any role for Mr. Hadi in government, Mr. Benomar said.
Saudi-backed factions have also hardened their positions, saying the Houthis shouldn’t be granted political power.
Several Yemeni political factions, which were also interested in power-sharing, said the military tensions in the capital led to feelings of unease during negotiations. In their takeover of the capital, the Houthis kidnapped members of rival political parties.
“We did not like the Houthi plan on the table, but we were willing to sign it since it reflected reality. It was either that or no deal,” said Mohammed Abulahoum, president of Yemen’s Justice and Building Party.
The air campaign transformed Yemen into a battlefield for a broader contest over regional power between Shiite Iran and Sunni countries led by Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis want to restore Mr. Hadi to the presidency and also support a separate armed political faction named Islah, which is anti-Houthi. Iran supports the Houthis, who abide by a Shiite offshoot of Islam. Many Yemenis accuse both countries of meddling in their affairs.
The Houthis took over the capital San’a and the government and then advanced on the south.As they approached the port city of Aden, where Mr. Hadi had taken refuge, he fled the country and ended up in Saudi Arabia.
Yemen’s troubles mark an abrupt turnabout from what the international community had once hailed as a success story.
The 2011 Arab Spring protests triggered political change in Yemen, a largely peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Groups that felt oppressed or excluded for decades under the former regime, such as the Houthis, were supposed to take part in the new government.
But that transition stalled in 2014. In the two months leading up to the Saudi air campaign, the Houthis and other parties insisted on a reduced role for Mr. Hadi, blaming him for the slow pace of reform.
Mr. Hadi, his Saudi allies and other political factions opposed the terms for the presidency being hammered out by Mr. Benomar.
“A very detailed agreement was being worked out, but there was one important issue on which there was no agreement, and that was what to do with the presidency,” Mr. Benomar said. “We were under no illusion that implementation of this would be easy.”
Two other Arab states—Qatar and Morocco—were willing to host new rounds of Yemen peace talks. But after both countries joined the Saudi-led military coalition, the Houthis rejected those venues, according to Mr. Benomar.
President Hadi has suggested that talks resume in the Saudi capital of Riyadh under Saudi auspices. But that was a non-starter for the Houthis.
A senior diplomat familiar with the negotiations said the Saudis also intervened to prevent a power-sharing deal that would include the Houthis and that would give 30 % of the cabinet and parliament to women.
Saudi Arabia declared last week that it was shifting to a new phase in the Yemen campaign more focused on seeking a political solution. But it left open the option of continued military action, and has kept up airstrikes at a robust pace since the declaration.
Mr. Benomar said he would tell the Security Council on Monday that only U.N.-led talks in a neutral location can have any chance of success.
On Saturday, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania was named as the new U.N. envoy for Yemen.
On Sunday, Yemeni officials reported several apparent strikes by the Saudi coalition against Houthi targets amid deadly clashes between Houthi militants and forces aligned with Mr. Hadi.
Strikes hit the capital San’a as well as targets in energy-rich Marib province, officials said. Several southern provinces also saw strikes, including one that hit a convoy of Houthi fighters heading to the southern port city of Aden.[source]
Officials: FBI Probes Possible ISIS-Inspired Threat
(CNN)The
FBI is investigating a possible ISIS-inspired terrorist threat in the
United States, law enforcement officials said Saturday.
The
investigation originated from intercepted chatter and other
intelligence information that led officials to believe a possible plot
could be in the works, the officials said.
No arrests have been made. It's not clear whether the threat is real or aspirational.
The
exact nature of the threat couldn't be learned. One official said it
focused on parts of California where officials stepped up security, a
U.S. official said.
The Transportation
Security Administration alerted local law enforcement agencies that are
responsible for external security around airports, but officials said
the possible threat is not necessarily aviation-related.
Some cities around the United States have increased their security as a precaution.
A
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined Saturday to talk
about specifics, but spoke about security measures in general.
"Over
the last few months, we have made a number of security adjustments,
including enhanced screening at select overseas airports and increasing
random searches of passengers and carry-on luggage on flights inbound to
the U.S., reflecting an evolving threat picture," the spokesman said.
He said the DHS added layers of security to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization.
ETSA is an online application system to screen travelers before they
are allow to board an airplane or ship bound for the United States.
In February, a more visible law enforcement presence was put in place at federal facilities, he said.
"The
department has conducted significant outreach efforts ... with state
and local law enforcement partners regarding these trends and engaging
in a series of meetings and events with local community leaders across
the country to counter violent extremism," he said.[source]
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say
Emails that President Obama sent and received were breached last year, senior officials said.
Credit
Zach Gibson/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Some of President Obama’s
email correspondence was swept up by Russian hackers last year in a
breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system that was far
more intrusive and worrisome than has been publicly acknowledged,
according to senior American officials briefed on the investigation.
The
hackers, who also got deeply into the State Department’s unclassified
system, do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers that
control the message traffic from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an
aide carries constantly.
But
they obtained access to the email archives of people inside the White
House, and perhaps some outside, with whom Mr. Obama regularly
communicated. From those accounts, they reached emails that the
president had sent and received, according to officials briefed on the
investigation.
White
House officials said that no classified networks had been compromised,
and that the hackers had collected no classified information. Many
senior officials have two computers in their offices, one operating on a
highly secure classified network and another connected to the outside
world for unclassified communications.
But
officials have conceded that the unclassified system routinely contains
much information that is considered highly sensitive: schedules, email
exchanges with ambassadors and diplomats, discussions of pending
personnel moves and legislation, and, inevitably, some debate about
policy.
Officials
did not disclose the number of Mr. Obama’s emails that were harvested
by hackers, nor the sensitivity of their content. The president’s email
account itself does not appear to have been hacked. Aides say that most
of Mr. Obama’s classified briefings — such as the morning Presidential
Daily Brief — are delivered orally or on paper (sometimes supplemented
by an iPad system connected to classified networks) and that they are
usually confined to the Oval Office or the Situation Room.
Still,
the fact that Mr. Obama’s communications were among those hit by the
hackers — who are presumed to be linked to the Russian government, if
not working for it — has been one of the most closely held findings of
the inquiry. Senior White House officials have known for months about
the depth of the intrusion.
“This has been one of the most sophisticated actors we’ve seen,” said one senior American official briefed on the investigation.
Others
confirmed that the White House intrusion was viewed as so serious that
officials met on a nearly daily basis for several weeks after it was
discovered. “It’s the Russian angle to this that’s particularly
worrisome,” another senior official said.
While
Chinese hacking groups are known for sweeping up vast amounts of
commercial and design information, the best Russian hackers tend to hide
their tracks better and focus on specific, often political targets. And
the hacking happened at a moment of renewed tension with Russia — over
its annexation of Crimea, the presence of its forces in Ukraine and its
renewed military patrols in Europe, reminiscent of the Cold War.
Inside
the White House, the intrusion has raised a new debate about whether it
is possible to protect a president’s electronic presence, especially
when it reaches out from behind the presumably secure firewalls of the
executive branch.
Mr.
Obama is no stranger to computer-network attacks: His 2008 campaign was
hit by Chinese hackers. Nonetheless, he has long been a frequent user
of email, and publicly fought the Secret Service in 2009 to retain his
BlackBerry, a topic he has joked about in public. He was issued a
special smartphone, and the list of those he can exchange emails with is
highly restricted.
When
asked about the investigation’s findings, the spokeswoman for the
National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, said, “We’ll decline to
comment.” The White House has also declined to provide any explanations
about how the breach was handled, though the State Department has been
more candid about what kind of systems were hit and what it has done
since to improve security. A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to
comment.
Officials
who discussed the investigation spoke on the condition of anonymity
because of the delicate nature of the hacking. While the White House has
refused to identify the nationality of the hackers, others familiar
with the investigation said that in both the White House and State
Department cases, all signs pointed to Russians.
On
Thursday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter revealed for the first
time that Russian hackers had attacked the Pentagon’s unclassified
systems, but said they had been identified and “kicked off.” Defense
Department officials declined to say if the signatures of the attacks on
the Pentagon appeared related to the White House and State Department
attacks.
The
discovery of the hacking in October led to a partial shutdown of the
White House email system. The hackers appear to have been evicted from
the White House systems by the end of October. But they continued to
plague the State Department, whose system is much more far-flung. The
disruptions were so severe that during the Iranian nuclear negotiations
in Vienna in November, officials needed to distribute personal email
accounts, to one another and to some reporters, to maintain contact.
Earlier
this month, officials at the White House said that the hacking had not
damaged its systems and that, while elements had been shut down to
mitigate the effects of the attack, everything had been restored.
One
of the curiosities of the White House and State Department attacks is
that the administration, which recently has been looking to name and
punish state and nonstate hackers in an effort to deter attacks, has
refused to reveal its conclusions about who was responsible for this
complex and artful intrusion into the government. That is in sharp
contrast to Mr. Obama’s decision, after considerable internal debate in
December, to name North Korea for ordering the attack on Sony Pictures
Entertainment, and to the director of national intelligence’s decision
to name Iranian hackers as the source of a destructive attack on the
Sands Casino.
This month, after CNN reported
that hackers had gained access to sensitive areas of the White House
computer network, including sections that contained the president’s
schedule, the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said the
administration had not publicly named who was behind the hack because
federal investigators had concluded that “it’s not in our best
interests.”
By
contrast, in the North Korea case, he said, investigators concluded
that “we’re more likely to be successful in terms of holding them
accountable by naming them publicly.”
But
the breach of the president’s emails appeared to be a major factor in
the government secrecy. “All of this is very tightly held,” one senior
American official said, adding that the content of what had been
breached was being kept secret to avoid tipping off the Russians about
what had been learned from the investigation.
Mr.
Obama’s friends and associates say that he is a committed user of his
BlackBerry, but that he is careful when emailing outside the White House
system.
“The
frequency has dropped off in the last six months or so,” one of his
close associates said, though this person added that he did not know if
the drop was related to the hacking.
Mr.
Obama is known to send emails to aides late at night from his
residence, providing them with his feedback on speeches or, at times,
entirely new drafts. Others say he has emailed on topics as diverse as
his golf game and the struggle with Congress over the Iranian nuclear
negotiations.
George
W. Bush gave up emailing for the course of his presidency and did not
carry a smartphone. But after Mr. Bush left office, his sister’s email
account was hacked, and several photos — including some of his paintings
— were made public.
The White House is bombarded with cyberattacks daily, not only from Russia and China. Most are easily deflected.
The
White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and intelligence
agencies put their most classified material into a system called Jwics,
for Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. That is where
top-secret and “secret compartmentalized information” traverses within
the government, to officials cleared for it — and it includes imagery,
data and graphics. There is no evidence, senior officials said, that
this hacking pierced it. [SOURCE]
Mapping Chaos in Yemen
In late March, Saudi-led forces began
an offensive in Yemen against the Houthi rebel group, which has taken
over large portions of the country. Though it is the poorest country in
the Middle East, Yemen is of outsize importance to crucial players like
Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States.
Related Article
The Saudi-led Offensive
The Saudi-led airstrikes crippled Yemen’s
Houthi-controlled air force, but have so far failed to halt Houthi
expansion on the ground. Military operations have severely limited
humanitarian assistance in Yemen, a nation already burdened with
hundreds of thousands of refugees. “The country seems to be on the verge
of total collapse,” said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high
commissioner for human rights.
Confirmed Saudi-led airstrikes, March 26 to April 1
The Houthis’ Drive South
The Houthis’ Drive South
Originally from Saada Province, the
Houthis practice a variant of Shiite Islam and receive support from
Iran. In January, the Houthis overran the capital, Sana, forcing
president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi to resign. Since then, they have
continued pushing south, and this week began pressing on the port of
Aden, where Mr. Hadi and forces still allied with him had taken refuge.
Houthis control or have influence [darker regions]
Houthis are able to operate [lighter regions]
Houthis are able to operate [lighter regions]
Years of American Involvement
Yemen is home to one of Al Qaeda’s most
active branches, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Since 2009, the
United States has carried out at least 100 airstrikes in Yemen,
according to an analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
which has done a detailed analysis of strikes there.
Al
Qaeda is not the only terrorist group operating in Yemen. Last week,
the Islamic State claimed responsibility for bombings at two Shiite
mosques in Sana that killed more than 135 people. The presence of ISIS
could drive Yemen into a “full-blown sectarian conflict,” said Katherine
Zimmerman, an analyst for the American Enterprise Institute. “What ISIS
wants to do is to recreate in Yemen the sectarian war its predecessor,
Al Qaeda in Iraq, stoked there.”
Historical Divisions
South Yemen was a separate country until
1990. The northwest, an area historically called Yemen, is mostly
Shiite. The southeast, known as Hadramawat, is home to a mostly Sunni
population. “Yemen and the Hadramawat have seldom been part of the same
political entity in the past and have maintained separate identities for
a long time,” said Michael Izady, a historian and cultural geographer
who has mapped ethnicity and religion for Columbia University.
[Source]
Obama Apologizes After Drone Kills American and Italian Held by Al Qaeda
Warren Weinstein: Kidnapped Government Contractor Asks U.S. To Negotiate With Al Qaeda For His Release
WASHINGTON — An American aid worker and another man held hostage by Al Qaeda were killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan
in January, government officials disclosed on Thursday, underscoring
the perils of a largely invisible, long-distance war waged through video
screens, joysticks and sometimes incomplete intelligence.
Intending
to wipe out a compound linked to the terrorist group, the Central
Intelligence Agency authorized the attack with no idea that the hostages
were being held there despite hundreds of hours of surveillance, the
officials said. Even afterward, they said, the agency did not realize at
first that it had killed an American it had long sought to rescue, with
the wrenching news becoming clear over time.
The violent death of an American at the hands of his own government
proved a searing moment in a drone war that has come to define the
nation’s battle with Al Qaeda, especially since President Obama
took office. Visibly upset, Mr. Obama came to the White House briefing
room shortly after his staff issued a written statement announcing the
deaths to make a rare personal apology.
“As
president and as commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all
our counterterrorism operations,” the grim-faced president told
reporters as television cameras broadcast his words. “I profoundly
regret what happened,” he added. “On behalf of the United States
government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families.”
The government is conducting two reviews of the drone strike to determine what went wrong,
and the episode could force a broader rethinking of Mr. Obama’s
approach to fighting Al Qaeda. Under the president’s policy, drone
strikes are to be authorized only when it can be concluded to a “near
certainty” that there will not be civilian casualties.
The two hostages, Warren Weinstein, an American kidnapped in 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto,
an Italian seized in 2012, were killed Jan. 15 in a remote area in
Pakistan known as a Qaeda sanctuary, officials said. An American
affiliated with Al Qaeda, Ahmed Farouq, was killed in the same strike.
Another American member of Al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn, was killed in a separate strike in the same region Jan. 19, according to the officials.
Just
as the C.I.A. did not know the hostages were present, it also did not
know that the American Qaeda members were at the strike targets and they
had not been specifically targeted, officials said. Mr. Farouq was the
deputy head of Al Qaeda’s relatively new branch in India and was not
publicly identified as an American until Thursday. Mr. Gadahn was better
known as a Qaeda spokesman.
Officials
who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence operations
said it took weeks to piece together what happened.
Even the NYT Editorial Board Admits That Obama's "Successful" Yemen Is Really "The Catastrophe In Yemen"
The aftermath of an explosion in Sana, Yemen, on Monday.
Credit
Yahya Arhab/European Pressphoto Agency.
Saudi
Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen’s civil war was always a risky
gamble. Now there’s evidence showing just how damaging four weeks of
airstrikes have been: more than 1,000 civilians killed, more than 4,000
wounded, and 150,000 displaced. Meanwhile, the fighting and a Saudi-led
blockade have deprived Yemenis of food, fuel, water and medicines,
causing what a Red Cross official called a humanitarian catastrophe.
Yemen has long been a weak state, and with each day it draws closer to
collapse.
The
Saudis claim the airstrikes have punished the Houthi rebels, who have
tried to take over Yemen, by wiping out many of their weapons and
military installations around the country. But the rebels, who are
supported by Shiite Iran, are still on the march. The Saudis, who lead a
coalition of Sunni Arab nations, are nowhere near to restoring the
Yemeni president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Mr. Hadi was ousted by the
Houthis in January and driven into exile in Saudi Arabia.
The
Obama administration has helped the Saudis with intelligence and
tactical advice and by deploying warships off the Yemeni coast. Now it
is wisely urging them to end the bombing. The White House seems to have
realized that the Saudis appear to have no credible strategy for
achieving their political goals, or even managing their intervention. On
Tuesday, they declared a halt to most military operations, only to
resume bombing hours later. More airstrikes followed on Thursday as
warplanes from the coalition struck Houthi targets around the Yemeni
cities of Aden and Ibb.
The
Sunnis constitute a majority in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni
countries intervened because they feared that a Houthi takeover would
extend the influence of Iran, which also has footholds in Lebanon, Syria
and Iraq. That fear appears to be exaggerated in Yemen. Nevertheless,
the intervention has threatened to turn what has been a civil war
between competing branches of Islam into a wider regional struggle
involving Iran.
Saudi
Arabia has been further unnerved by the possibility of a nuclear deal
involving the United States, other major powers and Iran. Such a deal,
it fears, would help make Iran the dominant regional power and spur
reconciliation with the United States, thus putting Saudi Arabia’s
security relationship with Washington in jeopardy. This has left
American policy makers with a formidable diplomatic challenge:
reassuring the Sunni nations of continued support while trying to see if
Iran, an adversary since 1979, could be nudged into a more productive
relationship.
The
deployment of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and other
warships to the Arabian Sea this week was intended as proof of that
reassurance. American officials said they were prepared to intercept a
nine-ship Iranian convoy headed for Yemen and believed to be carrying
weapons for the rebels. Fortunately, the Iranian vessels turned around, avoiding a possible confrontation.
The
fighting needs to end, relief supplies need to be delivered quickly and
a political dialogue needs to be restarted. Before the outbreak of the
Houthi offensive, a United Nations-led diplomatic initiative had made
some progress, but the Security Council never gave it enough support and
attention. And now, the United Nations official who led the
negotiations, Jamal Benomar, a Moroccan diplomat, has resigned and returned to New York.
Finding
a political solution will not be easy; it may not even be possible. For
one thing, it will require Saudi Arabia to accept the Houthis, an
indigenous Yemeni group, as part of the governing power structure. But
such a solution is the only hope for bringing some stability to the
country and refocusing international and Yemeni resources on Al Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula, the most lethal Al Qaeda affiliate, which is the
real beneficiary of the widening chaos. [source]
US Aircraft Carrier Enters Persian Gulf As Iranian Convoy Moves Away From Yemen
Washington (CNN) The
USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the Persian Gulf Saturday to conduct
what a U.S. defense official called routine maritime security
operations, days after U.S. warships were deployed to the Yemeni coast
to counter an Iranian convoy.
Multiple
U.S. officials have said the American ships had been deployed to the
region to dissuade the Iranian convoy, which included armed ships, from
docking in Yemen, where Iran has been supporting and arming the Houthi
rebellion.
The Iranian ships turned
away from Yemen on Thursday, and were still sailing northeast toward
Iran on Saturday, a U.S. defense official said. They were still in
international waters off the coast of Yemen on Saturday, the official
said, adding that the convoy was moving slowly and wasn't expected to
reach the Strait of Hormuz for several days.
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve
Warren told reporters that there had been no communication between
Iranian and U.S. forces at any point.
"I
think it's fair to say that this appears to be a de-escalation of some
of the tensions that were being discussed earlier in the week," Warren
said.
Although U.S. administration
spokesmen had downplayed the link between the U.S. warships and the
Iranian convoy, President Barack Obama said earlier this week that the
U.S. was sending "very direct messages" warning Iran against attempts to
arm the Houthis.
U.S.
officials had stressed this week that Iranian attempts to arm Houthi
rebels would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council
resolutions, and officials have been urging the Iranians to keep away
from the turbulent Gulf nation.
The
U.S. has walked a fine line as it looks to quell the situation in
Yemen. It has sought to reassure Gulf allies like Saudi Arabia that are
engaged in a proxy war with Iran in Yemen -- allies that support the
deposed Yemeni government that had been cooperating with the U.S. in
fighting an al Qaeda affiliate. But it is also looking to keep tensions
with Iran to a minimum as American diplomats work to secure a final deal
on Iran's nuclear program.
Those
negotiations got underway again earlier this week with diplomats from
the U.S., five other world powers and Iran working to seal a final
accord to curb Iran's nuclear program and provide Tehran sanctions
relief by the June deadline for a deal.[source]
Mysterious X-37B Military Space Plane to Fly Again Next Month
Credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
The United States Air Force's X-37B space plane will launch on its fourth mystery mission next month.
The unmanned X-37B space plane, which looks like a miniature version of NASA's now-retired space shuttle orbiter, is scheduled to blast off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 20.
"We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission," Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office
,
said in a statement. "With the demonstrated success of the first three
missions, we’re able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the
vehicle to testing of experimental payloads." [See photos of the X-37B's third mission]The X-37B's payloads and specific activities are classified, so it's unclear exactly what the spacecraft does while zipping around the Earth. But Air Force officials have revealed a few clues about the upcoming mission.
"The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities
Office (AFRCO) are investigating an experimental propulsion system on the X-37B on Mission 4," Capt. Chris Hoyler, an Air Force spokesman, told Space.com via email. "AFRCO will also host a number of advance materials onboard the X-37B for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study the durability of various materials in the space environment," Hoyler added.
The Air Force owns two X-37B space planes, both of which were built by Boeing's Phantom Works division. The solar-powered spacecraft are about 29 feet long by 9.5 feet tall (8.8 by 2.9 meters), with a wingspan of 15 feet (4.6 m) and a payload bay the size of a pickup-truck bed. The X-37B launches vertically atop a rocket and lands horizontally on a runway, like the space shuttle did.
One of the two X-37B vehicles flew the program's first and third missions, which were known as OTV-1 and OTV-3, respectively. ("OTV" is short for "Orbital Test Vehicle.") The other spacecraft flew OTV-2. Air Force officials have not revealed which space plane will be going to orbit on the upcoming mission.
OTV-1 launched in April 2010 and landed in December of that year, staying in orbit for 225 days. OTV-2 blasted off in March 2011 and circled Earth for 469 days, coming down in June 2012. OTV-3 launched in December 2012 and stayed aloft for a record-breaking 675 days, finally landing in October 2014.
Credit: Boeing
If Air Force officials know how long OTV-4 is going to last, they're not saying.
"The X-37B is designed for an on-orbit duration of 270 days," Hoyler said. "Longer missions have been demonstrated. As with previous missions, the actual duration will depend on test objectives, on-orbit vehicle performance
and conditions at the landing facility."The secrecy surrounding the X-37B and its payloads has fueled speculation in some quarters that the vehicle could be a space weapon of some sort. But Air Force officials have repeatedly refuted that notion.
"The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies
for America's future in space, and operating experiments which can be
returned to, and examined, on Earth," Air Force officials wrote in on
online X-37B fact sheet.
"Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance,
navigation and control; thermal protection systems; avionics;
high-temperature structures and seals; conformal reusable insulation,
lightweight electromechanical flight systems; and autonomous orbital
flight, re-entry and landing."[source]Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Iran Shows Indignation At US Military Demonstration
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