Tag Archive for: AP

U.S. Coalition Air Assault on ISIS Besieged town of Kobani, Syria

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On Thursday, we posted a question on the Iconoclast blog of the NER, “Is the U.S. Going to save Syrian Kurds and Others in Besieged Kobani?”  AP reported  today of US coalition air attacks on Kobani and other location in ISIS occupied Syria and Iraq, “US-led planes strike fighters attacking Syria town”:

The Islamic State group’s assault on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani has sent more than 100,000 refugees streaming across the border into Turkey in recent days as Kurdish forces from Iraq and Turkey have raced to the front lines to defend the town.

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, said the strikes targeted Islamic State positions near Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, destroying two tanks. He said the jihadi fighters later shelled the town, wounding a number of civilians.

[…]

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the coalition’s strikes near Kobani came amid heavy fighting between the Islamic State group and members of the Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPK.

The Britain-based group, which relies on activists inside Syria, had no immediate word on casualties from Saturday’s strikes.

Kurdish fighter Majid Goran told the Associated Press by telephone from Kobani that two bombs were dropped over the nearby village of Ali Shar, at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT), but that the positions they struck were empty.

Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported Saturday that the sound of heavy fighting could be heard from the Turkish border village of Karaca. The agency said Kurdish forces retook some positions they had lost to the Islamic militants a few days ago. It did not cite a source for the report.

Dozens of people wounded in the fighting arrived in Turkey for treatment on Saturday, it said.

Another Kurdish fighter, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, said the Turkish military on Saturday night retaliated after stray shells landed on Turkish territory, firing in the Ali Shar region. He said the Turkish action left Kurdish fighters in the middle of the crossfire.

He said that on Friday, the Islamic militants were attacking the Kobani area from the east with tanks and artillery, advancing on Ali Shar and Haja. He said some 20 people were killed, including Kurdish fighters and civilians, while another 50 people were wounded.

The fighting around Kobani sparked one of the largest single outflows of refugees since Syria’s conflict began more than three years ago. The Syrian Kurdish forces have long been one of the most effective fighting units battling the Islamic State, but the tide has turned in recent weeks as the Islamic militants have attacked with heavy weapons likely looted from neighboring Iraq.

kurds fleeing war in syria

Turkish and Syrian Kurds break down fence at Border near Suruc, Turkey, 9-26-14. Source: AP Burhan Ozbilici.

This initial air attack at Kobani while welcome, needs more follow up action by the US Central Command and coalition partners.  They need to establish a 24/7 no fly zone over the northeastern province of Hasaka, the homeland of Syrian Kurdistan, Rojava. Turkish President Erdogan  returning from his UN General Assembly trip in comments in Ankara suggested to President Obama and Vice President Obama  establishment of a no-fly zone to protect against Assad regime air attacks on rebel forces and possible use against ISIS. However, he did not indicate what zone should be established.

The U.S. has to press the Turks to let Kurdish fighters create a humanitarian corridor. Most importantly, the Turks have to be pressed to permit USAF to fly round the clock missions out of Incirlik air base in eastern Turkey, which lies less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Syrian border.  Turkey’s parliament passed legislation barring entry into adjacent Northern Iraq  of  U.S. Coalition forces during the opening stages of  Iraq War in 2003, necessitating the re-deployment of the U.S. 4th  Armored Division.

Beside the no-fly Zone over northeastern Syria, Kurdish fighters need training and heavy weapons, especially counter battery, anti-tank weapons to attack ISIS mortars, artillery and tanks. Many of these weapons were captured by ISIS from fleeing Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq and looted from Assad regime arsenals. More pressure has to be exerted on the Administration and Western partners, especially France and the UK, to provide air cover for the Kurdish population in Syria along with training and equipment for their fighters in Syria.  Currently, France restricts its air sorties to Iraq only.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor at a U.S. CENTCOM air base taxiing for a Syrian air Mission 9-23-14. Source AP.

AP History, Fake Indians, and Donate Buttons!

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Russell_Kirk

Russell Kirk: 10 Principles.

Dispatching from the Alexander Hamilton Institute, where Professor Robert Paquette outdoes himself in a post titled “The New Discrimination on U.S. Campuses” at SeeThruEd.  It’s discrimination against intended beneficiaries of affirmative action, illustrated by the fake Indians Ward Church and Elizabeth Warren, former Harvard law professor, now senator from Massachusetts. Warren has issued Eleven Commandments of Progressivisim:

During her ascent, [Senator Elizabeth] Warren, no Sitting Bull, has paused to fire up the faithful by issuing from barked scrolls what some of her fans in the media have called the “eleven commandments” of progressivism (note “commandments,” not principles). Since many Americans wonder why the country is floundering at best and unraveling at worst, Warren’s eleven commandments might be usefully contrasted with a set of conservative precepts to suggest why the United States has entered a period reminiscent of the 1850s, when domestically a sectional political struggle was metamorphosing into a clash of civilizations and eventually civil war.

Professor Paquette then contrasts these commandments to the ten principles of conservatism articulated by the late Russell Kirk, but not before reminding readers about the one-drop rule and how it is being perversely exploited by opportunistic professors on the left:

In certain areas of the Jim-Crow South, for example, no matter how light a person’s phenotype, if his or her genealogy contained an identifiable African ancestor somewhere in the past, then the category “black” was applied for various discriminatory social and legal purposes.  Within the arcane, darkened corridors of the postmodern campus, however, a strain of institutionalized discrimination has emerged under pressure from the diversity cartel that is not debilitating but consciously elevating. It might be called the no-drop rule.

Today, progressives “Opportunistic whites, openly of a radical bent or pose, take advantage of affirmative action criteria to attain jobs as aggrieved minorities for the dual purpose of advancing themselves and the progressive beliefs that they purport to hold dear.”  Such is the case with the former Harvard law professor, now Senator Elizabeth Warren, who thinks she has established her bona fides enough to issue from “barked scrolls” her Eleven Commandments, which are contrasted to Russell Kirk’s principles here.  The appointment of professors based on faked anceestry might be worthy of campus protests.

Smoke and Mirrors in the New AP History Exam

Don't ask how/ it's magic

Don’t ask how/ it’s magic.

Don’t ask how/ it’s magic Speaking of history, specifically, AP history, non-historian, non-teacher-ever, English major David Coleman who now is president of the College Board which develops AP and SAT tests, has issued a letter in response to the demands of the little people, er, those who signed an open letter or who were on the National Republican Committee, and who have dared to question the content of the new AP exams.

According to Inside Higher Ed, Coleman in an open letter:

said he hoped the unprecedented move of releasing an exam to non-certified A.P. teachers would quell concerns that framework neglected or misrepresented the important parts of American history.

Some of the “non-certified” critics of the exam had originally questioned the 98 pages of directives that replaced the 5-page topical outline. Like Common Core, the AP standards supplant local and state curricula, as Jane Robbins and Larry Krieger wrote in their critique. (and here by National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood)

In response to the sample test, Joy Pullman said that Coleman’s “graciously worded letter, still leaves unanswered questions about what half a million of nation’s brightest high school students will learn about their country’s character and history each year.

The sample exam had been released to the certified evaluators who had also signed “confidentiality letters.”  You can read the practice exam for yourself.  The number of questions has been reduced from 80 to 55 in order to permit more focus on “historical thinking skills.” These “historical thinking skills” seem to involve pictures and photographs and open-ended questions about short reading passages, ala Common Core.  Cutting back the number of multiple choice questions and asking students to interpret and write about photos that display negative aspects of American history seems to be a means to testing for correct progressive views under the guise of “deeper learning.”  All this is notwithstanding Coleman’s repeated claims to improving rigor through “original documents.”

All of this discussion of “original documents” is smoke and mirrors, an opportunity to impose selective passages on youngsters who will know little history outside of the progressive perspective issued in the nearly 100 pages of AP guidelines.

Jim Galloway, political columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, doesn’t address anything in the guidelines specifically, but calls the controversy over the new AP standards and exams a “sequel to the fight over Common Core.”  Galloway does not bother to break down the standards or to address any of the detailed arguments made by opponents. Instead he impishly relies on Republican State School Superintendent John Barge’s charge that ideological motives might be behind Georgia Concerned Women for America’s opposition to the new AP standards, as well as some nefarious money-making motives because, get this, the website has a donate button!

Galloway quotes one-time Common Core opponent Barge:

“I’m going to be very honest and very blunt about what I think is behind this. And I think it’s money”. . .

He described a visit to the website of Concerned Women for America:

“The first thing that comes up is a bright red ‘donate now’ button,” he said. (We tried it. The red button is there at the top, but it didn’t jump to the front.)

In a similar display of lazy reporting and innuendo, Maureen Downey’s column, “Running for cover over Common Core,” about current hearings on Common Core is a cut-and-paste rehash of previous attacks and the talking points distributed in 34-page messaging “tool kit” from the public relations department of one of the major agencies behind Common Core, the CCSSO.  One would expect more from an education editor and former teacher than this:

Extremists in the Republican Party contend Common Core is Obamacare transferred from doctors’ waiting rooms to America’s classrooms, dressed in sensible shoes and a cardigan and carrying a pointer.

I’m still waiting for this education expert to point to specific parts of the Common Core that are superior to the previous Georgia Standards.  I would like the “evidentiary standards” that proponents claim are being demanded of students under the new AP and Common Core guidelines.

Blind Hate Cuts Down Three Lives at Kansas City Jewish Complex

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Yesterday, we received a call alerting us to the shooting at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom assisted living center complex in Overland Park, Kansas.  I called a member of my small synagogue here in Pensacola, Florida, a native of St. Joseph Missouri, who I knew had a relative who lived at the Overland Park Village Shalom assisted living complex. When he returned my call he said he had spoken to his cousin who said he was secure in a lockdown of the assisted living complex.  Like millions of Americans my friend’s cousin wanted more details on the innocent victims and the perpetrator of this heinous crime.  All we knew at the time was that the perpetrator had been apprehended allegedly shouting “Heil Hitler”.

Reat Underwood KC JCC Shooing victim Sining contestant

Reat Underwood 14 Year Old Shooting victim

For some hours news media locally in Kansas City and nationally wouldn’t reveal anything about the identities of the perpetrator and his victims.  Tragically, as the facts emerged, we learned that the alleged perpetrator was a known Supremacist and ex-KKK official,  who in 2006 and 2010  had run  on a white supremacist  platform for  both the US House Senate, 73 year old Frazier Glenn Miller of Aurora, Missouri.

Two of the victims were a well regarded Johnson County physician and his talented 14 year old grandson, Dr. William Lewis Corporon and Reat Griffen Underwood, a freshman at Blue Valley High School.  They were at the JCC for a singing contest.  Both Dr. Corporan and his grandson were members of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leewood.  Dr. Corporon had moved to Kansas City from Oklahoma to be closer to his grandchildren.

The identity of the third murder victim, a Jewish woman shot in the parking lot of the assisted living center has yet to be identified. Similarly, the identity of the Jewish teenager being treated in a local hospital was shot several times and seriously wounded by Miller in the JCC parking lot   Her identity has not been revealed.

Miller had allegedly stalked his victims with a question, “Are you Jewish”. His hatred was so febrile that without receiving an answer from Dr. Corporon and his grandson, Reat, he shot them simply because he presumed they were.  Blind hatred knows no bounds; these Christian victims of yesterday’s mindless tragedy were simply in the way of his murderous anti-Semitic intent to kill Jews at the beginning of Holy Week. A period that celebrates the festival of Passover commemorating  Freedom of Ancient Israelites from enslavement in Egypt and the resurrection of Christ on Good Friday,  prelude to the Joy of Easter.

That imagery was evident in the remarks of Senior pastor at their Methodist church, Rev. Adam Hamilton, who said:

This is obviously a horrible, horrible thing that you wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through. They are really remarkable people. Being with them, what stood out was their strength of faith and confidence that this was not God’s will.

Reat’s mother, Mindy Corporon, speaking with amazing composure   at an interfaith gathering at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park said:

I am the mother of the son, who was killed. I came upon the scene very, very quickly, before the police, before the ambulances. And I knew immediately that they were in heaven. I know they are in heaven together.

We were having life, and I want you to know that we are going to have more life.

Watch this Kansas City Star YouTube video of Mindy Corporon’s remarks at the interfaith gathering in Overland Park, Kansas:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/8N1_qcUwTeQ[/youtube]

Pastor Hamilton in his remarks noted the support network in the community and the imagery of a Good Friday memorial service:

They have a great network who want to be there and care for them. They said we have the utter confidence that our son and dad are together with God now; that brings them comfort. Their hope is that something good will come from this. This evil thing this person has done will not have the final word here.
Somehow it seems fitting that on Good Friday, when Christ’s own death was taking place and yet out of that horrible evil there was going to be something good that would come from it. And that’s really part of what we’re looking at here.

The Southern Poverty Law Center noted the long dossier of the perpetrator Miller:

Miller has been involved in the white supremacist movement for most of his life. He founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was its “grand dragon” in the 1980s. The Army veteran and retired truck driver later founded another white supremacist group, the White Patriot Party, the center said.

Miller was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in 1987 for violating the terms of his bond while appealing a North Carolina conviction for operating a paramilitary camp. The search ended after federal agents found Miller and three other men in an Ozark mobile home, which was filled with hand grenades, automatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Miller tried running for U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010, espousing a white power platform each time.

President Obama offered his condolences to the victims of this hate crime by Supremacist Miller amidst FBI investigations along with local law enforcement officials in Overland Park, Kansas.  Kansas Governor Sam Brownback vowed to bring the perpetrators and others involved to Justice, saying:

My heart and prayers are with all those who were affected by today’s events.  We will pursue justice aggressively for these victims and criminal charges against the perpetrator or perpetrators to the full extent of the law.

Michael Siegal, chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in an email comment that “no community should have to face a moment such as this one.”

But sadly we must remember the tragic assault  eight years ago in July 2006, by a Muslim supremacist at the offices of the Jewish Federation in Seattle when the assailant penetrated security, shot six and killed one member of the staff.

Blind hate in Seattle and blind hate yesterday in Overland Park, Kansas were both spurred by supremacist hatred of both Jews and Christians.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured painting is titled “Consumed” by artist Jennifer Hansen. Hansen writes:

Before I became a Christian, I was oblivious to sin and the authority of Christ. I could care less for religious things, and hated anything that had to do with Jesus. I failed to see my need for a Savior; Let alone seeing Jesus as being the only way. My series “Wasting Away” reveals the effects, and reality of sin, which is rebellion against God. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” Romans 6:21. The work expresses human depravity, destructive desires, and suffering in desolate urban environments. It pictures the finiteness of people, and impending death. The absence of a single light source emphasizes the blindness of the individual against such conditions, and failure to discern the way out; which emphasizes the need for hope.

I work with graphite, charcoal, and oil on white gessoed canvas. My process includes many translucent layers of oil on top of dry media to show each layer and stage of the painting. This symbolizes the complexities of people and how we are each not yet completed; we are a “work in progress”. The viewer is meant to be able to “peer” through the window of the person, seeing ones vulnerability and exposing the deep recesses of the heart; which is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9

Despite the dark tone of my work, the overall message is to magnify and communicate the hope of the Gospel: Jesus Christ died and rose again to save sinners according to the scriptures. Your sin is worthy of death before a holy and righteous God. But God being compassionate and merciful, sent His own Son, Jesus who was mocked, scourged, beaten, and crucified for our sin. He alone bore the penalty and satisfied the wrath of God, taking the punishment you deserve. Then, rising again from the dead, conquering sin and death, Christ is seated at the right hand of God ever living and reigning. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned: but he who does not believe is already condemned, because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation: that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:16-19.”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Did Boston Bomber Tamerlane Tsarnaev Contact Jihadists near Sochi Olympic Site?

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The late Boston Marathon Bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev made contact with Jihadists in Dagestan during a six month sojourn there in 2012. Dagestan is less than 1000 miles from the Russian Olympics site in Sochi. The question arises as to whether he visited Sochi in the company of Jihadists?  That is a concern facing Members of the US House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rep. Michael McFaul (R-TX). They are investigating that  and security at Sochi during a trip to Russia endeavoring to wrap up  an report  to be issued shortly on  the  April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon finish line terror attack by the Tsarnaev Brothers.

The surviving younger brother Dzhokhor is facing a possible death penalty conviction for the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and injured more than 264, many severely with loss of limbs. He is also facing possible charges in the triple murder of three men in Waltham, Massachusetts on September 11, 2011 involving his late brother Tamerlane and an alleged accomplice, Ibragim Todashev  killed in an FBI shootout in Orlando Florida in May 2013.

Massachusetts Congressman William Keating (D- MA)   was interviewed today prior to a visit to Sochi Tuesday to check out security arrangements there with the start of the Winter Olympics, just two weeks away on February 7th.  Russia has spent more than $50 Billion dollars on the Sochi Winter Olympics and virtually cordoned off the city and surrounding region deploying more than 40,000 security personnel.  The main alpine events at the Sochi Olympics will be held 70 kilometers distant in the resort areas of Krasnaya Polyana and Rosa Khutor.  Some of the Olympics events will take place in the neighboring Caucasus Mountain range.  Russia is still reeling from last month’s deadly suicide bombings by Chechen “Black Widows” in Volgograd that killed 34. Volgograd is located 700 miles from Sochi. 2014 marks the 10th anniversary in September of the deadly Beslan School massacres in North Ossetia perpetrated by Chechen Jihadists.

Villayet Dagestan jihadis Reuters 1-20-14

Vilayat Dagestani Jihadis 1-19-14. Source: Reuters

Both the AP and Lori Lowenthal Marcus, US correspondent for The Jewish Press had reports about security concerns for the upcoming Sochi Winter Olympics and possible ties to Chechen and Dagestani Jihadists in the adjacent Northern Caucasus region.

According to The Jewish Press report by Marcus, “Security Report, Tsarneav sought insurgents near 2014 Olympics Site”,  Rep. Keating said in a Boston Herald Radio interview:

He believes “that Tamerlan Tsarnaev did meet with insurgents here.” The phone interview was with the Boston Herald Radio and it took place on Monday, Jan. 20. Keating and several other members of the congressional committee investigating the Boston Marathon bombings traveled to Russia to investigate Tsarnaev’s connections to local terrorist groups.

[…]

Keating said a House Homeland Security Committee report will become public in two weeks, and it will contain new information on deceased Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev time in Dagestan.

Regarding  the purpose   of tomorrow’s  trip by the House Homeland Security Committee to the Sochi Olympics site, Keating was quoted by the AP saying:

We want to take back whatever coordinated information we can that deals directly with U.S. citizens, so we’re in the best position possible to make sure our own people are safe.

Marcus cites the alleged mastermind behind the terror attacks in Russia and the Caucasus. The Emir of Chechnya, Doku Umarov:

Over the past several weeks there have been several terrorist bombings in Russia which have killed many dozens. Credit for some of those bombings was claimed by a particularly brutal band of Muslim terrorists, headed by the charmless Doku Umarov, sometimes referred to as the “Russian bin Laden.”

[…]

“They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims buried on our land by the Black Sea. We as mujahideen are required not to allow that, using any methods that Allah allows us,” Umarov stated in the video.

On Sunday these terrorists released another video. In this one they claim that Putin and all the tourists who come to watch the Olympics should expect “a surprise.” “We’ll have a surprise package for you,” one of them said, addressing Russian officials. “And those tourists that will come to you, for them, too, we have a surprise.”

According to a Reuters/VOA report  two men in the video released Sunday were from “Vilayat Dagestan, which says it is affiliated with a faction in Iraq known as Ansar al-Sunna, gave no other details of the two men. It is the first group to claim responsibility for the Volgograd bombings of a train station and a trolleybus.”

The Reuters/VOA Report further noted these developments in Sochi and Dagestan:

In another development, hotel workers in Sochi tell reporters they have seen wanted posters for a woman from Dagestan. She is described as a 22-year-old widow of a militant killed by Russian security forces last year. The posters say the woman, identified as Ruzanna Ibragimova, may be in or near Sochi and could be planning an attack.

Also Monday, Russian security forces say they killed three militants in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala.

The deaths are the latest violence in the city. On Saturday, security forces said they killed seven suspected militants who were believed to be involved in an attack on a restaurant. That attack left at least 16 people injured.

Putin has purportedly built a “ring of steel” around the Sochi Olympics site. Besides the Winter Olympics Sochi will be also be the site of the first Formula One Race in Russia scheduled for October 2014.  Besides security forces, Russia will deploy drones, metal detectors, bomb sniffing dogs, helicopters and even submarines offshore the resort complex as additional protection.  However, as Marcus in her Jewish Press report notes there is still vulnerability:

But the terrorist groups say they will target not just the host city but other areas of Russia. “Soft targets” such as transportation systems are particularly vulnerable. It is too early to tell whether the threats will keep away either athletes or tourists, but it is likely that terrorism considerations will play a role in future selections of Olympic host sites.

Given the 10th anniversary of the Beslan atrocity in September 2014 and the recent Volgograd suicide bombings could more murderous Jihad terrorism occur?  That despite  Russian security virtually  cordoning off  the entire Russian Winter Olympic site and the surrounding vicinity of Sochi, as well as prior clearance of credentials for officials, TV and print journalists, national  teams and spectators.

Possible terrorist scenarios  might range from combating with a mass suicide attack akin to Volgograd perpetrated by  Chechen and Dagestani Black Widows  to hostage taking  by  Chechen  henchmen of  Emir Umarov of one of the Olympic teams  eerily akin to the Israeli  team massacre at the  1972 Munich Olympics.

Marcus of The Jewish Press contrasted the security concerns of Rep. Keating and Maine US Senator King:

This Sunday the talk shows finally began airing discussions of potential terrorism at the Olympics next month. U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine said he would not go to Sochi due to security concerns. Cong. Keating said he “wouldn’t go so far” as King, but said he is “aware of the dangers.”

Marcus commented in an email to this writer: “In what may be the first time, I fully agree with Angus King: I am not going to the 2014 Olympics and I wouldn’t let anyone in my family go!”

RELATED COLUMN: ‘Ring of steel’ vs. Islamic terrorists: Olympic records set for security, threats in Sochi

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

Iran: P5+1 Reach Deal on Six Month Freeze

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In separate announcements, Iran and the P5+1 reached agreement on the implementation of the Joint Plan of Action (JPA) to begin on January 20, 2014.  The original announcement of the interim agreement between the P5+1 and the Islamic regime in Tehran had been made on November 24, 2013. Friday reports came that the JPA agreement was imminent.

AP, IRNA, and Deutsche Welle had reports on these developments with statements by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Catherine Ashton, President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry.

Iran’s Araqchi announced, “The Joint Plan of Action reached between Iran and P5+1 in Geneva on November 24 will be implemented as of January 20.”However, he noted that uranium enrichment will continue at the 20% level until January 19th and that Iran fully expects the P5+1 to comply with agreed terms on the 20th.   Ashton, said, “The foundations for a coherent, robust and smooth implementation…have been laid.  She further noted,” We will ask the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to undertake the necessary nuclear-related monitoring and verification activities.”  Secretary of State Kerry commented that the agreement “represents the best chance we have to resolve this critical national security issue peacefully, and durably.” The White House verified the announcement saying, “Beginning January 20th, Iran will for the first time start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium and dismantling some of the infrastructure that makes such enrichment possible.”  President Obama warned that the P5+1 would “move to increase [their] sanctions” if Iran didn’t comply with the terms.  However, he said the deal “will advance our goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. I have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve this objective, but for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world, now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed.”

During the run up to today’s announcement differences between the Administration and Congress arose over pending new Iran sanctions legislation, the Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act (NWFIA) that  the White House threatened to veto.  At one point during negotiations, the Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif threatened to leave the Geneva meetings over the new US Sanctions initiative. In late December 2013, 230 members of Iran’s Parliament, the Majlis, signed legislation threatening to authorize uranium enrichment to 60% levels to counter the proposed NWFIA.

Among the terms agreed to was authority for the IAEA to conduct daily inspections of known Iranian nuclear facilities and supervise the neutralization of existing stock of enriched uranium at the 20% level, while Iran was granted permission to enrich to a 5% cap. However, a report from IRNA indicated that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran had not received requests from the IAEA to open up a dedicated Tehran office, noting only that the UN agency had made frequent trips from its Vienna headquarters to conduct periodic inspections. That raises questions about the ability to enforce the provisions of the JPA.

The AP reported Iran’s Araqchi saying on national television that the Islamic Regime expects to receive release of $4 billion in frozen oil revenues versus upwards of $7 billion in relief the US had originally estimated with this interim pact.  Separately, Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies had estimated upwards of $20 Billion from the easing of sanctions. We have noted in Iconoclast posts recent visits by British parliamentary and French trade delegations. Further Turkey has confirmed an upcoming visit by embattled Turkish premier Erdogan to Tehran in late January or early February.  Erdogan is seeking to expand bilateral trade with Iran. According to experts cited in a Christian Science Monitor report Iran’s economy may have shrunk by an estimated 3% in 2012 and 2% in 2013.

Today’s announcement comes just prior to President Obama’s annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 28th. Further, it comes as momentum is building in the US Senate on a possible veto-proof bipartisan majority for passage of NWFIA.  It also comes prior to the scheduled January 22nd Geneva II talks on ending the 34 month long civil war in Syria. Secretary Kerry raised the prospect of inviting Iran to attend those sessions a week ago saying that the Islamic regime “might have a role to play on the sidelines.”

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

Egypt Declares Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization! Will the US follow?

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After a powerful devastating suicide bombing that tore apart a police station in Mansoura, Egypt on Tuesday Egypt’s interim government Wednesday declared the Muslim Brotherhood (MB),  a terrorist organization.  An Al Qaeda affiliated group that claimed responsibility for the Mansoura bombing suggested  further retribution would befall Egyptian military who did not desert. The MB has reverted to violence that it had forsworn before the in June 2012 election of former President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi, along with hundreds of other MB leaders were jailed following the July 3, 2013 ouster by the Egyptian interim government. They are being brought to trial on charges of conspiracy and incitement to commit violence.

The AP report, “Egypt names Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group” noted the background that led to Egypt’s declaration  Wednesday:

Egypt’s military-backed interim government on Wednesday declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, criminalizing all its activities, its financing and even membership to the group from which the country’s ousted president hails.

The announcement is aimed at crippling the Brotherhood and poses a dramatic escalation of the fight between the government and group, which has waged near-daily protests since the July 3 popularly backed military coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi.

Hossam Eissa, the Minister of Higher Education… said that the decision was in response to Tuesday’s deadly bombing targeting a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100. The Brotherhood has denied being responsible for Mansoura attack and an al-Qaida inspired group on Wednesday has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

“Egypt was horrified from north to south by the hideous crime committed by the Muslim Brotherhood group,” Eissa said. “It’s not possible for Egypt, the state, nor Egyptian people to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorism,” he added.

[…]

The decision comes after a sweeping decision Tuesday aimed at draining the Brotherhood’s finances by freezing funds of more than 1,000 non-government organizations with links to the group and putting more than 100 schools run by the group under government supervision. That directly attacks the grassroots strength of the Brotherhood, where it has much of its power in Egyptian life.

Earlier Wednesday, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, said in an online statement that it carried out the attack Tuesday on the Mansoura police headquarters. The attack  was  to avenge the “shedding of innocent Muslim blood” at the hands of Egypt’s “apostate regime” — a reference to the security forces’ crackdown on Islamists following the July coup.

To any who knows the violent history of the MB since its founding in Ismailia in 1928 by Hassan al Banna, this comes as no surprise. A supporter of Hitler and the Nazis, al Banna established a virtual underground army trained and equipped with arms, and  its own intelligence service . The MB supported Haj Amin al Husseini during the 1930’s Arab Riots in the pre-state of Israel British Mandatory Palestine. When Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha “disbanded the group in December 1948 — seizing its assets and incarcerating many of its members he was assassinated by a member of the Brotherhood.” Al Banna was assassinated by agents of the Egyptian government in February 1949 following the murder of Premier Pasha. Later Egyptian President Nasser had members of the MB jailed after an assassination attempt on his life in 1954. Nasser brought to trial and executed Sayyid Qtub, an MB extremist whose violent anti-Western and infidel ideology provided the foundation of the Jihad doctrine of al Qaeda.

What is surprising is the US has supported the MB initiative in both Egypt and here.  Right now, it is back to the future in Cairo.

What prevents the Administration from following the example of the Egyptian interim government here in the US?  It could begin by sacking those agents of the MB who have penetrated our government starting with Mohamed Elibiary who  is  on the US Department of Homeland Security (USDHS) Advisory Panel.  Elibiary has visibly demonstrated support for the MB. Note this excerpt from a Bare Naked Islam  post in September 2013:

R4BIA symbolPerhaps the most distinctive feature of Elibiary’s Twitter profile photo is the black four-finger salute on yellow background located on the lower right.

The MB adopted the logo to symbolize the Aug. 14 “martyrdom” of pro-Morsi demonstrators in Cairo, according to FrontPage Magazine.

If his sympathies were still in doubt, on Sept. 6, Elibiary re-tweeted a photo “with love” depicting a Cairo pro-Motherhood Brotherhood rally as it made its way on a bridge crossing the Nile.

According to Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism there are five others who are allied the MB in America that have been granted positions in the Administration. They include:  Arif Alikhan, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at USDHS, Rashad Hussein, former White House Deputy Counsel and now Special Envoy to the Saudi – backed Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Salam al-Maryati of MPACT, Islamic Society of North America President Mohamed Magid and Eboo Patel on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships. Given what occurred in Cairo Wednesday, perhaps Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security can conduct long delayed investigative hearings about MB penetration of our government.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.