God – or in this case – Allah hates ugly. And although the Militant State, ah… I mean the Islamic State also known as ISIS claims that they are worshipping Allah through their murderous activities, a common and treatable disease is reportedly wiping out the group.
Islamic State militants in Raqqa, the group’s operations center in Syria, are succumbing to the flesh-eating parasitic disease leishmaniasis.
According to the anti-IS activist group “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently,” the disease has affected around 3,000 people in the jihadis’ territory.
Leishmaniasis causes skin lesions, which are generally easily treatable. But if left alone, the disease eats away at the patient’s flesh and can be ultimately fatal.
The jihadi militants have blocked outside medical services’ access to their territory, leaving those who live their untreated and vulnerable.
The disease is transmitted by infected sandflies, and generally prevented in susceptible areas by the use of insecticidal bed nets while sleeping. Though the World Health Organization recognizes leishmaniasis as endemic to the Middle East, incidents were slowly decreasing in Syria as a result of an aggressive government health policy before that country’s civil war broke out in 2011.
We’re going to need our mucking boots today because we’re going to wade into the Middle East. Until now, I have assiduously avoided all mention of the region because it’s messy and confusing and controversial and, quite frankly, my ideas have, shall we say, evolved over time. But the events of the day are far too important and compelling for me to stay away from the issues, so I am now going to opine. With FEEling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a first and world-class jerk who has no business actually running a government. His comments last week on the eve of the Israeli elections regarding a two state solution with the Palestinians and his warnings about Israeli Arabs voting in droves have only widened the differences between Israel and both the US government and many American Jews. His speech in front of Congress, orchestrated by the House Republican leadership and done without consulting or notifying the Obama Administration, was a new low in political gaming and rogue foreign policy. That the speech almost ended up actually costing Netanyahu his election, and thus his need to play the racist, far-right card, told us that he would do anything to win votes (not a bad thing in and of itself, mind you). His persistent warnings about Iran’s intentions to build a bomb and use it on Israel are complicating the nuclear talks between the US and Iran, and his approval of new Israeli settlements is angering our allies around the world.
And yet…
Netanyahu and his right wing government, is the only institution that is standing between Israel’s future existence and radical, terrorist, anti-Semitic entities that want to destroy it. His focus on Israel’s security is a prerequisite for winning and holding national office and, along with the economy, is the main issue for both domestic and foreign consumption. He’s a strong leader and has been able to navigate his way through the thickets of his country’s political system en route to 4 national election victories.
I support Israel and believe that it must survive and thrive as a testament to its Jewish roots, its democracy, its vibrant culture and its place as an island of hope in a hostile world. I also believe that there should be a state for the Palestinians because the present political and social arrangement is unsustainable and in some cases, inhuman. But now we are stuck because the current state of world affairs is so polarized and unforgiving that any compromise seems impossible. Radical Islamic groups would like nothing more than to see Israel destroyed. Israel needs to confront its adversaries and deserves the right to defend itself against attacks from both rockets and words.
What to do? The easy thing is to say that the Arab and Islamic states need to formally recognize that Israel exists and will continue to exist, and that the Israelis need to recognize that they will have to give up some land that they won in the six-day war of 1967. Militant groups will need to give up their weapons and stop using them against Israel, and Israel will need to loosen some of the border restrictions so that the Palestinians can freely conduct commerce and make their economy grow. Sounds easy, right?
Of course it isn’t and Netanyahu isn’t going to help. He’s going to hold a hard line now and wait to see who the next US president is going to be, hoping it’s someone he can work with, since his relationship with Obama is probably irreparable. I’m sure he’d love to see a more aggressive neo-conservative Republican, but I think Hillary Clinton would fit the bill too.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to oppose anything that might threaten Israel and will oppose any agreement with the Iranians. And there will be an agreement with the Iranians because deep down I think the Iranians want an agreement on their nuclear program. The Iranian economy is in shambles because of sanctions and the middle class (yes, there is a middle class) is demanding a place in the larger world. A nuclear agreement would also hold the Iranians to specific actions and inspections that, while there are many who say they will ultimately ignore any limits, will require Iran to play by the world’s rules if it wants to be taken seriously. I could be utterly misreading the politics, but I don’t think so. Attacking Israel with a nuclear weapon will only invite Iran’s destruction. They clearly don’t want that.
The prospects for genuine peace in the region look about as bleak as they ever have, and it will probably take a new generation of leadership to improve them. Of course, weren’t we saying the same thing in the 1970s?
Iraqi and Kurdish forces have reclaimed more than 25 percent of ISIS-held territory inside Iraq, according to a U.S. assessment that also determined that Kurdish fighters are responsible for the majority of the territory retaken from ISIS in northern Iraq, ABC reports.
“We assess ISIL’s front lines have been pushed back in northern and central Iraq,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said at a Pentagon briefing today, referring to the militant group also known as ISIS. “ISIL no longer has complete freedom of movement in roughly 25 percent of populated areas of Iraqi territory where they once operated freely.”
The recaptured areas represent an area between 4,100 and 5,200 square miles or 11,000 and 13,500 square kilometers, Warren said. At its peak, ISIS was in control of 55,000 square kilometers in northern and western Iraq, Pentagon officials said.
“ISIL lost large areas where it was once dominant in the governance of Babil, Diyala, Nineveh, Salahadin and Kirkuk,” Warren said.
(Reuters) – British television broadcast the first picture of Mohammed Emwazi as a student on Friday, showing the man identified as the Islamic State “Jihadi John” killer with a moustache and goatee beard wearing a large baseball cap.
Sky News broadcast a photograph of the 26-year-old wearing a black cap with a logo that resembled the P from the Pittsburgh Pirates U.S. Major League Baseball team, which it said was stored by the University of Westminster where he studied.
British media had previously only published a picture of Kuwaiti-born Emwazi as a smiling schoolboy.
Two U.S. government sources have told Reuters that Emwazi is Jihadi John, the black-clad militant seen brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent in videos released by Islamic State (IS).
He appeared on the short videos in which hostages including Americans, Britons and Syrians were decapitated.
These conservatives have paraded around the conservative news media calling the President, among other things, “weak” for holding a three-day summit on ISIS and not using the words, ” radical Islamic extremists” while talking about the group. The president has already described them as terrorists, but conservatives think that using the term, “radical Islamic extremists” would force ISIS to magically change its mind about their brutality and live in peace and tranquility like Monks.
So when one of these conservatives came on Shepard Smith’s show armed with his talking-points that Obama is not doing enough against the terrorist group, Smith wanted a little more beef than just talk. So he pushed back and asked for specifics. But of course, there were none as the talker came only armed with… talk!
The talker is former George Bush Ambassador for Special Political Affairs, Ambassador Stuart Holliday. His mission was to continue parroting the talking point that Obama is weak for not calling ISIS names like “radical Islamic extremists,” a talking point conservatives parroted into a nifty little analogy – that Obama’s three days summit on ISIS terrorists is like holding a fire drill in the middle of a fire. But when Shep asked the talker what else should be done, Holliday had no ideas. Nothing!
Once again, because of the small mentality of so many in the media, President Obama found himself today explaining the obvious, that ISIS or ISIL and Islam are different and that America is not fighting Islam. “We are not at war with Islam,” the president said.
Calling it a “recruiting tool” used by ISIS when they falsely say that America is at war with Islam, the president stated that “we must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie!”
He continued: “Nor should we grant these terrorists the religious legitimacy that they seek! They are not religious leaders, they’re terrorists!”
Yes, there are many people out there working in the media who needed to hear this distinction, and instead of spending their time covering the important stories and the terrorist activities of groups like ISIS, these so-called journalists and pundits spend a sickening amount of time confused and wondering if America is at war with Islam!
But now that the president has clarified this distinction, are these people going to move on and cover the real news? I strongly doubt that!
The ploy by ISIS to scare Jordan into submission with the showing of a barbaric murder of a Jordanian pilot, is failing.
Jordan has deployed “thousands” of ground troops to the Iraqi border, a source close to the Jordanian government told ABC News today, in its latest move to counter the advance of the Islamic State group.
The Jordanian source says the troops will likely stay on their side of the border in a defensive posture, for now, and will not enter Iraq without approval from the Iraqi government.
However, on the other side of the border, the head of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, retired Marine Gen. John Allen told Jordan’s official Petra news agency, “there will be a major counteroffensive on the ground in Iraq” shortly.
Coalition firepower would support the Iraq-led offensive, he added.
Since ISIS released the barbaric video showing Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh burning alive last week, King Abdullah’s revenge has been swift and Jordan’s military has ramped up its involvement in the fight against ISIS.
Terrorist experts are saying that Fox News’ decision to show all 23 unedited minutes of the Jordanian pilot’s death, “empowers ISIS.” Another terrorist expert said that Fox News is propagating “exactly what ISIS wants to propagate.”
YouTube removed a link to the video a few hours after it was posted there, and a spokesperson for Facebook told the Guardian that if anyone posted the video to the social networking site, “it would come down.”
The television network’s decision to host the footage drew criticism from terrorism analysts.
Malcolm Nance, the executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideology think tank and an expert on counter-terrorism and radical extremism told the Guardian that by posting the video Fox News was propagating “exactly what Isis wants to propagate.”
“The whole value of terror is using the media to spread terror,” he said.
Rick Nelson, a senior associate in homeland security and terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that posting the video actually empowers Isis.
“They’re a terror organisation,” he said. “They seek to strike terror in the hearts and minds of people globally, and by perpetuating these videos and putting them out there into the internet, it certainly expands the audience and potential effects.”
The gruesomeness of this so called Islamic group fell to an even more unbelievable level, when a video was released showing their latest murder – the execution of the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh.
Although there were ongoing talks and negotiations between ISIS and the Jordanian government surrounding the release of the pilot, ISIS went ahead killed the pilot in their most gruesome video yet.
Dressed in the customary orange outfit now recognized by ISIS prisoners, Mauth al-Kaseasbeh is seen in a cage with ISIS members looking on. A trail of accelerate is lit by an ISIS member and the flame eventually makes its way to the cage where the pilot is burned to death. The video was posted on YouTube but has since been taken down.
The Jordanian government has verified the authenticity of the video and vows retaliation. “The military forces announce that the hero pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, has fallen as a matryr, and ask God to accept him with the martyrs,” Jordanian armed forces spokesman Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement. “While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasize his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians.”
And President Obama also responded to the cowardly act.”Should this be authentic, it’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization,” he told reporters. “It will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of our global coalition to make sure they are degraded and ultimately defeated.”
President Obama also said “that whatever ideology they’re operating off of is bankrupt. This organization appears only interested in death and destruction.”
The pilot was captured by ISIS back in late December.
Despite the tremendous negotiations from the Japanese government to free the second man captured by ISIS, a video surfaced on Saturday purportedly showing the beheading of the man, a Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
“I feel indignation over this immoral and heinous act of terrorism,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after convening an emergency Cabinet meeting.
“When I think of the grief of his family, I am left speechless,” he said. “The government has been doing its utmost in responding to win his release, and we are filled with deep regret.”
He vowed that Japan will not give in to terrorism and will continue to provide humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists.
The White House released a statement in which President Barack Obama also condemned “the heinous murder” and praised Goto’s reporting, saying he “courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people to the outside world.”
Obama applauded Japan’s “steadfast commitment to advancing peace and prosperity in the Middle East and globally, including its generous assistance for innocent people affected by the conflicts in the region.”
I mean this is getting old. What other reason could there be for a group that calls itself, The Islamic State, to kill people? Is this a requirement of Islam, that you capture innocent people then murder them if you cannot receive a ransom? And if it is a requirement, is it in the Quran?
The father of the Japanese hostage purportedly killed by Islamic State (IS) militants is hoping his son could still be alive.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the video apparently showing the killing of 42-year-old adventurer Haruna Yukawa was likely authentic and demanded the militants release the other hostage, reporter Kenji Goto, 47.
But Mr Yukawa’s father Shoichi Yukawa said he was “hoping deep in my heart” his son was still alive.
“My mind went totally blank,” he told reporters on Sunday, a day after news broke of the video footage. “I am hoping deep in my heart that it is not true.”
IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had threatened to behead Mr Yukawa and Mr Goto unless it received a $200 million ransom.
“If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug,” Mr Yukawa told Japanese TV.
CNN is reporting that the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement personnel responded to a threat from ISIS after someone re-released a September 2014 message that tells followers to “rise up and kill intelligence officers, police officers, soldiers, and civilians.”
The threat specifically named the United States, France, Australia and Canada as targets.
NYPD employees were told to “remain alert and consider tactics at all times while on patrol,” especially in light of the attacks in France last week, in an internal memo.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a similar bulletin to law enforcement across the country. That bulletin and the NYPD memo makes it clear that this new message is consistent with previous threats that ISIS and others, including al Qaeda, have issued.
NYPD deputy-commissioner for counterterrorism, John Miller, tempered fears of a threat to officials in New York City.
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