Wochit
U.S. Accuses Israel of Inaccurate Leaks on Iran Nuclear Talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Wednesday it is withholding from Israel some sensitive details of its nuclear negotiations with Iran because it is worried that Israeli government officials have leaked information to try to scuttle the talks — and will continue to do so.

In extraordinary admissions that reflect increasingly strained ties between the U.S. and Israel, the White House and State Department said they were not sharing everything from the negotiations with the Israelis and complained that Israeli officials had misrepresented what they had been told in the past. Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials privately blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself for "changing the dynamic" of previously robust information-sharing by politicizing it.

The comments came as a late March deadline to forge the outline of an Iran nuclear deal looms and U.S. and Iranian negotiators prepare for a new round of talks later this week in Geneva, Switzerland.

Netanyahu has angered the White House with his open opposition to a deal he believes threatens Israel's existence, and by accepting a Republican invitation to address Congress about Iran in early March without consulting the White House, a breach of diplomatic protocol.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that sharing all details of the negotiations with governments that are not at the table would complicate efforts to get a deal that would prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon in exchange for sanctions relief. The talks are being held among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — along with Germany and Iran.

"The United States is not going to be in a position of negotiating this agreement in public, particularly when we see that there is a continued practice of cherry-picking specific pieces of information and using them out of context to distort the negotiating position of the United States," Earnest said when asked whether the U.S. was limiting the amount of information it shared with Israel about the talks.

"So, there is an obligation when you're participating in these kinds of negotiations to ensure that those consultations and that those negotiations are carried out in good faith. And that means giving negotiators the room and the space to negotiate," he said.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki went further, confirming that one of the steps the administration takes to ensure that "classified negotiating details stay behind closed doors" is to withhold them from Israel. She also directly blamed Israel for mischaracterizing the talks.

"I think it's safe to say that not everything you're hearing from the Israeli government is an accurate reflection of the details of the talks," she said. "There's a selective sharing of information."

But while Earnest and Psaki said the limitations on information sharing were longstanding, U.S. officials more directly involved in the talks said the decision to withhold the most sensitive details of the negotiations dated back only several weeks.

Those officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the administration believes Netanyahu, who is facing a March 17 election at home, has made a political decision to try to destroy the negotiations rather than merely insist on a good deal. This, they said, had led to politically motivated leaks from Israeli officials and made it impossible to continue to share all details of the talks, particularly as Netanyahu has not backed down on his vow to argue against a nuclear deal when he speaks to Congress.

Neither Earnest nor Psaki would discuss the details of the leaks, but senior U.S. officials have expressed consternation with reports in the Israeli media as well as by The Associated Press about the number of centrifuges Iran might be able to keep under a potential agreement. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium and diplomats familiar with the talks have said Iran may be allowed to keep more of them in exchange for other concessions under current proposals that are on the table.

Netanyahu has insisted that Iran, whose top officials have sworn to obliterate Israel, should not be allowed to enrich any uranium. The U.S. and its partners say that stance is untenable because Iran would never accept it.

As the talks have progressed, Netanyahu's opposition to an agreement has increased over what he believes to be extreme concessions made to Iran that would leave it as a threshold nuclear weapons power and a direct threat to Israel's existence.

The White House and State Department maintained that the U.S. will not leave Israel threatened. They also insisted that Israel has not been completely cut out of the loop and that overall security cooperation with the Jewish state remains strong.

Administration officials and some lawmakers have said they will not attend Netanyahu's speech.

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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

Police officers are reflected in a mirror held by a protestor during a demonstration at the Ferguson Police Department in Ferguson, Missouri, October 13, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is preparing to sue the Ferguson, Missouri, police department over allegations of racially discriminatory practices unless the police force agrees to make changes, CNN reported on Wednesday.

The network, citing sources, said the Justice Department would not charge the white Ferguson police officer involved in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown last August but was expected to outline allegations of discriminatory Ferguson police tactics.

The department would file suit if Ferguson police did not agree to review and change those tactics, CNN reported.

The shooting of Brown last August by officer Darren Wilson led to months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson and galvanized critics of the treatment by police and the U.S. criminal justice system of blacks and other minority groups.

A St. Louis County grand jury decided last year not to prosecute Wilson, who has since left the Ferguson police force. The Justice Department has been conducting probes of the shooting and the operations of the Ferguson police force.

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on the CNN report.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is preparing to leave office, said earlier this month he hoped to complete the civil rights investigation of the shooting before he steps down.

CNN said the potential Justice Department lawsuit could include allegations that police targeted minorities in issuing minor traffic infractions and then jailed them if they could not pay the fines.

It reported the agency would seek court supervision of changes taken by Ferguson police to improve its dealings with minorities.

(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Report: U.S. preparing to sue Ferguson police

The Justice Department's racial bias lawsuit will proceed unless the force implements changes, CNN reports.
Allegations

Al-Qosh (Iraq) (AFP) - Decked out in his US army-issued fatigues and a lip stud shining from his mouth, the young American fighter cuts an unusual figure in the northern Iraqi town of Al-Qosh.

He served in the US army in Baghdad in 2006-2007 and has now returned to fight the Islamic State jihadist group with Dwekh Nawsha, a Christian militia whose name is an Assyrian-language phrase conveying self-sacrifice.

The 28-year-old, who goes by the pseudonym Brett, has become the figurehead of an emerging movement of foreigners coming to Iraq to support Christian groups.

Bearing a tattoo of a machinegun on his left arm and another of Jesus in a crown of thorns on his right, Brett jokingly refers to himself as a "crusader".

IS never captured Al-Qosh -- but it came close enough for its mostly Christian population to flee to the neighbouring autonomous region of Kurdistan, together with tens of thousands from Mosul and the Nineveh plains.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter," Brett says, speaking from a Dwekh Nawsha base in the Kurdish city of Dohuk.

"But here we're actually fighting for the freedom of the people here to be able live peaceably, to be able to live without persecution, to keep the church bells ringing."

View gallery

US national "Brett" (R) shakes hands with a passer-by in the town of Al-Qosh, in northern …

The mass exodus that took place in mid-2014 has put the continued existence of one of world's oldest Christian communities into question.

With Kurdish peshmerga fighters now clawing back land around Mosul, some Christians are keen to take up arms for their survival and Dwekh Nwasha is only one of several recently formed groups.

- 'Foreign fighters' battalion' -

Also acting as a recruiter, Brett says he wants to establish a "foreign fighters' battalion".

In his first week in charge, he brought in five volunteers from the United States, Britain and Canada, all of whom he says have military or contracting experience.

The foreign contingent is tiny compared to the thousands of foreigners who have joined IS, but interest is growing and Brett says he has 20 more volunteers already lined up to join.

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Christian militia volunteer "Brett" has a tattoo of a machinegun on his left arm and anoth …

Brett's first recruit was Louis Park, a mild-mannered Texan who retired from the Marines in December.

"I did not adjust well at peace time," he said with dipping tobacco tucked in his lip. "I wanted to get back out here."

After serving in Afghanistan, Park says he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder "and some other things" that barred him from combat deployments.

As early as October 2014, he began saving money to join the fight against IS.

Park says he travelled to Iraq to continue defending his country, even though Dwekh Nawsha -- with barely a few hundred fighters in its ranks -- sees little frontline action.

"I'm patriotic as hell," he says. "If my government won't fight them I will."

View gallery

US national Louis Park (L) shops for military equipment at a market in the Iraqi city of Dohuk after …

The growing contingent of foreign recruits have a variety of reasons for joining Dwekh Nawsha.

Andrew, an older man from Ontario, Canada, came because he heard about "slaughterhouses" where IS allegedly cuts people up for organ trafficking.

There is no evidence that such places exist but the rumour has been widely circulated by evangelical and anti-Islam organisations, especially in North America.

A video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians by IS in Libya released on Sunday and entitled "A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross" sparked a fresh surge of calls on social media for tougher Western action.

- 'Internet cowboys' -

One seven-year US army veteran called Scott says he was planning to join the Syria-based Kurdish "Popular Protection Units" (YPG) until he found out they were "a bunch of damn Reds".

Other foreigners in Dwekh Nawsha say they were turned off by what they see as the socialist streak in the YPG, an affiliate of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party whose months-long battle against IS in Kobane attracted many volunteers.

Alan Duncan, a prominent British foreign fighter and veteran of the Royal Irish Regiment, recently left the YPG for similar reasons.

He told AFP that an exodus of foreign fighters from the YPG has begun, naming several well-known volunteers currently fighting for the group he says plan to leave in the coming days.

Jordan Matson, a former US soldier who has become the poster boy of YPG foreign fighters, argued that some volunteers may have lost their bottle when confronted with the intensity of the fighting in Kobane.

"Most of the Internet cowboys have come to realise this isn't a normal deployment," he told AFP. "So they lose the stomach to come or stay."

Young American fighters are among the Western recruits who have returned to Iraq to fight the Islamist State jihadist group alongside Dwekh Nawsha, a Christian militia. Duration: 01:18

ISIS has threatened to flood Europe with half a million migrants from Libya in a 'psychological' attack against the West, it was claimed today.

Transcripts of telephone intercepts published in Italy claim to provide evidence that ISIS is threatening to send 500,000 migrants simultaneously out to sea in hundreds of boats in a 'psychological weapon' against Europe if there is military intervention against them in Libya.

Many would be at risk of drowning with rescue services unable to cope. But authorities fear that if numbers on this scale arrived, European cities could witness riots.

Separately, the militants hope to cement their control of Libya then cross the Mediterranean disguised as refugees, according to letters seen by Quilliam the anti-terror group, reported by the Telegraph.

Breaking point: The officials at Lampedusa airport (pictured) are struggling to process the 1,200 newly arrived migrants in a reception centre built for a third of that number - and now Islamic State has threatened to send 500,000 to Europe's shores

Escape: Today, the spread of violence and extremism in Libya has forced thousands to flee to Italy (ferry port of Lampedusa pictured) where officials are struggling to deal with the sudden influx

Prophecy: Muammar Gaddafi predicts the Mediterranean would become a 'sea of chaos' four years before Islamic State beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians on a beach in Libya - prompting a swift and brutal response from the country who launched airstrikes on their locations

Violent coup: Muammar Gaddafi was deposed as Libya's leader in August 2011 and killed in October, when forces loyal to the government that overthrew him found him hiding in a drainage pipe in Sirte

Dangerous: Egypt's brutal airstrikes on the Libyan village of Derna - in retaliation for the mass murder of 21 of its countrymen - forced many to abandon their homes

Anxious: The Egyptians who fled their adopted home in Libya face a nervous wait before passing through the border village Sallum

Searching for safety: With militancy and violence spreading through Libya, many Egyptians living there are now returning to their home country (pictured on the border village Sallum)

Italian Minister for the Interior Angelino Alfano said on Monday that Libya was the 'absolute priority' and insisted there was 'not a minute to lose' for the international community.

He said: 'If the militias of the Caliphate advance faster than the decisions of the international community how can we put out the fire in Libya and stem the migration flows? We are at risk of an exodus without precedent.'

More than 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat last year. Since last Friday almost 4,000 have been rescued.

The spread of militancy across Libya was predicted by the country's deceased leader Muammar Gaddafi, who warned the Mediterranean would become 'a sea of chaos'.

ISIS had not yet made frightening inroads into Libya when he made this chilling prophecy during his last interview in March 2011.

But the Arab Spring uprising that year sparked a civil war in Libya and opposition forces - backed by NATO - deposed Gaddafi in violent coup just five months after his ominous prediction.

In October 2011, forces loyal to the country's transitional government found the ousted leader hiding in a culvert in Sirte and killed him.

Four years later, Islamic State kidnapped 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Sirte - Gaddafi's birthplace - before releasing gruesome footage of their beheading on the shores of the Mediterranean, just 220 miles south of Italy. In it the terrorists warned that they 'will conquer Rome'.

Fleeing terror: Over 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat last year and since last Friday alone almost 4,000 have been rescued

Forced to leave: Migrants wait to board a plane at Lampedusa airport in Italy, bound for a detention center elsewhere in the country

Safe: The mainly African migrants were among some 3,800 would-be immigrants to Europe rescued in the Mediterranean since Friday, according to figures compiled by the International Organisation for Migration

Bloody realisation: Four years after Gaddafi's chilling prophecy that the Mediterranean would become 'a sea of chaos' ISIS murdered 21 Egyptian Christians on a beach in Libya

Total control: ISIS' have spread their brutal regime throughout Gaddafi's former home, with recent footage showing a fleet of brand new cars carrying its notorious black flag driving freely through Benghazi

In response, Italian security chiefs have approved plans to put 4,800 soldiers on the country's streets to help prevent terrorist attacks.

The statement from the Interior Ministry said they would guard 'sensitive sites' until at least June and reports claim 500 will be deployed in Rome - where soldiers are already guarding diplomatic residences, synagogues and Jewish schools.

The troops are also expected to be deployed at tourist venues such as archaeological sites and monuments.

A treaty between Gaddafi and the Italian premier provided for joint boat patrols which curtailed the departure of migrant boats from Libya.

But, as the Libyan despot predicted back in 2011, if the Gaddafis were brought down, Islamists would exploit the power vacuum.

Still holding court in a Bedoin tent while holed up in the fortified citadel of Bab Al Azizya, Gaddafi warned: 'If, instead of a stable government that guarantees security, these militias linked to Bin Laden take control, the Africans will move en mass towards Europe.'

He added: 'The Mediterranean will become a sea of chaos.'

Insecurity: Four years later Lybian soldiers gather in the same square after an Islamist-led militia seized the capital

Military intervention: As Libyan soldiers protected the capital Tripoli (pictured on February 9), the elected parliament was forced to relocate in the eastern city of Tobruk

That very sea ran red with blood when Islamic State brutally executed 21 Egyptian Christians on its shores.

The accompanying video, released on Sunday, showed the men dressed in orange jumpsuits and shackled - kneeling in the sand before the militants slit their throats and watched them bleed to death.

Egypt retaliated furiously by launching coordinated airstrikes on ISIS targets in Libya.

The European powers were putting their own security at risk by helping the rebels, Gaddafi pointed out.

He told Il Giornale, the Italian newspaper owned by his former friend Silvio Berlusconi he was saddened by the attitude of his friend. They no longer spoke.

'I am shocked at the attitude of my European friends. They have endangered and damaged a series of great security treaties in their own interest.'

Without his harsh, but effective, regime, the entire North African Mahgreb 'would become another Gaza,' he claimed.

Footage shows fleet of Jihadi cars moving through streets

Watch video

Power: The ominous show of discipline and wealth shows how the country has been overrun by extremism as efforts to suppress ISIS focus on Iraq and Syria

Chilling: Even young children salute the procession of cars as they pass undeterred through the streets of Benghazi

Support: The parade of Toyota Land Cruisers is welcomed by the locals in Benghazi. The video was posted by terrorist group Ansar Al-Sharia - who pledged allegiance to Islamic State last October

Overrun: The majority of Libya's coastal cities have surrendered control to Islamic State and other rebel extremist groups created to oppose the NATO-led invasion which removed Gaddafi from power

The telephone transcripts, seen by Il Messaggero newspaper claimed to provide evidence 'that IS will use the migrants as a "psychological weapon" against countries that say they want to intervene in Libya, in particular, against Italy.'

'As soon as our country mentioned armed intervention on Libya the jihadists suggested they let drift, bound for Italy, hundreds of boats full of migrants. The figure discussed is five hundred thousand, most of the 700,000 that are on the coast waiting to board,' the newspaper reported.

Following the dire threat Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi immediately backtracked from his government's previous rhetoric saying that 'it was not the time for military intervention'.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said this morning that Italy does not want to embark on 'adventures, never mind Crusades' in Libya.

But former President Giorgio Napolitano said that the 'biggest error' in the post-Gaddafi's period was the European Unions 'lack of involvement' in the country.

Meanwhile following direct threats on Rome, the commander of Vatican City's 110-man Swiss Guard said his forces are ready to defend Pope Francis if ISIS attempt a strike .

Executed: On Sunday, ISIS released a video showing the brutal mass murder of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya

Horror: Blood is seen in the Mediterranean Sea four years after Muammar Gaddafi predicted it would become a 'sea of chaos'

Egyptian MOD release footage of airstrikes on ISIS in Libya

Watch video

Colonel Christoph Graf said 'Following the terrorists' threats, we're asking the guards to be more attentive and observe peoples' movements closely. If something happens we're ready, as are the men of the Gendarmerie.'