Menu



error This forum is not active, and new posts may not be made in it.
PromoteFacebookTwitter!
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 1:26:31 AM

The US and Iran are closer in Iraq than people realize — and things are getting ugly

Business Insider


(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)Obama at Hill Air Force Base, Utah on April 3, 2015.The Obama administration is no longer hiding the fact that the US is serving as the air force for Iran-backed Shia militias fighting ISIS in Iraq.

Helen Cooper of The New York Times reports that the US and Iran "have found a template for fighting the Sunni militancy in other parts of Iraq: American airstrikes and Iranian-backed ground assaults" with the Iraqi military serving as a go-between.

The US recently provided crucial air support in the Iran-led offensive to drive ISIS (aka Islamic State, Daesh) from Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and bragged about it. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that "they deliberately used the Tikrit operation to drive a wedge between Iran and Iraq."

The template, however, is reportedly seen as the best way to retake Iraq's second largest city ofMosul, which ISIS captured last summer as it rampaged into Iraq from it's massive safe haven in neighboring Syria.

“You can see where this is going,” a senior Pentagon official told the Times, apparently reference to Mosul. “Are the Iraqi forces ready yet? I would say no.”

View gallerySyria Iraq map ISIS Assad Kurdish Iraq security

(Reuters)As Iraq forces connect the US with Iran, the Obama administration is placed squarely on the Shia side of the emerging and increasingly brutal sectarian war.

The Iran-led and US-backed war against ISIS in Iraq has broader implications: The Sunni-Shia turmoil includes the majority Sunni rebel forces fighting the Iran-backed regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria as well as Sunnis in Iraq who support ISIS merely for political reasons after years of repression.

Enemy bedfellows

And as Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted as early as June 2014, the combination of the Iraqi Army and Iranian-backed Shiite militias "is being coordinated by the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani."

Suleimani has played pivotal roles in the deployment of Iranian assets against ISIS in Iraq. Suleimani was present during the successful siege of Amerli in August as well as on the front lines of the battle against ISIS in Tikrit.

Iran's military mastermind also directed "a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq," as detailed by Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker.

(The Week)A recent cover of The WeekConsequently, the idea of working in parallel to Suleimani is a subject is one that the Obama administration does not want to acknowledge.

"There's just no way that the US military can actively support an offensive led by Suleimani," Christopher Harmer, a former aviator in the United States Navy in the Persian Gulf who is now an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, told Helene Cooper of The New York Times in March. "He's a more stately version of Osama bin Laden."

Nevertheless, the US is actively supporting offensives led by Suleimani while also allowing any atrocities committed by the dominant Shia militias.

'Iran and Iraq are one state now'

Suleimani's Iraqi allies — such as the powerful Badr militia led by commander Hadi al-Ameri (pictured below) — have allegedly burned down Sunni villages and used power drills on enemies.

Reuters correspondents reported on the gore after the victory in Tikrit, where they saw "a convoy of Shi'ite paramilitary fighters – the government's partners in liberating the city – drag a corpse through the streets behind their car."

View gallery

.
(Social media) And despite Suleimani leaving the front line before US planes got there, Iranian fighters were on the ground at the end.

"I am proud to participate in the battle to liberate Tikrit," an Iranian fighter a picture of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pinned to his chest told Reuters. "Iran and Iraq are one state now."

An advisor Khamenei said something similar last month: "Iran is an empire once again at last, and its capital is Baghdad," Ali Younusi told a March 8 seminar.

The Obama administration publically asserts that a nonsectarian central government in Baghdad gives the country the best chance for success. In late March, The Journal reported that "US officials want to ensure that Iran doesn’t play a central role in the fight ahead. US officials want to be certain that the Iraqi military provides strong oversight of the Shiite militias."

That doesn't appear to be the case anymore, as Iran will be leading the most capable ground forces.For better of worse, it seems that the US is either consciously or inadvertently taking a part in Iran's project in Iraq.

Adding to the intrigue, all of this is occurring while the Obama administration denies aspirations of a grand detente with Tehran amid high stakes nuclear talks.

View gallery

.
(REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed) Shi'ite paramilitary fighters hold an Islamist State flag which they pulled down during victory celebrations after returning from Tikrit in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad April 4, 2015.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 10:15:34 AM

Pacific Rim sky-gazers witness 'unusually brief' lunar eclipse

AFP

A total lunar eclipse is seen in Utsunomiya in Tochigi prefecture, 100km north of Tokyo on April 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)


Sky-gazers in parts of the Pacific Rim observed an "unusually brief" total eclipse of the Moon on Saturday night, with the rare red-tinged satellite glimpsed from Japan's far north to the Hollywood Hills.

The eclipse -- which occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up so that the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow -- was seen in northern Japan, parts of Australia, and parts of western North America.

The partial eclipse began at 7:15 pm (1015 GMT) in Japan and at around 8:54 pm, the moon was to be fully covered by the Earth's umbral shadow, according to the country's National Astronomical Observatory.

US-based Sky and Telescope magazine described the eclipse as "unusually brief".

In the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, some 200 people flocked to an observatory to jointly observe "nature's great phenomenon" on Saturday night, observatory officials said.

"We were so thrilled to see the beautiful moon eclipsing and turning red," said Yuko Miura, an official at the city's observatory.

"We were worried that the sky was slightly filmy, but we were relieved to watch the totality from beginning to end."

Residents of the Japanese capital, however, missed out as a result of thick clouds, and many gave up on hopes of combining a traditional cherry blossom viewing against the backdrop of the rare phenomenon.

Shin Nihonkai Ferry said it would host an onboard event with more than 100 passengers and the captain would give them a brief lecture about the total eclipse on the deck during the regular ferry service from Hokkaido to Fukui in central Japan.

"The ocean is one of the perfect sites for lunar observation because lights are limited offshore," Captain Shinya Naoi said ahead of the departure.

"I hope many of our passengers will enjoy the rare spectacle," he told AFP.

In Australia, rain and clouds affecting much of the east coast meant the eclipse could not be seen at the Sydney Observatory, but sky-watchers further south in Melbourne had a clear night.

"It looked like it should look, quite spectacular if you haven't seen one before," said Perry Vlahos from the Astronomical Society of Victoria.

The red-tinged moon was clearly visible in the early morning skies Saturday across the Los Angeles region, casting an eerie pall down Hollywood's deserted streets.

The city's iconic Griffith Park observatory, nestled near the Hollywood sign, was streaming the event live over the Internet.

Last month a solar eclipse was visible to varying degrees across northern Africa, most of Europe, northwest Asia and the Middle East.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 10:22:27 AM

Terror cases allege women wanted to fight, not wed fighters

Associated Press

FILE- In this April 2, 2015 courtroom sketch, defendants Noelle Velentzas, left and Asia Siddiqui, appear at federal court in New York on charges they plotted to wage violent jihad by building a homemade bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type terror attack. According to prosecutors, the pair weren’t interested in taking on the subservient role of going overseas to marry the militant group fighters, but sought to "make history" on their own by building a bomb and attacking a domestic target. (AP Photo/Jane Rosenberg, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — Two women accused in New York City's latest homegrown terrorism case may be part of what some experts say is an evolving threat — a greater willingness by women to shed blood in the name of militant Islamic jihad.

The pair allegedly wanted to "make history" on their own by building a bomb and attacking a domestic target. Just a day after the New York pair was arrested, a Philadelphia woman was accused of expressing her willingness to die as a martyr for the Islamic State group.

While past cases often involved women answering the call by the Islamic State group on social media to join the cause as nurses or wives, "the idea that they want to fight is more a noticeable new trend," said Karen Greenberg, director of Fordham Law School's Center on National Security.

The sometimes boastful and profane language one of the New York women was quoted as using in the criminal complaint — "Why can't we be some real bad b-----s?" — bolstered the idea that the defendants weren't candidates for nonmilitary roles in a caliphate.

The two U.S. citizens "were determined to play an essentially military role, so that's different," said Jessica Stern, who was on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration and lectures on terrorism at Harvard University. "In that way, they were typical Americans. They're sort of between these two cultures with a kind of amorphous identity."

Another expert, Mia Bloom, professor at University of Massachusetts and the author of "Bombshell: Women and Terrorism," disagreed with the conclusion that more women are now participating in global terrorism, citing large percentages of women among insurgents in Chechnya and Turkey. In Nigeria, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has begun using teenage girls and young women for suicide bombings in marketplaces, bus stations and other busy areas.

Bloom also said the evidence shows the American women charged this week were probably aligned more with al-Qaida than with the Islamic State group, and that the threat was overblown.

"These are wannabe jihads that sort of have this, at least in their head, projection of importance of significance," she said. "They want to build a bomb but they don't know how to do it."

Noelle Velentzas and Asia Siddiqui were arrested at their Queens homes early Thursday following a sting operation using an undercover officer. Officers searching the homes recovered items including three gas tanks, a pressure cooker, handwritten notes on the recipes for bomb making and jihadist literature, court papers say.

Velentzas had been "obsessed with pressure cookers since the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013," and was caught on recordings saying she and Siddiqui were "citizens of the Islamic State," also known as ISIS, the papers say.

The complaint suggests the women were initially radicalized by al-Qaida literature. But it also refers to them watching a video of "in which pro-ISIS French foreign fighters urged others to leave their countries to try to fight with ISIS," and looked at a photo of "ISIS blowing up a gas pipe between Egypt and Israel."

Authorities said Friday that Valentzas, 27, was believed to have been born in Florida of Greek ethnicity and claimed to have worked as a home health aide. Siddiqui, 31, was born in Saudi Arabia and was unemployed.

Siddiqui's lawyer, Thomas F.X. Dunn, declined to talk about the allegations on Friday, saying only that he plans to "mount a vigorous defense." In a statement, Velentzas' lawyer called his client "a loving mother and wife who is innocent of the sensationalistic charges manufactured by the U.S. government."

The complaint does not identify the undercover officer or say how the officer managed to befriend the pair. But one passage gives clues about the officer's assumed role by quoting Velentzas as referring to the officer as a Muslim who, if caught, would be labeled as "an inconspicuous student studying about detonators" and "a Muslim with two terroristic friends."

Authorities declined to confirm whether the undercover officer was a woman. Past cases have relied on male New York Police Department recruits — typically with Muslim or Arab backgrounds — who agreed to skip the police academy and enter a NYPD counterterrorism program that grooms and deploys young undercover officers to expose potential plots.

In the Philadelphia case, Keonna Thomas was arrested Friday and held without bail on charges she attempted to travel overseas to join the Islamic State group before she could use an airline ticket she bought Tuesday to fly overseas. Her lawyer declined to comment.

Thomas, 30, was accused of corresponding with an Islamic State fighter who asked if she would join a martyrdom operation. She responded by writing, "that would be amazing," court papers said.

"A girl can only wish."


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 10:29:39 AM

FM: Iran could resume nuclear activities if West withdraws

Associated Press

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is also Iran's top nuclear negotiator, waves to his well wishers upon arrival at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran, from Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, April 3, 2015. Iran and six world powers reached a preliminary nuclear agreement Thursday outlining commitments by both sides as they work for a comprehensive deal aiming at curbing nuclear activities Tehran could use to make weapons and providing sanctions relief for Iran. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's foreign minister said Saturday that Tehran would be able to return to its nuclear activities if the West withdraws from a pact that is to be finalized in June.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, said on a talk show on state-run TV that Iran has the power to take "corresponding action" and "will be able to return" its nuclear program to the same level if the other side fails to honor the agreement.

"All parties to the agreement can stop their actions (fulfillment of their commitments) in case of violation of the agreement by the other party," Zarif said.

Zarif said the framework nuclear deal announced by Iran and six world powers Thursday in Switzerland was not binding until a final agreement is worked out by a June 30 deadline. The framework agreement, if finalized, would cut significantly into Iran's bomb-capable nuclear technology while giving Tehran quick access to bank accounts, oil markets and other financial assets blocked by international sanctions.

Zarif said the deal, if finalized, would nullify all U.N. Security Council resolutions against Iran's nuclear program and lead to the lifting of U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Zarif's remarks appear aimed at reassuring hardliners in Iran who strongly oppose the framework agreement as a good deal for the West and disaster for Iran.

Despite criticism by hardliners, the deal has been overwhelmingly backed by Iran's establishment, including President Hassan Rouhani who pledged in a speech to the nation on Friday that Iran will abide by its commitments under the nuclear deal.

Zarif said Iran is "committed" to implementing its part of any final agreement providing Western countries fulfill their promises.

He said Iran wants to have a "moderate, constructive and proud presence" in the world.

Zarif received a hero's welcome upon his return to Tehran on Friday. Crowds of cheering supporters surrounded Zarif's vehicle and chanted slogans supporting him and Rouhani.

In the TV interview, Zarif said he "objected" to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry using the word "suspension" rather than "termination" regarding sanctions against Iran in the statement on the framework deal announced Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Zarif attributed Kerry's action as being aimed at addressing rifts between the Obama administration and Congress over the deal. Republicans are almost universally opposed to President Barack Obama's diplomatic effort; Democrats remain divided.

Zarif said the agreement showed that the West cannot halt Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes such as power generation and cancer treatment. Western countries suspect that Iran's nuclear program has a military dimension.

Without naming any country, Zarif assured Iran's neighbors such as Saudi Arabia which are concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions that Tehran is not after regional domination.

"We are not after a nuclear bomb. We are also not after hegemony in the region, too," Zarif said. "Security of our neighbors is our security, too."

Saudi Arabia has expressed concern about growing Iranian influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon which have large Shiite Muslim populations. A Saudi-led military coalition is now carrying out airstrikes in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels who are supported by Iran.


Iran's nuclear warning if West withdraws


An Iranian official says his country will resume nuclear activities if the agreement falls apart.
When deal could be finalized

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1
Luis Miguel Goitizolo

1162
61587 Posts
61587
Invite Me as a Friend
Top 25 Poster
Person Of The Week
RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
4/5/2015 10:50:46 AM

Gay rights rally goes to Indianapolis NCAA Final Four site

Associated Press

Opponents of Indiana Senate Bill 101, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, march past the Indiana Statehouse en route to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday, April 4, 2015 to push for a state law that specifically bars discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Hundreds of people calling for Indiana to add protections for gays and lesbians to the state's civil-rights laws marched through downtown Indianapolis Saturday, attracting the attention basketball fans attending the NCAA Final Four, some of whom offered the protesters cheers of support.

The march came two days after Indiana lawmakers responded to an uproar over a new religious objections law and tweaked the law to address concerns that it would allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.

March organizer Dominic Dorsey II told the crowd as it gathered on the steps of the city's Monument Circle that the Legislature's move was only a beginning. He said lawmakers now need to add legal protections to state law to prohibit workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"This new language that they've added is like stabbing somebody in the back and then pulling it out three inches and saying, 'You're all right, right? We're good now, right?" he told crowd, which shouted back "no!"

Dorsey then led the gathering in chanting "Hoosiers don't discriminate! — No more Band-Aids masking hate!" as they began a march that carried them several blocks past the city's business district, bars and restaurants to the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of this year's men's Final Four.

Dozens of the marchers carried rainbow flags, American flags and Indiana state flags as well as signs reading "No hate in our state," ''Equal rights for all" and other messages. Some pushed baby strollers with their children, others had dogs on leashes and many wore blue T-shirts reading "Indy Welcomes All."

Police officers who blocked intersections so the protesters could march along downtown streets without incident estimated that between 500 and 600 people took part in the march. There were no arrests and the protest was "very peaceful," said Indianapolis police spokesman Lt. Richard Riddle.

As the crowd approached Lucas Oil Stadium chanting, college basketball fans watched the passing spectacle under cool, sunny skies. Their response to the march was generally positive, with some appearing amused, others cheering the crowd on and many using their smartphone to record the moment.

There were no signs during the march of supporters of Indiana's religious objections law.

When the marchers began chanting "No hate in our state!" Wisconsin Badgers fan Tammy Holtan Arnol clapped and cheered and then shouted back at the passing procession "No hate in your state!"

The 46-year-old from Madison, Wisconsin, who was in town for Saturday's semifinal between Wisconsin and Kentucky with her husband and their 7-year-old son, said she believes Indiana's law was "hateful."

She said the changes Indiana lawmakers made to the law in response to sharp criticism from around the nation and concerns raised by major corporations was just an effort to obscure the law's real intentions.

"It was a shallow move to make it seem like it wasn't to discriminate, but it really was," she said.

Her 57-year-old husband, Tom Arnol, noted that Wisconsin, like Indiana's doesn't have protections for the LGBT community, even though he said many Wisconsin residents want such protections in place.

Outside the Lucas Oil Stadium, openly gay U.S. Army Major Steve Snyder-Hill told the crowd that he's not from Indiana, but from Ohio. He said he'd thought about that when the crowd was chanting "No hate in our state."

"I thought, 'Well this isn't my state, but then I remembered that I'm in the Army fighting for everybody's freedom, for everybody's rights," he said to cheers. "So it isn't just our state, it's all our states that we're fighting for together."

Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, said on Saturday that the NCAA should avoid putting future Final Four championships in states that do not protect the rights of gays and lesbians.


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

+1


facebook
Like us on Facebook!