Syria Regional proxy war......
http://www.debka.com/article/23036/Gulf-begins-mass-expulsion-of-Lebanese-Shiites-over-Hizballah%E2%80%99s-role-in-Syria
Tuesday, June 11, DEBKAfile reported exclusively that Hizballah and Iran had suspended their military and financial ties with the Palestinian Sunni Hamas after discovering its members fighting with Syrian rebels in the al Quseyr battle.
A day later, the Sunni Gulf is seen to be meting out punishment to the Shiite powers. The estrangement between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Arab world is deepening sharply in consequence of the Syrian conflict.
Read the earlier DEBKAfile report below.
Tehran has not commented on the break-up with its Palestinian protégé, except to hold up the latest installment of Iran’s financial aid to the Gaza Strip regime. Queries from Gaza elicited evasive answers from Tehran.
The rupture with Hizballah and Iran has left the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip in serious financial straits. Its allocation from Qatar was sharply reduced this year; the Saudis stopped all assistance last year and Hamas’s parent organization, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has since assuming power in Cairo been struggling with its own government’s empty coffers.
Rebels disputed the “massacre” aspect of the deaths, saying that the bulk of the killings were of members of a Shi’ite militia that they considered “pro-government.” Video also showed rebels burning homes in the Shi’ite neighborhood.
The Syrian army continues to advance to the strategic cities of Homs and Aleppo as France has urged the international community to stop the progression of Syrian troops, backed by Hezbollah fighters and Iran.
After winning a strategic victory by retaking Qusayr, an important town near the border with Lebanon, Syrian troops are now focusing their attention on Homs and Aleppo as they continue to gain ground against the rebels. The army operation is conducted in the southern and northern countryside of Aleppo, according to activists, and the aim is to cut off the rebels’ supply line from Turkey and attempt to regain control of the north. Intensified clashes are also reported in Homs and its suburbs as the army closed in on besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods of the provincial capital. Activists said there were heavy clashes, mostly in the neighborhood of Wadi Sayeh. The fighting appeared to be an attempt by government forces to separate two main rebel-held areas in the city, Khaldiyeh and the center of Homs.
“We must stop this progression before Aleppo. It is the next target of Hezbollah and of the Iranians,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France 2 television.
“We need to rebalance things because over the past few weeks the troops of Bashar al-Assad and especially Hezbollah and the Iranians, along with Russian arms, have gained considerable ground.” But he did not expand on how Syrian troops, buoyed by military support from its Shiite allies Hezbollah and Iran, should be stopped. Fabius’ comments came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to meet with his British counterpart, William Hague, later yesterday to discuss Syria. Hague warned last week that regime gains on the ground raised a new hurdle to the planned peace conference. “The regime has gained ground on the ground, again at the cost of huge loss of life and the indiscriminate use of violence against the civilian population,” Hague told BBC television.
“That makes the Geneva conference harder to bring about and to make a success. It makes it less likely that the regime will make enough concessions in such negotiations, and it makes it harder to get the opposition to come to the negotiations.”
On June 11, France’s Foreign Ministry also warned that the crisis was at a “turning point.”
“What should we do under these conditions to reinforce the opposition armed forces? We have had these discussions with our partners, with the Americans, the Saudis, the Turks, many others,” said ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot. “We cannot leave the opposition in the current state.” The European Union, under pressure from London and Paris, last month failed to renew an arms embargo on Syria, leaving individual member states free from August 1 to supply weapons to the opposition, if they decide to do so.
Fabius said France had not yet decided what to do after the deadline. “Bashar... used chemical weapons in an outrageous manner. We must stop him because, if there is no rebalancing on the ground, there will be no peace conference in Geneva as the opposition will refuse to come,” he said. The United States said it was evaluating information received from France that Paris has billed as proof that chemical weapons have been used in Syria.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-318102-lawyers-denounce-arbitrary-police-arrests-vow-support-to-protests.html
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-318111-turkish-intelligence-agency-may-be-on-way-to-becoming-big-brother.html
More than 1,000 Kurdish career soldiers in Iraq’s army have deserted, while expressing the desire to become integrated into forces loyal to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a heavy blow to the country’s stretched armed forces.
The move comes after the Kurdish troops disobeyed orders to take part in an operation ordered by the Shiite-led authorities against a mainly Sunni Arab town. If their request is fulfilled, such a mass defection would be a major loss to Iraq’s security forces as they grapple with a surge in violence that has sparked fears of renewed sectarian bloodshed.
Two officials said the 1,070 Kurdish members of the Iraqi army’s 16th Brigade mutinied when gunmen took control of a northern town in April, and subsequently declined to attend disciplinary re-training. The soldiers were no longer receiving salaries or rations from the Iraqi army, nor were they following any orders from federal forces, according to the mayor of the town where they are based.
His comments were echoed by the spokesman for the KRG ministry responsible for peshmarga forces, that is now part of Kurdistan’s security forces. But the officials differed as to whether the soldiers’ request to join the peshmarga had been met. The troops had been assigned to the ethnically mixed towns of Tuz Khurmatu and Sulaiman Bek, the latter of which briefly fell to gunmen in April. According to Tuz Khurmatu Mayor Shallal Abdul, they stood accused of refusing to follow orders as Sulaiman Bek, a mostly-Arab town, was overrun. As punishment, they were ordered to attend re-training. Three senior Kurdish officers were also replaced with Arabs, Abdul said.
No order from peshmarga yet
The troops did not follow orders to stay and defend the town against the Sunni Arab gunmen because they did not want to further raise tensions between Arabs and Kurds in a swathe of disputed territory claimed by both the central government and Kurdish authorities. “The forces ... are still deployed to their positions, but they are receiving their salaries and orders from the Peshmarga Ministry,” Abdul said.
The mass defection comes at a crucial time for Iraq’s security forces, which are dealing with a massive spike in violence, months of protests in Sunni Arab provinces, and fears of spillover from the conflict in neighboring Syria. Last month, more than 1,000 people were killed in violence, the highest toll since 2008.
Peshmarga Ministry spokesman Halkurd Mullah Ali confirmed that the soldiers were not carrying out Baghdad’s orders, and added that Kurdish authorities were providing rations because officials “sympathized with them.” But he denied that the soldiers were receiving either wages or orders from peshmarga. “We will discuss their situation with the joint committee [of the Baghdad government and the Kurdish regional administration],” he said. “If we do not reach an agreement with Baghdad about them, we are ready to integrate them into peshmarga forces.”
The attack appears to have sought to maximize casualties by targeting the buses used to ferry court staff from work just as they were leaving. A Taliban spokesman said the court staff had been repeatedly warned to stop working there.
http://www.debka.com/article/23036/Gulf-begins-mass-expulsion-of-Lebanese-Shiites-over-Hizballah%E2%80%99s-role-in-Syria
Kuwait is the first Gulf emirate ready to act on the resolution of the recent Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Jeddah to punish Hizballah for its “flagrant intervention in Syria” against “freedom fighters.” The Interior Ministry in Kuwait is about to “end the residency of some 2,000 Lebanese Shiite citizens” and shut down their financial and commercial businesses.
The six-member bloc denounced Iran’s Lebanese proxy as a terrorist group for its “flagrant military intervention in Syria and its participation in shedding the blood of Syrian people.” The Saudi Cabinet earlier condemned Hezbollah’s “blatant intervention” in the Syrian crisis.
These Kuwait and Saudi moves are expected to soon touch off mass expulsions from the six Gulf nations of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiites employed or operating businesses there. This forced repatriation of masses of unemployed Shiites will not only be a destabilizing factor in Lebanon but is bound to raise military temperatures between Shiite Iran and the Sunni Gulf.
Tehran and Hizballah may resort to retaliatory steps, including the activation of sleeper terrorist cells against the Sunni governments.
Tehran will certainly not be happy about the GCC taking the opportunity of getting rid of Iranian and Hizballah spy networks operating in those countries, and even less about the liquidations of businesses which helped bankroll the activities of Hizballah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards covert operations.
Kuwait will also “deny visas” to members of Lebanese groups associated with Hizballah, which run their own militias, such as Nabih Berri (Shiite Amal) and Walid Jumblatt (Druzes).
The GCC is therefore striking hard at supporters of Iran, Hizballah and the Assad regime across a wide spectrum.
Tuesday, June 11, DEBKAfile reported exclusively that Hizballah and Iran had suspended their military and financial ties with the Palestinian Sunni Hamas after discovering its members fighting with Syrian rebels in the al Quseyr battle.
A day later, the Sunni Gulf is seen to be meting out punishment to the Shiite powers. The estrangement between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Arab world is deepening sharply in consequence of the Syrian conflict.
Read the earlier DEBKAfile report below.
Hizballah forces helping Syrian troops capture the key Syrian town of al Qusayr from rebel hands last week caught five armed members of the radical Palestinian Hamas fighting with the rebels, DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclose. Within hours of this discovery being reported to Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah, the order to shut down Hamas offices in the Shiite Dahya neighborhood in Beirut went down the Hizballah chain of command.
Wafiq Safa, head of the organizations intelligence and terror wing, who commands the organization’s war effort in Syria, summoned Ali Baraka, the Hamas envoy in Beirut. He was told to shut down shop forthwith and remove himself and staff from the Lebanese capital. Hamas cells in southern Lebanon were likewise expelled. Ali Baraka hurriedly moved his people over to the southern port of Sidon, which is outside Hizballah’s turf. Nasrallah also suspended all military and technical assistance to the Hamas military arm, Ezz a-din al-Qassam - both in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip - after years of close cooperation between the two radical terrorist organizations.
Before breaking off ties with the Palestinian group, the Hizballah high command conferred with the Iranian al Qods Brigades chief, Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Tehran has not commented on the break-up with its Palestinian protégé, except to hold up the latest installment of Iran’s financial aid to the Gaza Strip regime. Queries from Gaza elicited evasive answers from Tehran.
The rupture with Hizballah and Iran has left the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip in serious financial straits. Its allocation from Qatar was sharply reduced this year; the Saudis stopped all assistance last year and Hamas’s parent organization, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has since assuming power in Cairo been struggling with its own government’s empty coffers.
In panicky conferences in Istanbul, Gaza and Cairo, Hamas leaders decided their only recourse was to send peace delegations to Tehran and Beirut in the hope that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Nasrallah would relent and resume the flow of financial aid.
Hamas politburo member Emad al-Alami heads the delegation to Tehran and Salah al-Arouri, who runs Hamas operations on the West Bank from Istanbul, leads the delegation to Beirut.
Both are still cooling their heels and waiting for appointments.
Both are still cooling their heels and waiting for appointments.
The new situation has sharpened the discord within the Hamas leadership between the faction in favor of Iran and Syria, headed by strongman Mahmoud A-Zahar and the deputy commander of the Ezz a-din al-Qassam, Marwan Issa, on the one hand, and, on the other, the reinstated head of the politburo Khaled Meshaal, who sent the Hamas contingent to fight with the Syrian rebels against Bashar Assad and his Hizballah allies.
Syrian Rebels Kill 60 Shi’ites in Eastern Village
Rebels Claim Most Were 'Militiamen' as Govt Reports Massacre
by Jason Ditz, June 12, 2013
Syrian government officials are condemning what they call a “massacre” in the eastern village of Hatla in Deir Azzor. The pro-rebel Syrian Observatory confirmed the incident, saying at least 60 Shi’ites were killed in the rebel offensive against the Shi’ite part of the village.
Rebels disputed the “massacre” aspect of the deaths, saying that the bulk of the killings were of members of a Shi’ite militia that they considered “pro-government.” Video also showed rebels burning homes in the Shi’ite neighborhood.
The killings and the subsequent destruction of the neighborhoodled to celebrations among Sunni Islamist rebels, reflecting the growing sectarian divide in Syria and the increasingly religious tone of the civil war.
Though predominantly Sunni, Syria has for centuries had a large number of religious minorities, including significant Shi’ite, Druze, and Christian populations. The various religions had mostly lived peacefully side-by-side until the recent civil war broke out.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-army-advances-to-retake-homs-aleppo.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48704&NewsCatID=352
Syrian army advances to retake Homs, Aleppo
The Syrian army continues to the heartland of Homs and Aleppo as Paris urges the international community to stop the progression. ‘We must stop this progression before Aleppo,’ French Foreign Minister Fabius says
Israeli soldiers sit atop a mobile artillery vehicle (front) as they return from a drill near the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria, on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Tension is high in the area. REUTERS photo
After winning a strategic victory by retaking Qusayr, an important town near the border with Lebanon, Syrian troops are now focusing their attention on Homs and Aleppo as they continue to gain ground against the rebels. The army operation is conducted in the southern and northern countryside of Aleppo, according to activists, and the aim is to cut off the rebels’ supply line from Turkey and attempt to regain control of the north. Intensified clashes are also reported in Homs and its suburbs as the army closed in on besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods of the provincial capital. Activists said there were heavy clashes, mostly in the neighborhood of Wadi Sayeh. The fighting appeared to be an attempt by government forces to separate two main rebel-held areas in the city, Khaldiyeh and the center of Homs.
“We must stop this progression before Aleppo. It is the next target of Hezbollah and of the Iranians,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France 2 television.
“We need to rebalance things because over the past few weeks the troops of Bashar al-Assad and especially Hezbollah and the Iranians, along with Russian arms, have gained considerable ground.” But he did not expand on how Syrian troops, buoyed by military support from its Shiite allies Hezbollah and Iran, should be stopped. Fabius’ comments came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to meet with his British counterpart, William Hague, later yesterday to discuss Syria. Hague warned last week that regime gains on the ground raised a new hurdle to the planned peace conference. “The regime has gained ground on the ground, again at the cost of huge loss of life and the indiscriminate use of violence against the civilian population,” Hague told BBC television.
“That makes the Geneva conference harder to bring about and to make a success. It makes it less likely that the regime will make enough concessions in such negotiations, and it makes it harder to get the opposition to come to the negotiations.”
On June 11, France’s Foreign Ministry also warned that the crisis was at a “turning point.”
“What should we do under these conditions to reinforce the opposition armed forces? We have had these discussions with our partners, with the Americans, the Saudis, the Turks, many others,” said ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot. “We cannot leave the opposition in the current state.” The European Union, under pressure from London and Paris, last month failed to renew an arms embargo on Syria, leaving individual member states free from August 1 to supply weapons to the opposition, if they decide to do so.
Fabius said France had not yet decided what to do after the deadline. “Bashar... used chemical weapons in an outrageous manner. We must stop him because, if there is no rebalancing on the ground, there will be no peace conference in Geneva as the opposition will refuse to come,” he said. The United States said it was evaluating information received from France that Paris has billed as proof that chemical weapons have been used in Syria.
June/13/2013
Turkey blowback......
http://rt.com/news/erdogan-protest-over-24-hours-602/
The Turkish Prime Minister says protests at Taksim Square and Gezi Park “will be over in 24 hours.” This comes hours after Tayyip Erdogan met a group of activists, in an attempt to start dialog, and vowed to put an end to the gatherings.
“I have given orders to the interior minister,” Erdogan said. “This will be over in 24 hours.”
Earlier on Wednesday the Turkish Prime Minister spoke to a group of 11 people as part of the government’s attempt to listen to the demands of the demonstrators. The participants included artists, academics and students, as well as the Interior Minister, Environment and Urban Minister, Tourism and Culture Minister and the vice chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Erdogan has warned that he would put an end to the gatherings, which he said were hurting Turkey’s image and economy.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik has said a referendum might be held to decide whether to build barracks in Gezi Park or leave it as it is.
Erdogan has warned that he would put an end to the gatherings, which he said were hurting Turkey’s image and economy.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik has said a referendum might be held to decide whether to build barracks in Gezi Park or leave it as it is.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/06/201361219110174770.html
Turkey mulls referendum on Taksim park plan |
Government willing to hold vote on Istanbul redevelopment plan that triggered weeks of protests, spokesman says.
Last Modified: 12 Jun 2013 19:47
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The anti-government protests began as a peaceful campaign against redevelopment plans of Gezi Park [AFP]
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| A spokesman for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party has said the government is open to holding a referendum over an Istanbul development plan that has underpinned nearly two weeks of mass protests. The announcement from AK party spokesman Huseyin Celik came after talks between Erdogan and a group of activists on Wednesday. It amounts to the first big gesture by his government to end a standoff with protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square and beyond. Earlier in the day, President Abdullah Gul called for dialogue with non-violent demonstrators after riot police cleared the square. Gul, who has taken a more conciliatory tone than Erdogan during the unrest, said it was the duty of the government to engage with its critics but appeared to close ranks with the prime minister, saying violent protests were a different matter. The protests, which have turned into riots met with tear gas and water cannon, began as a peaceful campaign against redevelopment plans of Gezi Park in Taksim Square. "If people have objections ... then to engage in a dialogue with these people, to hear out what they say is no doubt our duty," Gul told reporters. "Those who employ violence are something different and we have to distinguish them ... We must not give violence a chance ... This would not be allowed in New York, this would not be allowed in Berlin," the president said during a visit to the Black Sea coast. Riot police fought running battles with groups of protesters overnight, clearing Taksim. By dawn, the square was strewn with wreckage from bulldozed barricades but taxis crossed it for the first time since the troubles started. Several hundred people remained in an encampment of tents in Gezi Park. Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group for the demonstrators, said the delegation meeting with Erdogan was not representative and the meeting little more than symbolic. "Had Solidarity spoken with anyone in this group to share information, the meeting with the prime minister would have meaning. Now it doesn't," said Bulent Muftuoglu, a leading figure in Solidarity and an official of Turkey's Greens Party. |
Lawyers denounce arbitrary police arrests, vow support to protests
12 June 2013 /NOAH BLASER, İSTANBUL
Over 1,000 lawyers gathered at İstanbul's largest courthouse on Wednesday to denounce the mass detention of dozens of lawyers a day before and pledge support to Turkey's recently reignited anti-government protests.
Crowding into the main lobby and chanting slogans from balconies of the massive Çağlayan Courthouse, lawyers called out in unison, "Everywhere is Taksim. Everywhere is resistance!” in an expression of solidarity with the countrywide government protests that began two weeks ago in İstanbul's Taksim Square.
At a press conference in front of the building, Chairman of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations Metin Feyzioğlu expressed his alarm at “the threatened state of social freedoms” in Turkey -- and indeed, the scene in Çağlayan Courthouse on Tuesday provided a bitter view of just how threatened personal liberties have become even for the country's lawyers and legal elite. On Tuesday morning, about 45 lawyers were forcibly removed by riot police from the courthouse for staging a brief demonstration in support of the Taksim protesters. A video widely circulated later that afternoon showed police in riot gear tearing apart a human chain of robed justices and lawyers, whom they forcefully dragged onto police buses.
“The protest had not even lasted for two minutes when police entered and began tearing people apart,” lawyer Nilgün Şahinkaya told Today's Zaman. One of the detained protesting lawyers, Şahinkaya spent the night in police custody before being released Wednesday morning. “I'm exhausted and furious about this ordeal,” she said. “We had just gotten through our first few chants, and suddenly people were shouting and screaming while police began taking people away without charge. We all felt powerless, angry and humiliated by what they did.”
Police initially detained two lawyers, but when others attempted to resume the protest, they returned to detain dozens more. Nilgün and other members of the İstanbul Bar Association set the number of detained at 45, though press estimates ranged from 30 to 79.
Feyzioğlu condemned the detentions, declaring that “these detentions were no doubt made without evidence or reasonable suspicion or wrong doing, and were totally contrary to basic principles of law and human rights.” Feyzioğlu added that the Bar feels grave concern for the thousands of protesters who have been arrested during demonstrations. “Now, even members of the justice system who have been called to represent persons injured by police violence in demonstrations have become victims of police violence,” he said. As Feyzioğlu made the remarks to a cheering crowd, a small detachment of riot police waited -- or in many lawyers' opinion, intimidated -- watching over the demonstration from close by.
Press reported similar protests of smaller scales in courthouses in the capital of Ankara, the Aegean city of İzmir, and other provincial capitals on Wednesday.
Zehra, an İstanbul Bar lawyer who attended the Taksim demonstrations on Tuesday, said the detentions were the culmination of strong government pressure on lawyer associations. “Just as regular protesters' freedom to protest has been severely curtailed, so has ours. Recently, it became illegal for lawyers and legal associations to hold press conferences outside the courthouse. One-and-a-half months ago, it became illegal to hold any kind of demonstration inside the courthouse as well. Our freedom of expression has simply been revoked,” Zehra said, declining a request to provide her last name.
Many Taksim protesters who viewed the video of lawyers being forcibly removed from the courthouse said they were proud of the Bar's defiance but felt shame [for their country] by the display of force. As a group of lawyers marched through Taksim on Tuesday to demand a government apology, onlooker and Yeditepe University student Özgür Karaağaç said that this treatment of lawyers “is one of the most embarrassing things I have seen so far in the last two weeks, but I'm happy that they stood up for something.” Fellow onlooker Emre Yıldırım added, “People abroad see that Turkey's government has zero tolerance for dissent, but people should also see that citizens from all over are standing up to resist.”
The lawyer Zehra meanwhile said Turkey has to do more for lawyers' rights than simply limiting detentions like those made on Tuesday. “There are many, many lawyers in jail because they defended persons in terror trials. Why are they in jail when they were doing their job to represent these people? There also should be attention [focused] on this.”
Turkish intelligence agency may be on way to becoming ‘big brother'
The entrance of the headquarters of MİT in Ankara is seen in this photo dated Jan. 5, 2012, when MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan met with representatives of media. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Ali Ünal)
Egypt warns Ethiopia over Nile dam |
President Morsi says "all options are open" in dealing with dam project that threatens Egypt with a water shortage.
Last Modified: 11 Jun 2013 09:20
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Egypt could lose as much as 20 percent of its Nile water in time needed to build the dam in Ethiopia [Reuters]
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| Egypt's president has warned Ethiopia that “all options are open" in dealing with its construction of a Nile dam that threatens to leave Egypt with a dangerous water shortage. Speaking in a live televised speech before hundreds of supporters on Monday, Mohammed Morsi said Egypt was not calling for war, but it is willing to confront any threats to its water security. "If it loses one drop, our blood is the alternative," he said to a raucous crowd of largely Islamist supporters that erupted into a standing ovation. Ethiopia's $4.2 billion hydroelectric dam, which would be Africa's largest, challenges a colonial-era agreement that had given Egypt and Sudan the lion's share of rights to Nile water. Egyptian lifeline Experts estimate that Egypt could lose as much as 20 percent of its Nile water in the three to five years needed for Ethiopia to fill a massive reservoir. Morsi’s speech reflected the importance of the Nile River to Egypt. It provides almost all of the fresh water to a country that is otherwise largely parched desert. As much as 85 percent of the Nile's water comes from Ethiopia. "We are not calling for war, but we will not allow, at all, threats against our water security," Morsi said before adding, "all options are open." "The great Nile is that which all our lives are connected to. The lives of the Egyptians are connected around it ... as one great people," Morsi told the crowd. Shifting his tone later in the speech, Morsi said that Egypt considered Ethiopia a "friend" and noted he had visited the country twice since taking office. He said his administration was in continuous dialogue with Ethiopia and Sudan to discuss water rights. |
12 June 2013 /TODAY'S ZAMAN, ANKARA
According to a draft law pertaining to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), the intelligence agency will be authorized to not only keep records on people and obtain information about individuals from some public institutions, but also to conduct pre-emptive operations against possible threats inside and outside the country, Taraf daily maintained on Wednesday.
The draft, which may well turn Turkey into a state controlled by an intelligence agency, would hugely do away with some democratic achievements Turkey has made in recent years. Even without the need to obtain a court ruling, the intelligence agency will be able to keep records on people and carry out, at its own will, operations against citizens whom MİT considers a threat, the story in the daily claimed.
The draft law which brings amendments to Law No. 2937-State Intelligence Services, the law pertaining to the activities of MİT together with some other laws, has been submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the daily said, informing that it has in hand the draft law jointly drawn up by the Prime Minister's Office and MİT, to be precise, by MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, Prime Ministry Undersecretary Efkan Ala and Ulvi Canikli, first legal advisor to MİT.
The draft document, which the government may bring before Parliament in the following weeks, gives MİT the authority to carry out operations against possible domestic and foreign threats, similar to the authority the military had in the past. “Getting engaged in all types of intelligence and operational activities against domestic circles which prevent or may potentially prevent the functioning of the constitutional order or the realization of national interests,” article 4/c of the document says when enumerating tasks the agency will be responsible for.
So, should the draft become law, the concept of domestic threat, which was formerly used against Islamic parties in Turkey, will be coming back on the scene. With the article, MİT, which is, at present, only allowed to gather intelligence, will also gain the authority to conduct operations, which means it will have some of the powers the police and the gendarmerie enjoy. But while the police and the gendarmerie serve under the rule of law the intelligence agency, the daily maintained, will be authorized to act at its own will.
The 14-page draft document also bestows, with the consent of the prime minister, on the intelligence agency the authority to stage operations in foreign countries. “To get engaged, for the protection and realization of national interests, in intelligence activities, and if need be, to carry out, with the approval of the prime minister, all sorts of operations abroad, against the resources and capabilities of elements of foreign threats targeting the Turkish Republic,” the article 4/d of the draft document says.
The draft paves the way for the intelligence agency to engage in psychological operations, which may, in a worst-case scenario, take on the form of fabricating slanders against some citizens whom the intelligence agency may consider as a threat to defame them.
The article 4/I also paves the way for the agency, although its identity would not be revealed, to establish and run websites to spread false rumors. “Get engaged in psychological operations, in counter-intelligence activities against psychological operations conducted by local and foreign sources of threat,” the article says as one of the agency's tasks.
As per the article 4/h of the draft document, high-level civil servants will be appointed after MİT conducts an investigation about the person in question. This article raises concerns, because it may serve, based on false information, to defame some people with merit, potential candidates for a post, in an effort to place in high-level public posts those whom MİT or the public authority favor.
The draft law as such will clearly do away with previous democratic gains such as freedom of communication, right to privacy which is protected by the constitution. One of the tasks the MİT will be authorized, as per the article 4/f, by the draft is “to collect all kinds of signals intelligence.” Thanks to this article, the MİT will, without needing a court ruling, be able to detect who meets with whom and where, and monitor all telephone communications.
The intelligence agency will not only be able to ask for information from public institutions, but data-processing centers and communications infrastructure of these institutions will be, upon request, made available to the MİT. As per the article 6/b, the ministries, judicial bodies, all state institutions together with those occupational organizations which have the characteristics of a public institution are to make available to the MİT all the information and data that they gather as part of their regular activities. “The Article 157 of the Code on Criminal Procedure is not applicable for such demands [of the MİT]. [T]he information, documents and data [requested by MİT] are not to be considered as a revelation of a secret within the 73rd article of the Banking Law,” the article prescribes.
The draft also offers the intelligence agency a range of exceptions and wide protection while conducting its activities. With the draft, the MİT will no longer need to get authorization for import of any kinds of arms and equipment from public institutions, and the members of the intelligence agency will be tried in special courts of law. The agency is also endowed with all the powers which security forces normally enjoy. “MİT members can exercise rights and authorities which security forces enjoy,” the article 6/c says.
Another article which offers protection to members of the MİT is Article 26, which says that the consent of the prime minister is needed to launch an investigation for crimes which are alleged to be committed by a MİT member. MİT members and those others who are given a task by the MİT can't be held responsible for activities involving crime of the [crime] organization which happens to be in the field of activity of a person connected with the MİT, as per Article 26 of the draft.
It's claimed in the story that, although legislation regarding intelligence agencies currently in effect in many countries was studied before the draft was drawn, it's that of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that was taken as an example when the draft was prepared.
Iraq ........
1,000 Kurdish soldiers desert from Iraqi army
More than 1,000 Kurdish soldiers leave Iraqi army to join peshmarga forces after disobeying orders to take part in an operation ordered by the Shiite-led authorities against a Sunni Arab town
Iraqi troops stand at a makeshift camp near Kirkuk. 1,070 Kurdish members of the Iraqi army mutinied and declined to attend disciplinary re-training. REUTERS photo
The move comes after the Kurdish troops disobeyed orders to take part in an operation ordered by the Shiite-led authorities against a mainly Sunni Arab town. If their request is fulfilled, such a mass defection would be a major loss to Iraq’s security forces as they grapple with a surge in violence that has sparked fears of renewed sectarian bloodshed.
Two officials said the 1,070 Kurdish members of the Iraqi army’s 16th Brigade mutinied when gunmen took control of a northern town in April, and subsequently declined to attend disciplinary re-training. The soldiers were no longer receiving salaries or rations from the Iraqi army, nor were they following any orders from federal forces, according to the mayor of the town where they are based.
His comments were echoed by the spokesman for the KRG ministry responsible for peshmarga forces, that is now part of Kurdistan’s security forces. But the officials differed as to whether the soldiers’ request to join the peshmarga had been met. The troops had been assigned to the ethnically mixed towns of Tuz Khurmatu and Sulaiman Bek, the latter of which briefly fell to gunmen in April. According to Tuz Khurmatu Mayor Shallal Abdul, they stood accused of refusing to follow orders as Sulaiman Bek, a mostly-Arab town, was overrun. As punishment, they were ordered to attend re-training. Three senior Kurdish officers were also replaced with Arabs, Abdul said.
No order from peshmarga yet
The troops did not follow orders to stay and defend the town against the Sunni Arab gunmen because they did not want to further raise tensions between Arabs and Kurds in a swathe of disputed territory claimed by both the central government and Kurdish authorities. “The forces ... are still deployed to their positions, but they are receiving their salaries and orders from the Peshmarga Ministry,” Abdul said.
The mass defection comes at a crucial time for Iraq’s security forces, which are dealing with a massive spike in violence, months of protests in Sunni Arab provinces, and fears of spillover from the conflict in neighboring Syria. Last month, more than 1,000 people were killed in violence, the highest toll since 2008.
Peshmarga Ministry spokesman Halkurd Mullah Ali confirmed that the soldiers were not carrying out Baghdad’s orders, and added that Kurdish authorities were providing rations because officials “sympathized with them.” But he denied that the soldiers were receiving either wages or orders from peshmarga. “We will discuss their situation with the joint committee [of the Baghdad government and the Kurdish regional administration],” he said. “If we do not reach an agreement with Baghdad about them, we are ready to integrate them into peshmarga forces.”
June/13/2013
Afghanistan - Taliban Spring campaign in full swing....
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/06/11/car-bombing-kills-17-at-afghan-supreme-court/
Car Bombing Kills 17 at Afghan Supreme Court
Second Major Attack in Kabul in as Many Days
by Jason Ditz, June 11, 2013
A suicide car bombing tore through minibuses in front of the Afghan Supreme Court today, killing at least 17 people and wounding 40 others. The court is in the most heavily fortified part of Kabul.
The attack appears to have sought to maximize casualties by targeting the buses used to ferry court staff from work just as they were leaving. A Taliban spokesman said the court staff had been repeatedly warned to stop working there.
It’s the second major attack against the capital city in as many days, after a major armed attack against the Kabul Airport on Monday. That attack targeted the NATO headquarters at the base in a multi-hour siege.
Though Afghan officials have sought to downplay the significance of such attacks, the Taliban’s ability to strike at even the most heavily secured parts of the country point to a security situation that is definitely not improving.
Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood have a hot mike moment.... http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/12/im-very-fond-of-battles-egyptian-cabinet-minister-caught-on-hot-mic-discussing-war-with-enemies-israel-and-america/# HOT MIC CATCHES EGYPTIAN POLITICIAN DISCUSSING ‘WAR’ WITH ‘ENEMIES’ ISRAEL AND AMERICA
Egypt’s Magdi Ahmad Hussein, chairman of the Islamic Labor Party, didn’t know the meeting was on live TV (Screenshot: MEMRI)
Just last month, Secretary of State John Kerry quietly sent Egypt an additional $1.3 billion, even though Egypt has failed to live up to democracy standards. That largesse didn’t stop a prominent Egyptian politician from talking about Egypt’s “enemy” the United States in what some pundits are classifying as a classic and embarrassing “hot mic” moment.
President Mohammed Morsi gathered a group of politicians last week who thought they were speaking privately at a parliamentary meeting. But as seen in an Egyptian television video of the meeting — excerpts of which were later translated by the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) — they were actually on live television, cringingly discussing secret ways to stop Ethiopia’s Nile River dam project which threatens water flowing to Egypt.
The New York Times blog reports:
The participants learned they were on live TV only after Magdi Ahmad Hussein, chairman of the Islamic Labor Party, suggested that all present vow not to leak any information to the media. Before being told he was on television, Hussein described the U.S. as an enemy [emphasis added]:
The viewer sees him being handed a note, which presumably points out that his words are not confined to the room. Hussein laughs, then continues with the anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric: “Okay… Fine… The principles behind what I’m saying are not really secret…Our war is with America and Israel, not with Ethiopia. Therefore, engaging in a war… This is my opinion…”
President Morsi says out for the benefit of all in the room, “This meeting is being aired live on TV,” a comment which prompts laughter all around.
In damage control mode, as if he knew all along that he was on camera, Hussein followed up by saying, “I am not presenting a secret plan or anything. All the countries do what I am saying and what has been said by others. All countries with regional conflicts do that.”
“I say to the Egyptian people: Nobody can turn off your water supply – unless they want to turn the Egyptians into the world’s most extremist people. Imagine what this people would do if its water were turned off – what all 80 million of us would do to Israel and America if our water were turned off,” Hussein concluded [emphasis added].
According to the New York Times, someone afterwards could be heard off camera saying, “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
Morsi later appeared to try to send a calming message to Ethiopia, even though other participants in the parliamentary session were openly discussing sabotaging their southern neighbor, including via covert operations, supporting rebel groups or destroying the dam altogether.
“We have a lot of respect for the Sudanese people in the north and the south, and we respect their decisions, and the same is true with regard to the Ethiopian people. We are not about to start any aggression against anyone whatsoever, or affront anyone whatsoever,” Morsi said.
“But we have very serious measures to protect every single drop of Nile water – every single drop of water,” Morsi added.
Middle East analyst Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) tells TheBlaze, “Here we have possibly the most embarrassing open microphone scandal in history.”
In an article which discussed the scene, Rubin wrote: “Egyptian leaders discussed covert operations to destroy the dam or giving covert support to rebel groups. This gives some hints of what longer-term policy toward Israel might well be. Advocates of aggressive action included moderate politicians.”
Before it was revealed that they were on camera, liberal politician Ayman Nour, chairman of the Ghad Al-Thawra Party suggested leaking a false story to the media suggesting Egypt might be preparing for war. He said:
The water issue is so sensitive in Egypt, because the country’s agriculture is completely dependent on the Nile River. According to the New York Times, Ethiopian officials say the dam will not be used for agriculture, just for the production of electricity and therefore it should not substantially decrease the amount of water flowing to Egypt.
Here is video of the hot mic moment, courtesy of MEMRI:
This post has been updated to correct that Hussein is not a cabinet minister.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/06/201361144413214749.html
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