Philip Hammond is urging more action from Albania to curb organised
crime and people trafficking on a short visit to the Balkan state.
The Foreign Secretary is to hold talks with prime minister Edi Rama
as well as the country's foreign and interior ministers in an effort to
strengthen co-operation between London and Tirana.
Around 60 Albanian criminals are deported every month from the UK
under a prisoner transfer deal signed in 2013 - mostly for sexual
assaults, violence and drug trafficking.
There are also major concerns about people smuggling via the country -
with charity Barnardo's recently warning of an alarming rise in the
number of Albanian children being held as sex slaves in Britain.
Mr Hammond's meetings - en route to a visit to Cyprus to discuss
progress on the island's reconciliation talks - also form part of a
wider push to boost relations with Balkan states and "strengthen the
stability and security in our backyard", the Foreign Office said.
Albania is seeking European Union membership - and was granted
candidate status in 2014 - and Mr Hammond would "be pressing for further
reform to support UK security priorities and meet EU standards", they
said.
About 400 thousand Northern Epiriotes have the right to vote in Greek Elections
With Diaspora, Greece became 20 million People.
Campaign of General Frangos to exercise the voting rights of the Greeks of the Diaspora
Campaign undertook the Honorary Chief of Staff, General Fragkos Frangoulis, to exercise the right to vote for vote in national and local elections, the Greeks throughout the world, which of course have the Greek citizenship, from the place residence without coming to Greece.
The highly interesting initiative of General are sure to strengthen our national interests, but also will give the rights to these wonderful Greek diaspora to elect governments that will protect the vital interests of Greek Nation.
Other all, the Former Chief of Staff, General Fragkos Frangoulis noted:
"I enclose herewith a mandate for voting to exercise it from your place of residence, obligation under the Constitution after the revision of 2001 not yet legislated by each and every Greek governments as they should have done.
It is therefore imperative to launch a crusade for the success of the appeal to the State Council (mp,) and the International Court of Human Rights.
In order to have the right to vote, to vote in National Elections and Local Government, wherever you live in the world and to practice it from home, without requiring you come in Greece, if you have the Greek citizenship.
With the assistance of the Greeks living abroad, it becomes clear that the electorate and even expanded with you our emigrant brothers, pulsating heart your love for the motherland, while undoubtedly have greater sensitivity than "us within borders" on National Issues and the vision about the future, and our survival as a nation.
Your own active mass participation in society, not just unite us, but now we are a cohesive force to be reckoned with Twenty Millions Greeks together with Diaspora...: noted General Frangoulis
Two people died in a 6.1
magnitude earthquake that caused extensive damage on the island of
Lefkada, in southwestern Greece, AP has reported.
Source: Beta, AP
(Thinkstock)
The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the undersea quake
occurred about 300 kilometers west of Athens and had a preliminary
magnitude of 6.1. The USGS put the preliminary magnitude at 6.5.
The earthquake was felt along the western part of the country to the border with Albania, in the Peloponnese, and in Athens.
Firefighters said that an 82-year-old woman died in the village of
Athani when a wall collapsed on her, while the second victim, a
69-year-old woman died in her home in another village when a boulder
tumbled down onto her house.
Four others were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, AP said.
The agency quoted state TV ERT that reported a part of the harbor of
Vassiliki was submerged in the sea. Schools were shut on both Lefkada
and Kefalonia as a precaution.
The Greek PM published an article in the "Daily Sabah" ahead of his upcoming visit to Turkey
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
The Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras has authored an article that was published in the international edition of the Daily Sabah, ahead of his planned trip to Turkey on Wednesday.
In his article, the Greek PM underlines the need for the improvement of
bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey, as well as an agreement
between the European Union and Turkey to address the refugee crisis.
------
The times are difficult for peace and stability in our region. They call
for a new level of communication and contact among countries that have
the capacities and the will to ensure it based on trust and aimed at
cooperation - whenever possible, not only when necessary - founded on
international law.
My visit to Turkey on Nov. 18, upon the invitation of the Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoğlu, will be an important opportunity for reinvigorating
relations in this direction, particularly in the context of the growing
refugee and migration crisis we face. It will allow us to discuss our
cooperation in the important multi-faceted challenges of our region.
- Security challenges: In the past few days we condemned together the
heinous terrorist attacks in Paris, as we had done before for attacks in
Istanbul, London, Ankara, Madrid, Suruç and Mosul. As we condemned the
barrel bombs in Damascus, the chemical weapons attacks in Iraq and the
state executions in Libya. Facing the pseudo-dilemma between militarist
dictatorships and violent Islamic fundamentalism, our choice is clear:
We reject both.
We must stay united and determined against forces that use terror to
strengthen their power. At the same time, we need to renew our efforts
for peace, stability and reconciliation in Syria, Iraq, Libya and
Ukraine, as well as initiatives for conflict resolution and economic
development in Africa. On our own, but also as U.N., Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and NATO members, we cannot
found our engagement with our region on forms and actions that
flagrantly failed in the past. War cannot lead to solutions, nor can it
open the way to democracy. Actions that truly aim in this direction have
to be considered and co-decided also by those actors who know better
the dynamics of the region. That is why we need to deepen our bilateral,
regional and multilateral dialogue and coordination on these issues.
At the same time, we need to recognize the importance for our region and
our bilateral relations of reaching a just and viable solution to the
Cyprus issue on the basis of U.N. decisions: A free, united EU member
state, ensuring security and prosperity for all its people - Greek
Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and other communities - without anachronistic
post-colonial arrangements. In these efforts we must not waste the hope
and the momentum built on the island.
Finally, security in our region cannot be ensured without security in
the Aegean. This cannot be done under threat of war or through increased
Greek airspace violations. One of the first steps of this government
was to agree with Turkey on the revitalization of the dialogue for
confidence-building measures. We need to expand on this dialogue and
work on the exploratory talks on the continental shelf. Only by ensuring
good neighborly relations on the basis of international law can we
build solid foundations for our future cooperation.
- The refugee and migration crisis: It is clear that without peace in
Syria and Iraq and stability in Afghanistan, there is no prospect for
the return of the citizens of these countries to their homes and an end
to the refugee and migration crisis we face. So it is imperative that we
work together on how we can address the issue of the management of
these flows in a humane and effective way. Turkey, together with Lebanon
and Jordan, has taken the enormous social and economic burden of
supporting millions of refugees and migrants all these years. At the
same time, the 650,000 people that have crossed the Greek-Turkish
borders in the last months have created an unsustainable situation in
Greece and Europe in general. The Greek people and authorities, despite
great economic challenges, do all they can to manage these flows and
give support to those in need. In this context it is very important that
we move forward on a substantial agreement between the EU and Turkey on
managing these flows within the country, on supporting migrants and on a
robust resettlement mechanism for the legal entrance of refugees to
third countries. A crucial component of this agreement, though, is about
enhancing Greek-Turkish cooperation. We need to talk more about how to
fight trafficking networks, implement our bilateral readmission
agreement and how to coordinate and cooperate on the level of migration,
police and coast guard authorities.
- Economic development: Greece and Turkey have a crucial role in
connecting three continents through creating new networks in energy,
transport, tourism, culture and commerce, particularly at a time when
connectivity is more central than ever in overcoming current economic
crises and averting future ones. Our bilateral High-Level Cooperation
Council is an important tool in this regard. For its future fourth
meeting we must concentrate on a few but substantial forward-looking
agreements in the areas above.
Turkey's EU accession process is particularly important in this broader
context, including also for the promotion of democratic reforms. Greece
supports this process, recognizing its mutual benefits for the EU and
Turkey as well its importance for bilateral relations and the broader
region.
Russia
has been informing the US in advance about its plans to strike ISIL
targets with cruise missiles in Syria, Reuters reports, citing a US
defense official.
Russia
has conducted a significant number of strikes in Syria, according to a
US defense official. The US was informed about the strikes in advance
under an agreement with Washington on air safety protocols, he added.
According to the source, a number of the strikes targeted the Islamic State stronghold in Raqqa.
However, the Russian Defense Ministry has not yet confirmed the information.
On September 30, Russia launched an aerial campaign against extremist
positions in Syria, following a request from President Bashar Assad.
Since the beginning of the air campaign, Russian Aerospace Forces
have carried out around 1,800 sorties, destroying some 2,700 terrorist
targets. Several hundred militants have been killed, and dozens
of command centers and depots have been destroyed.
The stadium hosting the Germany-Netherlands soccer match has been evacuated and the game has been canceled.
Police had earlier sealed off the stadium after finding a suspicious suitcase.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and several cabinet ministers were expected to
attend the match, which comes four days after the terrorist attacks in
Paris.
Germany was playing France in a friendly match during the
attacks. Suicide bombers sought unsuccessfully to enter the Stade de
France and blew themselves up outside.
Putin ordered the Moskva cruiser to cooperate with a French naval group in the fight against the Islamic State.
Russia's
President Vladimir Putin ordered the Moskva missile cruiser stationed
in the Mediterranean Sea to establish contact with a French naval group
which will soon arrive in the area.
"A French naval group led by an aircraft
carrier will soon enter your area of operations," Vladimir Putin old
Oleg Krivorog, who heads the Russian naval unit protecting the airbase
in Syria hosting Russian warplanes. "It is necessary to establish direct
contact with the French and work with them as allies."
"The chief of general staff and the defense minister have received
relevant instructions. We must work out a plan for joint actions both
at sea and in the air," the president continued.
Earlier on Tuesday, General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov that
Russia's Forces launched 34 cruise missiles during the strike on the
terrorist targets in Syria.
In
a telephone conversation, Vladimir Putin and Francois Hollande agreed
to ensure military and intelligence cooperation between Russia and
France. The two leaders also agreed to meet during Hollande's visit
to Moscow November 26.
"To continue personal dialogue on the fight
against terrorism as well as other relevant topics during a meeting
in Moscow on November 26," according to statement made by the Kremilin.
Hollande, who skipped the weekend's G20 summit due to the Paris
attacks, said Monday that he would meet with the leaders of Russia and
the United States to discuss joining forces against terrorism. The
French leader is set hold talks with US President Barack Obama
in Washington on November 24.
Warnings about attacks by ISIS that were emailed to
Albania’s interior minister and several media outlets should not be
ignored by the Muslim-majority NATO member state, experts said.
Fatjona MejdiniBIRNTirana
Islamic State militants. Photo:Beta/AP.
Albanian police spokesperson Genti Mullai told media on Monday that
officers are investigating people believed to have been responsible for an Islamist attack threat to Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri.
"We don't have anyone under arrest yet, but we are interviewing
people who have information about this threat and those who might be
behind it," said Mullai.
A threatening email received by Tahiri on Saturday said that “holy
war has started against all those who are involved in the war against
the Islamic State”.
NATO member Albania has troops serving with the coalition fighting
the Taliban in Afghanistan and has collaborated with foreign
intelligence agencies involved in combatting ISIS.
Threats were also sent to some media after they reported on the email that was sent to the minister.
Fabian Zhilla, an organised crime researcher for the Open Society
Foundation in Albania, told BIRN that the threats must be taken very
seriously because ISIS has pledged to attack Muslim-majority countries
that have alliances with the West.
Zhilla argued however that the Albanian state should not just impose
repressive measures but take a more subtle, grassroots community
approach.
"We have to have a very professional approach towards the problem and
not a repressive one which can bring further damage and create
stereotypes for the innocent Muslim community," Zhilla said.
The head of the Muslim community in Tirana, Ylli Gurra, also told BIRN that Albania should take extremist threats seriously.
“We don’t have any immunity from extremist attacks, Albania has to bear this in mind,” Gurra said.
He said that the Muslim community in Albania and state institutions
have been communicating more frequently recently in an attempt to avert
any potential problems.
“We have kept in close communication with state structures these days
in order to pass on the information we have about every radical
religious place in the country and any extremist individual in Albania.
It is important that we all collaborate in this difficult moment that
the world is facing,” Gurra said.
In the last census in 2011, around 60 per cent of Albanians declared that they are Muslims.
Investigative articles published by BIRN Albania have found that
around 90 men, women and children from Albania who went to Syria from
2012 to 2014 to join ISIS.
From 2014 onwards, the Albanian authorities have put more investment
into anti-terrorist units as well as tightening up legislation.
How the controversy over Obama not saying "radical Islam" began
The controversy over Obama's refusal to use the term "radical Islam" kicked off in January of this year after the Charlie Hebdo shootings. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had said in a speech that the country was at war "against radical Islam." So at a White House press briefing days later, NPR's Mara Liasson asked why President Obama and his administration spokespeople had seemingly "bent over backward to not ever say that."
In a lengthy back-and-forth, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed that the administration was deliberately avoiding the term. He repeatedly made two main points — that the attackers' view of Islam was "distorted" and "deviant," and that most Muslims around the world condemn such attacks. Therefore, he said, the administration avoided using the term "because it does not accurately describe what happened."
Many conservatives found this exchange infuriating and bizarre — a borderline-Orwellian attempt to erase the religious element of the attackers' motivations that revealed a lack of understanding of why they are so dangerous. Ted Cruz called it "bizarre, politically correct doublespeak" that was "not befitting a commander in chief."
Since then, it's become common for Republican presidential candidates to criticize Obama for having "refused to mention radical Islam" (as Rubio put it in April). "As long as we have a Commander-in-Chief unwilling even to utter the words 'radical Islamic terrorism,' we will not have a concerted effort to defeat these radicals," Cruz said the morning after the latest Paris attacks.
But the criticism hasn't all been along partisan lines. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii criticized the White House for its apparent rhetorical dance, saying she was "upset" that the Obama wouldn't identify radical Islam as the threat. And Vox's Max Fisher argued in February that while Obama "has correctly identified economic and political factors that give rise to extremism, he has appeared to downplay or outright deny an awkward but important fact: Religion plays an important role as well."
Obama thinks declaring a war against "radical Islam" could backfire and alienate potential Muslim allies
But Obama's refusal to mention "radical Islam" isn't just, or even primarily, about political correctness. Instead, it's about strategy and the war of ideas — to effectively fight terrorism, Obama wants to win, or at least not fully alienate, "hearts and minds" in the Muslim world. And he thinks framing the conflict in religious terms would hurt that effort — a belief his predecessor George W. Bush had shared.
Obama explained this when CNN's Fareed Zakaria asked him about his word choice back in February. First, he reiterated that he thinks the extremist "element growing out of Muslim communities in certain parts of the world" has "perverted the religion." And he insisted again that "the overwhelming of majority of Muslims" in the world "don't even recognize" the extremists' views "as being Islam."
But he then pivoted to a different kind of argument. I think that for us to be successful in fighting this scourge, it's very important for us to align ourselves with the 99.9 percent of Muslims who are looking for the same thing we're looking for — order, peace, prosperity. ... The Middle East and South Asia are sort of ground zero for us needing to win back hearts and minds, particularly when it comes to young people.
Not taking this into account, he said, would be doing ourselves "a disservice in this fight."
Translation: Obama thinks a presidential declaration of a war on "radical Islam" will just make the US more enemies, and will hurt its effort to discredit terrorist ideologies. Hillary Clinton made a similar point in this weekend's debate, saying that framing the conflict as a war on radical Islam is "not particularly helpful to make the case" to "Muslim countries."
Other commentators are even more explicit, pointing out that there are a whole lot of Muslims out there in the world who could conceivably be characterized as "radical Islamists" — the term is not exactly rigorously defined — but who are uninterested in attacking the West, and could in fact be valuable allies against terrorists. These include ordinary citizens as well as more organized Islamist groups and governments in countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
"The long war against radical Islamic terrorists requires at least the tacit support of many radical Muslims," Eli Lake, a Bloomberg View reporter popular among the hawkish right, wrote earlier this year. "Sadly, large pluralities of Muslims in countries allied with the U.S. in the war on terror disavow the tactics of terrorism but endorse the aims of radical Islam." So, Lake wrote, a presidential declaration of war on "radical Islam" would likely lead to "a world in which the U.S. stopped waging a global war on terror," due to loss of support from these Muslim allies.
This argument dates to the George W. Bush administration
The bipartisan roots of this controversy date back to shortly after the 9/11 attacks — when the George W. Bush administration decided to declare a "global war on terror" and not a war against Islamic extremism or radicalism. The administration later rebranded it the "global struggle against violent extremism," again avoiding any words linked to Islam.
Indeed, Bush worked hard to avoid framing the conflict in religious terms, arguing that the attackers weren't true Muslims, just like Obama has been doing. "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace," Bush said just days after 9/11.
Yet many conservative commentators back then thought the "war on terror" terminology left out an important element. They thought the conflict should be framed in more ideological terms. One blogger, Stephen Schwartz, popularized a new term, "Islamofascism," which soon spread on the right. In a later essay, Schwartz lumped together "the Wahhabis and their Pakistani and Egyptian counterparts," Hezbollah, and Iran as the true "Islamofascist" enemies of the US.
And some high-level members of the Bush administration agreed with the commentators.
"Saying we were in a war on terrorism was like saying we were in a war against bombers or we were waging a war on tanks," Bush's first defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, later griped in his memoir. "From the beginning, members of the administration worked gingerly around the obvious truth that our main enemies were Islamic extremists. I didn't think we could fight the crucial ideological aspect of the war if we were too wedded to political correctness to acknowledge the facts honestly."
After five years of the war on terror, Bush — perhaps feeling a need to address these criticisms from conservatives — responded to a failed plot to bomb airplanes in 2006 by declaring that "this nation is at war with Islamic fascists."
Unsurprisingly, there was an intense backlash. The term "offends the vast majority of moderate Muslims," Ahmed Younis of the Muslim Public Affairs Council told the BBC shortly after. "The use of the term casts a shadow upon Islam and bolsters the argument that there is a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West."
But the backlash wasn't only from Muslims. Even Karen Hughes, then in charge of Bush's State Department's outreach to the Muslim world, said she preferred not to "use religious terms" because of how they were likely to be interpreted abroad.
Bush avoided the term afterward. It seemed that the problems caused by a US president using the word "Islamic" negatively — even when it was paired with the term "fascists" — didn't outweigh whatever gains it brought.
The real debate: Is the US at war with an Islamic ideology or not?
There's certainly a political aspect to the GOP presidential candidates' loud and proud insistence that we're at war with "radical Islam" and that, unlike the feckless President Obama, they aren't afraid to say it. They could well care more about appealing to their party's primary voters — including some who are suspicious and fearful of Muslims — than about winning Muslim hearts and minds abroad.
But lurking beneath all this is an even broader debate: Is the US, in fact, at war with an ideology that is inherently linked to Islam — something that could be called "radical Islam" or "Islamofacism?" Put another way, are groups like ISIS intrinsically Islamic in a way that makes it both correct and necessary to label them as such?
Scholars who study ISIS generally say the group is indeed, in at least some ways, linked to Islam. But they are also quick to point out that this does not mean that Islam itself, much less all Muslims, are in any way to blame for the group, nor that this makes Muslims — who are by and large ISIS's most numerous victims — a threat.
But that sort of nuance is not easy to convey in politics, and politicians understandably worry that it is easier to overstate the links to Islam in a way that would backfire strategically and exacerbate Islamophobia in the US.
It also risks exacerbating very real fears in the Middle East and other Muslim communities that the US is at war with Islam. Obama thus fears that denouncing "radical Islam" risks playing into the terrorists' hands by making the conflict seem more like a holy war, to no apparent gain. "Those of us outside Muslim communities need to reject the terrorist narrative that the West and Islam are in conflict, or modern life and Islam are in conflict," he said in February.
Yet many conservatives see an effort to downplay ISIS's ideology as disingenuous or naive, an affirmation of their concern that the Obama administration does not understand its enemy or take it seriously enough. Many also see the conflict in more ideological or even apocalyptic terms. Sen. Lindsey Graham, for instance, argues that "Radical Islam is motivated by a religious doctrine that requires them to purify their religion. They can’t be accommodated or appeased."
And then there's Marco Rubio, who's now viewed by some savvy commentators as the likely GOP nominee. After the Paris attacks, Rubio released a video in which he argued that "what we're in now is a civilizational conflict with radical Islam." It is, he said a "clash of civilizations." Whether this is just campaign trail rhetoric, or Rubio's genuine belief, we don't yet know.
Ahead of a final decision of
the Constitutional Court in Pristina, Belgrade is saying it has no
intention of giving up on what was signed in Brussels.
Source: B92
Representatives of Serbs in Kosovo are announcing they
could leave the government if the Community of Serbian Municipalities
(ZSO) is not formed.
Although Serbia has no alternative to dialogue, the possibility of breaking off the Kosovo talks is not being ruled out.
The situation in which one party is free to do anything, while they
other can do nothing, is explained by Serbian officials by saying that
"while Pristina is killing the dialogue, Belgrade is not agreeing to a
circus show."
Has the time come to also be thinking about
breaking off the Brussels negotiations? "The only option that is out of
the question is to give up on living in this area, " Branimir
Stojanovic, a Serb who is currently a deputy Kosovo prime minister,
commented, and added:
"Everything else is an option. When we
exhaust all possibilities for reasonable dialogue that makes sense, then
I believe that, just as someone had decided to talk, a decision can
also be made not to talk."
Serb representatives in Kosovo say
that Pristina is currently carrying out "quiet ethnic cleansing by
institutional means." They say their participation in the government of
Kosovo will be reconsidered - specifying they will "likely leave the
government" if the agreement on the ZSO - a part of the EU-sponsored
Brussels agreement - is not respected by Pristina.
"Leaving
would not mean an end to normalization of relations. I think that
Brussels (EU), which has been passive and unconvincing in its reaction
to Pristina, could become engaged, as well as Washington," says Chairman
of the Serbian Parliament's Committee on Kosovo and Metohija Milovan
Drecun.
Meanwhile, experts are categorical - whatever the other side does, it is best to stay at the table.
"I do not know of another model except conversation... I think closing
the door is an invitation to conflict, and I do not see any possibility
nor the desire to make it happen," said Nenad Djurdjevic of the Forum
for Ethnic Relations NGO.
The final decision of the
Constitutional Court in Pristina in connection with the establishment of
the ZSO should be made very quickly. The reaction of Serbia is already
known - Director of the Office for Kosovo Marko Djuric says what has
been signed in Brussels will not be given up, and that Belgrade does not
consider the court is question to be "a competent instance."
An email sent to the private address of Interior
Minister Saimir Tahiri says Albania will be the next country after
France to be attacked for its role in the war on terror.
Fatjona MejdiniBIRNTirana
An email sent to the private address of Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri
Albanian Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri on Saturday said he had
received a threatening message via his personal email about a terrorist
attack in Albania.
The short message writes that Albania will be the next country to be
attacked by Islamic State in revenge for Albania's involvement in the
war on terror.
"Now is your turn. The holy war has started against all those who are
involved in the war against the Islamic State. You are going to shake
and kneel in front of Allah. Allahu Akhbar," the email reportedly said.
The name of the group who sent the email is "Brigadat e Kuqe" or The Red Brigade.
The name was identified for the first time on the eve of the
Albania-Serbia football match, when group then sent threatening emails
about the Serbian football team , calling them an enemy organisation.
Police sources told BIRN that they were investigating the message sent to Tahiri.
Following Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, Albanian police said
they had tightened security measures and urged citizens to report
anything suspicious that they might see.
FYROM Prepare to Raise Fence on Border with Greece The Security Council of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has ordered the army to start preparations to erect a fence on the border with Greece to contain the refugee influx.
According to an AP report. FYROM President Gjorge Ivanov presided at an emergency Security Council meeting late Saturday in light of the Islamic State attacks in Paris. Officials are concerned that if other countries where asylum-seekers are headed shut their borders, FYROM will end up keeping more migrants and for a longer period of time.
Ivanov has claimed that more than 8,500 migrants have entered the country unregistered through illegal border crossings from Greece.
AP says that a statement issued after the meeting says the FYROM Security Council “emphasizes that a fence would not be aimed at closing the border, but channeling and limiting the flow of the migrants.”
The statement also says “this step would be taken as a last resort.”
Obama Criticized for Claim That ISIS Is 'Contained'
By Alexander Mallin
Nov 14, 2015
The White House
WATCH Eyewitness Recounts Chaos During Paris Attack Aftermath
Critics are lashing out at President Obama in the wake of the attacks in
Paris on Friday for remarks he made to ABC's George Stephanopoulos a
day earlier in which he said that ISIS was "contained."
“From the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have
contained them," Obama told ABC on Thursday. "They have not gained
ground in Iraq. And in Syria it -- they'll come in, they'll leave. But
you don't see this systematic march by ISIL across the terrain."
The comment came just hours before the announcement of a U.S. airstrike in Syria that had targeted 'Jihadi John.'
But the mainly symbolic victory was cut short following the attacks in
Paris on Friday in which at least 127 people were killed.
French President Francois Hollande blamed ISIS for the attacks on Saturday, calling it "an act of war."
Several Republicans, including candidates for the GOP presidential
nomination, seized on Obama's comments as his latest mistake in
underestimating the terror group.
“They are not a JV team. They are not contained. They are on the march," Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina
said in an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.
"Secondly, I think it reminds us that when the United States is not
leading the world is a more dangerous and a more tragic place."
Donald Trump
tweeted Friday evening, sending his condolences to the victims and
hostages, however Saturday morning he took a much more critical tone.
GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee also attacked Obama's
"contained" comment, citing the downing of the Russian plane over Egypt
and the Paris attack.
"We are clearly not dealing with leashed animals or with a JV team,"
Huckabee said. "During the debate last week, I stated that we should not
admit those claiming to be Syrian refugees and was condemned by the left for that position. I was right and the events in Paris affirm that."
Obama is convening a meeting with his National Security Council this
morning on the Paris attacks and the response from the U.S. They will
meet before Obama leaves for Turkey this afternoon.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — Leader of France's far-right National Front party Marine Le
Pen has urged to immediately stop taking in migrants, a communique
issued Monday read.
"As a precaution, Marine Le Pen urges
to immediately stop accepting migrants in France and to stop urgently
their spread in the French communes, towns and villages," the communique
read.
According to the document, one of the suicide bombers arrived
in France via Greece that, alongside other EU states, has been hit by a
huge influx of migrants.
On Friday night, several extremists wearing explosive belts attacked
public venues across Paris, killing some 130 people and injuring
over 350 at restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and in the vicinity
of the Stade de France.
The
aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will set sail for the shores of
Syria on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande said during a rare
address to the congress of the National Assembly and the Senate in
Versailles.
"The
sponsors of the attack in Paris must know that their crimes further
strengthen the determination of France to fight and to destroy them,"
Hollande said.
He
vowed to increase France’s participation in the ongoing battle
against ISIL in Syria, naming that country as "the largest terrorist
factory the world has ever known."
Hollande also called for a united and strong anti-ISIL coalition,
saying that he will meet with the US and Russian leaders to discuss
coordinating their efforts in the struggle against the Islamic State.
"We are not in a war of civilizations. These assassins don’t
represent a civilization. We are at war with jihadist terrorism which
threatens the whole of the world and not only France," he declared.
Hollande also said that he would formally request the parliament
to extend the state of emergency declared in the aftermath of the
attacks in Paris for three months.
President Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence
data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists
appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member
states.
During the summit, “I
provided examples based on our data on the financing of different
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals.
This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there
are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.
Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS.
"I’ve
shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which
clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum
products," he said.
“The motorcade of refueling vehicles
stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to
5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon," Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.
It’s
not the right time to try and figure out which country is more and
which is less effective in the battle with Islamic State, as now a
united international effort is needed against the terrorist group, Putin
said.
Putin reiterated Russia’s readiness to support armed opposition in Syria in its efforts to fight Islamic State.
"Some
armed opposition groups consider it possible to begin active operations
against IS with Russia's support. And we are ready to provide such
support from the air. If it happens it could become a good basis for the
subsequent work on a political settlement,” he said.
“We really need support from the US, European nations, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,” the president added.
Putin pointed out the change in Washington’s stance on cooperation with Moscow in the fight against the terrorists.
"We
need to organize work specifically concentrated on the prevention of
terrorist attacks and tackling terrorism on a global scale. We offered
to cooperate [with the US] in anti-IS efforts. Unfortunately, our
American partners refused. They just sent a written note and it says:
‘we reject your offer’,” Putin said.
“But life is always
evolving and at a very fast pace, often teaching us lessons. And I think
that now the realization that an effective fight [against terror] can
only be staged together is coming to everybody,” the Russian leader said.
According
to Putin, first of all it should be decided which groups in Syria can
be considered terrorist organizations and which can be attributed to an
armed, but still legitimate part of the Syrian opposition.
“Our efforts must be concentrated on the battle with terrorist organizations.”
Putin
also disagreed with Western criticism of Russia’s actions in Syria,
where the country has been carrying out a large-scale air campaign
against Islamic State and other terror groups since September 30.
“It’s really difficult to criticize us,” he said, adding that Russia has repeatedly asked its foreign partners to provide data on terrorist targets in Syria.
“They’re
afraid to inform us on the territories which we shouldn’t strike,
fearing that it is precisely where we’ll strike; that we are going to
cheat everybody,” the president said.
“Apparently, their opinion of us is based on their own concept of human decency,” he added.
Putin
told the media that Russia has already established contact with the
Syrian opposition, which has asked Moscow not carry out airstrikes in
the territories it controls.
Still no conclusion on what caused Sinai plane crash
It’s
too early to make conclusions about the reasons for the crash of the
Russian A321 jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in late October, as all
possible reasons are still being considered by the investigators, Putin
said.
“We know about all the possible scenarios, all of the
scenarios are being considered. The final conclusion can only be made
after the implementation and completion of the inspection,” he stressed.
"If
there was an explosion, the traces of explosives would have remained on
the liner’s cover and on the belongings of the passengers. It’s
inevitable. And we have enough equipment and skilled, world class
experts, capable of finding those traces. Only then would it be possible
to speak about the reasons for this tragedy," the president added.
With 224 people dying in the crash, Putin said that "it's a huge emotional pain for all of us; for all Russian people, no matter what the cause of the crash was."
Mississippi just got added to the list. Great job America! Let's Take America Back! 9 States halting relocation of Syrian Refugees. Not allowing entry, effective immediately: 1. Alabama 2. Arizona 3. Indiana 4. Louisiana 5. Michigan 6. Texas 7. Illinois 8. Massachusetts 9. Mississip
French security forces evacuate Paris’ 10th arrondissement following a string of Nov. 13 attacks.(KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images)
Analysis
Update (9:30 a.m. CST): The death toll from the Nov. 13 attacks has now reached over 120, according to France 24. Update (6:00 p.m. CST): According to French
media reports, French security forces have stormed and secured the
Bataclan theater. The attackers apparently used grenades inside the main
concert hall, Aujourd'hui Paris reported Nov. 13. Details are still
emerging.
As many as 60 people died Nov. 13 in multiple terrorist attacks
throughout Paris. At least five gunmen – likely jihadists judging from
witness's accounts – conducted the attacks.
Timeline of the Attack
The attacks, which were clearly coordinated, took place in multiple
locations and involved different methods. In the first wave, two suicide
bombers detonated their explosives at locations near the Stade de
France, where a soccer match between France and Germany was taking
place. (French President Francois Hollande himself was at the stadium at
the time of the attack. He was escorted from the scene and met with
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in a closed meeting shortly
thereafter.) It is unclear whether grenades or other explosives were
used, and it is possible a suicide bomber may have been involved.
Meanwhile, gunmen also opened fire, reportedly with Kalashnikov
rifles, on a tightly packed Cambodian restaurant in a drive-by shooting.
Shots were also fired at the Bataclan concert hall, where a hostage
situation is now underway.
Roughly 25 minutes later, gunmen also opened fire on Rue de Charonne.
And about an hour after the initial attacks, attacks by other terrorist
cells took place at the Louvre and Les Halles.
Special police units, including RAID, a police intervention unit,
have been rapidly mobilized and are currently securing the areas around
the stadium, the bars and restaurants in the area of the 10th and 11th
arrondissement, a part of Paris popular with young people and tourists,
and the Bataclan concert hall, where at least some of the gunmen,
allegedly armed with explosives, are reportedly located and holding up
to 100 hostages.
Events in Paris could evolve rapidly – the standoff with the gunmen
at the Bataclan concert hall could end at any moment if the French
special police units believe that the gunmen are going to harm the
hostages.
Though shocking, the attacks are not completely surprising. Multiple
individuals from France and other European countries have traveled to
Syria to join extremist groups there. As the Charlie Hebdo attacks have
also demonstrated, there is a persistent risk of terrorist attacks
within Europe. An important question going forward is whether the
attacks were entirely grassroots in nature or whether the assailants
received instruction or assistance from abroad from groups such as the
Islamic State or al Qaeda. Furthermore, the recent influx of refugees
into Europe from places such as Syria highlights the risk that jihadist
groups could have placed some of their members among the large refugee
flow in order to conduct attacks in Europe.
In an address to the nation, French President Francois Hollande said
that the country will close off its borders. The French government will
prioritize immediately locking down the city, protecting civilians and
capturing the attackers. The next piece of that will be to close down
transportation and the borders to prevent any perpetrators from
escaping. Finally they will begin to investigate to uproot the parties
responsible for the attacks. Notably, Hollande has officialy declared a
state of emergency.
Political Fallout
The attacks will surely have political consequences. They come five
days before France's only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, is
due to set sail for the Persian Gulf for actions against the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria. France has been carrying out airstrikes in
Syria since late September. Should the attacks be traced back to the
Islamic State's core area of operation, France will probably deepen its
involvement in anti-Islamic State operations in Syria and Iraq at a time
when the Syrian battlefield in particular is becoming crowded and
complicated.
From a political perspective, the attacks are a reminder of France's
longstanding ethnic frictions following several months in which the
focus has been on neighboring Germany. High numbers of migrants have
been entering Germany from the east and south, with very few carrying on
to France. As a result, France has kept a relatively low profile in the
attempts to stem the flow of migrants, though it has been present at
the numerous summits on the issue and has supported Germany's push for a
relocation of asylum seekers across Europe. Nevertheless, this event
can be expected to strengthen the argument of those groups that have
been calling for a halt in the flow of immigrants and the closing of
borders in countries such as Germany, Sweden and much of Central and
Eastern Europe
In the wake of these attacks, Marine Le Pen and her far-right
National Front party could see their popularity rise. Le Pen kept a low
profile after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January and still saw an
increase in her party's popularity because of its longstanding
anti-immigration message. Hollande also saw a brief uptick in popularity
after the Charlie Hebdo attack because of his reaction to the events,
but a repeat of this trend is not expected because people will now
question whether the anti-terrorism measures that were approved this
year actually worked. The leader of the center-right Republicans Party,
Nicolas Sarkozy, also has a history of taking a strong stance on
security issues; he was campaigning on the subject only last week. He is
expected to battle the milder Alain Juppe for his party's nomination in
the 2017 elections, and voters may swing to his side in the wake of the
attacks.
In
a follow-up to the former French president’s trip to Moscow and an
informal meeting with President Putin in late October, one French
magazine has offered an interesting analysis of what it actually means:
is it simply a way to distance himself from President Hollande or does
it represent a deeper ideological shift between France and Russia?
Projecting
the outcome of the meeting for the French 2017 presidential elections,
the authors of the Slate.fr explore whether an alignment of positions
between Russia and France may well be on the cards.
"In the same vein, in his address at MGIMO, Nicolas Sarkozy carefully
listed all the points of convergence between Vladimir Putin and
himself:
he was the first to call for the lifting
of sanctions against Russia, in opposition to Hollande, putting him
in the camp with those who in Europe, such as Hungary, Greece and Italy,
wish to abandon the tough stance taken on Moscow led by Poland, the
Baltic states and supported by Berlin."
"The former president also called for a united front of Europe,
Russia and America against international jihadism: having the same
enemies, suffering the same threats and being exposed to the same global
risks, France and Russia are natural allies on the international
scene."
"In short, the French leader seems to align
with the long term positions defended by the Russian presidency and
proclaimed on September 28 2015 at the UN podium by Vladimir Putin."
It might also symbolize a strategic shift between the two nations.
Some in France are cautious that Nicolas Sarkozy's possible victory
in the 2017 French Presidential elections might signify a change to the
country’s strategy.
"With his trip to Moscow, Nicolas Sarkozy is
sending a signal to the most conservative wing of his party. The fight
for Christian values and traditional values, the fight against terrorism
and illegal migration, promoting a strong state and an uninhibited
patriotism…These are all the elements that the future candidate receives
in Moscow, benefiting from the aura of the Russian president."
However, the magazine notes, Nicolas Sarkozy has preserved,
despite appearances, several "pretexts" of French diplomacy from the
past decade: the continued rule of Bashar al-Assad, officially supported
by Russian authorities, is an "obstacle to the resolution Syrian
political crisis."
"In addition, it is both possible and necessary to distinguish,
within the Syrian opposition, between moderates and radicals, contrary
to the arguments advanced by the Russian President who said this is a
vain distinction at the recent meeting of the Valdai Club in Sochi
by deleting the notion of a "moderate terrorism."
Finally, the idea of regime change (the neocon regime change
as reviled by the Russian President) is considered a necessity by the
former French president.
All the above allows the authors to suppose
that there are fundamental disagreements between the two leaders
despite an abundance of common ground.
The
position of France on the Ukrainian crisis is due to the consistently
argued principles of all French authorities, including by Sarkozy
during his presidency: the principle of territorial integrity of Ukraine
is fundamental and prohibits the recognition of such a rapid
integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation; the principle
of national sovereignty is also unbreakable and can only lead Paris
to demand the application of the Minsk I and II agreements to gradually
restore Kiev's "monopoly of legitimate violence" in Donbass.
Finally, the sanction regime is not just at the discretion of Paris
to make: a newly elected French president may well be able to argue a
case, but certainly the decision is not his alone to take amongst his
European partners.
However, in the final outcome, for Moscow,
Nicolas Sarkozy does not offer an alternative to Francois Hollande's
existing policy on Russia. While following in the traditional patterns
of French opposition leaders abroad, which involves scoring some
political points against the existing French president through cozying
up to Putin, under Sarkozy, France is likely to maintain its existing
political path meaning that the strengthening of Franco-Russian ties
remains unlikely.
Greej Reporter paris_Attack23At least one of the eight Paris attack perpetrators was among the refugees who had passed through Greece in October holding a Syrian passport, Greek authorities say.
According to Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas, the Syrian passport found at one of the attack sites was identified as a person who was a refugee, registered on Leros island, on October 3rd.
The official citizen protection ministry statement reads as follows:
“On the case of the Syrian passport found at the scene of the terrorist attack. We announce that the passport holder, had passed from Leros on 03.10.2015 where he was identified based on EU regulations on the refugee issue. We do not know if the passport was checked in other countries which the holder likely passed through. We will continue the painstaking and persistent effort under difficult circumstances to ensure the security of our country and Europe, insisting on the thorough identification of all persons in the refugee inflow.”
The perpetrator had arrived at Leros on October 3rd along with 70 other migrants. He was registered and identified at the island’s hot spot and two days later left Greece.
French authorities have given Greek police a second name of a suspect who had also passed through Greece along with other refugees.
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