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Ladybbird 26-05-13 01:08

PhOtOs-Terrorist Plants Another Huge Bomb Near Somali Airport
 
Woolwich Murder Suspect 'Held Two Months Ago'


Local shopkeepers say one of the suspects was part of a group of Muslim activists who had been reported to police several times.


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Murder suspect Michael Adebowale


By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent UK, Sunday 26 May 2013

One of the men suspected of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby was detained by police two months ago, Sky News has been told.

Shopkeepers in south London said Scotland’s Yard’s elite unit SO15 have been monitoring Michael Adebowale for over a year.

The police inquiries have centred around the activities of a small group of Muslim men who based themselves in the shadow of the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich.

Adebowale was part of the group that regularly preached hate at a makeshift activist stall outside shops on the high street.

Sky News can reveal that Adebowale’s group were investigated for publicly abusing soldiers who were guarding the Olympics at Royal Greenwich Park last summer.

Two months ago shopkeepers say they saw the suspect being detained by police officers - but the Metropolitan Police could not confirm or deny whether it was him.

Local traders also said Adebowale’s accomplices included a tall Asian looking man who wore glasses and a white Irish convert who had red hair and a goatee beard.

All three men wore traditional Islamic dress.


On one occasion a 25-year-old sweet shop worker complained that Adebowale launched into a horrific street rant about rape.
Local police officers told Sky News that during the Olympics in August 2012 they received complaints that Adebowale’s group were allegedly targeting soldiers and sailors staying on HMS Ocean.

The Navy’s biggest ship, housing 600 Royal Signal Corpsmen and 1200 crew, was berthed just 50 metres from Adebowale’s family home at Greenwich Quay.
Adebowale lived with his mother at Macey House on Thames Street, Greenwich, just a short distance from where the carrier was anchored.

One police officer said:

"The group used to turn up every couple of months with a table and they would give out leaflets.
"But during the Olympics they began shouting abuse at the soldiers and sailors who were guarding the park. One man was arrested.
"During the briefings we were told that SO15 were interested in them.
"It was taken seriously as the men were targeting soldiers who had to walk to and from the ship where they were staying.”

Retail assistant Aneesh Edakkavil, 32, said the police came to his souvenir shop to look at the CCTV after the incident.
The former Indian Army soldier said:

"One of them was arrested outside the shop and the police came to see me after the Olympics to gather the evidence.
"Unfortunately, the CCTV camera did not cover the area where they were shouting out so they couldn’t find anything. I do not know whether he was charged.
"The African guy, who killed the soldier in Woolwich, was there and I think he was the one that was taken away.
"They kept coming back right up until two months ago. Sometimes there was a tall guy with them."

Sky News can also reveal Adebowale was reported to the police for grooming a 12-year-old schoolboy into Islamic extremism.
A local trader, who did not wish to be named, said how he watched Adebowale brainwash the child with speeches against Britain.
The shop keeper was later told by police that Adebowale was being monitored by security services and his movements were being monitored.
A 25-year-old sweet shop worker called Claire who lives on the same Eastney Street estate where Adebowale stayed with his girlfriend said:

"About one month ago I saw him trying to get everyone to take his leaflets. He was shouting about rape, saying, “Stop causing rape”, to everyone.
"I was shaking my head saying: "What are you saying?
"I know that one day he got arrested by the police for shouting abuse at people."

A manager at Carphone Warehouse called Jamen confirmed that the Islamic stall popped up just before Christmas.
Fran, 45, said: "One day I asked him to move from outside the front door and he went quietly. He was preaching loudly. He was very nice when I asked him."


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Drummer Lee Rigby died in a suspected terror attack in London

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Lee Rigby's wife visits the spot where he died

.

Ladybbird 26-05-13 01:25

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
Woolwich Soldier Murder: Three More Arrests

12:34am Sky News UK, Sunday 26 May 2013


Three more men have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder the British soldier who was hacked to death in Woolwich.
Two men aged 24 and 28 were arrested at a residential address in London while a 21-year-old man was arrested in the street, Scotland Yard said in a statement.

Taser electric stun guns were used on the two older suspects.
Police have also been searching four residential addresses in south-east London.
The latest arrests came as Sky News was told Michael Adebowale - one of the men suspected of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby - was detained by police two months ago.


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Michael Adebolajo is one of two suspects under armed guard in hospital


Local shopkeepers say he was part of a group of Muslim activists who had been reported to police several times.
They were told the authorities were aware of him.

A preliminary report into what the intelligence services knew about Adebowale and his fellow suspect Michael Adebolajo is set to be handed over to an inquiry next week.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, said he had been briefed by the director general of MI5, Andrew Parker, a couple of days ago.


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Lee Rigby's current partner who is in the military


He added: "What we will be wishing to know is to what extent the intelligence services had any awareness of the two individuals."
Adebowale and Adebolajo are suspected of carrying out the killing in broad daylight last Wednesday.
Drummer Rigby, 25, was hit by a car and then attacked with weapons including a knife and a meat cleaver but the cause of his death was not confirmed by a post-mortem examination.
The two suspects are still under armed guard in hospital after being shot by police. Both are known activists in south-east London.


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Abu Nusaybah claimed he was a friend of Adebolajo


Meanwhile, it was alleged MI5 attempted to recruit Adebolajo as an informer six months ago, according to a childhood friend who was arrested shortly after making the claim.
Abu Nusaybah said Adebolajo had rejected approaches from MI5 operatives, but his friend had denied knowing certain individuals the security service was interested in.

Nusaybah was arrested in a BBC studio shortly after making the claims in a Newsnight interview, the BBC reported.

He said in his television interview that he thought Adebolajo had undergone a "change" following his detention by security forces on a 2012 trip to Kenya.

He said Adebolajo suggested he had been physically and sexually abused while he was interrogated in the African country, and after this he became withdrawn and "less talkative - he wasn't his usual bubbly self".



Nusaybah said Adebolajo told him that when he returned to the UK he was "followed by MI5" who were "knocking on his door" - a claim that has not been verified by Whitehall.

Nusaybah said: "His wording was, 'They are bugging me - they won't leave me alone.'
"He mentioned initially they wanted to ask him if he knew certain individuals.



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Drummer Rigby with his son, Jack

"But after him saying that he didn't know these individuals, what he said was they asked him if he would be interested in working for them.

"He was explicit in that he refused to work for them but he did confirm he didn't know the individuals."

Scotland Yard refused to confirm the man arrested at the BBC was Nusaybah, although a spokesman said a 31-year-old man had ben detained at BBC premises in London on suspicion of terrorism offences.
The arrest was made at 9.30pm on Friday by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter-Terrorism Command on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.


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Hundreds of flowers have been left near where Drummer Rigby died

The suspect was taken to a south London police station for questioning. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the case was not directly linked to the killing of Drummer Rigby.

Meanwhile, pictures have been released of Drummer Rigby in 2009 firing a machine gun in Afghanistan, one of the countries where he served.

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Drummer Rigby pictured in Afghanistan in 2009 (Pic: Nato TV)

The family of the serviceman paid a touching tribute when they spoke for the first time on Friday.

The soldier's stepfather, Ian, read a statement from the family:

"What can we say about Lee, our hero? We are so so proud of Lee. When Lee was born the family adored him, he was a precious gift given to us.
"Lee's dream growing up was always to join the Army, which he succeeded in doing. He was dedicated and loved his job."

Drummer Rigby's wife Rebecca, the mother of their two-year-old son Jack, said through tears that he was "a devoted father".

A 29-year-old man arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder on Thursday has been bailed to return pending further inquiries.
Two women aged 29 and 31 who were also arrested on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to murder have both been released without charge.

Ladybbird 31-05-13 19:11

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
Smile of a fanatic's sister: Bizarre grin of Blessing, 32, as she is led away by police after brother Michael 'hacked British soldier to death'

  • Blessing Adebolajo, 32, escorted from her property in Romford yesterday
  • She smiled as she got into an unmarked police car and was driven away
  • Her brother Michael, 28, is suspected of killing soldier Lee Rigby, 25
  • Neighbours claim the suspect was regularly seen at his sister's house
  • She has not been arrested by police
By Daily Mail UK, May 2013


The sister of the terror suspect accused of hacking a soldier to death smiled yesterday as she was escorted from her home and got into a police car.

Blessing Adebolajo, 32, was led from her property yesterday morning just hours after her brother Michael, 28, was filmed ranting with blood on his hands yards from the body of the murdered soldier in Woolwich.
Blessing was carrying a bag full of clothes as she got into an unmarked police vehicle outside her flat in Romford, Essex, last Friday.


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Suspect's sister: Blessing Adebolajo, 32, smiles as she gets into an unmarked police car outside her home in Romford, Essex

It is understood she was not arrested, but police will undoubtedly want to question her about her brother who neighbours said was seen regularly at the house.
A woman purporting to be Adebolajo's sister told the Romford Recorder newspaper yesterday: 'We didn't know he was going to do this.
Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, 22, have been identified as the men suspected of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby.

Blessing - who has also gone by the surname Daniels - lives on the top floor of the property and used to share the home with her terror suspect brother, neighbours told The Times.
Graham Wells, 30, claimed that Adebolajo smoked drugs when he was staying there.


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Led away: Blessing Adebolajo gets into the vehicle yesterday and was taken away.

'He liked to smoke a bit of green (marijuana). We played football, a kick-about on the courts. He was a big lad, not the sort of guy you'd want to cross,' he told the newspaper.
'He used to be a normal bloke. he always had a big smile on his face. he'd say "All right Wellsy, all right boy, what's happening?".'

Police also raided a home in Saxilby, Lincolnshire, yesterday which is believed to belong to the terror suspect's father Anthony, 56.

In a chilling rant captured on camera the other side of the road from where drummer Lee Rigby, 25, lay dead, the suspect named as Adebolajo declared: 'The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers.'


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Search: Police and forensic officers enter the top floor flat in Romford, Essex, where Adebolajo's sister Blessing lives. Neighbours said he used to live at the property

Former schoolfriends of Adebolajo said yesterday he was a 'bright and witty' boy who came from a devoutly Christian family. However, he is understood to have converted to Islam in around 2003.
His mother and father are hard-working Nigerian immigrants from an academic family in West Africa who settled in London in the early 1980s.

Virtually all the friends on his Facebook page have traditional British names such as Louise, Kelly, Robert, Craig, Gemma, Lauren and Paul, to name a few. Among them is Matthew Selt, now a professional snooker player.


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After the killing: Michael Adebolajo, 28, pictured on Wednesday, once served a jail sentence for violence


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Angels of Woolwich: Gemini Donnelly-Martin, 20, and her mother Amanda (right) talk to one of the alleged attackers with blood on his hands.
Meanwhile, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett (left) talks to the other suspect, identified as Michael Adebowale. Lee Rigby lies dead in the road


He was 'just a lovely, lovely guy', in the words of former classmate Stephen Cavalier – who, as a serving PC in the Metropolitan Police – could scarcely have followed a different path.

Speaking at his home in Essex yesterday, Mr Cavalier said: 'It seems odd to say it now, after the events of yesterday, but I remember him as just a lovely, lovely guy.


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Search: Police forensic teams check the gutters of the home where Blessing Daniels lives in Romford yesterday


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Search: Forensic officers were seen going in and out of the top floor flat in Romford, Essex, throughout the day yesterday

'I knew Michael at Marshalls Park School in Romford when we were teenagers. He was a good sportsman and just an all-round nice guy.'

He said he was no longer close to Adebolajo, who had requested they become 'Facebook friends' a few years ago.

'As soon as I saw the news last night I immediately recognised it was Michael. I was in shock really when I saw him.'


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Previously: Michael Adebolajo was in a group of Muslim extremists who fought with police outside the Old Bailey in 2006. He had been arguing that he had the right to 'behead those who insult Islam'


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Terror suspect: Anjem Choudary (right) claimed that this is him pictured with Michael Adebolajo, 28, (circled) at an Islamist demonstration in London in 2007

Throughout the frenzied attack the two killers shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is great’ – then demanded horrified witnesses film them as they ranted over the crumpled body.

The two black men in their 20s, waited calmly for armed police to arrive before charging at officers brandishing a rusty revolver, knives and meat cleavers.

When the old pistol was shot towards police it backfired and blew the thumb off one of the men.
Moments later they were cut down in a hail of bullets believed to be fired by a woman marksman. Last night both men were being treated in hospital for their wounds and will face questioning.


IRONIC- Murderer Mourns Death of Soldier Killed in Iraq:

Adebolajo was best friends at school with a war hero who died in Iraq.

Friends said Michael Adebolajo, who was filmed holding a knife in blood-covered hands after Drummer Lee Rigby was brutally killed in Woolwich on Wednesday, had to be consoled at the funeral of Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath in 2007.
L/Cpl Redpath's younger brother Grant, 26, told The Sun that Adebolajo went to their house in Romford, Essex, nearly every day after school during his teenage years.

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L/Cpl Kirk Redpath


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Schoolfriends: Michael Adebolajo (bottom) was comforted at the funeral of L/Cpl Kirk Redpath (above) in 2007


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Killed: L/Cpl Redpath died when an IED blew up his Land Rover near Basra


continued......


.

Ladybbird 31-05-13 19:32

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
Man charged with making 'racist or anti-religious' Facebook comments about British soldier’s death

  • Benjamin Flatters, 22, charged for making 'malicious comments' on the social networking site
  • Another man warned about his conduct on social media
  • Two men released on bail after comments made on Twitter
  • Police say people should be careful about what they write on twitter as the 'consequences could be serious'
By Daily Mail UK, 31 May 2013


A 22-year-old man has been charged on suspicion of making malicious comments on Facebook following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby.

Benjamin Flatters, from Lincoln, was arrested last night after complaints were made to Lincolnshire Police about comments made on Facebook, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

He was charged with an offence of malicious communications this afternoon in relation to the comments, a Lincolnshire Police spokesman said.


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Fallen hero: Father Lee Rigby, 25, from Manchester, was killed in Woolwich last Wednesday



A second man was visited by officers and warned about his activity on social media, the spokesman added.
It comes after 25-year-old Drummer Rigby was brutally murdered on a street in Woolwich, south east London, on Wednesday.

The father-of-one, from Manchester, had fought in Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

Flatters has been remanded in police custody and will appear before magistrates in Lincoln tomorrow.

The charge comes after two men were earlier released on bail following their arrest for making alleged offensive comments on Twitter about the murder.

Complaints were made to Avon and Somerset Police about remarks that appeared on the social networking website, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.


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A great character: Father of one, soldier Lee Rigby, of Greater Manchester, pictured relaxing on Army leave


Shocking: The Twitter comments come after the attack in London. Police say they do even more harm to the community

A 23-year-old and a 22-year-old, both from Bristol, were held under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred.

Detective Inspector Ed Yaxley, of Avon and Somerset Police, said:

'On Wednesday evening, we were contacted by people concerned about comments made on social media accounts.
'We began inquiries into the comments and at around 3.20am two men, aged 23 and 22, were detained at two addresses in Bristol.
'The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.
'These comments were directed against a section of our community. Comments such as these are completely unacceptable and only cause more harm to our community in Bristol.
'People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious.'


Police confirmed the two men were later released on bail pending further inquiries.

continued......

Ladybbird 31-05-13 19:59

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
Betrayal of a hero father: How MI5 spent EIGHT YEARS watching violent ex-prisoner who preached outside Poundland just yards from murder scene only days before soldier was hacked to death

  • MI5 had been monitoring two fanatics responsible for SE London killing
  • One fanatic was photographed behind hate preacher Anjem Choudary
  • Michael Adebolajo, 28, was also a member of a banned terrorist group
  • He was said to have preached jihad in Woolwich just earlier this week
  • Close to where married father Lee Rigby was beheaded on Wednesday
  • Second suspect named last night in reports as Michael Adebowale, 22

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Murdered: Drummer Lee Rigby with his wife Rebecca at their wedding in 2007. Their son Jack is just two


MI5 had been monitoring the two fanatics responsible for the slaughter of a young soldier near Woolwich barracks for eight years.

The Security Service is facing an inquiry by MPs amid a raft of devastating revelations about the killers’ known links to Islamist extremism.
One of the pair – Michael Adebolajo – was so high profile he was photographed outside Paddington Green police station six years ago behind notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
He was even intercepted by officials as he attempted to travel to Somalia to fight alongside Islamist terrorists last year.

It also emerged that Adebolajo was a violent ex-prisoner who was a member of a banned terrorist group.
Incredibly, he was said to have been preaching jihad on the streets of Woolwich earlier this week, only a few hundred yards from where 25-year-old Army Drummer Lee Rigby – a married father – was beheaded.

As MI5 faced accusations that they let the men slip through the net, David Cameron ordered a full intelligence review by a Westminster committee.

On a dramatic day:
  • Sources confirmed that 28-year-old Adebolajo once served a jail sentence for violence;
  • Tory minister Baroness Warsi attacked broadcasters who give airtime to ‘extremist voices – idiots and nutters’ after Choudary gave interviews on BBC TV and Channel 4 News;
  • It was revealed Adebolajo was once intercepted by police as he attempted to travel to Somalia to fight alongside Al-Shabaab;
  • The Conservative MP Bob Stewart demanded foreign-born preachers of hate should be ‘put on a plane out’ of Britain;
  • Heavily-armed Scotland Yard officers made dawn raids at six homes across London and in Lincoln;
  • A man and a woman, both aged 29, were arrested on suspicion of joining the murderous conspiracy.

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Previously: Michael Adebolajo was in a group of Muslim extremists who fought with police outside the Old Bailey in 2006. He had been arguing that he had the right to 'behead those who insult Islam'


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Terror suspect: Anjem Choudary (right) claimed that this is him pictured with Michael Adebolajo, 28, (circled) at an Islamist demonstration in London in 2007


Police chiefs described the counter terrorism investigation, one of the largest in recent history, as ‘complex and fast-moving’.
Adeolajo, 28, and his friend remained under armed guard in separate hospitals being treated for gunshot wounds. They are expected to recover fully.

The second suspect was reported last night by news outlets including Channel 4 News and The Times to be Michael Adebowale, 22, of Greenwich, south-east London.

The list of questions faced by the authorities was growing fast as evidence of the danger the two men posed to Britain grew.
Sources said both men featured in ‘a number’ of counter terrorism investigations in recent years but were not seen as a ‘threat to life’.

Yet Adebolajo, who was born in South London but is of Nigerian descent, was linked to Choudary as long ago as 2003.
The former fitness instructor is believed to have been a member of Al Muhajiroun, which was led by the hate preacher until it was banned by the Government.


Aftermath: The men waited for 20 minutes saying they wanted to shoot the police, but were gunned down themselves and are shown here being detained


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Hovering: An air ambluance comes into land on Woolwich's Wellington Street as crowds gather at the scene of the murder


He was jailed at least once for violence and friends said he was a member of a gang of knife-wielding street robbers in his hometown of Romford, Essex.


'This country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terror. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms'
Prime Minister David Cameron


Footage showed him standing directly behind Choudary during a protest outside Paddington Green police station in April 2007.

It is believed he may have also been held by the Met in 2006 after protesting outside the Old Bailey during the trial of four Muslim men.

The defendants were ultimately jailed for their part in protests at the Danish embassy in London against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.


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Tearful: A mourner is overcome as he surveys the field of flowers that has been laid in Woolwich in recent days


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Tributes: A group of mothers and their children head to the Bararcks to leave flowers and messages for the dead soldier, who also had a son, two


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Sad: Bouquets and wreaths are being left along the street and tied to teh railings close to where Lee Rigby died


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Personal: This anonymous message was to Lee and thanked him for what he did for Britain


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Moved: Three young women prepare to lay flowers where the unnamed soldier was murdered brutally in Woolwich on Wednesday


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Message: A handwritten note was also left by one member of the public left distraught by what happened to the murdered man Lee Rigby


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Attached to a bunch of white roses, the neatly written note is from a person who didn't know the victim but felt moved to visit where he died


Men linked to Al Muhajiroun gathered outside the high security police station after Muslim convert Abu Izzadeen was arrested for inciting terrorism.

Unbelievably, it is also claimed he was intercepted by police as he attempted to travel to Somalia last year to fight jihad.

Sources said Adebolajo wanted to join Al-Shabaab, a notorious Al Qaeda affiliate responsible for terrorising the region.

The 28-year-old was seen as recently as 2 weeks agp wearing white robes and a cap as he preached outside a branch of Poundland in Woolwich.


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Delicate: A forensic officers examine a revolver at the scene and places it in a protective box pistol close to Woolwich Barracks


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Forensic approach: A team of police comb over grass and a brick wall for evidence to be used in this shocking murder case


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Police have guarded the area where Lee Rigby was killed for at least 48 hours as they investigate exactly what happened

Regiment's tribute to hero father Drummer Lee Rigby


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Residents said the former University of Greenwich student was handing out leaflets encouraging locals to support rebels in Syria.

The second attacker, named last night in reports as Michael Adebowale, 22, is believed to have been born in Nigeria before becoming a naturalised British citizen.

'This is going to be a big blow to the new director of MI5, who has only been in the job for a couple of weeks'
Professor Anthony Glees, University of Buckingham

A woman believed to be his girlfriend was arrested during a raid at his home in a block of council flats in Woolwich.

Security officials are currently monitoring more than 2,000 suspects and sources point out they must target their resources on the fanatics considered to pose the greatest danger.
They also say MI5’s resources have been dramatically increased since the July 7 bombings which has meant the number of suspects crossing the ‘radar’ of surveillance teams has itself soared.


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Patrols: Two soldiers, one of them carrying a firearm, walk outside Woolwich Barracks


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Tribute: Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking outside Number 10. Condemnation: David Cameron, said the attack would bring the UK together and 'make us stronger'


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Scene: London Mayor Boris Johnson speaks to police officers just yards from where the soldier was brutally murdered


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Police previously raided a house which is believed to be connected with Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo. His father Anthony is said to live at this Lincolnshire address


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Former home: Michael Adebolajo lived in this house in Romford with his parents while he converted to Islam as a teenager


Professor Anthony Glees, director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, said;

MI5 made the ‘wrong call’.
He said: ‘This is going to be a big blow to the new director of MI5, who has only been in the job for a couple of weeks.’


But Patrick Mercer, a Tory MP and counter terrorism expert, said it is ‘impossible’ for police and security services to keep us ‘100 per cent secure’.


continued.....

Ladybbird 31-05-13 20:15

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
'God destined for soldier to die': Radical cleric banned from UK applauds attack as police are urged to investigate inciting hatred

  • Omar Bakri Mohammed is banned from Britain but spoke from Beirut
  • It is believed he was secretly filmed condoning decapitation of those opposed to Islam
  • He said suspect Michael Adebolajo used to listen to his preachings
  • Police urged to monitor radical clerics in Britain to see if comments on Woolwich killing break the law on inciting hatred

A radical Muslim cleric has claimed 'God destined' for British solider Lee Rigby to die in the barbaric terror attack on the streets of Woolwich.
Omar Bakri Mohammed, who is banned from Britain, has given interviews in Lebanon applauding the 'heroes' who slaughtered the 25-year-old in an apparently unprovoked attack on Wednesday.

It comes as the police are urged to monitor closely comments by leading radical clerics in the UK to see if they have broken the law in the days since the attack.


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Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed has said he understands why the suspects would have carried out the attacks and even called suspect Michael Adebolajo (left) a ‘hero’


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Islamist preacher Omar Bakri praised Michael Adebolajo for remaining at the murder scene

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have been condemned for giving airtime to Anjem Choudary and other militant Islamists this week.

Critics say the radical preachers in Britain are carefully 'flying close to the wind' by appearing to support the Woolwich killing without breaking laws on inciting religious hatred.

But Bakri Mohammed, speaking from abroad, has gone much further. In an interview with The Independent, he said he understood why the suspects would have carried out the barbaric attack on Drummer Lee Rigby.

He said: ‘I saw the film and we could see that he (the suspect) was being very courageous.
‘Under Islam this can be justified, he was not targeting civilians, he was taking on a military man in an operation. To people around here (in the Middle East) he is a hero.’

Bakri Mohammed, who developed the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK before founding Al-Muhajiroun, has even said.... he knew Adebolajo personally and converted him to Islam.

The cleric is said to have close links to al-Qaeda and once known as the Tottenham Ayatollah for his radical sermons before leaving London shortly after the 2005 bombings.

He now lives in exile in Lebanon after being told by the Home Office that he would not be allowed to return to the UK.

He claimed that he once owned a stall in London which Adebolajo would visit.
The pair would talk about the ‘meaning of life’ and Adebolajo began attending open talks and meetings.

In a separate interview with Reuters today, he added: I think Michael, or Mujahid, is going to stand for what God has destined for him.
'God destined for him to carry out the attack and God destined for the British soldier to die for the cause he believed in.'
He added that while Muslims in Britain condemned the attack, Muslims in Lebanon are 'proud' of it.

Meanwhile the decision to give Choudary airtime has attracted fierce criticism.

On BBC Newsnight he was challenged over video footage showing Michael Adebolajo, one of Drummer Rigby's suspected killers, attempting to justify the slaughter with an attack on British foreign policy.

Choudary claimed 'what he said in the clip, I think not many Muslims can disagree with'.
Former army officer Tory MP Bob Stewart said he was confident the police were monitoring Choudary closely.
'He was sailing close to the wind but he knew exactly what was saying to make sure he didn't go too far. If he advocates racial killing we have a law against racially aggravated crime.'

Yesterday Mr Stewart, a former Army colonel, said the time had come to tear up human rights laws and deport extremists deemed to be a threat to the public.
He said Labour’s Human Rights Act, which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights, should be scrapped immediately to allow the authorities to take tougher action against terror suspects and those who encourage them.

Mr Stewart called on Home Secretary Theresa May to begin the process immediately by deporting hate preacher Abu Qatada to his native Jordan, where he faces terrorism charges.
He said the security services should go through the estimated 3,000 terror suspects they are monitoring and take immediate action against any deemed to be a threat.
Mr Stewart, a former commander of UN forces in Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, added: ‘It may not be as democratic as libertarians would like but, I am sorry, we are fighting a war.’


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Hate preacher: The BBC released footage of Michael Adebolajo standing behind Anjem Choudary in 2007




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:arrrrrgh:...On Newsnight: Kirsty Walk (c) interviewed Choudary (l) last night with the Ebrahim College Imam and director Shams Adduha Muhammad (r) and and the Islamic Society of Britain executive director Julie Siddiqui (cr)
... :arrrrrgh:



Senior Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi spoke out last night against the decison to give Choudary airtime.

She said: ‘We all have a responsibility, including the media, not to give airtime to extremist voices – idiots and nutters who speak for no one but themselves.
‘The heartening thing in the midst of all this tragedy is that the British Muslim community has, with a unified, unreserved voice, condemned the killing and pledged support for our armed forces.
‘This is a real maturing of the community which has taken years of painstaking work and frank discussions behind closed doors.
'This time everyone has stepped up to the mark. Yet here broadcasters are undoing all this by giving a platform to one appalling man who represents nobody. I am really angry.’

Choudary, former head of banned Islamist organisation Al Muhajiroun, was behind the planned protest march in 2010 through Royal Wootton Bassett, the town where dead British soldiers were repatriated.
He has been accused of radicalising Adebolajo – the blood-soaked man who was filmed in the aftermath of the horrific attack berating the British government – in the mid-2000s.

Defence Secretary Jim Murphy said on Twitter:

‘Banned from France but welcome on Newsnight. A mistake of the BBC to invite Anjem Choudary onto the telly tonight.’

Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, also condemned the BBC’s decision, telling LBC radio that the radical was an ‘offensive and obnoxious media tart’ with no followers.

Ladybbird 13-06-13 22:41

re: VIDEOs-Syria Govt Goes"Too Far"-US Plan Military Action
 
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BBC 13 June 2013

Assad Forces used Chemical Weapons - White House

Syrian forces under President Bashar al-Assad have used chemical weapons "on a small scale" against the opposition rebels, the White House has said.
A senior aide to President Barack Obama said the US estimated 100-150 people had died in "multiple" attacks.


Ben Rhodes said the president had decided to provide unspecified "military support" to the opposition.

The White House had previously warned that the US considers the use of such weapons crossing a "red line".

Mr Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr Obama, said the US previously had no "reliable" evidence the opposition had used chemical weapons.
Earlier, the United Nations said the number of those killed in the Syrian conflict had risen to more than 93,000 people.

Calculus 'changed'

Mr Rhodes said the president had made the decision to increase assistance, including "military support", to the opposition's Supreme Military Council (SMC).
He declined to provide further details, other than to say it would be "different in scope and scale to what we have provided before".

"The president has been clear that the use of chemical weapons - or the transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups - is a red line for the US," Mr Rhodes said.
"Our intelligence community now has a high confidence assessment that chemical weapons have been used on a small scale by the Assad regime in Syria. The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has."

Mr Rhodes said US intelligence agencies had concluded Mr Assad's forces had used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, based on battlefield reports, "descriptions of physiological symptoms" from alleged victims, and laboratory analysis of samples obtained from alleged victims.

However, the full number killed by chemical weapons was "likely incomplete", Mr Rhodes said in a conference call with reporters.

"Put simply, the Assad regime should know that its actions have led us to increase the scope and scale of assistance that we provide to the opposition," he said, including direct support to the SMC.
"These efforts will increase going forward."

Further actions will be taken "on our own timeline", Mr Rhodes said.


VIDEO- WARNING - Disturbing Images of Syrians Injured by Chemical Weapons

Click Here:

Syria

To be continued......

.

Ladybbird 01-07-13 19:31

Photos-US Secret Base=Training Syrian Rebels for War
 
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Assad-busters: At a Secret Base in Jordan, U.S Special Forces are Training Syrian Rebels for War...but loads fear sleeper cells in their nation will wreak a Terrible Revenge

  • 8,000 military personnel are behind Operation Eager Lion training exercise
  • Arms from the West would have to travel through Jordan to get to Syria
  • It is believed this could enrage Assad, who may well seek revenge
  • Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour insists that US forces are not preparing for a war in Syria

Flying low over the Jordanian desert, F-16 fighter jets flatten targets in the sand while tanks unleash their deadly firepower and paratroopers dot the late afternoon sky.

These were the scenes a fortnight ago in Operation Eager Lion, the United States-led exercise involving 8,000 service personnel that the military insists was only routine.
In Jordan, though, the war games now feel like a precursor to the invasion of neighbouring Syria. And not just because live rounds were fired.


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Special operations forces from Iraq, Jordan and the U.S. conduct an exercise as part of operation Eager Lion at the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center in Amman, Jordan


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The coastal city of Aqaba was the site of military exercises are said to be designed to promote military relationships and face terrorism

Concerns were raised further last week with news that the CIA and US Special Forces are training Syrian rebels at a secret base in the remote south-west of the country.
The Free Syrian Army fighters are mainly from Daraa, where the uprising began in March 2011.
It is not known how many of the rebels have passed through the US base, but it is understood 20 to 45 at a time have been attending two-week courses since December – and are being trained with Russian-designed 14.5mm anti-tank rifles and 23mm anti-aircraft weapons.
Operation Eager Lion may have ended two weeks ago but 900 combat-ready American servicemen remain behind, with many now based close to the strategically important northern border.
Disquiet over what may happen next is felt all over this desert kingdom – a key ally of Britain and America and one that has played a pivotal role in the power struggle in the Middle East.
Few Jordanians doubt that the West is now more determined than ever to meet the rebels’ demand for heavy arms.
But while they share the same desire to rid Syria of President Bashar Assad, the majority – motivated by a strong sense of self-preservation – view the unfolding scenario as potentially disastrous.

And not just because of the fear that the weapons will find their way into the hands of extremist elements among the rebels, including Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.
Or that Assad’s friends in Russia and Iran will respond in kind.


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The military training exercises are based close to the strategically important northern border with Syria


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A rocket is fired during the operation. Jordan's Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour insists that US forces are not preparing for a war in Syria

It is because they believe the arms will inevitably have to pass through Jordan to reach Syria. This, they argue, will enrage Assad, who may well seek revenge.

In the wood-panelled bars of Jabal Al-Weibdeh, the Christian quarter of the capital Amman, opinion-formers and decision-makers meet daily over tea and shisha to discuss the threat to their country.

Here, whenever David Cameron and Barack Obama speak of civil war in Syria, which has already cost the lives of more than 100,000 men, women and children, their words are seized upon, scrutinised and debated.

Coverage of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland was almost as keenly watched in Amman as the Arab Idol song contest.

Should Jordan be seen to be too readily helping its Western allies, it is argued, Assad might activate Syrian ‘sleeper cells’ in the capital and elsewhere.

‘It is estimated that around 4,000 Assad loyalists and Hezbollah members have infiltrated our towns and cities and are ready and waiting to rise up,’ said Ahmad Hassan Alzoubi, one of Jordan’s foremost political commentators.

Their numbers have been swollen by fighters who have entered the country among the waves of Syrian refugees.

Mr Alzoubi added: ‘The fear is they will try to destabilise our country.’ Targets are thought to include strategic military facilities.


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Operation Eager Lion may have ended two weeks ago but 900 combat-ready American servicemen remain


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If Jordan is seen to be too keen to help its Western allies, it is argued, Assad might activate Syrian 'sleeper cells' in the capital and elsewhere

A senior government official said that the cells ‘may try to assassinate prominent Jordanians’.
In the past, sleeper cells in Jordan have been activated by Hezbollah for attacks on Israel through the West Bank.
Even so, Jordan remains, at least for now, one of the region’s safest countries, its significance arising partly from its strategic location at the crossroads of the Holy Land.
It is also one of only two Arab nations to have made peace with Israel.

‘So far the spotlight has been on northern Syria, around Aleppo, where the rebels are strong,’ said Mr Alzoubi.
‘But the significance of what is happening in the south, near our border – which is near Damascus – cannot be overlooked.
‘This is the route the West will use to move arms for the rebels. And, ultimately, it is only in the capital of Syria that victory for the rebels can be achieved.’

For the time being at least Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour insists that US forces are not preparing for a war in Syria.
He said they are in the Arab kingdom to bolster its defence and prevent the civil war from spreading across its border.
Of the 900, he added, 200 are training Jordanians to handle a chemical attack. The remaining 700 are manning a Patriot missile-defence system and F-16 fighter jets.

‘If the war continues, it’s a problem, and if it ends with the collapse of the regime, we also have a problem,’ said Mr Ensour.
He added that the fall of Assad’s regime would leave a ‘vacuum, whereby attacks and conflicts would persist’. That scenario appears to be a long way off.

For now, few believe Assad will go anywhere soon, particularly as he appears to be in the ascendancy.
After successfully recapturing the town of Qusair near the Lebanese border, regime forces have moved on rebel strongholds around Damascus and the Jordanian border.


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Jordan's Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour insists that US forces are not preparing for a war in Syria


‘The regime is directing its forces to the border region,’ said Abu Mohammad al-Darawi, who heads a Free Syrian Army battalion outside the southern city of Daraa.
‘We can no longer guarantee the safety of refugees trying to enter Jordan.’

Yesterday, thousands of refugees were stranded across the border because pro-Assad forces, fighting alongside mercenaries from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia party, had cut off access routes to Jordan, which has already taken in more than 550,000 people.
More than 160,000 of them are in the Zaatari refugee camp, which has effectively become Jordan’s fifth largest city. While many are still desperate to reach it, others are already starting to leave.

Already this month some 9,000 Syrians abandoned Zaatari to answer the rebels’ call to return to their homeland and ‘defend’ their towns.
Many more have simply had enough of the camp, which has become increasingly lawless, and long to start a new life in Amman which is off-limits to them.

Bearing the brunt of the Syrians’ frustrations have been humanitarian agency workers. ‘There have been around 70 cases where agency workers have been attacked with sticks and rocks,’ said Mohammed Ali, a clinic manager with Jordan Health Aid Society.
‘Last month a policeman was stabbed by a refugee. There have been demonstrations, with refugees burning down their tents. People are becoming frustrated because they have been here so long.’

On the surface, however, the camp appears well-equipped, with schools, sports facilities, shops and even a tailor. ‘I don’t want to go back to fight in Syria – I just want to go home and live peacefully,’ said Abu Jarah, a 30-year-old barber.
He arrived at Zaatari in December with his wife after his two-year-old daughter, Shouq, was shot dead by regime forces as he carried her across a street in Daraa.
‘The bullet hit her in the head and she was blown out of my arms,’ he said. ‘It was the most terrible day of my life.’

On Wednesday Jordan’s King Abdullah said: ‘We will not allow anything to compromise our national security or harm our citizens.’

On Friday, at Jordan’s main border crossing with Syria, a burly guard’s discourse on Manchester United’s chances of success without Sir Alex Ferguson was brought to an abrupt halt by a burst of mortar fire.
The loud boom broke the desert stillness and made the guard spring from his chair. Jabbing the air with a cigarette, he estimated that it came from at least two miles away, which seemed to calm his colleagues.
Eventually their tension subsided, but didn’t disappear entirely. The men fell silent, their discussion about football and ‘Mr Alex’ forgotten.

Despite the King’s assurance, his people remain edgy. They simply can’t escape the feeling that Jordan, a bit-part player, has been reluctantly shoved on to centre stage.

Ladybbird 18-07-13 22:26

re: Photos/Videos-Terrorist Murderer Attacked in Prison
 
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Woolwich Murder Suspect Michael Adebolajo 'Attacked in Prison'


By Daily Mail UK, 18 July 2013

Terror suspect Michael Adebolajo, one of the men accused of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, is believed to have been attacked in prison.
Reports claim the 28-year-old, of Romford in Essex, was set upon at HMP Belmarsh in south east London yesterday.
Reports say he has had two teeth knocked out in the attack.

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Michael Adebolajo, one of the men accused of murdering Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, is believed to have been attacked in prison

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed an investigation is underway but has refused to comment further.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: 'The police are investigating an incident that took place at HMP Belmarsh on July 17.
'It would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation was ongoing.'
Adebolajo is accused of hacking Fusilier Rigby to death together with Michael Adebowale, 22, near Woolwich Barracks in south east London on May 22.

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Adebolajo is accused of hacking Fusilier Rigby (left) to death together with Michael Adebowale, 22 (pictured in a court drawing). The two suspects are due to stand trial on November 18, 2013


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Crowds of wellwishers line the street as the funeral cortege of Fusilier Lee Rigby drives away from Bury Parish church following a funeral service attended by 800



The pair are expected to stand trial on 18 November 2013

Following the attack, thousands of people paid their respects at the scene of Fusilier Rigby's death.
But despite pleas from police and the soldier's family for his death not to be used for political gain, there have also been several clashes between rival protesters.

Last week a full military funeral for Fusilier Rigby was attended by 800 mourners.

David Cameron, who said the whole country would be mourning with Fusilier Rigby’s family, attended the funeral with London Mayor Boris Johnson.
The 45-minute service began with a two-minute silence in honour of the soldier, who served in the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

RELATED, Click:

Activated Bomb Found in UK Mosque

.

Ladybbird 26-08-13 07:33

re: WAR-Britain & US to Attack Syria-Russia Warns! -PhOtOs
 
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WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT!

Britain and U.S. Prepare Missile Strikes Against Syria 'Within Days'

  • David Cameron and Barack Obama discussed plan in 40-minute phone call
  • They are now expected to finalise details within 48 hours
  • Want to send warning to dictator Bashar Al-Assad over deaths of 1,300
By Daily Mail UK/BBC News, 26 August 2013


Britain and the US are set to launch missile strikes against the Syrian regime in retaliation for its barbaric chemical attack on civilians.
David Cameron and Barack Obama discussed the plan in a 40-minute phone call at the weekend and will finalise the details within 48 hours.


The two leaders want to send a clear warning to dictator Bashar Al-Assad over the deaths of as many as 1,300 people, many of them children.


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Plans: David Cameron, right, discussed options with President Obama in a 40-minute phone call at the weekend


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Warning: Obama wants to send a clear message to dictator Bashar Assad



William Hague said ‘all the evidence’ suggested Assad’s henchmen carried out last week’s horrific nerve gas atrocity.
‘We cannot, in the 21st century, allow the idea that chemical weapons can be used with impunity – that people can be killed in this way and that there are no consequences for it,’ insisted the Foreign Secretary.

‘We believe it is very important there is a very strong response so that dictators, whether Assad or others who might slaughter their own people, know that using chemical weapons is to cross a line, and that the world will respond.’

Royal Navy commanders in the region are preparing to take part in the assault, which is likely to be unleashed within ten days.
Government sources indicated the cruise missile blitz is likely to be short and sharp and will not signal an intention to get involved in the bloody civil war in Syria.

But it will inevitably lead to fears that Britain could get sucked into another Iraq-style nightmare.

Military planners in Washington and London are addressing the ‘significant challenge’ of finalising a list of potential targets designed to cripple Assad’s chemical warfare capability.


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Syria Graphic


The intervention is likely to involve missile strikes rather than an airborne bombing campaign, in order to avoid the dangers posed by the sophisticated air defences supplied to Syria by Russia.
A British source said ‘naval assets in the region’ were likely to be involved, suggesting the possible use of submarine-borne Tomahawk cruise missiles.

In an ominous development Damascus last night warned US president Obama that any intervention would not be a ‘walk in the park’, adding: ‘It will bring chaos and the region will burn.’

Iran warned the West it would face ‘severe consequences’ if it intervened in Syria.

And Russia, which has blocked UN action against Syria, said unilateral action by the West would undermine efforts for peace and have a ‘devastating impact’ on the security situation in the Middle East.


The Syrian regime last night attempted to head off a military intervention by the West by announcing it would finally allow United Nations experts to visit the gas atrocity site in Damascus. Inspectors are expected to begin their work today.


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Hundreds died in the alleged chemical attacks on Wednesday, including many women and children



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Activists say that somewhere between 200 and 1,300 were killed in the chemical weapons attack on Wednesday near Damascus. Syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons of any country


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The two leaders want to send a clear warning to dictator Bashar Al-Assad over the deaths of as many as 1,300 people, many of them children



But Washington and London dismissed the move, saying it was ‘too late to be credible’, and followed almost a week of shelling of the area during which much of the evidence may have been destroyed.
Britain, the United States and France have all blamed the Assad regime for the attack because the rebel fighters are not thought to have the capability to carry out an atrocity on that scale.
President Francois Hollande, who spoke to Mr Cameron yesterday, is also pushing for swift military retaliation and could authorise the use of French forces in the attack.

In a statement following the talks, Downing Street said the two men ‘agreed that a chemical weapons attack against the Syrian people on the scale that was emerging demanded a firm response from the international community. This crime must not be swept under the carpet.’

Mr Hollande’s office said: ‘France is determined that this act does not go unpunished.’

A Government source said the Prime Minister had not abandoned hope of achieving tougher UN action against Syria in the future.

But with Russia frustrating progress, the source said Mr Cameron believed any short-term military response would have to be taken outside the UN process.

‘This looks like one of the worst chemical weapons attacks of modern times,’ another Government source said.
‘If you are responding to an attack on this scale you have to do it quickly. If you let it go for two, three, four weeks there is a danger you send a message that it doesn’t matter.’



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Just one section of the huge Quru Gusik refugee camp in Iraq which is now home to thousands of displaced Syrians



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Refugee siblings in the camp eat watermelons being distributed by the NGO



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UN aid agencies say the number of children fleeing Syria has now reached one million


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One of the Kurdish refugees protects himself from the sun with a shemagh while walking through the camp



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A grandmother and mother with a disabled child who fled from Syria to the camp in Iraq



Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has discussed the crisis several times with Mr Cameron in recent days and a senior Lib Dem source said there would be an agreed Coalition response. ‘The Government is working as one on this,’ the source said.

A government source said it was ‘possible’ that Parliament could be recalled early from its summer recess this week to discuss the crisis. But the source stressed that Mr Cameron had always reserved the ‘flexibility’ to order a military strike in response to fast-moving events without recourse to Parliament.

Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown yesterday warned against rushing to military action on Syria. But Lord Ashdown, who remains close to Mr Clegg, acknowledged that the UN would be ‘greatly diminished’ if the world failed to respond to Assad’s ‘terrible breach’ of international law.

Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the US Senate foreign affairs committee, said he had spoken to the Obama administration about its plans for Syria and believed the president would seek authorisation from Congress.

‘I think we will respond in a surgical way and I hope the president as soon as we get back to Washington will ask for authorisation from Congress to do something in a very surgical and proportional way,’ he told Fox News.

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘No decisions have been taken on military action and the timetable for a serious response from the international community is not yet clear.
‘We are very conscious of when MPs are due to return and haven’t ruled out recalling them earlier.’

Cameron must go to the Commons to justify strike against Syria, say Labour and Tory backbenchers

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Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said it is right that the UK works with the international community to find a solution on Syria



David Cameron was under pressure to recall Parliament last night to debate the Syrian crisis before Britain launches any missile strikes.
Labour politicians, backed by Tory counterparts, said it was essential that MPs had their say on such a potentially momentous move.

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said: ‘In light of ongoing international developments, it is right that the UK works with the international community to try to find an agreed way forward in Syria. If, in reality, the Prime Minister is now considering military options involving UK personnel then of course I would expect him to seek a recall of Parliament and to come to the House of Commons and make his case in advance of a decision being made.’

Bob Stewart, a Tory MP and former military commander, said: ‘Parliament may well have to be recalled before we take any military action, because then that gives us justification.
‘We’re not going to get a Security Council resolution because the Russians aren’t up for it, and the Chinese certainly aren’t.’ He said that if it was confirmed that the Syrian regime was responsible for the chemical weapons attacks then Britain would have to act.
‘We shouldn’t just talk,’ he added. ‘We would have to actually act, and by acting we probably mean some kind of punitive warning action using missiles. That means military action – that means a recall of Parliament.’

Fellow Tory MP Sarah Wollaston indicated she would oppose any military intervention in Syria that did not have the full backing of the United Nations.

Dr Wollaston, one of many in her party who is sceptical about the benefits of any intervention, said: ‘Parliament must be recalled before, not after, any decision on military involvement or action in Syria.
‘I don’t believe unilateral Western intervention in Syria can achieve anything other than escalation into a global conflict.’

MPs are away from Westminster for another week on Parliament’s long summer recess.
David Cameron indicated before the recess that he would recall Parliament before taking any step toward war, such as arming the Syrian rebels.
A Downing Street source said it was possible Parliament would be recalled this week to discuss the crisis. But the source said the Prime Minister had always stressed that the Government needed the ‘flexibility’ to respond to major events without recourse to Parliament.

Speaking in the Commons before the summer, Mr Cameron said: ‘We make a big commitment to come to this House and explain, vote and all the rest of it but governments have to reserve the ability to take action swiftly on this or other issues.’

Technically the Prime Minister has the power to authorise military action without the approval of Parliament.

But in practice, all major military interventions in recent times, including the wars in Iraq and Libya have gone ahead only after a Commons vote.
However, government sources last night suggested the missile attacks being planned against Syria were simply a response to last week’s chemical weapons atrocity.
A source said any strikes should not be seen as a sign that further action, such as bombing raids, no-fly zones or arming Syria’s rebels, will follow.
The Prime Minister has the power to declare war as a result of the wide-ranging royal prerogative – powers held by the Queen and exercised by the government of the day.

In 2006, Mr Cameron questioned whether a prime minister should continue to be able to use the royal prerogative to declare war or sign international treaties without first consulting MPs.



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David Cameron and Barack Obama discussed the plan in a 40-minute phone call at the weekend and will finalise the details within 48 hours. The two leaders want to send a clear warning to dictator Bashar Al-Assad over the deaths of as many

as 1,300 people, many of them children.
END

continued...... Russia Warns of 'The Consequences'

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Ladybbird 26-08-13 12:25

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Russia Warns US Against 'Extremely Dangerous' Syria Attack


RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned US Secretary of State John Kerry over the "extremely dangerous consequences" of launching military action against the Syrian regime, the foreign ministry said today.

Mr Lavrov told Mr Kerry in a telephone call yesterday that Moscow was "deeply alarmed" by comments from US officials indicating a readiness to intervene in Syria in the wake of accusations the regime had used chemical weapons, it said in a statement.

"Sergei Lavrov drew attention to the extremely dangerous consequences of a possible new military intervention for the whole Middle East and North Africa region," it said.

The statement came as Mr Assad said in an interview published today in a Russian newspaper that Western claims his regime used chemical weapons were an "insult to common sense" and warned the US it faced failure if it attacked Syria.

France's foreign minister said today the West would decided in the coming days on a response to the crisis.

Asked on French radio about a possible reaction with "force'', Laurent Fabius said a decision had not yet been taken, adding: "We have to assess the reactions ... and that will be decided upon in the coming days.''

Turkey's foreign minister today also warned that his country would join an international coalition against neighbouring Syria even if the UN Security Council fails to reach consensus on the issue.

"If a coalition is formed against Syria in this process, Turkey will take part in it,'' Ahmet Davutoglu told the Milliyet newspaper.

Mr Lavrov told Mr Kerry that it appeared certain elements inside the US wanted to launch military action in Syria outside of the UN to undermine joint US-Russia efforts to organise a peace conference.

The Russian minister urged his US counterpart "to refrain from using military pressure against Damascus and not to give into provocations."

The ministry said Mr Kerry promised to "attentively" study the arguments of the Russian side.

Russia underlined the necessity of an objective UN investigation into the claimed chemical attack and repeated its doubts that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad was to blame.

"There is mounting evidence that the incident was a pretence set up by the rebel opposition with the aim of accusing the Damascus government of everything," the statement said.

Mr Assad had told pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia in the extensive interview that Syria would never be a "puppet" of the West and said Washington had never succeeded in reaching its political aims through war.

"The comments (accusing the regime of using chemical weapons) made by politicians in the West and other countries are an insult to common sense ... It is nonsense," Mr Assad said.

Mr Assad accused the US of first making the accusations that his regime used chemical weapons in an attack outside Damascus that activists say killed hundreds, and only later starting to look for proof.

He said the frontline in the area where the incident took place was not clear and the Syrian regime would have risked killing its own army forces if it used chemical weapons.

"This contradicts elementary logic," Mr Assad said. "Such accusations are completely political and the reason for them is a number of victories by the government forces against the terrorists."

With calls mounting for military action against Syria, Mr Assad warned Western states to stop interfering in the affairs of other countries and instead "listen to the opinion of the people".

"If someone is dreaming of making Syria a puppet of the West, then this will not happen," he said.

"We are an independent state, we will fight against terrorism and we will build relations with whom we want for the good of the Syrian people."

Mr Assad warned the US against attacking Syria and argued Washington's previous military campaigns in recent years had always fallen short of their aims.

"The United States faces failure just like in all the previous wars they waged, starting with Vietnam and up to our days," he said.

"America has taken part in many wars but could not once achieve its political goals for which the wars were started. Yes, it is true, the great powers can wage wars but can they win them?"
AFP

Ladybbird 26-08-13 12:50

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
UPDATE:

The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes on Saturday.

Both were "gravely concerned" by the "increasing signs that this was an attack carried out by the Syrian regime", Mr Cameron's office said.

But intervention would have serious consequences and the US case was weak, the Syrian information minister warned.

In an interview with Lebanese TV, Omran Zoabi said: "If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn."

The Syrian government has denied any use of chemical weapons, blaming rebel fighters instead.

State television reported on Saturday that soldiers had found chemical agents in tunnels used by the rebels to the east of Damascus.

It broadcast images of gas masks and plastic containers, but nothing to support official statements that soldiers had "suffered from cases of suffocation" when rebels used poison gas "as a last resort" after government forces made "big gains" in the suburb of Jobar.


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Syria's government said chemical materials used by rebels had been found


Opposition activists accuse forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of killing between 500 and more than 1,000 civilians in several suburbs east and west of capital in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
They want the areas inspected by UN chemical weapons experts who are already in Damascus to investigate other suspected attacks.

The UN's disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the authorities for access.

Iran's Irna state news agency reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had told his Iranian counterpart that Damascus was "co-operating" with the UN experts and "preparing the opportunity for them to visit areas which have been attacked chemically by terrorist groups".

'Gathering facts and evidence'

"The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus," Downing Street said in a statement.
"The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide."
It said Mr Cameron and Mr Obama had "reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options".
The statement said the two men had agreed it was "vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages".
They would keep in "close contact", it added.

The US president earlier convened his National Security Council to discuss options on Syria.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the American military, which is repositioning naval forces in the Mediterranean, was ready to act.


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Chuck Hagel: "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies"

"President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option - if he decides to employ one of those options," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said he understood that the "serious response" mentioned in the UK statement would not include "boots on the ground".
But a range of other options was not ruled out, he said, potentially including air strikes.


Iran's WARNING

On Sunday, Iran's deputy armed forces chief, Massoud Jazayeri, warned the US against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying it would have "severe consequences", according to the Fars news agency.


'Neurotoxic symptoms'

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" early on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 have died.
While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems.

MSF director of operations Bart Janssens said the symptoms - as well as the "massive influx of patients in a short period of time" - strongly suggested mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, meanwhile said it had documented the deaths of 322 people, including 82 women and 54 children.

On Sunday morning, several suburbs of Damascus reportedly came under heavy shell and mortar fire, as government forces continued their offensive on rebel strongholds.
At least 114 people were killed across the country on Saturday, including 33 people in the capital, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network.
The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago.


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'Chemical Attack': What We Know

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  • 01:15: 21 August (10:15 GMT 20 Aug): Facebook pages of Syrian opposition report heavy fighting in rebel-held eastern districts of the Ghouta, the agricultural belt around Damascus
  • 02:45: Opposition posts Facebook report of "chemical shelling" in Ein Tarma area of the Ghouta
  • 02:47: Second opposition report says chemical weapons used in Zamalka area of the Ghouta
  • Unverified video footage shows people being treated on pavements in the dark and in a makeshift hospital
  • Reports say chemical weapons were used in Ghouta towns of Irbin, Jobar, Zamalka and Ein Tarma as well as in Muadhamiya to the west, but this is not confirmed
  • Syrian government acknowledges military offensive in the Ghouta but denies chemical weapons use.
  • END
continued,,,,,, UN Investigators Enter Damascus and come under Snipers Attack


.

Ladybbird 26-08-13 13:41

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Syria Allows UN to Inspect 'Chemical Weapons' Site - After the Threat of Military Action by Britain & the US


Reuters, 26 August, 2013

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The UN's disarmament chief negotiated with the Syrian government, as the BBC's Yolande Knell in Beirut explains


The Syrian government has agreed to allow UN inspectors to investigate allegations of a suspected chemical weapon attack near Damascus.
The team is to begin work today. Activists say Syrian forces killed more than 300 people in several suburbs east and west of the capital on Wednesday.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that evidence could have been tampered with, degraded or destroyed in the five days since the attack.


Syria has Blamed "Terrorists".

State media reported that chemical agents were found in tunnels used by rebel fighters, and also that soldiers suffered "suffocation" in fighting around the suburb of Jobar.
State TV is meanwhile reporting that the governor of the central district of Hama, Anas Abdul-Razzaq Naem, has been killed in a car bomb attack.


'Degradation of Evidence'


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William Hague said it was 'clear' the Syrian regime was behind the attack

The Syrian foreign ministry statement broadcast on state television said an agreement to allow UN chemical weapons experts to "investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Damascus province" had been concluded on Sunday with the UN's disarmament chief, Angela Kane.
The agreement was "effective immediately", the statement added.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon subsequently announced that the inspectors were "preparing to conduct on-site fact-finding activities", starting on Monday. A ceasefire will be observed at the affected locations, the statement said.

Russia, a key ally of Syria, welcomed the decision to allow the inspectors in but warned the West against pre-empting the results.

Mr Hague, though, said time was running out for the inspectors' work.

"Much of the evidence could have been destroyed by... artillery bombardment; other evidence could have become degraded over the last few days, and other evidence could have been tampered with," he said.


Analysis

Quote:

Yolande Knell BBC News, Beirut

It was last Wednesday that amateur videos of Syrian children choking and fighting for their lives and young men suffering horrible convulsions first caused international outrage.
Western countries expressed deep frustration that, although UN chemical weapons inspectors were staying in Damascus at the time, they were not able to go immediately to the city's eastern suburbs to investigate what happened.
It appears that pressure from Syria's allies in Moscow and Tehran may now have helped persuade the authorities to allow access for the experts.
They are due to head to the affected sites on Monday. The Syrian military and opposition fighters are expected to cease hostilities in the area.
The work of the UN team is likely to involve taking soil, blood, urine and tissue samples for laboratory testing to see if banned chemical agents were used. There are concerns that evidence might already have degraded or been destroyed by recent intense shelling.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday that three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" early on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 died. While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has discussed the situation in a telephone call with President Francois Hollande of France.

"They agreed that a chemical weapons attack against the Syrian people on the scale that was emerging demanded a firm response from the international community," a Downing Street spokesman said.


"This crime must not be swept under the carpet."

Mr Cameron agreed a similar response in a telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama on Saturday evening.


'Red Line Warning from Syria'

Later, Syria's Information Minister, Omran Zoabi, warned that US military action in Syria would not be a "walk in the park".

"If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn," he said.


A year ago, President Obama said that any attempt by Syria to use its chemical weapons would be a "red line" for the US, and change his administration's "calculus" in the region.
END


continued,,,,Snipers Fire on UN Weapons Inspectors


.

Ladybbird 26-08-13 14:14

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Syria Crisis: Snipers Fire on UN Weapons Inspectors
UN Inspectors' Convoy 'Hit by Sniper Fire'


BBC World News, 26 August 2013

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The BBC's Yolande Knell: "The UN has always said the safety of its team is paramount"

Unidentified snipers have opened fire on a convoy of UN experts investigating suspected chemical weapons attacks in Syria's capital, the UN has said.
One car was shot at "multiple times", forcing the convoy to turn back. The UN promised to continue with the inquiry as soon as it could replace the car.

Syrian state media blamed opposition "terrorists" for the attack, though the claim could not be verified.

Hundreds died in suspected chemical attacks on Wednesday near Damascus.

The US said there was little doubt Syrian forces used chemical weapons in the attacks, which reportedly killed more than 300 people in rebel-held areas.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dismissed the accusation as "an insult to common sense" and warned the US against military intervention.
"If someone is dreaming of making Syria a puppet of the West, then this will not happen," he told the Russian newspaper Izvestiya.



'Intimidation'

The 20-member UN inspection team has been in Syria since 18 August to look into three earlier suspected chemical attacks.
The experts intend to take soil, blood, urine and tissue samples for laboratory testing from five locations on Monday and Tuesday.
They were unlikely to play any role in apportioning blame for the attack.
But shortly after setting out from the hotel, the cars came under fire "multiple times by unidentified snipers", according to a statement from the UN.

"The team returned safely back to the government checkpoint. The team will return to the area after replacing the vehicle," said the UN.

The UN Secretary General's spokesman, Farhan Haq, told the BBC the convoy was "deliberately targeted" and it seemed someone was trying to intimidate the team.


Military Action


A year ago, US President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would be "a red line" that could trigger US military action.
Washington has recently bolstered its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, and military leaders from the US, UK and their allies are meeting in Jordan.

But the UN Security Council remains divided, with China and Russia appearing unlikely to drop their objection to stricter sanctions on Mr Assad's government.

China & Russia have blocked previous attempts by the UN to take action in Syria

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that diplomats should be cautious in dealing with the chemical weapons issue, and Moscow warned Western nations not to prejudge the outcome of the inspections.

Western politicians have begun to suggest taking action outside of the UN system.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that action could be taken without UN approval if there was "great humanitarian need" in Syria.


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Hans Blix: "It's important that [the inspectors] can go to any place they want to see"

His French counterpart Laurent Fabius suggested the UN Security Council could be bypassed "in certain circumstances".

But in his latest comments on the crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any intervention in Syria without a UN mandate would be a "grave violation of international law".

The West, he told a news conference in Moscow, had not been able to come up with any proof of chemical weapons use while "saying at the same time that the red line has been crossed and there can be no delay".


'Neurotoxic Symptoms'


Western officials were unimpressed with Syria's decision to allow in the UN experts.
Mr Hague said evidence could have been tampered with, degraded or destroyed in the five days since the attack.
A senior White House official, quoted by AP news agency, dismissed the visit as "too late to be credible".

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday that three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 died.
While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems.

Syria's security forces are widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.
It is one of seven countries that have not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons.
Syria has the largest stock of chemical weapons, more than any other country in the world


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  • 01:15: 21 August (10:15 GMT 20 Aug): Facebook pages of Syrian opposition report heavy fighting in rebel-held eastern districts of the Ghouta, the agricultural belt around Damascus
  • 02:45: Opposition posts Facebook report of "chemical shelling" in Ein Tarma area of the Ghouta
  • 02:47: Second opposition report says chemical weapons used in Zamalka area of the Ghouta
  • Unverified video footage shows people being treated on pavements in the dark and in a makeshift hospital
  • Reports say chemical weapons were used in Ghouta towns of Irbin, Jobar, Zamalka and Ein Tarma as well as in Muadhamiya to the west, but this is not confirmed
  • Syrian government acknowledges military offensive in the Ghouta but denies chemical weapons use
  • END
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More on This Story Will be Posted as Updates come in


.

Ladybbird 27-08-13 19:57

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
The Tiny Tragic Victims of Syria's Gas Horror: East Damascus Hospital says it has The Bodies of 20 Children who can't be Identified... Because They Have No Family Left

  • Disturbing situation documented by local filmmaker and passed to ITV News
  • Also shown is textile factory which has begun making gas masks
  • News comes as Western nations prepare to attack strife-torn country

By Daily Mail UK, 27 August 2013

An east Damascus field hospital says they dealt with bodies of 20 children they can't identify because their entire families were wiped out by poison gas.
Unable to identify the dead youngsters, medical staff have taken to referring to them simply by number, with a one-month old girl known simply as 'number 14'.
They are just some of 600 patients treated at the hospital following the dawn gas attacks last Wednesday, in which an estimated 1,200 Syrian civilians were killed - many of them women and children.


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Horror: Volunteer paramedic Abu Akram holds up the body of a one-month-old baby girl, dubbed 'number 14', who he and colleagues have been unable to identify



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Killed: Photographs of unidentified child victims documented at the east Damascus field hospital

Nearby, a clothing factory has responded to the fear that chemical attacks could continue by beginning the production of makeshift gas masks to supply to residents.
The disturbing situation is documented in footage captured by a Syrian filmmaker and passed to ITV News, which has provided MailOnline with stills taken from the film and details of his findings.
It has emerged as Western nations announced they are drawing up plans to launch an attack on Syria that could start within days, in retaliation for atrocity which they blame on the country's government.

ITV News says Humam Husari, which it describes as an 'independent filmmaker' interviewed Abu Akram, a volunteer paramedic working in the town of Arbin in the Ghota area of Damascus.
Mr Akram said: 'Here at the field hospital in Arbin we took in approximately 600 patients who suffered in the chemical attack. We had registered 110 deaths and approximately 35 unregistered deaths.

Quote:

'We have been unable to identify these twenty children. This young girl [points to one month old baby girl) we have named her number 14.
'We have this poor girl she was no older than a month. No-one's been able to identify her so she is unknown number 14.
'In terms of the women we have been able to identify most of them, only a few left. We have been able to identify 90 per cent of them.'

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Parents weep as they look for their children among the dead: Syria's government denies launching the attack last Wednesday. This image was released in the immediate aftermath



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Grim toll: The latest images emerged as Western nations prepared to attack Syria



Mr Husari also visited a nearby textiles factory which is said to have repurposed its equipment to make gas masks in anticipation of more chemical attacks.
A man at the scene, Abu Ibrahim, whose precise role, whether manager or worker, is not explained, told the filmmaker: ''We consulted doctors on this project. They told us that coal and sodium absorbs smells and diffuses harmful chemicals... so on took their advice on this... and it should help save lives... God willing.

'We thought of the design... we saw lots of people using cloths or towels to protect themselves... so we thought there must be a better solution.
'So we started to think of design... we saw that coal is used in water filters... so we can use the same filters here... and cotton also purifies air... so all of the textiles used in it are made of cotton.'


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A still from footage of a Damascus textile factory which has switched to producing makeshift gas masks in anticipation of more chemical gas attacks



He added: 'It wont be 100 per cent protective but it can be 70 per cent or 60 per cent which can help people get away from danger.'
Downing Street said today that David Cameron is considering a 'proportionate response' to the 'absolutely abhorrent' chemical weapons attack that is believed to have killed hundreds.
Meanwhile U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said today its armed forces are in place in the region and 'ready to go' should President Barack Obama order military action in Syria.
Reports in America suggest they could lead the strikes from as early as Thursday.
A decision on whether to fire missiles into Syria could be taken before the results of a report by UN weapons inspectors into the attack is produced.

Russia, a close ally of Syria, today warned a military intervention in the country could have 'catastrophic consequences' for the region and called on the international community to show 'prudence' over the crisis.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted:

Quote:

'the West behaves towards the Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade.'

Ladybbird 27-08-13 21:55

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
'We're Ready to Go': Britain and US could launch missile strikes on Syria as Early as FRIDAY as Assad's Foreign Minister Warns it will Defend Itself using 'All Means Available'

  • PM considering 'proportionate response' to 'abhorrent' chemical attack
  • '600 canister strikes, 12 tanks, 100 soldiers': Witness reveals devastating details of raids on Damascus as Assad’s snipers are accused of ambushing UN chemical weapons team

  • David Cameron recalled Parliament for Thursday and has promised vote
  • He said any action would be to prevent the use of chemical weapons
  • He said their use was 'wrong' and the 'world should not stand idly by'
  • He has said Syria has used chemical weapons on 10 previous occasions
  • U.S. Defence Secretary says they're 'ready to go' if action is ordered
  • Russians: West acts 'towards Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade'
  • Syrian foreign minister denied 'utterly' the state was behind gas attack

By Daily Mail UK, 27 August 2013

David Cameron today insisted any military action in Syria would be to prevent the future use of chemical weapons as he warned Britain was not looking to get involved in 'a Middle Eastern war'.

The Prime Minister said the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons on 10 other occasions before the attack that killed up to 1,200 in Damascus last week and warned the world 'should not stand idly by'.

But the tyrannical al-Assad regime has warned it will fight back with 'all means available' and its foreign secretary said attacking the country to help rebels in their war with the state was 'delusional'.

Earlier today, Mr Cameron announced Parliament would be recalled four days early, on Thursday, to debate the crisis, followed by a vote by MPs on what action to take against president al-Assad.


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Threat: David Cameron, pictured arriving at No 10 this morning, is considering whether to take 'proportionate' military action against Syria in response to the chemical weapons attack last week


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Message: David Cameron has revealed this lunchtime that Parliament would be called back four days early and a vote on what action Britain will take


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Summit: Foreign Secretary William Hague arrives at 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron this morning


Speaking this afternoon, he said no decision had been made about British involvement but the world had agreed almost a century ago chemical weapons should not be used.

He said action must be 'proportionate', 'legal', and 'would have to specifically be about deterring the use of chemical weapons'.


He said: 'Let me stress to people, this is not about getting involved in a Middle Eastern war or changing our stance in Syria, or going further into that conflict.

'It's about chemical weapons. Their use is wrong and the world should not stand idly by.'


Mr Cameron said the question for Britain is whether failing to act this time would lead to more use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere in future.

'It must be right to have some rules in our world and try to enforce those rules,' he said.

'Of course as Prime Minister I take my responsibilities about the safety of our Armed Services incredibly carefully, seriously but the question we need to ask is whether acting or not acting will make the use of chemical weapons more prevalent.'

Mr Cameron said Thursday's debate would ensure 'proper' scrutiny and allow the Government to listen to MPs.

Cameron slams 'abhorrent' Syria chemical weapons attack

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Business: Chancellor George Osborne and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg arrive to speak to the PM today


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Crisis talks: Foreign Secretary William Hague is also at No 10 as the Armed Forces began to draw up plans to attack Syria if needed



'Obviously this is a developing situation, as I say, decisions have not been taken, but we shouldn't stand by when we see this massive use of chemical weapons and appalling levels of suffering,' he said.

'I think in Parliament is the right place to set out all of the arguments, all of the questions.
'But I would say this to people - there is never 100 per cent certainty, there is never one piece or several pieces of intelligence that give you absolute certainty.

'But what we know is this regime has huge stocks of chemical weapons. We know they have used them on at least 10 occasions prior to this last widescale use.

'We know they have both the motive and the opportunity whereas the opposition does not have those things and the opposition's chance of having used chemical weapons in our view is vanishingly small.'

Mr Cameron said: 'Let's be clear what is at stake here.

'Almost 100 years ago the whole world came together and said the use of chemical weapons was morally indefensible and completely wrong.

'What we have seen in Syria are appalling scenes of death and suffering because of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.

'I don't believe we can let that stand.'

He concluded: 'I understand people's concerns about war in the Middle East, about getting sucked into the situation in Syria.


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'This is not about wars in the Middle East, this is not even about Syria.

'It's about the use of chemical weapons and making sure as a world we deter their use and deter the appalling scenes we have all seen on our TV screens.'

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said this afternoon failing to act against the use of chemical weapons would set a 'very dangerous precedent'.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said: 'When I saw the Prime Minister this afternoon, I said to him that we the Labour Party would consider supporting international action, but only on the basis that it was legal, that it was specifically limited to deterring the future use of chemical weapons, and that any actions contemplated had clear and achievable goals. And we'll be scrutinising any action that is contemplated on that basis.'


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Call to arms: Tony Blair today urged David Cameron to back military intervention in Syria to avoid a 'nightmare scenario' for the West in the Middle East



Mr Miliband added: 'The use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians is abhorrent and cannot be ignored.'

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson indicated he would be voting with the Prime Minister, saying he was 'a loyal member of the Government'.

He added: 'And the United Nations Security Council will be looking at the difficult options facing this country.

'But what we've seen in the past week is horrific and we will wait to see what those proposals are on Thursday, and I think it's absolutely right that the Prime Minister has recalled Parliament.'


Politicians have speculated that if an attack is agreed it could be launched within days of the vote because Britain has a RAF base in Cyprus, less than 100 miles from Syria, while the Royal Navy has several warships and a submarine with missiles on board already in the Mediterranean.


A decision on whether to fire missiles into Syria could be taken before the results of a report by UN weapons inspectors into the attack is produced.

Russia on Tuesday warned a military intervention in Syria could have 'catastrophic consequences' for the region and called on the international community to show 'prudence' over the crisis.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted: 'the West behaves towards the Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade.'

Downing Street said all options were still on the table adding they wanted to 'deter' al-Assad from using more chemical weapons.


'Let me stress to people, this is not about getting involved in a Middle Eastern war or changing our stance in Syria, or going further into that conflict'
- David Cameron

'Any decision taken will be taken under a strict international framework. Any use of chemical weapons is completely and utterly abhorrent and unacceptable and the international community needs to respond to that,' Mr Cameron's official spokesman said.

'No decision has yet been taken. We are continuing to discuss with our international partners what the right response should be, but, as part of this, we are making contingency plans for the armed forces'.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said this afternoon it was 'clearer and clearer the Syrian government was responsible' for chemical attacks in the suburbs of Damascus last week.
'I think it is pretty clear chemical weapons were used against people in Syria. I think the intelligence will conclude it was not the rebels who used it,' he told the BBC.
'We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfill and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take. We are ready to go.'

French president Francois Hollande added his voice to the growing clamour for action, saying France is 'ready to stand with Britain and punish those who took the heinous decision to gas innocents'.


The Arab League also threw its weight behind calls for punitive action, blaming the Syrian government for the toxic attack that activists say killed hundreds of people and calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The announcement by the 22-member body, which is dominated by Gulf powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Qatar, provides indirect Arab cover for any potential military attack by Western powers.


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Free Syrian Army fighters hold up their weapons as they cheer after seizing Aleppo's town of Khanasir on Monday



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An opposition fighter fires a rocket propelled grenade during clashes with regime forces over the strategic area of Khanasser, situated on the only road linking Aleppo to central Syria



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A heavily damaged street in Syria's eastern town of Deir Ezzor



British warplanes have apparently been arriving at RAF Akrotiri, the UK's airbase in Cyprus which sits just 100 miles from Syrian targets.

The Guardian said today that commercial pilots in the area have seen military aircraft from their windows and also 'formations of British fighter jets on their radar screens'.

RAF Akrotiri was built in the mid 1950s and first used in the Suez crisis.
More recently the base was used as a supply post during the Iraq wars and also used to support the attacks on Libya in 2011.


'What we have seen in Syria are appalling scenes of death and suffering because of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. I don't believe we can let that stand'
- David Cameron
It came as former Prime Minister Tony Blair compared the violent Bashar al-Assad regime to the 'dark days of Saddam'.
Mr Blair, who took Britain to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, said this morning that it is 'time we took sides'.
'People wince at the thought of intervention. But contemplate the future consequence of inaction and shudder,' he wrote in The Times.

This morning David Cameron returned early from his Cornish holiday to consider whether to recall Parliament.
MPs are demanding a binding vote over plans to launch missile strikes on Syria without the backing of the United Nations.
But Mr Blair, whose views appear to be out of step with current Labour MPs, urged the Government to ignore 'the impulse to stay clear of turmoil'.

'I understand every impulse to stay clear of the turmoil, to watch but not to intervene, to ratchet up language but not to engage in the hard, even harsh business of changing reality on the ground.

'But we have collectively to understand the consequences of wringing our hands instead of putting them to work.

'I hear people talking as if there was nothing we could do: the Syrian defence systems are too powerful, the issues too complex, and in any event, why take sides since they're all as bad as each other?

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Tyrant: President Bashar al-Assad speaking with journalists from a Russian newspaper in Damascus, Syria

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Talks: Prime Minister David Cameron (right) is expected to hold a second telephone call with US President Barack Obama (left) within the next 48 hours to finalise plans for military action (file picture)



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Threat: An attack by Britain and France on Syria would involve long-range Tomahawk missiles

'But others are taking sides. They're not terrified of the prospect of intervention. They're intervening. To support an assault on civilians not seen since the dark days of Saddam.
'It is time we took a side: the side of the people who want what we want; who see our societies for all their faults as something to admire; who know that they should not be faced with a choice between tyranny and theocracy.'
Mr Blair is now the Middle East peace envoy for the US, Russia, the EU and the United Nations, and said allowing the enduring controversy over the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to hold back military intervention in Syria could help produce a 'nightmare scenario' for the West in the Middle East.


Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem denied 'utterly and completely' that state forces had been behind the attack.

At a press conference in Damascus, he said:

'They said that the Syrian forces, the Syrian army are the ones who did this attack.

'I deny it utterly and completely.

'There is no country in the world who would use an ultimate destruction weapon against his own people'.


Speaking about the threat of attack by Britain or America he added: 'If the purpose of a possible (foreign) military strike is to achieve a balance of power ... it's delusional and not at all possible,'

Mr Muallem claimed that the regime had not attempted to obstruct weapons inspectors from visiting the site while evidence was still fresh.


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The Russian Air Force acrobatics demonstration teams 'Russian Knights' and 'Swifts' perform during the opening of the International Aviation and Space salon MAKS 2013






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Russia has delivered aid to the region and began evacuating some of its citizens. Picture shows the Russian Air Force acrobatics demonstration teams


'We didn't argue about the site they wanted to go to. We agreed immediately. There's no delay.'

The Prime Minister announced that Parliament will be recalled this week to debate plans by Britain, France and the United States to launch strikes against Syria in retaliation for last week’s barbaric chemical weapons attack.

But despite a growing domestic backlash over the prospect of intervention, it was unclear whether MPs will be given a binding vote.

Russia and Syria both raised the prospect of dire consequences if the West launches attacks without a UN mandate.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called last week’s attack a ‘moral obscenity’, but Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad warned: ‘Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day.’

And experts insisted that any attack could be illegal without UN authorisation – leaving British ministers and military commanders open to war crimes charges.
MPs last night said it was vital that any military action had their backing in a binding Commons vote.


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Response: United Nations chemical weapons experts meet residents at one of the sites of an alleged poison gas attack in the south-western Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya



Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said it was ‘inconceivable’ that any attack would be launched before UN weapons inspectors have reported back and ‘Parliament has met, discussed and voted on the issue’.

In Geneva, U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said the inspection team might need longer than the planned 14 days to complete its work and its priority now is to determine what chemical weapons - reports range from Sarin to industrial gas - might have been used in the August 21 attack.

'This is the first priority,' she said.

Nick Clegg is also believed to back a Commons vote, as does Labour. But some ministers are wary of setting a precedent and insist the Government must have the ‘flexibility’ to respond swiftly to events without recourse to Parliament.

WE HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO ATTACK SYRIA, CLAIMS HAGUE


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Britain and the United States could attack Syria without the backing of the United Nations, William Hague claimed yesterday – despite warnings it would breach international law.


The Foreign Secretary said the impasse on the UN Security Council caused by Russia’s support for Syria would not prevent the West retaliating against the use of chemical weapons.
A similar argument was used when Britain and the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

Attorney-General Dominic Grieve has been asked to draw up a legal case for military strikes, which will be presented at a meeting of the National Security Council tomorrow.

Russia said bypassing the UN to attack Syria would be a ‘grave violation of international law’. And legal experts warned that intervening without a UN mandate would be ‘very difficult’.

But Mr Hague insisted any action would be legal. He said: ‘Whatever we do will be in accordance with international law and will be based on legal advice to the National Security Council and to the Cabinet.

'So, is it possible to act on chemical weapons, is it possible to respond to chemical weapons without complete unity on the UN Security Council? I would argue, yes, it is.

'It is possible to take action based on great humanitarian need and humanitarian distress – it’s possible to do that under many different scenarios.’

But others disagreed. Former ambassador Oliver Miles said he ‘did not understand’ Mr Hague’s argument, adding: ‘There is not any legal basis that I am aware of, apart from self-defence – and this clearly is not that.’

Michael Caplan, a solicitor QC specialising in international law, said it was ‘very difficult’ to make a legal case for intervention without a UN mandate.
‘There is no threat to the security of this country or the United States so on what basis could we intervene?’

With polls showing the public is wary of any intervention in Syria’s bloody civil war, many Tory MPs also demanded a vote.

Tory Andrew Bridgen, who co-ordinated a letter to Mr Cameron signed by 81 Conservative MPs demanding a say on Syria, said MPs had previously been assured they would get ‘a debate and a substantive vote’ before action is taken.
He said ministers should now honour their promise, adding: ‘We live in a parliamentary democracy, not a brutal dictatorship. The letter was specifically about arming the rebels but also about any further escalation of the crisis.’

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said a debate and vote were essential to air widespread public concerns about intervention in Syria.
She added: ‘I sense that we are on a headlong rush into escalating this conflict and I think Parliament can act as a natural brake to that.’
Fellow Tory Douglas Carswell also said it would be ‘unacceptable’ for Mr Cameron to launch military action without the approval of Parliament.
Mr Carswell pointed out that in opposition Mr Cameron had called for curbs on the power of the prime minister to prevent military action without Parliamentary approval.
He added: ‘If the case for military involvement in Syria is as strong as those at the top of this Government seem to believe, they will have no difficulty in coming to the House of Commons and making their case.’

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said: ‘Both the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have made commitments to the House of Commons that Parliament would be recalled before a decision about further UK involvement in Syria was taken.
‘While of course I understand the Foreign Secretary’s reluctance to discuss specific military deployments, he and the Prime Minister do need to be open about the objectives, the legal basis, and the anticipated effect of any possible UK military action in Syria.
‘I would fully expect the Prime Minister to make his case to Parliament.’

The calls came as the Prime Minister cut short his holiday to return to London to take charge of the crisis.
Mr Clegg has also cancelled a planned visit to Afghanistan to take part in a crunch meeting of the National Security Council in London tomorrow, at which plans for missile strikes against Syria could be finalised.


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Bullet damage: Snipers opened fire at a United Nations vehicle traveling in a convoy carrying a team investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Damascus



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Guns: Free Syrian Army fighters hold up their weapons as they cheer in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district



Quote:

'Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day'
Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the US was signed up to plans to deliver a ‘strong response’ – thought to involve missile strikes against key regime targets.

He added: ‘We, the United States, many other countries, including France, are very clear that we can’t allow the idea in the 21st century that chemical weapons can be used with impunity.’
Government sources confirmed that military planners were finalising potential targets for a missile attack that is likely to take place within the next ten days.

A source said any attack would be designed to ‘deter further outrages’ by Assad and send a message to other tyrants that the use of chemical weapons remained taboo.


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Arsenal: A member of the 'Free Men of Syria' (Ahrar Suriya) brigade, operating under the Free Syrian Army, works to make improvised weapons as homemade rockets are seen in the foreground at a factory in Aleppo



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Wreckage: Black columns of smoke rise from heavy shelling in the Jobar neighborhood, east of Damascus, Syria



But the source stressed that any military strike would not signal wider involvement in Syria’s civil war, which has already left more than 100,000 dead.


Quote:

'We, the United States, many other countries, including France, are very clear that we can’t allow the idea in the 21st century that chemical weapons can be used with impunity'
William Hague, Foreign Secretary
Mr Cameron last night held a strained telephone conversation with President Putin, in which the Russian leader repeated his claim that there was still no independent evidence that chemical weapons had been used or that the Assad regime was behind any attack.
The Prime Minister told him that the UK believed there was ‘little doubt’ that the atrocity was carried out by the Syrian regime.
He is expected to hold a second telephone call with President Obama within the next 48 hours to finalise plans for military action


As Britain, America and France threaten to launch missile strikes against Syria, IAN DRURY asks some of Britain’s leading military experts what the West should do...

Don't Start What You Can't Finish, Warn the top Brass-
Britain's Leading Military Experts Explain How the West Should React to Syria
:



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LORD WEST OF SPITHEAD

Former First Sea Lord and security adviser in Gordon Brown’s Labour government:

‘We have to be absolutely crystal clear in our own minds that the use of chemical weapons was by the regime. If it was, then I think we can persuade Russia to sign a UN resolution that condemns a head of state for using them against their own people. That seems to be the first move.

‘I’m very wary of military action, even if it is a limited missile strike. What do we hope to achieve? Where will it lead?

‘What if Assad says, “get lost”, and uses chemical weapons again? Are we going to escalate military action? I have a horrible feeling that one strike would quickly become more.

‘The region is a powder keg. We simply can’t predict which way military action will go and whether it would draw us, unwillingly, further into a conflict.’


LORD KING OF BRIDGWATER

Defence Secretary during the First Gulf War:

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‘There are no good options, only the least worst ones. I’m very wary of getting involved militarily in the teeth of a major sectarian Sunni-Shia bust-up that could affect the whole region. That’s why it’s so urgent that we get around the table to find a diplomatic and political solution.

‘I’m all in favour of getting Iran [the world’s largest Shia nation] involved because it is vital not to rub them up the wrong way. It’s also important that the Russians are involved: they must not feel as though they’ve been pushed back into a corner.

‘It is imperative to find a solution, and it mustn’t be military. This is turning into such a conflagration that it’s becoming extremely dangerous. I am appalled by the idea that the regime, if that is the case as it appears, would use chemicals against its own people. But the difficulties in how we respond do not become any easier.

‘The idea of a military strike to express disapproval is fraught with problems. We would have to avoid hitting civilians, and if we attacked the chemical plants there is the danger of dispersal of those chemicals into the air. It is hugely important that the UN does show some leadership here.’


MAJOR GENERAL JULIAN THOMPSON

Ex-Royal Marines officer who led 3 Commando Brigade during Falklands War:

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‘The attack in Damascus last week has altered the conflict dramatically because it has aroused a considerable amount of odium around the world. It was a stupid thing to do because Assad has fired up people who, on the whole, were not inclined to do anything about him.

‘If we are going to retaliate – which I don’t think we should – then an attack by a submarine using cruise missiles is the favoured solution because you don’t have
to put troops on the ground and you don’t fly aeroplanes against Syria’s
well-armed air defences.

‘It is risk-free, but we have to get our targeting right because we don’t want to kill civilians. The problem is we don’t know what the consequences will be. Russia is certainly against it, as is China.

‘There is a perception that Assad is poking us in the eye; if we let him get away with this chemical attack, what will he try next? But I’m wary of acting if we don’t know what the consequences will be.’


VICE-ADMIRAL SIR JEREMY BLACKHAM

Former Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff in 1999:


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‘I strongly condemn the use of chemical weapons, which is illegal, and the idea of
a punishment strike is not at all unreasonable: how else is international law to be upheld?

‘Ideally this should have support, or a mandate, from the UN or the International Court of Justice.

‘However, it would be most imprudent to do it without careful consideration of, and proper preparation for, the range of consequences which might follow. This is not
a very nice dilemma and the answer is not at all obvious.’


COLONEL RICHARD KEMP

Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan:

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‘If the Syrian regime carried out a nerve agent attack, then a limited but
devastating surgical air strike is not only justified but necessary in order to send
a clear message to Assad.

‘It is essential that the US and UK base their decision on the best possible
chemical analysis, backed up by firm intelligence to confirm who was responsible.

‘Of course our governments will need to be prepared to follow up with a second, more severe, wave of attacks if Assad responds with another chemical strike or some other outrage. But we must not be drawn into a protracted campaign, either in the air or on the ground. It would not be long before all sides turned against us.

‘And while it will be possible – under the table – to square a swift and limited intervention with Russia, a wider operation would be much more likely to develop into a proxy war or worse.

‘Nor should we supply rebel fighters dominated by Islamist extremists with anti-aircraft or anti-armour missiles: they are sworn enemies of the West.’


GENERAL SIR MICHAEL ROSE

Former SAS commander and leader of United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994-95:

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‘The credibility of America hinges on Obama doing something after he said use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that couldn’t be crossed.

‘I am not against a military strike, but the intelligence has got to be good and the target has got to be very specific; so specific that it identifies the unit that carried out the attacks.

‘If not, we will be seen to be siding with the rebels – and that should not be the business of the Western powers. We don’t know what the outcome is going to be, and we could end up with people in power who are worse even than Assad.

‘We need to be imposing an arms embargo and a no-fly zone, which would reduce the level of the violence. This is a total lose-lose situation for the people of Syria. But however terrible their suffering is with Assad and his brutal ways, the end result of an escalating arms race will be to make things worse. The suffering will only be greater.’

Ladybbird 30-08-13 10:57

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
UK Parliament Votes= 285-NO! 272-YES

The Humbling of UK's Tory Prime Minister David Cameron:
On a Momentous Night, Tory Rebellion Forces Prime Minister to Rule Out Military Strike

against Syria... and Plunges Him into a Deep Political Crisis


  • PM's authority in Parliament and on world stage dealt unprecedented blow
  • Shouts of 'resign' from Labour benches as 285-272 vote was announced
  • Last time any PM was defeated over issue of war and peace was in 1782
  • Downing Street source says David Cameron has no intention of resigning
  • Gove allegedly shouted at Tory rebels outside chamber: 'You're a disgrace'
  • Britain faces 'soul-searching' about role in the world, says George Osborne
By Daily Mail UK, 30 August 2013

David Cameron’s authority in Parliament and on the world stage was dealt an unprecedented blow last night as he faced a breathtaking Commons defeat over plans for missile strikes on Syria.
In an extraordinary assault on the Prime Minister’s authority, 50 coalition MPs joined Labour in voting against a watered-down Government motion supporting the ‘principle’ of military action.
There were shouts of ‘resign’ from the Labour benches as the result – 285 votes to 272 – was announced to a shocked House of Commons.


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Chastened: British MPs voted by 272 votes to 285 to reject Prime Minister David Cameron's
motion backing British intervention in principle
The last time a Prime Minister was defeated over an issue of war and peace was in 1782.


A Downing Street source said Mr Cameron had no intention of resigning, adding: ‘His colleagues support him on most things, but on this issue they disagreed.’
Education Secretary Michael Gove was said to have shouted at Tory rebels outside the chamber: ‘You’re a disgrace, you’re a disgrace.’

  • Syria dossier says British military action would be 'legally justifiable' to prevent repeat of chemical weapons attack

    Is Assad planning KAMIKAZE strikes on the West? Loyalist says 8,000 'suicide martyrs' are ready to bring down U.S. and British planes as Israelis scramble for gas masks over fears of all-out war

Chancellor George Osborne today raised concern that the UK's place in the world would be undermined by the vote.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:

'I think there will be a national soul-searching about our role in the world and whether Britain wants to play a big part in upholding the international system, be that big open and trading nation that I'd like us to be or whether we turn our back on that.
'I understand the deep scepticism that my colleagues in Parliament many members of the public have about British involvement in Syria.

'I hope this doesn’t become the moment where we turn our back on the world’s problems.'


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Blast: People inspect the damage at a site hit by what activists say was a car bomb in Raqqa province, Syria



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Mr Cameron, who had made a passionate plea for support over proposals for targeted strikes on Damascus after a chemical weapons attack last week, was forced to issue a humiliating climbdown.

Quote:

‘It is clear to me the British Parliament does not want to see British military action. I get that and the Government will act accordingly,’ he told MPs.
His decision to pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder with the US in a planned attack on Syria, and to recall Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate, backfired spectacularly.
Mr Cameron had been counting on Labour’s support to ensure he could win a Commons vote authorising strikes, despite the doubts of scores of Tory MPs.
Labour, however, refused to back the Government, prompting the angriest foreign policy row between the main parties since Suez in 1956.

The Tories accused Ed Miliband of giving ‘succour’ to President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

‘I’m disappointed with Ed Miliband’s behaviour, frankly. Anything that stops this from giving a clear, united view of the British Parliament will give some succour to the regime.’
After the vote, Mr Hammond said: ‘I hope Britain isn’t going to retreat into being the sort of nation that isn’t going to act to uphold international norms.’

Sir Gerald Howarth, a former defence minister who voted ‘reluctantly’ with the Government, accused Mr Cameron of rushing into the vote.
Reza Afshar, head of the Syria team at the Foreign Office, tweeted simply: ‘Disaster.’
Senior US officials said President Obama was prepared to move ahead with a limited military strike despite last night’s vote.

Two Tory ministers, International Development Secretary Justine Greening and Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds, apparently missed the vote after not hearing a division bell.

Humbling of Cameron: Vote on military strike against Syria

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Debate: A chastened Mr Cameron was forced by Labour leader Ed Miliband to pledge
not to deploy any UK military forces without first staging another Commons vote


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Dusty landscape: Free Syrian Army fighters drive a military tank that belonged to forces loyal to
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after they seized it, in Aleppo's town of Khanasir


An earlier Labour motion, demanding further conditions before Britain could be involved in any military action, was defeated by 332 votes to 220. In other developments:
  • A letter published by Britain’s intelligence chiefs said it was ‘highly likely’ the Syrian regime carried out last week’s attack, but US officials suggested the evidence was ‘not a slam dunk’;
  • The Government insisted military action would be legal on humanitarian grounds even without the backing of the UN Security Council;
  • Russia, a belligerent supporter of Assad’s regime, deployed war ships in the eastern Mediterranean;
  • Military chiefs prepared for the possibility that the Assad regime might retaliate to an attack with a strike on the UK’s sovereign base at Akrotiri on Cyprus;
  • The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned intervening in Syria could lead to an ‘open season’ on Christians in the region;
  • The Syrian regime accused Mr Cameron of ‘communicating through a monologue of blood and fire’.

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Moment: MPs last night dramatically voted against David Cameron's plea to take military action against Syria



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Recall: Mr Cameron told a packed House of Commons that Britain had to decide how to respond to
'one of the most abhorrent uses of chemical weapons in a century'


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Demonstrate: Protesters speaking out against military action in Syria stand outside the Houses of Parliament



Last night’s vote is a grave humiliation for Mr Cameron and will also raise doubts about the future of the ‘Special Relationship’ between Britain and the US.

One Whitehall source said Britain was ‘handing back its deputy sheriff’s badge’ to Washington.

The shadow of Tony Blair loomed large over yesterday’s proceedings, with speaker after speaker referring to the mistakes and misinformation of the Iraq War.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that Iraq had ‘truly poisoned the well of public opinion’ on military intervention.


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Prudent: An RAF Typhoon jet comes in to land at Akrotiri in Cyprus yesterday as
a 'prudent and precautionary measure', the Ministry of Defence said



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Target: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (centre left) pictured yesterday during
a meeting with a Yemeni delegation in Damascus


He admitted there was not ‘one smoking piece of intelligence’ but insisted it was ‘beyond doubt’ that Assad’s regime was responsible for a chemical attack that killed at least 350 civilians.
Mr Miliband insisted he was not ruling out backing military strikes at some point, but presented his own ‘sequential roadmap’ before he thought Britain should take such a step.

Asked if Mr Miliband was giving comfort to Assad, a Downing Street spokesman said: ‘Yes. The fact is that a lot of the arguments over this could give succour to the regime.’
No  10 also accused Mr Miliband of ‘flipping and flopping’ and having privately indicated his party would back military intervention before moving the goalposts at the last minute.


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Making their point: Protesters demonstrating against military action in Syria stand outside the
Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London



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Placards: A protester demonstrating against military action in Syria outside the Houses of Parliament in London



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Opposition: As MPs debated the UK response to the Syria crisis,
protestors gathered outside the Commons


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Anger: Anti-war protesters have staged a number of demonstrations in Westminster this week
Labour said the suggestion it was giving succour to Assad was ‘frankly insulting’.


Mr Cameron acknowledged voters were sceptical about getting into ‘another war in the Middle East’ but insisted he was not proposing a long-running campaign to dislodge Assad – rather a strike on ‘command and control’ assets to try to reduce the chances of another chemical weapons attack.
A string of senior Conservatives, however, expressed doubts about the wisdom of intervention and Mr Cameron’s rush to join the US.

Former Tory leadership contender David Davis said: ‘It’s very simple – when you are going to do things which will lead to the death of people, civilians in particular, you should get your facts right first.’


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Campaign: UKIP leader Nigel Farage (left) and his deputy Paul Nuttall launched this poster
opposing Britain intervention in Syria


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Lord Dannatt, former head of the British Army, said he did not support military intervention in Syria in any shape. He said:

‘The drums of war were banging very loudly two or three days ago. The people didn’t like it.’


But Dr Liam Fox, former Conservative defence secretary, said:

‘Appeasement has never worked to further the cause of peace. It will not now and it will not in the future.’

Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader, said:

‘We are in danger of allowing the United States and France to act as the conscience of the world while the United Kingdom stands on the sidelines wringing its hands.’


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THE 39 REBELS IN THE COALITION

Quote:

Conservatives
David Amess (Southend West)
Richard Bacon (Norfolk South)
Steven Baker (Wycombe)
John Baron (Basildon & Billericay)
Andrew Bingham (High Peak)
Crispin Blunt (Reigate)
Fiona Bruce (Congleton)
Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford)
David Davies (Monmouth)
Philip Davies (Shipley)
David Davis (Haltemprice & Howden)
Nick de Bois (Enfield North)
Richard Drax (Dorset South)
Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne & Sheppey)
Philip Hollobone (Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Gravesham)
Phillip Lee (Bracknell)
Julian Lewis (New Forest East)
Jason McCartney (Colne Valley)
Stephen McPartland (Stevenage)
Nigel Mills (Amber Valley)
Anne-Marie Morris (Newton Abbot)
Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole)
Sir Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills)
Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth & Horncastle)
Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight)
Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes)
Charles Walker (Broxbourne)
Chris White (Warwick & Leamington)
DR SARAH WOLLASTON (Totnes)

Lib Dems
Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley)
Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Mike Han**** (Portsmouth S)
Julian Huppert (Cambridge)
Ian swales (Redcar)
Sarah Teather (Brent Central)
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall)
Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire)

END


NB: The US Media are not reporting, that both the US and Israel, have used the same chemical weapon in the past, that the Syrian Govt has/is using against its' people ( it was the same white phosporous chemical Syria used)


UPDATE:

The debate on this is now being discussed in the UK's House of Lords, so there may be further developments

The UK's Foreign Office is now advising against all but essential travel to Lebanon and NONE to areas bordering Syria, due to "Heightened Risk of Anti Western Sentiment" over possible Military Action



VIDEOs: Chemical Attack near Damascus Kills 213.


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Those MPs that voted NO, should have watched this video before they voted. Non-action against tyrants that do this to children, gives the green light to others that it's ok to do the same thing. Take note, those chemicals will take many years to clear out of the soil and just 1 drop on the skin can be fatal!
The death toll because of Syria's chemical use, has now risen to over 1,300

We all may travel down different paths to God, but we are all human beings - Ladybbird



Ladybbird 30-08-13 11:24

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 

France's President Francois Hollande Announced today it can go Ahead with any Military Action Without Britain


France Says U.K. Vote Does Not Change its Will to Act on Syria

PARIS — Reuters
Published Friday, 30 Aug 2013, 5:32 AM EDT

French President Francois Hollande said a British parliamentary vote against taking military action in Syria would not affect France’s will to act to punish Bashar al-Assad’s government for an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians.

Hollande told the daily Le Monde in an interview that he still supported taking “firm” punitive action over an attack he said had caused “irreparable” harm to the Syrian people and said he would work closely with France’s allies.

.

Ladybbird 07-09-13 17:35

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
I'll Help Syria if the U.S. Attacks, says Putin in Chilling Threat to Obama as G20 Summit Breaks up in Acrimony

  • Russian premier has admitted to supplying arms to Syrian tyrant
  • Putin insists the chemical attack was a 'set-up' by government opposition
  • Backs his stance by pointing out that the Pope is against military intervention
By Daily Mail UK, 7 September 2013

Russia last night issued a chilling threat to assist Syria if the US leads military strikes against its hated regime.

As a summit of world leaders broke up in acrimony, Vladimir Putin declared openly that he is already supplying arms to Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad and vowed to step up support if a planned missile attack goes ahead.
There were gasps as the Russian President made his remarks after being asked how he would react if Barack Obama proceeds with an attack in response to Syria’s used of chemical weapons.


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Jovial: There may have been a cull in smiles after Putin admitted to helping arm Syria


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Host: Russia's President Vladimir Putin has hinted that he would be prepared to help Syria should Obama push U.S. military intervention


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Stance: Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2L) has said military intervention would be 'counter productive' and 'disrupt the world economy'


Putin: 'We will deliver weapons to Syria.'


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‘Will we help Syria? We will. And we are already helping, we send arms, we cooperate in the economics sphere,’ Mr Putin declared.


Amid signs any US-led action could be delayed for as long as a fortnight, with President Barack Obama battling to win the approval of Congress, Russia last night sent a fourth warship with ‘unspecified cargo’ to the eastern Mediterranean.

While few observers expect Mr Putin to deploy his forces in the event of a US-led missile strike on Damascus, Mr Putin’s remarks suggest he is determined to prop up Assad’s rule.

He has already suggested he could renew a suspended contract to supply Syria with a sophisticated missile shield.

Despite what the US, the UK and EU countries again said was conclusive evidence Assad was behind a sarin attack that killed almost 1,500 civilians, including 500 children, last month, the Russian leader insisted rebel forces trying to overthrow the Syrian leader had staged the incident.

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In Syria, conflict raged today as people were pictured fleeing flames and caused by a bomb hit Binnish town, Idlib province, Syria



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Devastation: A video, obtained from the Shaam News Network, showed the devastation and destruction in the immediate aftermath of the bomb


He said it was a ‘provocation by militants expecting aid’ and insisted that military action without the approval of the United Nations Security Council would ‘violate international law’.

He insisted most people in the US, UK and other countries calling for military intervention did not support it - and also pointed out the Pope had made clear the ‘inadmissability’ of such a move.

Last night, Russia issued a 27-page document on the conclusions of the G20 that made no mention of Syria, though the crisis had dominated discussions at St Petersburg.

In an unprecedented act of defiance for any recent international summit, eleven countries, including the US and the UK, issued their own statement demanding a ‘strong international response to the grave violation of the world’s rules and conscience’ by Assad’s regime.

The countries, which also included Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey, said they would ‘support efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons’.


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Eagle eye: David Cameron watches on as Obama and Putin embrace



Mr Cameron, whose failure to win the support of Parliament for British participation on military action was ridiculed by Mr Putin, attacked the ‘dangerous doctrine’ that military action is only legal with United Nations backing.

He said Britain and other Western nations could not ‘contract out our foreign policy, our morality, to the potential of a Russian veto’.

Insisting Mr Obama is no ‘warmonger’, the Prime Minister said world leaders would set an appalling precedent if they failed to respond to the use of chemical weapons.

‘Everyone will pay a price,’ he said.

After more than hours of fruitless talks that went on into the early hours of the morning, Mr Cameron insisted Russia’s claim the Syrian rebels - not Assad’s hated regime -- were responsible for a gas attack killing nearly 1,500 people was ‘miles from the truth’.

The Prime Minister attacked the argument made by countries opposing US-led missile strikes on Damascus that any intervention made without the approval of the UN Security Council would be illegal, even on humanitarian grounds.

‘The argument that did flare up at the dinner last night is a disagreement about whether it’s possible to have legal military engagement outside the UN Security Council,’ he said.

‘Our strong legal advice is that there is a case for humanitarian intervention. There was a strong argument from some that unless there is a Security Council resolution there is no legal basis for action.

‘I think it’s a very dangerous doctrine. If you accept that, you could have a country massacring half its people, a blockage at the UN Security Council, and no-one could act.

‘It was brought home to me last night that quite aside from the Syrian problem we need to make that argument very vigorously with countries like South Africa, Brazil, India and others.

‘One of the frustrations of last night is you have countries - including Security Council permanent members - saying all this must be decided by the UN Security Council, and yet they are the very countries that are blocking any action and have been blocking resolutions for the last two and a half years.’

Mr Cameron said it had been clear that the G20 was ‘never going to reach conclusions about Syria’, adding: ‘The divisions are too great.’


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No joke: Actors in costumes arrive at the Peterhof Palace where heads of state met


Russia's Putin says leaders split on Syria


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Attacking Russian intransigence, he said: ‘The Russian position that, as Putin has said, if it is proved it is Assad he will take a different view but he is fairly clear that it is the opposition, is miles away from what I think the truth is and miles away from what lots of us believe.

‘He says to me that he would like to see further evidence of regime culpability and we will go on providing evidence of regime culpability, as will the Americans and others, but I think it will take a lot to change his mind.’

Mr Cameron, whose plan to join US-led military action was scuppered last week when MPs voted against, yesterday offered another £52 million in aid to help the millions who have fled the Assad regime.

He asked President Putin to put pressure on the Syrian regime to agree safe corridors along which aid convoys could pass without coming under attack from either side in its civil war.

Mr Cameron suggested the UN Security Council could be asked to endorse such a plan.

‘I have never heard the Russians argue against humanitarian access. It may well be necessary at some stage to go back to the UN and that will test whether the Russians will support it,’ he said.

‘There’s a case at some stage for writing down all the things that need to happen in terms of access and getting UN support for it. It might be necessary to get a UN resolution.’

Amid growing signs in the US that Mr Obama could struggle to get approval from Congress for his plans, Mr Cameron said he was making a ‘powerful argument... as someone who is trying to extract himself from Middle East entanglements and he is no way seen as a warmonger’.

Last night the US ordered its diplomats to leave neighbouring Lebanon as Congress debates Syria military strikes.

President Obama insisted military action was right even if the public was largely against it, saying US intervention in the Second World War had also been opposed by a majority.

As he left the summit, the US leader said: ‘I’m not drawing an analogy to World War II other than to say that when London was getting bombed, it was profoundly unpopular, both in Congress and around the country to help the British. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do.’
END


'Small Island? Britain has Given the World The Beatles, Elgar and, er.... One Direction': Outraged Cameron hits back at Putin Taunt with TWO Bizarre Outbursts Defending 'This Sceptered Isle'
  • Russia mocked the UK's size and boasted that oligarchs 'bought Chelsea'
  • Jibe sparked furious response from Britain at G20 summit in St Petersburg
  • Prime Minister says no other country has a 'prouder history or bigger heart'
  • UK leads the world in art, sport, music, philosophy and diplomacy, he says
  • Tribute likened to Hugh Grant's 'small country' speech in film Love Actually
  • Tory MP Henry Smith writes on Twitter: 'Putin really is a tosser'
By Daily Mail UK, 7 September 2013

David Cameron today turned to boyband One Direction to prove Britain can still 'conquer the world'.

The Prime Minister hit back at reports that Russia had dismissed the UK as a 'small island that no one pays any attention to' with not one, but two passionate displays of patriotism.

Quoting Shakespeare to hail the achievements of 'this sceptered isle', Mr Cameron added television, the internet and 'the world's language' to his list of the UK's inventions and triumphs.

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Passion: Mr Cameron became animated during the press conference rounding off the G20 summit in St Petersburg, quoting Shakespeare and saying his speech could be set to music



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Down the hatch: With relations frosty, President Putin and Mr Cameron warm themselves as they arrived for the Water and Music Show


Early this morning the PM told journalists that Britain had saved Europe from fascism, abolished slavery and 'invented most of the things worth inventing'.
But at a press conference rounding off the G20 summit in St Petersburg, he warmed to his theme to boast how British music has dominated the globe.

Mr Cameron said: 'We’re a country that invented many of the things that are most worthwhile, everything from the industrial revolution and television to the world wide web.

'Our music delights and amuses millions. The Beatles, Elgar and slightly less er... congruously, One Direction have conquered the world.'

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Global domination: David Cameron claimed One Direction proved Britain could conquer the world. The Prime Minister appeared in the video for their Comic Relief single One Way Or Another


The Beatles, One Direction - PM outlines why Britain is Great

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He went on: 'We have invented most of the sports that the world most likes playing.
'If I go on too long about our literature, our art, our philosophy, our contribution, including of course the world’s language...'
He then quoted from Shakespeare's Richard II, saying: 'If I start talking about this blessed plot, this sceptered isle, this England I may have to put it to music so I might have to leave it there.'
'Our music delights and amuses millions, The Beatles, Elgar and slightly less er... congruously, One Direction have conquered the world.

'Prime Minister David Cameron


The extraordinary diplomatic row erupted last night when Russia dismissed Britain as ‘just a small island no one pays any attention to'.
In an astonishing attack, Vladimir Putin's administration mocked the UK’s size and influence, and boasted that Soviet oligarchs had ‘bought Chelsea’.

Speaking to reporters earlier, Mr Cameron even ridiculed the idea that the UK was just one island, declaring he did not want the people of Northern Island, Orkney or Shetland to 'feel left out' from his tribute to the nation's great history.

But to the dismay of Downing Street, Tory MP Henry Smith wrote on Twitter: 'Putin really is a tosser.'


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Out of the picture: As well as falling out with Russia, Mr Cameron's relations with US President Barack Obama have also been strained after British MPs voted against military action


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Excuse me! David Cameron finds German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stolen his seat

DAS IST MEIN STUHL: CAMERON FORCED TO OUST ANGELA

All politicians fear losing their seat.
But David Cameron was forced to wrestle his back from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
As the British PM returned to his place at the huge table used for talks at the G20, he found Ms Merkel deep in conversation with Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf.
Mr Cameron had to interrupt, and ask Chancellor Merkel for his seat back.

As the controversy rumbled on, Russian officials flatly denied the remarks – attributed to President Putin’s official spokesman Dmitry Peskov – had ever been made.
But the denial did nothing to contain Mr Cameron's fury.

In his first outburst he declared: 'Britain may be a small island, but I would challenge anyone to find a country with a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience.'
He argued that Britain had 'helped to clear the European continent of fascism' and had remained 'resolute' throughout the Second World War.

'Britain is an island that helped to abolish slavery, that has invented most of the things worth inventing, including every sport currently played around the world, that still today is responsible for art, literature and music that delights the entire world.
'We are very proud of everything we do as a small island - a small island that has the sixth-largest economy, the fourth best-funded military, some of the most effective diplomats, the proudest history, one of the best records for art and literature and contribution to philosophy and world civilisation.'


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Defiant: Mr Cameron today chaired a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria on the sidelines of the G20 summit



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Smile! With deep divisions over Syria dominating, the 20 world leaders put on a brave face to pose for the traditional 'family photo' at the end of the summit

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Disunited nations: President Putin cracks a joke, but Mr Cameron remains stony faced on the back row of the picture



NO. 10 TELLS MPS: DON'T CALL WORLD LEADERS TOSSERS



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David Cameron today slapped down a Tory MP who called the Russian President a 'tosser'.
Tory MP Henry Smith took to Twitter to declare: 'Putin really is a tosser.'

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The comment raised questions about whether the MP for Crawley, a former county councillor, had overstepped the mark.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mr Smith should avoid similar outbursts in future.
'It is important to have a good and constructive discussion and that should be reflected in the language that people use,' the spokesman added.

But Mr Smith was unrepentant. He said: 'On Twitter in a slight fit of pique I might refer to him as a tosser. But in other forums, such as the House of Commons, I would accuse him of being an absurd character.

'There is his abuse of human rights against the gay community in his own country, there is the abuse of human rights in Syria where the way he is helping and prolonging that civil war there is appalling.'
He added: 'I may not use that colloquial language in other forums, but frankly it is still how I feel.'


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Outspoken: Henry Smith, Tory MP for Crawley, posted this pith summation of his views on the Russian president


However, Mr Cameron said made clear he did not approve.
The PM said: 'Insulting people should never have a part in foreign policy.
'We should try to maintain good manners and politeness even when under intolerable pressure.'

The row represents an extraordinary breach of protocol, particularly as Russia is hosting the G20 meeting.
President Putin, a belligerent ally of Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad, has been revelling in British MPs' rejection last week of UK participation in US-led military action.

But the Kremlin’s decision to rub Mr Cameron’s nose in it – with the Prime Minister on Russian soil – has plunged Anglo-Russian relations to a new low.
The episode at the G20 summit hosted by Russia underlined the Cold War style tensions that have been created by the row over Syria.

The seating plan at the talks had to be changed so that Barack Obama and President Putin are kept as far apart as possible.

Last night, arriving at the summit venue in St Petersburg, President Obama strode in alone rather than walking in with President Putin.

The war of words with Britain came as Mr Cameron continued to make the case for intervention in Syria despite his defeat in Parliament last week.
Mr Cameron today ruled out any prospect of agreement over Syria at the G20 summit.
He said President Putin remains 'miles away' from the truth of Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people.

'This G20 was never going to reach conclusions on Syria,' said the Prime Minister. 'The divisions are too great.
'The Russian position that, as Putin has said, if it is proved it is Assad he will take a different view but he is fairly clear that it is the opposition, is miles away from what I think the truth is and miles away from what lots of us believe.'
Mr Cameron and Mr Putin held one-on-one talks in the early hours of this morning lasting 35 minutes.

The PM added: 'He says to me that he would like to see further evidence of regime culpability and we will go on providing evidence of regime culpability, as will the Americans and others, but I think it will take a lot to change his mind.'

The premiers of Turkey, Canada, Germany and Italy all joined Mr Obama and Mr Cameron in making the case at last night's dinner for a robust international response to Assad's alleged breach of treaties banning the use of chemical weapons.

The Russian dismissal of Britain as a 'small island' emerged last night, and was attributed to a spokesman for President Putin.


At first a Downing Street source said: ‘As host of guests from the world’s leading countries, I’m sure the Russians will want to clarify these reported remarks, particularly at a G20 where it’s a very British agenda on trade and tax.
‘It highlights how a small island with great people can achieve a big footprint in the world.’


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One man is an island: Russian President Vladimir Putin, sitting in Peterhof garden during the G20 show last night, is at odds with many western countries calling for action in Syria



I LOVE BRITAIN, ACTUALLY: WAS CAMERON INSPIRED BY HUGH GRANT FILM?

Was David Cameron's G20 speech inspired by a Love Actually... ?


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David Cameron's spirited defence of Britain in the face of a global superpower led to the Prime Minister being compared to Hollywood actor Hugh Grant.
In the 2003 film Love Actually, Grant played the British Prime Minister who loses his temper with a bullying President.
When he catches his counterpart flirting with his secretary, he uses a press conference to challenged the idea that Britain can be pushed around.

Grant's Prime Minister declares: 'We may be a small country, but we are a great one too.
'A country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham’s right foot.
'David Beckham’s left foot, come to that.
'A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now on I am prepared to be much stronger.'

The only difference between the words of screenwriter Richard Curtis and Mr Cameron is who they were aimed at.
While Mr Cameron is furious with Russia, Grant was hitting back at the President of the United States, played by Billy Bob Thornton, over amid doubts about the state of the UK-US 'special relationship'.

Chancellor George Osborne also insisted Britain is 'setting the agenda' at the summit, on the humanitarian response to what’s happening in Syria, the economic agenda and the tax agenda.
He told BBC Radio 4: 'Britain is today leading efforts to step up the humanitarian response to what is happening in Syria, the tragedy of 2m people leaving that country, fleeing for their lives, the imperative that we have as an international community to help people in Syria protect themselves from the use of chemical weapons.

'So Britain is involved in that, Britain is very much involved in the Geneva II peace talks.
'And I would say this is ultimately an economic summit as well, and on the economic agenda, a lot of what Britain’s been talking about is now absolute mainstream to the conference.'

A British diplomat also pointed out that the UK economy was significantly larger than Russia’s.

There was no sign at the summit that the latest evidence produced by the US and the UK to back calls for action against Syria was winning over doubters, with everyone from Iran’s supreme leader to the Pope opposing intervention.

President Putin accused the US of ‘lying’ to justify missile strikes and attacked Secretary of State John Kerry for denying that Al Qaeda was fighting with the Syrian opposition.

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President Putin, a belligerent ally of Syrian tyrant Bashar Assad, is well aware of the rejection of British participation in US-led military action as voted against by MPs last week

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All smiles: But the Kremlin's decision to rub Mr Cameron's nose in it, with the Prime Minister on Russian soil, will plunge Anglo-Russian relations to a new low


THIS SCEPTERED ISLE: DAVID CAMERON'S PATRIOTIC TRIBUTES


This is the full text of David Cameron's first remarks about what makes Britain great:

'Britain may be a small island, but I would
challenge anyone to find a country with a prouder history, a bigger heart or greater resilience.
'Britain is an island that has helped to clear the European continent of fascism - and was resolute in doing that throughout World War Two.

'Britain is an island that helped to abolish slavery, that has invented most of the things worth inventing, including every sport currently played around the world, that still today is responsible for art, literature and music that delights the entire world.
'We are very proud of everything we do as a small island - a small island that has the sixth-largest economy, the fourth best-funded military, some of the most effective diplomats, the proudest history, one of the best records for art and literature and contribution to philosophy and world civilisation.

'For the people who live in Northern Ireland, I should say we are not just an island, we are a collection of islands. I don't want anyone in Shetland or Orkney to feel left out by this.

'I'm thinking of setting this to music.'

Then at the press conference in the afternoon he said:

'Something I believe very deeply is that yes, we are a small island. In fact a small group of islands.
'But I would challenge anyone to come up with a country with a prouder history, with a bigger heart, a greater resilience.
'This is a country cleared a European continent of fascism, that took slavery off the high seas.
We’re a country that invented many of the things that are most worthwhile, everything from the industrial revolution and television, the world wide web.
'Our music delights and amuses millions, The Beatles, Elgar and slightly less er... congruously, One Direction have conquered the world.
'We have invested most of the sports that the one world most likes playing.
'If I go on too long about our literature, our art, our philosophy, our contribution including of course the world’s language.'

Mr Cameron attempted to win over opponents of military strikes on Damascus by unveiling new new evidence of the regime's use of chemical weapons.

He also launched a provocative attack on those who had blocked British involvement in the planned operation.
Arriving in St Petersburg, the Prime Minister announced that scientists at Britain's Porton Down had identified deadly sarin gas on victims' clothing and in soil samples from Damascus.

It also emerged that a report prepared by US spy chiefs concluded that Syria possesses a 'longstanding biological weapons program', on top of chemical weapons, and may have access to anthrax, camelpox and cowpox.

Taking 'full and personal responsibility' for the Government's shock defeat over British participation in military action last week, Mr Cameron insisted he had taken a 'principled stand against the gassing of children'.
Labour MPs - and those Tories and Liberal Democrats who joined with them to oppose military action - would have to 'live with the way that they voted', the Prime Minister said.
Mr Cameron said he had agreed to all the caveats Labour had asked for but 'even in spite of that, in my view, they chose the easy and political path not the right and the difficult path'.

However, there was no sign that the latest evidence produced by the US and the UK was winning over doubters - with everyone from Iran's supreme leader to the Pope opposing the idea of intervention.

Asked in TV interviews whether he was ‘sidelined’ at the summit as a result of the Commons vote, Mr Cameron said repeatedly: ‘I don’t accept that for a moment.
Mr Cameron said he had not seen ‘any evidence’ that Russia was prepared to shift position and endorse action through the UN.

‘Let’s be clear: almost 100 years ago the world came together, Russia included, to say after the First World War, the use of chemical weapons wasn’t acceptable,’ he said.
'All the testing that's been done, including the testing we are doing at our Porton Down laboratories, all adds to the picture.

'But I don't think anyone is seriously denying that a chemical weapons attack took place. I think the Russians accept that. Even the Iranians accept that.
'The question is obviously convincing more people that the regime was responsible.'


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Talks: Mr Cameron was seated next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the working session of the G20, with US President Barack Obama (centre) and President Putin further round the table (right)


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US President Barack Obama listens as Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the start of the G20 Working Session


Unable to take part in military operations, Britain is instead offering an extra £52million in aid for the millions of Syrians who have fled President Assad’s forces, taking its total commitment to £400million.

The Prime Minister said he had not seen 'any evidence', however, that Russia was prepared to shift and endorse action through the United Nations.
But he added: 'I don't resile from the arguments I made last week - when America and many others in the world draw a red line over chemical weapons use, if nothing follows from that, that would be very bad for our world.'

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Opening speech: Russian President Vladimir Putin (in the centre of the picture) delivers his opening speech during the first working session of the G20 Summit in Constantine Palace in Strelna near St. Petersburg

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Also at the summit: New Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, right, is also Chairman of the G20's Financial Stability Board. He is greeted by Vladimir Putin during an official welcome of G20 heads of state and government


Mr Cameron said President Obama had been 'very understanding' over his defeat in Parliament.
'Like me he is a democrat who believes you have to listen to people, you have to listen to Parliament and you have to respect the outcome of a vote.
'Britain isn't going to be involved in this specific military action, but the special relationship between Britain and America is as strong today as it was a week ago,' the Prime Minister said.

Mr Cameron is also urging President Putin to use his influence with the Syrian regime to strike an agreement that neither side in the civil war should fire on humanitarian convoys.
'Every 15 seconds there is another Syrian refugee. While we are sitting here in the comfort of St Petersburg, thousands of people will be made homeless.
'They need tents, they need shelter, they need food, they need protection from chemical weapons attacks,' the Prime Minister said.
END

Pope Francis also opposed action as world leaders gathered in Russia, urging them to 'lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution' :

Pope Writes to Putin Urging him to tell Obama and other G20 Leaders to Oppose Syria Strike and Pray for a Peaceful Solution

  • Vatican sends tweets and prepares prayer vigil and day of fasting
  • Military action would be 'futile' Pope Francis writes to Russian President

The Pope has written to the Russian President urging him to tell President Obama and other world leaders at the G20 summit to oppose a strike in Syria.

The letter was the latest in a series of moves by Pope Francis to prevent involvement in Syria's bloody civil war.

He has sent tweets condemning a potential war and declared today a day of fasting and prayer for peace in the war-torn country

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Peace: Pope Francis has written to G20 leaders and taken to Twitter as he calls for a peaceful resolution in Syria


In his letter to Putin and other G20 leaders he wrote:

'I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution.'
'Let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community.'

The Pope's push for a peaceful resolution was echoed by the Catholic Church in the U.S. as Cardinal Dolan and American bishops wrote to Congressmen calling on them to vote against military intervention.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also wrote to President Obama, saying the Pope had 'made it clear that a military attack will be counterproductive, will exacerbate an already deadly situation, and will have unintended negative consequences'.


The Pope wrote onTwitter:


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Defense: The Pope has used Twitter to call for world leaders to find an alternative to war



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END


Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed the US was using a chemical attack in Syria’s civil war as a pretext to interfere in his country.
The head of Iran's elite Quds force, Qassem Soleimani, went further, declaring that the Islamic Republic would 'support Syria to the end'.



continued...... Iran Threatens that Obama's Daughter will be Kidnapped and Raped if America Attacks Syria

Ladybbird 07-09-13 18:40

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Iranian Diplomat Warns that Obama's Daughter will be Kidnapped and Raped if America Attacks Syria

  • Threats made by Alireza Forghani, former governor of Iran’s Kish Province
  • Unnamed U.S. officials: American embassy in Baghdad is a likely target
  • Officials did not describe range of potential targets indicated
  • State Department: U.S. citizens to avoid all but 'essential' travel to Iraq
  • Iranian message was intercepted in recent days
  • It came from the head of the Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force
By Daily Mail UK, 7 September 2013


An Iranian strategic expert has warned that one of President Obama's daughters will be kidnapped and raped if America attacks Syria.

Alireza Forghani, also the former governor of southern Iran’s Kish Province, warned of mass abductions and killings of American citizens worldwide in the event the Obama administration launches a military strike in Syria.

'Hopefully Obama will be pigheaded enough to attack Syria, and then we will see the … loss of U.S. interests [through terrorist attacks],' he threatened.

'In just 21 hours [after the attack on Syria], a family member of every U.S. minister [department secretary], U.S. ambassadors, U.S. military commanders around the world will be abducted. And then 18 hours later, videos of their amputation will be spread around the world' he said

The threat comes amid reports today that the U.S has intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad if the attack goes ahead.


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Claims: The U.S has intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad in the event the Obama administration launches a military strike in Syria, it was reported today


The American embassy in Baghdad was a likely target, according to unnamed U.S. officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal said the officials did not describe the range of potential targets indicated by the intelligence.
In addition, the State Department issued a warning on Thursday telling U.S. citizens to avoid all but 'essential' travel to Iraq.

President Barack Obama has asked the U.S. Congress to back his plan for limited strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians that the United States blames on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
The Journal reported that the Iranian message was intercepted in recent days and came from the head of the Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force.


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Target: The American embassy in Baghdad was a likely target, according to unnamed U.S. officials quoted


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Scrutiny: Iraqi security forces stand guard in Baghdad today. In addition, the State Department issued a warning on Thursday telling U.S. citizens to avoid all but 'essential' travel to Iraq



The newspaper said the message went to Iranian-supported Shi'ite militia groups in Iraq.

The Journal reported that the message informed Shi'ite groups to be prepared to respond with force after any U.S. military strike on Syria.

'Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation,' according to the State Department's warning, which replaced an earlier one 'to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence.'


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Sunshine smiles : President Putin, left, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and PM David Cameron as they pose for the family photo



The department said that numerous insurgent groups, including al Qaeda's Iraq affiliate, remain active and 'terrorist activity and sectarian violence persist in many areas of the country at levels unseen since 2008.'

It added: 'The ability of the embassy to respond to situations in which U.S. citizens face difficulty, including arrests, is extremely limited.'

The State Department declined immediate comment.

The CIA declined comment.

The US and France are so far the only nations attending the G20 to have backed the use of military force against the Assad regime, with Russia and China insisting that any action in the absence of UN Security Council approval would be illegal.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta - who also attended this morning's aid meeting - said in a tweet last night that 'the G20 has just now finished the dinner session, at which the divisions about Syria were confirmed'.

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Man on a mission: Obama has expanded a list of targets in Syria as he struggles to gather international support for military action


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President Barack Obama, left, listens as Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks during the start of the G-20 Working Session


US frustrations over Russia's stance were reflected in comments by the American envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, who told a New York news conference: 'Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the (Security) Council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities.

'What we have learned, what the Syrian people have learned, is that the Security Council the world needs to deal with this crisis is not the Security Council we have.'

The US Government accuses Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-gas attack in a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on August 21.

Britain announced yesterday that scientists at the Porton Down research laboratories have found traces of the nerve gas sarin on cloth and soil samples retrieved from the site of the attack.

Meanwhile, there were signs that Mr Obama may struggle to secure support in Congress for his proposal of 'limited and proportionate' military action against Assad.

A poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than one-third of Congress members were undecided whether or not to back military action, while a majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the President.

The survey found that 226 members of the House of Representatives said they would oppose or were likely to oppose military action, against 45 who were certain or likely to support it and 189 who were undecided or did not respond.

Some 17 members of the Senate were certain or likely to oppose Mr Obama's plans, against 23 certain or likely to back him and 60 whose position was undecided or unknown.

FreaknDavid 16-09-13 17:30

'Multiple' Deaths in Navy Yard Shooting Rampage
 
Updated 1:01 PM EDT, Mon September 16, 2013
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Witness: He aimed his gun at us

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Washington (CNN) -- One suspect is dead after a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, but two others may be on the loose, the D.C. police chief said Monday.

"The big concern for us right now is that we potentially have two other shooters that we have not located at this point," Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier told reporters.

Multiple people were killed in the shooting rampage, Lanier said, which sent police in SWAT team gear swarming to the scene Monday morning.
Hours later, Lanier said authorities were stilllooking for a white man and a black man in military-style clothing who could be connected to the shooting.

"We have no information to believe that either of those folks are military personnel, but we do have information that those individuals are wearing military-style uniforms," she said.

Earlier Monday, Ed Zeigler, director of public affairs for Naval District Washington, told CNN that two suspected shooters were "down," but a senior Navy official could not confirm whether there was more than one gunman.

"We will do everything in our power to make sure whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible," President Barack Obama said, adding the shooting "targeted military and civilian personnel."

"We still don't know all the facts. But we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed," he said. "So we are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital."

Earlier, authorities said a gunman dressed in all black fired shots inside the Navy Yard, injuring at least 10 people.

The injured included a Washington police officer who has been hospitalized, and a base security guard officer, said Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Saray Leon.

Three people, including the D.C. police officer, were admitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with multiple gunshot wounds. They are expected to survive, chief medical officer Janis Orlowski told reporters.

One person was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital, according to Dr. Babak Sarani, chief of trauma and acute care there.

Meanwhile, at the Navy Yard, helicopters hovered overhead. In one chopper, there appeared to be a police sniper peering out, with a scope at the ready.

The incident started unfolding at 8:20 a.m. when several shots were fired inside the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command in southeast Washington.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent a team of about 20 special agents to the scene, a law enforcement official said. The team was the same group that helped apprehend Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the official said.

Police spokesman ChrisKelly earlier described a suspect as an adult male, about 6 feet tall with a bald head and medium complexion, dressed in a black top and black jeans.

Two witnesses told CNN affiliate WJLA that they heard a fire alarm go off in the building where they worked, then saw a man with a rifle down the hallway as they exited the building.

"He aimed the gun and fired our way," a man who identified himself as Todd Brundidge told WJLA, adding, "I couldn't believe it."

People frantically tried to run out of the building, Brundidge said.
"Everyone was going down the stairs. They were pushing. They were shoving. People were falling down,"he told WJLA. "As we came outside, people were climbing the wall trying to get over the wall to get out of the spaces. It was just crazy."

Emergency personnel, the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and local D.C. police responded to the shooting, shutting down traffic in the area on the District's south side along the Anacostia River. Some people are being evacuated, and others are sheltering in place.

Security was stepped up at the Pentagon.

At least eight schools were on lockdown as a precaution, the Washington public schools said.

Air traffic to Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia, the closest airport to downtown Washington, was suspended but later resumed, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The headquarters -- the workplace for about 3,000 people -- is the largest of the Navy's five system commands. It has a fiscal year budget of nearly $30 billion.

"With a force of 60,000 civilian, military and contract support personnel, NAVSEA engineers, builds, buys and maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their combat systems," the Navy said.

The Washington Navy Yard -- the Navy's oldest land establishment -- was created in 1799 following an act of Congress, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Originally envisioned as a shipbuilding and fitting facility on the Anacostia River, it serviced some of the Navy's most famous early vessels, including the USS Constitution.

Burned during the War of 1812, the Navy Yard was transformed into a center for ordnance and technological development. The facility was the world's largest ordnance plant during World War II, but its military role steadily diminished during the Cold War era.

Today, the Navy Yard includes the headquarters of Naval District Washington and is home to a naval museum. The area around the facility has been marked in recent years by significant commercial and residential revitalization.

Ladybbird 24-09-13 15:15

ISIS Fighter Killed in Syrian Prison & Drugs-Worth Billions Seized in ITALY
 
Has British White Widow been Killed in Final Assault on Kenyan Shopping Mall? -Body of White Woman Terrorist is Found at Scene


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As attempts to flush the remaining militants out of a shopping centre continued,
officials said three Islamist extremists had died during attempts to free hostages.



  • Samantha Lewthwaite - widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay - wanted by Kenyan police on terror charges
  • Officials said three Islamist extremists had died during attempts to free their hostages from the Nairobi mall
  • One said to be a white woman - adding weight to theory that Lewthwaite was behind attack that has killed 62
  • Downing Street said at least six of the dead are British and warned there was 'potential for further bad news'
  • Three US citizens part of the group that attacked the mall, according to Kenya's foreign minister Amina Mohamed


'White widow' Samantha Lewthwaite may have been killed during the Nairobi siege.
As attempts to flush the remaining militants out of a Kenyan shopping centre continued, officials said three Islamist extremists had died during attempts to free their hostages.
Insiders said one was a white woman – adding weight to the theory that Lewthwaite, the fugitive widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was behind the attack that has left 62 dead and 170 injured.

Part of the group that carried out the attack on the mall was formed by US citizens, according to Kenya's foreign minister Amina Mohamed.


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'White widow': Weight has been added to the theory that Samantha Lewthwaite,
the fugitive widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine
Lindsay, was behind the attack


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A dead white woman has been found among Islamic terrorists killed by soldiers as they stormed the mall where 62 shoppers were slaughtered this weekend, Kenyan officials said. It will fuel speculation the dead woman is Samantha Lewthwaite (left and right), widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, wanted on terror charges


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Police will also investigate the possibility that she is a hostage dressed in one of the terrorist's clothes.
Asked if it was Lewthwaite, dubbed the 'White Widow', an intelligence officer said: 'We don't know'


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Lewthwaite, 29, was married to Jermaine Lindsay, the suicide bomber who blew up a Tube train at King?s Cross in 2005


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Operation: Kenyan soldiers take cover after heavy gunfire near the Westgate mall in
Nairobi. Defence troops remain inside the mall, in a standoff with Somali militants


U.S. officials said they were looking into whether any Americans were involved. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday the department had 'no definitive evidence of the nationalities or the identities' of the attackers.
Downing Street said at least six of the dead are British and warned there was ‘potential for further bad news’.


THE 'WHITE WIDOW' OF A COLD BLOODED KILLER


Samantha Lewthwaite converted to Islam as a young woman and married a man who went on to be a 7/7 London suicide bomber. She has become a key figure in the terror group behind this weekend’s attack.

Lewthwaite has even been involved in training a group of all-female suicide attackers at camps in lawless neighbouring the 29-year-old, who grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury before meeting Jermaine Lindsay, a British Muslim, in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later.
When her husband was named as one of four suicide bombers who blew up Tube trains and a bus in 2005, killing 52 people, Lewthwaite initially condemned her late husband’s attack and denied any knowledge of his plan. This was a lie.

More than eight years later, Lewthwaite is one of Al Qaeda’s main recruiters in East Africa and is an official spokesman for Al Shabaab (The People), the terrorist group behind the horror in Nairobi.
The so-called ‘White Widow’, who is the world’s most wanted woman, has been on the run in East Africa after police foiled a Christmas bomb plot against Western tourists in the coastal resort of Mombasa in 2011.

A report from the Reuters news agency said three sources – one intelligence officer and two soldiers – had confirmed that a white woman was among the fallen terrorists.

Police are exploring whether she could be a hostage dressed in one of the terrorist’s clothes, but the Foreign Office is also examining Muslim convert Lewthwaite’s links to the massacre.
The 29-year-old mother of four, from the Home Counties, is now a leading figure in Al Shabaab – the terror group that has claimed responsibility for the killings in the Israeli-owned Westgate shopping centre.
Police believe she is the one of the group’s main financiers and bomb-making tutors. However, sources admit they still do not know the full extent of her involvement in the attack in Nairobi.

Nevertheless, a senior Kenyan anti-terror officer yesterday claimed: ‘We believe she was commanding the operation but her fate is not yet known. It is understood she was a sniper also.’

The Mail revealed yesterday that soldiers say they saw a white woman in a veil shouting orders to gunmen in Arabic, while a Twitter account purporting to represent Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the atrocity and praised Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, as ‘a brave lady’.
Despite this, Kenya’s interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said that all of the terrorists were men, with some dressed as women. Lewthwaite has been on the run in East Africa since police foiled her plot to blow up a shopping centre in another Kenyan city, Mombasa, two years go.

Her London-born accomplice, Jermaine Grant, was due to stand trial yesterday, but his hearing was delayed so that terror officers preparing to give evidence could instead be diverted to Nairobi, to assist officials there.

Lewthwaite, whose family say they have not spoken to her in years, was seven months pregnant when Lindsay blew himself up on a Tube train in 2005, killing 26.
She is known to her followers as ‘Dada Mzungu’ – Swahilli for white sister – and has occasionally taken to Twitter to rail against the ‘infidels of the West’.
She is understood to have avoided arrest so far by wearing a full-face veil while flitting between Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

.
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Paramedics run beside parked ambulances outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi
after heavy shooting started for the third time since this morning

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A police helicopter hovers next to a plume of rising black smoke from the shopping mall as an assault team was continuing
with a rescue operation at the Westgate shopping mall, where the hostage situation continues


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Distressing: A woman holds a baby sitting with other injured people who are crying for help


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People take cover after hearing gun shots near the centre. The start of the final assault was heralded
by a series of loud blasts and a barrage of gunfire as a pall of thick black smoke began to rise over the mall


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Help: Relatives and friends of victims line up to donate blood in Nairobi,
following the overwhelming numbers of casualties from the Westgate mall shooting


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The Westgate Shopping Centre is on fire and a fierce gun battle is underway as Kenyan
special forces try to end the three day siege that has killed at least 62 people



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Witnesses have reported hearing rapid gun fire at the shopping mall and Kenyan
soldiers have been seen moving towards Westgate


They joined two British Special Forces advisers and several MI6 agents based in East Africa, who are assisting local authorities in the huge security operation. Kenyan troops and police have, however, entered the shopping centre without help from outside forces.
The monitoring of communications by members of the Somali-based Al Shabaab in and around the shopping centre are said to ‘indicate’ two of the killers spoke with ‘UK accents’.
This would support information posted on Twitter, which suggested the terror cell was 15-strong, containing two Londoners.


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A paramedic runs for cover outside the mall in Nairobi after a large
explosion was followed by sustained shooting


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Security forces say they have evacuated almost all the hostages from the
shopping centre, which was on fire earlier on Monday

Explosions and then black smoke rises from besieged mall

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........

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......
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A Kenyan minister claimed the heavy black smoke billowing from
the shopping mall on Monday was caused by burned mattresses



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The area around the mall was teeming with Kenyan soldiers and armoured personnel
carriers, as emergency workers and reporters were told to take cover


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Kenyan police said they have rescued some hostages after storming the mall
and said they are 'increasingly gaining advantage [over] the attackers'


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Police officers take cover following a string of explosions and fierce gun fire on Monday - the third day of the siege



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Militants inside Westgate Shopping Centre have threatened to kill the remaining hostages
as Kenyan security personnel try to end the siege (pictured)



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Kenya Security personnel take cover outside the Westgate Mall. Islamist terror group Al Shabaab claimed
it carried out the atrocity in which four Britons were killed and 175 people were left injured



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Kenyan military said last night that 'most' of the hostages have been freed,
but a spokesman admitted today that the situation is still not clear



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Militants inside the shopping centre said hostages would 'bear the brunt' of any action by the Kenyan military


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Tense: Kenyan paramilitary officers walk towards a small shopping arcade adjacent to the
Westgate shopping mall where the fate of the hostages remained unclear on Monday morning


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Hunting down the terrorists: Soldiers from the Kenya Defence Forces
arrive at the Westgate Shopping Centre in the capital Nairobi


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.

Ladybbird 26-07-14 12:23

VIDEOs/PhOtOs-Australian Cops Stop ISIS BEHEADING Attacks
 
'Bucket full of heads any1 in aus want some organs please dont be shy to ask':
-Smirking Australian Terrorist Poses With Decapitated Heads in Sickening Pictures Posted Online

  • Khaled Sharrouf posted the pictures on Twitter on Friday
  • His friend Mohamed Elomar is seen holding up severed heads
  • Both men fled Australia for Syria in December last year
  • They are fighting for terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
  • Sharrouf has been taunting Australian police on social media
Daily Mail UK, 26 July 2014


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With sunglasses tucked into his shirt, an Australian terrorist smiles as he holds up two decapitated heads for the camera in Syria.

Sydney born boxer Mohamed Elomar casually poses with the severed heads in photos posted on Twitter by his friend, convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf.

Another image, uploaded on Friday, shows the heads of alleged Syrian solders being impaled on metal railings.

Scroll down for videos


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Disgusting: Mohamed Elomar, who is believed to have left Australia last year to fight in Syria, is shown holding up the decapitated heads of two men


Like something out of the 18th century, the heads were left on show in a sickening display that aims to cause terror and fear.

The photos were uploaded by terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, alongside disgusting tweets such as 'bucket full of heads any1 in aus want some organs please dont be shy to ask I would love to assist u with body parts [sic]'.
His disturbing rant continued 'few more heads how lovely bludy amazing stuff abuhafs u keep cutting those infidel throats but the last 1 is mine! [sic]'

Elomar and Sharrouf, who spent time in jail for his part in a foiled plot to blow up targets in Sydney and Melbourne, are believed to be fighting with terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

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Disturbing: Sharrouf also posted a photo of two men placing severed heads on a metal railing


Australian jihadist in Syria 'From the Front Line':

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They are thought to have flown to Syria together late last year after Sharrouf fled the country on his brother Mustafa's passport.


Meanwhile, Elomar's wife Fatima, 29, appeared in court in Sydney on July 8 charged with 'preparing for incursions into a foreign state with the intention of engaging in hostile activities'.

On Thursday night Attorney General George Brandis's spokesman told The Australian that 'if real, these photos are evidence of serious crimes against Australian law and possible war crimes.'
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Attorney General's office for further comment.


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Khaled Sharrouf posted the photos on Twitter alongside captions such as 'this guy lost his head!!! Lol'


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The convicted terrorist said he wanted to cut 'infidel throats'


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He directed his tweets to people in Australia and joked about organ donation


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Convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has threatened the Australian Federal Police and his countrymen on his Twitter account


Sharrouf, also a former Sydney resident, last week taunted Australian police via his social media account, boasting that he would 'slaughter' Australians.
The jihadist is currently in the Middle East fighting with the extremist group after he evaded authorities in December.
The tweets came as the nation's Director General of Security David Irvine revealed 'tens of people' had already returned to Australian shores from fighting alongside suspected terrorist organisations.


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Fatima Elomar hides under a burqa as she emerges from the Downing Centre court complex
with her lawyer Zali Burrows (right) and four children after appearing on terrorism related charges



On July 14, Sharrouf fired off a tweet to the AFP and Australians, saying: 'you cowards I am running to my death I want martyrdom thats [sic] why I am blessed u rock spiders'.
Just half an hour earlier, he claimed 'Australia belongs to the muslims not infidels like you' as well as boasting of his evasion of police.


'u can't stop and trust me if I wanted to attack aus I could have easily,' Sharrouf said.
He also added: 'I love to slaughter [Australians] & ALLAH LOVEs when u dogs r slaughtered'.


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On July 14, Sharrouf tweeted he loved to slaughter Australians to the AFP

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He said it would have been easy for him to attack Australia if he wanted


Quote:

WHO IS KHALED SHARROUF?
  • According to Attorney-General George Brandis, the former Sydney resident fled the country - believed to be on the way to Syria - on his brother's passport last December
  • At that time, Sharrouf was being monitored by the Australian Government. His passport had been cancelled and he was put on airport watch-lists
  • Sharrouf is being investigated by authorities in relation to allegations he is fighting with Islamic State
  • It was revealed he had been receiving disability pension payments for at least two months after fleeing the country
  • He is a convicted jihadi terrorist after he pleaded guilty and was jailed for acts in preparation for a terrorist act in 2008 and was released in 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported
  • The conviction came after Sharrouf was one of eight people arrested in a plot to attack the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor - in Sydney's south, according to the Sydney Morning Herald

These threatening tweets are part of a more disturbing picture of Sharrouf painted by his Twitter account.
Some of the content is so graphic that Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to publish the posts.
Speaking to media on Thursday, Attorney-General George Brandis said engagement with the Islamic community was an important strategy 'to keep Australia free from terrorism'.
'The imams who are faith leaders, who are influential and respected opinion members in their communities, are integral to our goal to saving young men - it is almost always young men - in their communities from being radicalised,' he said.
Director General of Security and ASIO chief David Irvine added a majority of the 60 Australians they were aware of fighting with Islamic radicals were siding against the government with Al-Qaeda off-shoots.
'We have some tens of people that have already returned [from the Middle East], we have probably another 150 we're looking at here in Australia who have inclinations to support those two extremist movements,' he said.
When asked if the ones who had returned to Australia were being actively monitored, Mr Irvine said 'I'm not saying anything further'.


Two Australian militants call for others to join the fight ...

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Sharrouf's account is littered with photos of him posing with weapons and military trucks as well as a young child brandishing a rifle

Two Australian militants call for others to join the fight in...

pop 27-07-14 13:36

Re: PhOtOs-Terrorist Ads for Decapitated Heads/Organs
 
These are sick NON Australians who cause troble and unfairness From our Liberial Barstud Government to get a bill past last week to invade our private lives by keeping our Freekin phone calls and internet stuff for two years, which the already corrupt police will love to death to convict us Normal REAL fair Drinkun Aussies on mindless ****e charges, while these sicko's get away with total bluddy murder!!!!!!!!!

creekguy 04-08-14 07:58

Re: PhOtOs-Terrorist Ads for Decapitated Heads/Organs
 
These are immigrants to Australia, who do not value their freedom here.They wish to follow radical coward clerics promoting fighting in far off lands to kill their own kind.? Incredible that muslm would promote killing fellow islamists!
Amazing how priests can influence the gullible, to kill and ignore even sex abuse against their own children, guess catholics priest have led the charge., Now its the muslim clerics turn?

Ladybbird 07-08-14 17:51

VIDEO-Secret UK Team in IRAQ Investigates ISIS
 
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US Considers Air Strikes and Air Drops to Help Iraqis Trapped on Mountain by Isis-
Move Comes as Iraq's Largest Christian City was Abandoned as Jihadist Militants Advance Through Country's North-West

Iraq's largest Christian town abandoned as Isis advance

Spencer Ackerman in New York, Martin Chulov and Julian Borger, theguardian.com, Thursday 7 August 2014


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Displaced Iraqis from Sinjar flee from Isis troops towards the autonomous Kurdistan region. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images



The Obama administration is considering aerial strikes and humanitarian air drops to help besieged religious minorities chased up a mountain by militants in Iraq.

The move comes as Iraq's largest Christian city was all but abandoned as the jihadist group Islamic State advances through minority communities in the country's north-west and towards the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil.

The US military is already helping the Iraqi government coordinate air drops of vital supplies to at least 40,000 Iraqis, mostly from the Yazidi minority, trapped on top of Mount Sinjar in the north after death threats from the Islamists who have overrun much of Sunni and northern Iraq.

Internally, the Obama administration was said to be studying what additional steps it could take directly, to include direct US air drops to those Iraqis stranded on the mountain.
"We have been working urgently and directly with officials in Baghdad and Irbil to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to people in need," a US defense official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the US was in constant coordination with the Iraqi government on "how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts, and provide direct assistance wherever possible."

If the US opts to intervene directly, it would represent the first aerial mission over Iraq since 2011 for a purpose beyond conducting surveillance on Isis, providing long-scheduled military sales, or transporting the extra hundreds of US special-operations "advisers" that Barack Obama ordered into Iraq to help Baghdad confront the threat from Isis.

One option for US air missions is to launch from Incirlik air base, which the Americans share with the Turks and Britain's RAF, just outside the city of Adana on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coastline.
It was a vital hub in both Afghan and Iraq wars, particularly for military air cargo. Its 10,000 ft main runway can accommodate giant C17 air transport planes, which can easily cover the 435 miles to the stranded Yazidi population on Mount Sinjar. Ankara announced earlier in the day that Turkish food parcels had been air-dropped for the Yazidis by Iraqi helicopters.

The base was important strategically during the Cold War because of its close proximity to the Soviet Union. As a hangover from those days it still houses some of the few US nuclear weapons left in Europe, B61 gravity bombs, in hardened shelters on the base.

UN officials say an estimated 200,000 new refugees are seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north from Islamic extremists who have pursued them since the weekend. The city of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul, home to around 50,000 Christians was the latest to fall, with most residents fleeing before dawn on Thursday as convoys of extremists drew near.

Other Christian towns near Mosul, including Tel Askof, Tel Keif and Qaramless have also largely been emptied. Those who remained behind have reportedly been given the same stark choice given to other minorities, including Yazidis: flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.

Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen have been at the frontlines of Iraq's war with Isis ever since the jihadist group stormed into Mosul and Tikrit and mid-June. The Iraqi army capitulated within hours, with at least 60,000 officers and soldiers fleeing on the first day of the assault alone.
Ever since, the jihadists have continued to make advances, while Iraqi troops have concentrated on defending Baghdad and the Shia south, leaving the defence of minorities in the north to the Kurdish peshmurga.

However, even the much vaunted Kurdish forces were no match for the heavy weapons wielded by the jihadists as they advanced in recent days. Peshmurga officers ordered troops to withdraw to areas administered by the Kurdish regional government – a clear sign of priorities and of where the battle lines are being drawn.

Without any protection, Yazidis, Christians and Turkmen are being uprooted from communities they have lived in for millennia and the geo-social fabric of Iraq is being rapidly shredded.
While those who have managed to flee the Christian areas have so far had a relatively safe passage to Irbil, the tens of thousands of Yazidis remain besieged near Sinjar, with little food or water.

The UN said it was able to get some supplies overland to the stranded hordes – avoiding Isis fighters who have surrounded most of Mount Sinjar. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkish helicopters had dropped food and water on the mountain top. Iraqi helicopters have also made food drops, but stranded Yazidis say they do not have enough to survive.

The Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, Joseph Thomas, described the situation in northern Iraq as "catastrophic, a crisis beyond imagination". He demanded urgent intervention to save what remained of the area's Christian heritage.

Kurdish officials on Thursday demanded more help in catering for refugees. The Kurdish administered areas have seen staggering numbers cross their notional border since the original Isis onslaught two months ago. In the first week alone, some 500,000 people are thought to have fled towards Irbil.

The capital of the Kurdish north is already home to a new Chaldean Christian community, which fled Baghdad in the wake of an Isis-led massacre inside a cathedral in October 2010. Many fleeing Christians have headed for the Ainkawa neighbourhood, which is home to Baghdad's Christian exiles.

The past 11 years of war and insurrection since the US invasion have led to most of Iraq's Christians fleeing. Numbers have plummeted starkly from an estimated one million before 2003 to around 150,000 now. A large number of those who remain are now displaced.

Miriam Dagher, 53, from Qaraqosh, said churches in the city had already been torched and religious insignia smashed. "We stayed as long as we could," she said. "But nothing could save us. This is the end of our community."

Isis has threatened to redraw the unitary borders that were carved out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire. The group's rampant insurgency and the inability of state actors to stop it has rendered the frontier between Iraq and Syria evermore irrelevant.
In the absence of central government authority, Shia militias are taking dominant roles, amplifying sectarian enmity between Islam's two most dominant sects.

Iraq's beleaguered prime minister, Nour al-Maliki, no longer has the authority to unite the country's disparate sects. Maliki, a Shia Muslim, had disenfranchised much of the country's Sunni community over the past three years, some of whom have turned to Isis as a means of reasserting themselves.
After digging in for the past two months, Maliki now faces a desperate battle to form a government, with his key backer Iran understood to have told him that it no longer supports his bid to lead the country for a third term.

Kurdish leader, Massoud Barazani, has said he is moving towards holding a referendum that could pave the way for an independence bid, a move that could spell the end of Iraq, and unsettle surrounding countries, including Syria, Turkey and Iran.

Ladybbird 08-08-14 13:12

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
'America IS Coming to Help': Obama to Bomb Iraq to Save Thousands of Non-Muslim Refugees
-Trapped on Mountains and Facing Starvation or Slaughter by ISIS Fanatics

  • 'Today America is coming to help', he told Iraqis in address on U.S. TV
  • Tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities remain cut off by ISIS militants
  • He said U.S. warplanes had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid
  • David Cameron welcomes strikes but rules out British military involvement
  • Pope begs world leaders to step in as Iraq's main Christian city is sacked

Daily Mail UK, 8 August 2014

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GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:


ISIS has been ruthlessly hunting down and slaughtering religious minorities, including Christians and members of the Yazidi sect, who they have denounced as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient set of beliefs. U.S. president Barack Obama said warplanes airdropped food and water supplies to the tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on Sinjar mountain, which has been surrounded by ISIS fighters. But already hundreds of Yazidis, including women and children, have been murdered as the ISIS hoards close in. Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the bodies of dozens of young children killed by the Islamic extremists, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidis.

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'We're coming to help': Mr Obama said American military planes had already
airdropped aid to tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities surrounded and cut off by ISIS militants


Barack Obama today authorised US airstrikes in northern Iraq to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by ISIS hoards as he declared: 'America is coming to help.'

His dramatic call to arms came as the chaos engulfing Iraq escalated rapidly last night with a re-energised Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant storming towns in the north, executing villagers and chasing thousands from their homes into the desert.
Already dozens of Yazidis - who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshippers because of their ancient set of beliefs which predate Christianity and Islam - have been murdered as the extremist fighters overran the town of Sinjar.

Tens of thousands of terrified Yazidis have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the surrounding mountains. But there they face another killer: searing desert heat and the constant threat of starvation. Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C.

Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the bodies of dozens of young children apparently killed by ISIS militants, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidi men.
The dead men's wives were reportedly kept as trophies to be gifted to unmarried jihadist fighters.


In a televised late-night statement from the White House, Mr Obama said American warplanes had already carried out airdrops of food and water to the Iraqi Yazidis hiding in the mountains.

'Today America is coming to help,' he declared, adding: 'The United States cannot and should not intervene every time there’s a crisis in the world.

'So let me be clear about why we must act, and act now: when we face a situation like we do on that mountain -- with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale, when we have a mandate to help . . . and when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I believe the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye.'

ISIS fighters beat back the Kurdish peshmerga fighters, Iraq's most formidable fighting force who have thus far fought tirelessly to defend their northern heartland, but are becoming stretched thin across several fronts.
In what will be seen as a major coup for the extremist force, they seized the Mosul Dam - Iraq's largest - which gives them control over Baghdad's water supply.

Panic even began to tear through the Kurdish capital of Erbil, long considered a safe haven, where civilians flooded the airport in a futile attempt to buy tickets to Baghdad.


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Innocent: Yazidi Iraqis on Mount Sinjar carry the bodies of children killed by ISIS. ISIS has been ruthlessly hunting down
and slaughtering members of the ancient Yazidi religion, a faith derived from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam



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Ruthless: An ISIS fighter poses next to a dead Yazidi. ISIS have denounced the Yazidis as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient
set of beliefs and have issued them with an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death



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Split: There are three main religious groups in Iraq: Shia Arabs, the country's majority, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who are religiously Sunni but divided by their ethnicity. The is also a minority of Christians scattered across northern Iraq, who comprise just over 1 per cent of the population (450,000). ISIS, who are Sunni Arab, have forced tens of thousands of Yazidis - an ancient religion that predates Islam - from their heartland in the town Sinjar into surrounding mountains where they face extreme heat and starvation




Displaced civilians flee as Obama promises to send help:


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Meanwhile, Pope Francis begged world leaders to help end the crisis, after Iraq's largest Christian town was sacked sending tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing into the desert.
Yesterday ISIS captured Qaraqush and several others near Mosul following the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

'(The Christians) have fled with nothing but their clothes, some of them on foot, to reach the Kurdistan region,' Patriarch Sako told AFP. 'This is a humanitarian disaster; the churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down.' He added that up to 1,500 manuscripts were burnt.

The Vatican said in a statement: 'His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others.'


Quote:

WHO ARE THE YAZIDIS?

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There are about 700,000 Yazidis in the world, living chiefly in northern Iraq and on Mount Sinjar.

They are ethnically Kurdish but adhere to a religion founded some 6,000 years ago by an Ummayyad sheikh.
The religion, while it predates Christianity and Islam, incorporates elements of each, as well as Zoroastrianism, an ancient belief founded by an Iranian philosopher in around 6BC.

The Yazidis live in small communities mainly scattered through northwest Iraq, north west Syria and south east Turkey, although members are also found in Georgia and Armenia.

Accounts of their population vary, with estimates ranging from 50,000 to a million, and their number has fallen considerably over the past 100 years.
Despite this, they have a well-organised society, following a chief sheikh as their religious leader and an emir, or prince, as the secular head.
The religion is centred around worship of the fallen archangel Melek Tawwus, or Pea**** Angel.

But unlike Satan's fall from grace, Melek Tawwus was readmitted into Heaven by God and represents humanity's potential for both good and evil.
For this reason, the Yazidis have unfairly garnered a reputation as devil-worshippers among certain faiths,
....and have faced centuries of alienation, oppression and attempted extermination. Yazidis - who do not believe in hell or evil - deny they are.

Many Yazidi traditions are shrouded in such secrecy that most have never been witnessed by outsiders. Yazidis regard marriage outside their faith as a sin punishable by ostracism or even death to restore lost honour.
Most Yazidis, even young people, choose to live in their isolated communities, though they often face extreme poverty.

The Yazidis have been targeted before, and claim to have been subjected to 72 genocides during the Ottoman rule of the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 2007 a series of massive truck bombs in northern Iraq killed nearly 500 villagers from the group in August 2007.

Now, forced to flee after the Islamic State group gave them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee or face death, the plight of these secretive people is under the world's spotlight.
While Iraq's Christian population has declined steeply since the end of the Iraq War, there are still some 450,000 - 1.2 per cent of the country - still living there.

Today's announcements reflected the deepest American engagement in Iraq since US troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.
Mr Obama, who made his remarks in a steady and sombre tone, has staked much of his legacy as president on ending what he has called the 'dumb war' in Iraq.

The president said the humanitarian airdrops were made at the request of the Iraqi government.
The food and water supplies were delivered to the tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on Sinjar mountain without food and water.

The Yazidis fled their homes after the Islamic State group overran the city of Sinjar, issuing an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death. Tens of thousands have scattered into the surrounding mountains where they face a daily battle for survival in extreme heat. Many have already died of starvation and thirst.

ISIS has been ruthlessly hunting and slaughtering members of the ancient Yazidi religion, a faith derived from Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam, who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshipers on account of their ancient set of beliefs.

Mindful of the public's aversion to another lengthy war, Mr Obama acknowledged that the prospect of a new round of US military action would be a cause for concern among many Americans.
He vowed anew not to put American combat troops back on the ground in Iraq and said there was no US military solution to the crisis.
'As commander in chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,' Mr Obama said.

Even so, he outlined a rationale for airstrikes if the Islamic State militants advance on American troops in the northern city of Irbil and the US consulate there in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
The troops were sent to Iraq earlier this year as part of the White House response to the extremist group's swift movement across the border with Syria and into Iraq.
'When the lives of American citizens are at risk, we will take action,' Mr Obama said. 'That's my responsibility as commander in chief.'
He said he had also authorised the use of targeted military strikes if necessary to help the Iraqi security forces protect civilians.

The president spoke following a day of urgent discussions with his national security team.
He addressed the nation only after the American military aircraft delivering food and water to the Iraqis had safely left the drop site in northern Iraq.
The Pentagon said the airdrops were performed by one C-17 and two C-130 cargo aircraft that together delivered a total of 72 bundles of food and water.
They were escorted by two F/A-18 fighters from an undisclosed air base in the region.
The planes delivered 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 pre-packaged meals and were over the drop area for less than 15 minutes at a low altitude.

The president cast the mission to assist the Yazidis as part of the American mandate to assist around the world when the US has the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre.
In those cases, Mr Obama said, 'we can act carefully and responsibly to prevent a potential act of genocide'.

Officials said the US was prepared to undertake additional humanitarian airdrops if necessary, though they did not say how quickly those missions could occur.

And today, David Cameron welcomed US President Obama's decision to authorise airstrikes, saying the world must help religious minorities in Iraq who are under threat from the militants 'in their hour of desperate need' - but ruled out any British military intervention.


President Barack Obama discusses the situation in Iraq
...

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Dying: It is reported that dozens of people, mostly children, have died of hunger and thirst since ISIS fighters surrounded Mount Sinjar


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Hunted down: A Yazidi girl rests on the ground as she flees with her family from the encroaching ISIS hoards


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Not enough: Villagers say food delivered by the Iraqi army by helicopters is insufficient
and people are beginning to die of starvation and thirst in the extreme heat



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Fleeing: Officials said, tens of thousands of Iraqis, mainly Yazidi and Christian families, living in Iraq's Sinjar
district bordering Syria were desperately trying to escape the country for fear of massacres by the militants



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Safe for now: Iraqi Christians who fled the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kilometres east of the northern province
of Nineveh, rest upon their arrival at the Saint-Joseph church in the Kurdish city of Arbil, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region


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Scared: ISIS hoards have been particularly ruthless in their treatment of Iraqi Christians. Thousands have fled since ISIS seized Qaraqush, Iraq's largest Christian town, and several others near Mosul following the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga fighters, inhabitants said


A Downing Street spokeswoman said the UK was 'not planning a military intervention'.

But Prime Minister Cameron said: 'I have tasked officials to urgently establish what more we can do to provide help to those affected, including those in grave need of food, water and shelter in the Sinjar area.
He said he had asked officials to look into what assistance the UK can provide.

In a statement on Friday morning, Mr Cameron said: 'I welcome president Obama's decision to accept the Iraqi government's request for help and to conduct targeted US air strikes, if necessary, to help Iraqi forces as they fight back against Isil terrorists to free the civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar.

'And I fully agree with the President that we should stand up for the values we believe in - the right to freedom and dignity, whatever your religious beliefs.'

U.S. administration officials said they believe unilateral US strikes would be consistent with international law in part because the Iraqi government has asked for Washington to take military action.
They also said Mr Obama had the constitutional authority to act on his own in order to protect American citizens.

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Isis fighters reportedly gained control of this dam in Mosul, giving them power over the main water supply to Baghdad


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Fight back:
Soldiers of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Shiite volunteers take position during fighting with ISIS fighters, in Amerly town, northeastern Baghdad. The Kurds, who suffered horrifically under Saddam Hussein, have exploited the recent crisis to grant themselves greater autonomy



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Brave: But the Kurds have nonetheless fought tirelessly against the ISIS hoards in a
desperate bid to protect their heartland and other religious denominations under threat


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Fighting on:
Thousands of ethnic minorities, including Christians and Yazidi Kurds, have fled their homes after the ISIS hoard seized
Qaraqush, Iraq's largest Christian town, and several others near Mosul following the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga fighters (pictured)



Still, there was no guarantee that the president's threat of military strikes would actually be followed by action.
He similarly authorised strikes in Syria last summer after chemical weapons were deployed, but those attacks were never carried out, in part because of domestic political concerns and also because an international agreement to strip Syria of its stockpiles of the deadly gases.

The president has also faced persistent calls to take military action in Syria on humanitarian grounds, given that more than 170,000 people have been killed there.
Critics, including some Republicans in Congress, have argued that Mr Obama's cautious approach to Syria has allowed the Islamic State group to flourish there, growing strong enough to move across the border with Iraq and make swift gains.

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Back to Iraq? The announcements reflected the deepest American engagement in Iraq
since US troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war



In light of the militants' advances, Mr Obama sent about 800 US forces to Iraq earlier this year, with those troops largely split between joint operation centres in Baghdad and Irbil.
More than half are providing security for the embassy and US personnel. American service members also are involved in improving US intelligence, providing security cooperation and conducting assessments of Iraqi capabilities.

Officials said there were no plans to evacuate those Americans from Iraq but that the US was conducting enhanced intelligence flights over Irbil with both manned and unmanned aircrafts in order to monitor the deteriorating conditions.
If the president were to order actual airstrikes in Iraq, it is all but certain he would proceed without formal congressional approval.
Politicians left town last week for a five-week recess, and there was no sign that Congress was being called back.


President Barack Obama Discusses the Situation in Iraq:



Watch the ISIS Fanatics:





The Fall of Iraq & Syria- What You Aren't Being Told:


Ladybbird 08-08-14 20:07

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
The Moment Obama Began Bombing Iraq: First Picture Emerges of US Air Strike on ISIS artillery
-as President Carries out His Threat to use Force to Save Thousands of Non-Muslims Trapped by Fanatics

  • GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:
  • This Report contains Images of Death that Some Readers May Find Disturbing
  • Two F/A18 fighters dispatched to unleash 500lb laser-guided bombs on Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil
  • It is America's first military offensive in Iraq since it pulled out of the country in 2011 after eight years at war
  • Comes after Obama vowed to 'help' Iraqi forces with airstrikes to prevent 'a potential act of genocide'
  • Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities have been driven from their homes as ISIS jihadists storm towns
  • Some 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children - fled to hills after ISIS took Sinjar, the Yazidis' heartland in Iraq
  • ISIS calls Yazidis devil worshippers because of their beliefs that predate Islam, Christianity and Judaism
  • Obama said U.S. warplanes had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to Yazidis holed up in Sinjar hills
  • David Cameron welcomes airstrikes to help Iraqis 'in their hour of desperate need' but rules out British military action
  • Foreign Office urges British nationals to stay away from Kurdistan as America pounded Islamic State positions
  • FAA prohibits U.S. airlines and other commercial carriers from flying over Iraq as spectre of more airstrikes looms

America waded into the unfolding crisis in Iraq today as it dispatched two warplanes to bombard an ISIS artillery battery in a bid to halt the extremist horde that is sweeping the country and save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

The F/A-18C Hornets took off from the USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf this morning before unleashing 500lb laser-guided bombs on a unit of Islamic State fighters marching on Kurdish capital Erbil, where U.S. troops are stationed as well as the American consulate.

In an unusual move, news of America's first military offensive in Iraq since it pulled out of the country in 2011 after eight years at war was announced by Rear Admiral John Kirby through his Twitter account.

'US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery. Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending Erbil, near US personnel,' he tweeted.


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Gone in a cloud of smoke: A dust cloud rises where the first US bomb struck ISIS artillery being towed by a truck outside Irbil


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The airstrike marked the first time US forces have taken direct action against ISIS since it began taking control of huge swathes of the Middle East


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It begins: One of the two F/A-18C Hornet fighter jets that bombed the ISIS artillery position prepares
for takeoff from the USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf before the dawn mission this morning



The assault follows Barack Obama's dramatic call to arms last night in which he authorised airstrikes to defend hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims being hunted down and slaughtered by Islamic State jihadists, declaring: 'America is coming to help.'
And as the crisis in Iraq entered a new phase of international involvement, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned the U.S. has enough intelligence to clearly single out and hit Islamic militants if they threaten U.S. interests or the thousands of refugees who fled to a mountaintop.

Asked if the Islamic State group could successfully hide among civilians to evade strikes, Hagel said: 'It's pretty clear who they are, and they would be pretty identifiable where our airstrikes could be effective.'

It is understood that ISIS was using stolen artillery, abandoned by retreating Iraqi soldiers, to shell Kurdish forces defending the regional capital of Kurdistan.
Peshmerga Kurdistan forces are now waiting for more strikes by the US fighter jets before launching a full-scale counter attack against the ISIS assault.

The chaos engulfing Iraq has escalated rapidly in the past 24 hours, with a re-energised Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant storming towns in the north, executing villagers and chasing thousands from their homes into the mountains.


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'We're coming to help': President Obama meets with the National Security Council yesterday in the Situation Room of the White House, hours before his addressto the nation in which he vowed to help the thousands of Iraqi civilians being driven from their homes and slaughtered by the Islamic State extremists running rampant through the country.
That help came in the form of targeted airstrikes on key ISIS positions today:


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Ready for action: And as soon as the first two jets returned from their successful bombing run on ISIS fighters marching
on Erbil this morning, the flight deck of the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier came alive as more warplanes readied for action



Already dozens of Yazidis - who ISIS have denounced as devil-worshippers because of their ancient beliefs which predate both Christianity and Islam - have been murdered since the extremist fighters overran the town of Sinjar yesterday.

Up to 50,000 terrified Yazidis - half of them children - have sought refuge from the bloodshed in the barren mountain range to the north of their hometown as their hunters close in.

But there they face an impossible dilemma - try to make it to the Turkish border and risk being captured and killed by insurgents, or remain on Mount Sinjar without food or water in the searing heat in the hope that aid will somehow get through.

Many have already died of hunger and thirst as they struggle to survive on just the food they could carry in temperatures exceeding 42C.

Photographs have emerged of Yazidi men carrying the limp bodies of dozens of young children either too exhausted to continue or killed by ISIS militants, who in turn have posted pictures online of themselves posing next to dead Yazidi men.
The dead men's wives were reportedly kept as trophies to be gifted to unmarried jihadist fighters.
Last night, in a televised late-night statement from the White House, Mr Obama said American warplanes had already carried out airdrops of food and water to the Iraqi Yazidis hiding in the mountains.

Ladybbird 09-08-14 16:41

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
RAF Joins US & Explores More Ways & to Help Yazidis'


Daily Mail UK, 9 August 2014


Britain is looking at how to get a religious minority group off an Iraqi mountain it has been trapped on by extremist Islamic State (IS) fighters, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

He said the first British humanitarian relief including drinking water and tents would be dropped "imminently" by RAF aircraft to members of the Yazidi in the Sinjar mountains in Iraq's north-west.

Thousands of Yazidis have been driven into the barren mountains near the Syrian border and hundreds of women from the minority seized by the hardline Sunni IS militants.

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Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has chaired a meeting of the Cobra committee to assess the crisis in northern Iraq


Speaking after chairing a meeting of the Government's Cobra committee, Mr Hammond said such airdrops were only a short-term solution.

He said: "We can expect a continuing drumbeat of airdrop operations working in co-ordination with the US and potentially with others as well.
"But more widely we are looking at how to support this group of people and get them off that mountain, how we are going to facilitate their exit from what is a completely unacceptable situation."

The US has begun airstrikes against IS targets engaging Kurdish forces near the key city of Irbil, but Britain has ruled out military action at this stage.

But the Government has committed £8 million towards humanitarian aid for the troubled country.
Mr Hammond said the Government was deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis and the "extraordinary cruelty" shown by ISIS in areas it has taken control of in the north of Iraq.

The first consignment of UK emergency aid has left RAF Brize Norton for Iraq as the West tries to counter the threat from extremists.

But Mr Hammond said it was for a new Iraqi government to lead the fight against ISIS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which has declared a new caliphate in the area of Iraq it controls.

"We are waiting, all of us are waiting, for a new Iraqi government to be formed which will then have to take the lead in responding to the challenge that ISIS is posing to the integrity of the Iraqi state," Mr Hammond said.
He added: "At the moment our focus is on supporting the humanitarian effort, trying to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis in Iraq and waiting to see as the new government is formed, whether it will be an inclusive government we can get behind and support in its efforts."

He also called on other countries to send aid, which would also send a political message that "the world is horrified" at what is happening.

The UK's £8 million emergency package includes reusable filtration containers, tents, and solar lights which can also recharge mobile phones.
Some £3 million will go to charities and NGOs already on the ground and helping displaced people in northern Iraq, and £2.5 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A further £500,000 ($750,000) will be used to ensure Kurdish and UN systems can co-ordinate properly.


'I Don't Think We are Going to Solve This Problem in Weeks':
Obama Says it Will Take 'Some Time' to End the Conflict in Iraq


President Barack Obama refused to put forward a timetable for a resolution to the conflict in Iraq on Saturday, saying that it was going to 'take some time.'
'I don't think we are going to solve this problem in weeks,' Obama said, noting that it 'is going to be a long-term project.'

The president said among his 'immediate concerns' was making 'sure ISIL is not engaging in the actions that could cripple a country permanently.'
Despite his open ended timetable for untangling the U.S. from Iraq, the president stood by his previous promises that he would not put boots on the ground in the country for any reason other than to protect American personnel stationed there.

'I've been very clear that we're not gonna have us combat troops in Iraq again, and we are going to maintain that because we should have learned a lesson from our long and very costly incursion in Iraq,' he said.

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President Barack Obama said today that it would take 'some time' to resolve the conflict in Iraq and admitted that it will be longer than 'weeks'


Obama also said that 'right now' he did not need any additional funding from Congress to carry out military missions in Iraq.
Asked if the U.S.underestimated Islamic militants in Iraq, Obama said: 'There is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than intelligence estimates.'

The president admitted that policy makers inside and outside of Iraq did not have a 'full appreciation' for the fact that Iraqi forces would not stand their ground in the face of the enemy.

However, Obama expressed irritation with the perception that it was his 'decision' to pull out of Iraq in 2011.
'That entire analysis is bogus and wrong and oftentimes gets peddled around here by folks who are trying to protect' their own policy decisions,' Obama said.
The previous administration, he said, turned over control of the country to the Iraqi people.

And the Iraqi government, 'based on its political considerations' and the fact that the Iraqi people were tired of their country being occupied, opted not to pass laws that would protect American troops.
'That presupposes that I would have overwritten this sovereign government,' if I had told them, ''You don't have a choice," ' he said.
'Which would have kind of run contrary to the argument we were kind of making,' he added.

That said, history had not happened the way it did, and the US still had troops in Iraq, they wouldn't have been able to prevent the current crisis, he said, because the Iraq has not done the things it needed to do to have a cohesive government.

If the the U.S still had combat troops in Iraq, Obama said, the only difference is that 'we'd have a much bigger job, and we'd probably have to go up again in the number of ground troops to make sure those troops weren't vulnerable.'

Immediately after the president spoke he hopped aboard his Marine One helicopter with his family to speed off to their annual summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

The first family will remain in the elite Massachusetts town for the next two weeks. President Obama will return to Washington next weekend for several days of meetings and then rejoin his family there for the five final days of their vacation.
The president did not cancel or postpone his vacation even after the Islamic militants overrunning the country took control of one of Iraq's largest dams and ran religious minorities out of the city of Mosul under threat of death.

With no where else to go, an estimated 40,000 followers of the Yadizi religion have been stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq for several days.
Over the last two days the U.S. military has made air drops of food, water and basic medical supplies to the Iraqi refugees hiding away in the mountains and has launched airstrikes on extremists camped outside the nearby city of Erbil.
'We feel confident that we can prevent ISIL form going up a mountain and slaughtering the people there,' Obama said today.

The issue is providing 'safe passage' down the mountain and figuring out where the refugees will live after that, Obama said.


FIRST STRIKE:
Smoke rises over the desert near Arbil, northern Iraq, after US air strike on Islamic State artillery.



Ladybbird 09-08-14 19:26

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
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Ready to Strike: How the US is Armed to the Teeth in the Middle East after Moving Ships, Jets and Troops Within Striking Distance... -Britain's RAF Planes & Troops Already in the Area, in its Large Military Base in the Med, - to Help with Back-Up, Arms & Supplies
  • U.S. & UK forces have spent last two months moving ships, weapons and troops within close proximity of conflict zone
  • Two F/A18 fighters flew from American 'supercarrier' in Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on ISIS group
  • Jets were on USS George H.W. Bush, which travelled 1,000 miles from Arabian Sea to Persian Gulf seven weeks ago
  • UK's RAF have been dropping supplies to the trapped people for some days

Daily Mail UK, 9 August 2014


The strike on ISIS today came after U.S. forces spent the last two months moving ships, jets and troops within striking distance.

After President Obama gave the go ahead last night, two F/A18 fighters flew off from an American 'supercarrier' in the Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on a group of Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil.
The jets were on the USS George H.W. Bush, which was ordered to travel 1,000 miles from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf seven weeks ago.

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Surrounded: The U.S. & UK have spent recent months moving ships, jets and troops
within striking distance with today's US attack on ISIS coming from the Persian Gulf


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It begins: One of the two F/A-18C Hornet fighter jets that bombed the ISIS artillery position prepares for takeoff from the
USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf before the dawn mission this morning


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Ready for action: And as soon as the first two jets returned from their successful bombing run on ISIS fighters marching
on Erbil this morning, the flight deck of the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier came alive as more warplanes readied for action


It joined the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet - two aircraft carriers - the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln - and several nuclear submarines armed with Tomahawk missiles.

Each carrier typically carries 64 aircraft, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft, E-2 Hawkeye surveillance planes and SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
There are also five other U.S. ships believed to be in the Arabian Sea of needed.

Obama's operational choices are limited to launches from bases outside Iraq's borders. The UK has a large military base in Cyprus


Among them are Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which already houses command and logistics hubs for U.S. Central Command and was ground zero for air sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq since the early days of the George W. Bush administration.

Al-Udeid is still used for some air missions over Afghanistan and houses long-range B1-bombers.

Closer to Iraq's northern provinces is an American air base in Incirlik, Turkey. After 2011, that facility inherited much of the airborne surveillance hardware – including drones – that the U.S. once launched from bases inside Iraq.


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Unmanned attacker: The United States has its MQ-9 'Reaper' drones that can deliver Hellfire missiles more than 1,100 miles away


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Gone in a cloud of smoke: A dust cloud rises where the first US bomb struck ISIS artillery being towed by a truck outside Irbil



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The airstrike marked the first time US forces have taken direct action against ISIS since it began taking control of huge swathes of the Middle East


In addition, the U.S. commands a detachment of F-16 fighters in Jordan, where it has 2,000 troops based, according to a Pentagon official.

The superpower also has a massive arsenal of MQ-18 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones, capable of delivering Hellfire missiles more than 1,100 miles away.

The Reaper drones can also deliver 500-pound bombs.

The United States has around 800 personnel on the ground in Iraq - but not enough to launch an attack.

In late June it was announced that the U.S. was sending another 300 troops to Iraq to beef up security at its embassy and around Baghdad.


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Response: On the ground, a Kurdish armoured vehicle rushes towards the site of the U.S. air strike to meet ISIS


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Rolling tanks: Peshmerga fighters are pictured yesterday patrolling their territory in an operation against the ISIS fighters



It does have 10,000 troops in Kuwait and stores millions of rounds of small arms fire, thousands of rounds of tank ammunition, helicopter-fired rockets, machine guns, grenades, flares, sniper rifles, M16s and M4 rifles.
Britain has a large RAF base in Cyprus, less than 100 miles from from Syria and 650 miles from Baghdad.
RAF Akrotiri was built in the mid 1950s and first used in the Suez crisis.

More recently the base was used as a supply post during the Iraq wars and also used to support the attacks on Libya in 2011.

Before intervention in Syria was voted down by the Commons, this is where the strikes would have come from.
Now it could be used for air drops to the Yazidi tribe who are trapped in the mountains of Iraq or the British could share their bases with America.


White House: We'll Give Iraq More Military Support if Needed


Ladybbird 09-08-14 20:02

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
They Have Vicious Plans for Them': Fears for Hundreds of Yazidi 'Enslaved' Women Captured by ISIS Fanatics in Iraq as America Wipes out Terrorist Convoy after Launching SECOND Round of Bombing

  • GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: This story contains images of death that some readers may find disturbing
  • ISIS captured hundreds of Yazidi women in Mosul, Iraq's second city, hours after U.S. launched air strikes
  • Two F/A18 fighters dispatched to unleash 500lb laser-guided bombs on Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil
  • It is America's first military offensive in Iraq since it pulled out of the country in 2011 after eight years at war
  • Comes after Obama vowed to 'help' Iraqi forces with airstrikes to prevent 'a potential act of genocide'
  • Hundreds of thousands of religious minorities have been driven from their homes as ISIS jihadists storm towns
  • Some 50,000 Yazidis - half of them children - fled to hills after ISIS took Sinjar, the Yazidis' heartland in Iraq
  • ISIS calls Yazidis devil worshippers because of their beliefs that predate Islam, Christianity and Judaism
  • Obama said U.S. warplanes had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to Yazidis holed up in Sinjar hills
  • David Cameron welcomes airstrikes to help Iraqis 'in their hour of desperate need'
  • Foreign Office urges British nationals to stay away from Kurdistan as America pounded Islamic State positions
  • FAA prohibits U.S. airlines from flying over Iraq, British Airways also announces it is suspending flights over country

ISIS militants have made hostages of hundreds of Yazidi women after America waded into the unfolding crisis in Iraq by dropping bombs on the extremists' artillery.

Earlier President Obama authorised two bombers to sweep up form the Persian Gulf and drop their payloads on jihadist emplacements, in response to their actions against the Yazidi religious minority in the north of the country.
Later the U.S. military conducted two additional air strikes against the extremists near the city of Arbil in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said.
The second wave of air strikes, included a drone strike on a mortar position and an attack by four F/A-18 jets on an Islamic State convoy and mortar position. They made two passes, released eight bombs and "neutralized" the fighters

But now ISIS - which calls itself the Islamic State - has struck the group again by capturing hundreds of women from Mosul, Iraq's second city. Earlier reports indicated that capture Yazidi women were intended to be given to young jihadists as wives.

American aircraft continued attacking targets in Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon said, killing terrorists who were launching attacks from mortars and underway in a convoy.

‘Please save us! SOS! save us!’ a man pleaded, ‘Our people are in the desert. They are exposed to a genocide.’

The savage group - which boasts of crucifying, mutilating and executing those it conquers - is now advancing into the Kurdish northern area of Iraq, which was formerly thought to be safe.


Fighters were today just 25 miles from Erbil, the Kurdish capital, which has been a safe haven in the country throughout the rise of ISIS, and also during the Iraq war to topple Saddam Hussein.An Iraqi government official confirmed the hostage-taking, and said the women are all younger than 35.

Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, said: 'We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them. We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values.'There are claims that many have been raped and there are fears that they will be sold into slavery by the fanatics. Those trapped on the mountain say they fear they face ‘slaughter’ . They spoke of appalling conditions with no water, food or medicine, and little shelter apart from lone trees, under which groups huddle together, or caves dotted in the barren, bleak mountainside.

‘We are being slaughtered,’ Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, said: ‘Our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth.’
Another said: ‘We have nothing here except ground to sleep on, there is no food or water, people are hungry, people are crying for help.’

One Yazidi official, Mahma Khalil, put the number sheltering on the mountain, which the community considers the holy site where Noah’s ark settled after the biblical flood, as high as 250,000.


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Drama: The two American warplanes dropped 500lb laser-guided bombs on an Islamic State artillery position
Near Irbil in a bid to halt the ISIS horde sweeping the country and save thousands of innocent lives


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Split: There are three main religious groups in Iraq: Shia Arabs, the country's majority, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, who are religiously Sunni but divided by their ethnicity. The is also a minority of Christians scattered across northern Iraq, who comprise just over 1 per cent of the population (roughly 450,000 people). ISIS, who are Sunni Arab, have forced tens of thousands of Yazidis - an ancient religion that predates Islam - from their heartland in Sinjar


US Government Releases Video of Air Operation in the Gulf


Ladybbird 11-08-14 19:26

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
THE EVIL CRUELTY OF ISIS:

Lined up and Executed, Their Severed Heads Put on Display as a Warning to Others: Horrific New Photographs of ISIS Atrocities

  • WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
  • Sunni tribesmen marched into desert, made to kneel and shot in the head
  • Tribe made deal with ISIS to be left alone but agreement collapsed
  • Shocking close-up photos of splattered brains and severed heads released
  • 'Punishment for those who fight Allah and his Messenger is to crucify or cut off hands and feet'
11 August 2014


Up to 500 prisoners from the minority Yazidi faith are said to have been killed by ‘death squads’ of jihadi gunmen in recent days.
Some 40 Yazidi children are reported to be among the dead, after being driven from their homes by the brutal Islamist militant offensive in northern Iraq.
Chilling images of the victims have now emerged, some released by the group’s expertly managed propaganda machine.


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Prisoners: Members of the Sunni Shaitat tribe are rounded up and marched to their deaths
in Syria by fighters from ISIS in a series of horrific images posted online by the jihadist group


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Ruthless: Bent double and barefooted, with their hands are bound behind their backs with rope,
-the prisoners are marched to the execution site in the desert near Deir ez Zor in Syra


Advancing Islamic State fighters have filmed themselves massacring prisoners, some of whom have been crucified or beheaded. Pictures show armed fighters, appearing to laugh over slumped bodies of dead civilians, who had been lined up and shot in the head and back.
Some images, posted online, show militants posing next to dead Yazidi men.

One horrific set of photographs, which emerged yesterday, shows the militants rounding up and executing tribesmen. The prisoners were marched into the desert and made to kneel on the dusty ground, before being systematically shot in the head.


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Crimes against humanity: The captives are then lined up and ordered to kneel down on the dusty ground


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Barbaric: Around 20 ISIS fighters stand behind the line of men and the squad of jihadists begin to murder the prisoners

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A couple of jihadists approach the dead prisoners and finish off any survivors from point-blank range


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Sick: A jihadist appears to be smiling as he holds a terrified man by his hair and begins to slice through his neck with a hunting knife


‘The punishment of those who fight Allah and his Messenger and spread mischief on earth is to kill or crucify or cut off their hands and feet,’ the militant group declared.


There were also reports of children being beheaded, crucifixions and amputations. One said trapped Yazidi women were being raped while their husbands were slaughtered.

As each town is taken, anyone opposing the Islamic State is either killed or given the option to convert to Islam and pay a fine. Others try to abandon their homes and flee. Six weeks ago, the Islamic State executed at least 160 prisoners in just four days in the northern city of Tikrit, publishing pictures of men forced to lie with their hands tied behind their backs while they were shot.
A final set of images showed the victims’ bodies piled up.

The brutal tactics of the group, which broke from Al Qaeda, are the work of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion.

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Brutal: Other captives are tied to makeshift crucifixes, before being shot


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A crowd of local men watch from behind a low fence, some of them are taking photos or filming the executions with their mobile phones


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DISTURBING CONTENT: ISIS terrorists execute soldiers in Syria:



Ladybbird 20-08-14 11:59

re: PhOtOs- Iraq WAR -UK's MI5 &vSAS Go After ISIS
 
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Germany Prepared to Send Arms to Kurds in Iraq

AP/Daily Mail UK, 20 August 2014


BERLIN (AP) — Germany says it is prepared to arm the Kurdish fighters battling Sunni insurgents in northern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Germany would closely coordinate its efforts with France, Britain and other European countries who are already delivering weapons to the Kurds.

Wednesday's announcement follows intense domestic and international pressure for the German government to provide more than humanitarian assistance to those fighting the Islamic State group, which has taken control of large parts of Iraq in recent weeks.

The offensive by ISIS radicals has left thousands dead and forced 1.5 million people from their homes.


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An internally displaced Iraqi woman holds her sister during a sandstorm
-at a new camp outside the Bajid Kandala camp in Feeshkhabour town, Iraq, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014.



Some 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting in Iraq since the Islamic State's rapid advance began in June, and thousands more have died. The scale of the humanitarian crisis prompted the U.N. to declare its highest level of emergency last week. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Sending weapons would be a significant step for Germany, which traditionally has shied away from such moves. Steinmeier said the decision was made to do so because a collapse of Kurdish defenses could precipitate a wider catastrophe in Iraq that would directly affect Europe.

France began shipping arms to Kurdish forces last week and has also supplied similar weapons to Western-backed Syrian opposition forces.

The French government, meanwhile, announced Wednesday it was getting a new shipment of humanitarian aid ready for Iraq as minorities under attack by Sunni militants issued a new appeal for help.

France has already sent dozens of tons of aid to minorities in Iraq in several deliveries since Aug. 10.

Ladybbird 20-08-14 13:43

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Video Showing American Journalist Beheaded Believed Real, -Officials and Family Say


AP, 20 August 2014


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AP Photo/Steven Senne, FileIn this May 27, 2011 file photo American Journalist James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., poses for a photo in Boston.


WASHINGTON — Two U.S. officials say they believe American journalist James Foley was the victim executed by ISIS militants as shown in a grisly video released Tuesday.


Separately, Foley’s family confirmed his death in a statement posted on a webpage that was created to rally support for his release.
In the statement, Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, said the journalist, quote, “gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.”

One of the U.S. officials said President Barack Obama was expected to make a statement about the killing on Wednesday.
The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the video by name.

Foley, a 40-year-old freelance journalist from Rochester, New Hampshire, went missing nearly two years ago in northern Syria while on assignment for Agence France-Press and the Boston-based media company GlobalPost. The car he was riding in was stopped by four militants in a contested battle zone that both Sunni rebel fighters and government forces were trying to control. He had not been heard from since.

Several senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the situation said the Islamic State very recently threatened to kill Foley to avenge the crushing airstrikes over the last two weeks against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar, the Mosul dam and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
Both areas are in northern Iraq, which has become a key front for the Islamic State as its fighters travel to and from Syria.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the hostage situation by name.

Since Aug. 8, the U.S. military has struck more than 70 Islamic State targets – including security checkpoints, vehicles and weapons caches. It’s not clear how many militants have been killed in the strikes, although it’s likely that some were.


The Internet video begins with scenes of President Barack Obama explaining his decision to order airstrikes in Iraq. Then it switches to a balding man in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in the desert, a black-clad Islamic State fighter by his side. Foley’s name appears in both English and Arabic graphics on screen. The video appears to have been shot in an arid area; there is no vegetation in sight and the horizon is in the distance where the sand meets the gray-blue sky.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimated Tuesday that about 20 journalists are missing in Syria, and has not released their nationalities.

In its annual report last November, CPJ concluded that the missing journalists are either being held and threatened with death by extremists, or taken captive by gangs seeking ransom. The group’s report described the widespread seizure of journalists as unprecedented and largely unreported by news organizations in the hope that keeping the kidnappings out of public view may help in the captives’ release.

The Islamic State militant group is so ruthless in its attacks against all people they consider heretics or infidels that it has been disowned by al-Qaida’s leaders.

In seeking to impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law in the lands it is trying to control, the extremists have killed soldiers and civilians alike in horrifying executions – including mounting the decapitated heads of some of its victims on spikes.

The group is the heir apparent of the militancy known as al-Qaida in Iraq, which beheaded many of its victims, including Americans businessman Nicholas Berg in 2004.


US Journalist Beheaded on Video



Related:

Ladybbird 24-08-14 12:44

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Vile Boast of Jihadi John... I've made My Fortune:
Bragging British Executioners are Sadists, say Ex Hostages... They Tortured us with Tasers


- Britains MI5 & SAS Go After Terrorists


  • British Jihadis have boasted about making large fortunes from kidnapping
  • Some of the terrorists are planning to 'retire' to either Kuwait or Qatar
  • Jihad John even told terrified prisoners about the amount of cash he makes
  • It comes as CCTV emerged of separate extremists strolling through Gatwick
  • Group reportedly flew to Turkey in October last year before crossing border
  • One returned to UK and is now in jail - the other was killed while fighting
Daily Mail UK, 25 August 2014


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British jihadis involved in the brutal beheading of American reporter James Foley
-callously boasted of making personal fortunes from ransoms paid for other released hostages.


British jihadis involved in the brutal beheading of American reporter James Foley callously boasted of making personal fortunes from ransoms paid for other released hostages.
The gang openly talked of making so much money they could ‘retire to Kuwait or Qatar’, according to testimonies by former hostages obtained by The Mail on Sunday.

The revelation comes as CCTV footage emerged reportedly showing the moment five separate British jihadis strolled through the departure lounge of Gatwick Airport on their way to Syria.
One of the extremists pictured at Gatwick is now in jail, while at least one more has been killed while fighting.

All the men were among more than 500 Britons who have enlisted with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, prompting warnings from the Home Secretary that new powers will be introduced to bring British extremists under control.


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Chilling: CCTV footage has emerged which reportedly shows five British jihadis walking through Gatwick Airport
-on their way to Syria. Second left is Mashadur Choudhury, far right is Muhammad Hamidur Rahman


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Is this Jihadi John? UK police have photographs of several suspects they believe are now working for ISIS.
Pictured is rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary, 23, from London



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Junaid Hussain, who has a Birmingham accent, is another UK suspect featured on a Jihadi website,
-believed to be linked to the ISIS terrorist organisation. He posts on Twitter under the name Abu Hussain al-Britani



The four Islamic State militants – nicknamed The Beatles by their Western captives – were reported to be ‘interested in money’ from the start of the kidnap ordeal, even bragging to prisoners about how much they were making.

A security source revealed last night that £24 (US$36) million was paid by at least four European countries for the release of 11 hostages last year.



British and US hostages were seen as being in a ‘different category,’ he said – so demands for an £80 ($55) million ransom on Foley were set deliberately high as a provocation.


It has also emerged that:
• Security services believe they are close to identifying the British militants who executed Foley.

• The East Londoners formed a specialist kidnap gang, operating in Syria for up to two years.

• They are thought to have possibly been involved in the seizure of several Westerners, including Foley.

• Their leader was not ‘John’, the left-handed man wielding the knife in the horrific video of Foley’s death, but ‘George’, who goes under the nom-de-guerre of Abu Muhareb (‘Fighter’).

• One former hostage described them as ‘sadistic psychopaths’, regularly handing out brutal ‘punishments’ that included the use of Tasers on hands and bodies.

• They were so vicious that at one stage they were stopped from guarding hostages by IS.

• IS claims it has ‘sleepers’ already in position in the UK and US, ready to strike at any time.


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This man is believed to have travelled to Syria from Portsmouth and has similar eyes to Jihadi John


The sickening beheading of Foley, shown off in a slick and distressing propaganda video, highlighted the shameful role being played by British members of Islamic State.

Security services in Britain and the US have drawn up a shortlist of suspects. They believe there may have been more than one killer, since two different knives feature in the footage, but have not yet definitively identified those behind the murder.

The Mail on Sunday has pieced together an unprecedented picture of the British gang’s brutal operation and its savage treatment of seized captives through extensive interviews with hostages, family and security sources.

The detailed investigation also uncovered disturbing details of how the world’s wealthiest terror group is being funded by ransom payments, with £8 million paid for the release of four French hostages alone.

Two years ago, the United States said such payments had become ‘the most significant source of terrorist funding’. Britain and the US refuse to pay ransoms. The disclosure that British militants talked among themselves and with their captives about ‘retiring’ with the money they were making demolishes any idea they are motivated purely by religious fervour.

Our investigation revealed the existence of four Beatles – not three as has been widely reported – nicknamed John, Paul, George and Ringo by their Western captives.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...Abdel_Bary.jpg


Hunted: Rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, from west London, is one of those who is being investigated by Britain's MI5


The gang’s ringleader was ‘George’, who spent much of his time regurgitating chunks from the Koran and promoting IS’s extremist brand of Islam at public events.
The hostages concluded he was not very smart – unlike ‘John’, who used the nom-de-guerre ‘Abu Saleh’ (‘Pious’) and was seen wielding the knife in the video of Foley’s murder.
‘Ringo’ was also frequently seen, unlike ‘Paul’ who appeared in their cells the least. ‘He seems to have been just a guard, not there all the time,’ said one key figure.

They were also guarded by French-speaking jihadis – at least one of whom was Belgian.


According to these accounts, the British gang spoke among themselves in English, struggling with Arabic when asked to translate statements for victims to read on video.
This led captives to conclude their tormentors were second-generations Britons; they debated whether the extremists were from Pakistani or Somali backgrounds.

One of the jihadis, who posts on Twitter under the name Abu Hussain al-Britani, has been widely reported for several months as being 20-year-old computer hacker Junaid Hussain.
He was just 18 when he was jailed for six months in 2012 for posting sensitive details online about former Prime Minister Tony Blair.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...e_graph_1_.jpg


Targets: Some of the militants believed to be with IS who are being hunted by British security services, MI5


Some, but not all, of the Westerners were tortured – with the thuggish British fanatics feared more than other militants for their viciousness. ‘They did the worst stuff in the world,’ said one family source. This violence included beatings and the use of Tasers to give electric shocks.
Hostages said the British militants were removed at one stage for excessive brutality against them.

They said the gang seemed to flit between carrying out kidnap operations on Westerners, fighting on the front line and guarding hostages.
One well-placed source revealed their cars were identified from number plates as being used in ‘multiple’ kidnaps.

‘This appears to be a professional kidnap team,’ he said. ‘There is a good likelihood that some were involved in the kidnapping of many of the Westerners, including Foley.’

The American freelance journalist was seized in November 2012, when kidnappings were starting to take off in Syria.
In the early days of the uprising, journalists were valued for giving voice to rebels seeking democracy.
Reporters and aid workers began being grabbed from the streets by criminal gangs. Most ended in the hands of rebel militia, especially the increasingly-influential jihadist groups who saw them as valuable financial and propaganda tools.

There are at least seven Western hostages – three of them American – currently controlled by IS in North-Eastern Syria. Others are being held by a motley variety of rebel militia and criminal gangs, sometimes claiming to be IS to ramp up ransom payments.

Seized Westerners said they were frequently moved, often every few weeks, and held together in gloomy basements and cellars. The French hostages confirmed to security sources after their release that they had shared cells.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ed_file_st.jpg


Respected: Foley (pictured) was a freelance contributor to GlobalPost and was kidnapped while in Syria


The hostages were divided over whether The Beatles themselves carried out ransom negotiations, fixed the prices on their heads or wrote chilling emails sent to their families.
Foley, however, was treated differently from the start. He was barred from contact with his family and there was no ransom demand for the first year of his captivity – then when one was sent, it was set preposterously high at £80 million.


American hostages – especially Foley, whose brother was discovered to be serving in the US Air Force – were picked out for the most brutal beatings.

‘From the beginning, they were interested in hitting America,’ one hostage told a friend. ‘The more they can do to point the arrow into America, they more they will do. They think America is evil.’

Nicholas Henin, a French journalist, has described how his fellow captive Foley ‘became the jailers’ punch bag’ yet remained impassive, despite terrible abuse.
Western hostages endure mock executions, are routinely accused of being spies, and are forced to suffer terrifying interrogations.
One European photographer was told he must be a spy since his country had friendly relations with the US government.

The hostages, who could hear air strikes nearby and in at least one prison, were ordered to pray five times a day and were blindfolded even when moved between cells by the British gang.

‘Those guards really want everything to stay secret,’ one hostage told a friend. ‘They used lots of tricks to make sure we didn’t know who they were or where we were.
‘For example, when they entered the room, you faced the wall even if they were masked.’

Western captives were seen as valuable commodities, sometimes being fed better than local inmates.

‘They might keep Americans for special occasions,’ said a Syrian bounty hunter hired to track down hostages.

One local journalist kidnapped by IS and held in their stronghold of Raqqa said they were crammed 20 to 40 in a stinking cell under a municipal building.
He described watching the torture of a fellow prisoner by guards using electric shocks and sticks, while two fellow inmates were publicly executed in a nearby square.


Syrians have been executed by IS for ‘crimes’ such as homosexuality and witchcraft.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._from_ISIS.jpg


The British security services, MI5. have drawn up a shortlist of suspects behind the murder of James Foley


IS kidnaps and buys hostages from other groups, while also raking off a fortune from oil sales. It has become extremely wealthy and well equipped; even captured soldiers in Iraq are held to ransom, with $1 million raised from just 20 troops in one recent case.

A security source with intimate knowledge of Syrian kidnap cases said hostage families were contacted by email with threatening demands for money. ‘In some cases, the negotiators added on fees when families stalled or weren’t able to produce the money,’ he said.

It is understood £8 million was paid to secure the freedom of four French hostages, including war reporter Didier Francois, with another £16 million handed over for the lives of seven other European journalists and aid workers.

‘They usually demand insane ransoms for people, then it gets lowered to a few million,’ said a Syrian source. All governments deny making payments, but an official Italian source privately admitted paying ransoms last week. Most of the cash comes from governments, although families and employers have also contributed.

One hostage said £3 million was paid to free an Italian journalist held with him. Italian diplomats are currently in the region trying to negotiate freedom for two female aid workers.
ISIS is copying tactics honed by rival terror groups.

The New York Times last month revealed Al Qaeda and its affiliates took £75 million from kidnappings over the past six years, with £40 million handed over last year alone.

Yesterday, the United Nations called for concerted action to save thousands of people trapped by the fanatics in the town of Amerli, about 100 miles north of Baghdad.
Most of the town’s 18,000 residents are Turkman Shia, descendants of Ottoman Turks seen as apostates by IS forces that have besieged them for two months. They are in a desperate state, with no electricity or drinking water and are running out of food and medicines.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ahe_294193.jpg


ISIS has specialised in kidnapping journalists and aid workers to ransom, torture and even murder


Yet IS remains defiant, despite global outrage. A spokesman told The Mail on Sunday that the message from the Foley murder was that they would fight the US ‘by all means necessary – and not just by killing a journalist’ – following US air strikes.
Abu Obiada, a religious official with IS currently fighting on the frontline against Kurds in Iraq, said Foley was killed despite his innocence for the crimes of his country.
Alarmingly, he claimed the bloodstained group already had ‘sleepers’ ready to strike in this country.
‘Our message is to know that we have some people already in the UK and US who are ready to fight them there.’
‘We will attack anyone who stands in the way of an expansion of the Islamic State,’ he said. ‘There is no border we will stop at.’

Last night it was revealed that a British militant fighting for IS has been killed during a daring raid at a military air base in Syria.
Abu Saif Al Britani was among 70 Islamic State terrorists killed as the group attacked the Al-Tabqa airbase in Eastern Syria on Wednesday.
The IS attack on Al-Tabqa was expected for months, as it is the last Syrian army base left in the province of Raqqa.

On Friday, a photograph of Abu Saif’s dead body appeared on the micro-blogging site Twitter, posted by fellow IS terrorists. A tweet in Arabic described Abu Saif as a British Bangladeshi who was in Saudi Arabia teaching English.



Asbos for Terrorists? No, Let's Tell Them Never to Come Back


By DAVID DAVIS

British governments have historically taken an approach to the so-called ‘war on terror’ that has been distinctly un-British – crude, heavy-handed, careless of innocent people’s liberties, and as a result often counterproductive.
Yet our response to the flood of British Muslims that has left these shores to fight in Syria and subsequently Iraq for an Islamic caliphate has been tentative, uncertain, almost limp.

The brutal, ritualised public murder of James Foley has crystallised the psychopathic nature of what these young Britons have signed up to and in some cases actively promoted.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...Westminste.JPG


Conservative MP David Davis, pictured, believes that Jihad John and his friends should never return to the UK


The British intelligence agencies presumably knew what was going on. Yet the Home Secretary’s response as recently as yesterday seemed lacking in both focus and urgency. Asbos for terrorists? It is hard to imagine IS killers quaking in their boots over that.

So why have we done so little so far? We should target the young men who have rushed to take up arms on behalf of IS, an organisation that purports to be a state – and a hostile one at that. It is astonishing to me that this action alone is viewed as legal, let alone what they do once there.
Imagine that in my youth during the Cold War, I had gone off to join the Soviet Army with the intent of taking action against NATO, or that my father had gone to join the Nazis in the Second World War. Those actions would quite properly have been viewed as treason.

What these young men have done is worse.

Remember that in this day and age even conventional ‘legal’ wars are essentially industrialised murder.
Civil wars, and the sort of sectarian conflict we are seeing in Iraq and Syria, are even worse, littered with the self-righteous sadism that we saw in the death of James Foley. They are wars without rules.

And be clear. The barbarism we saw in the murder of Foley has been replicated time and again against thousands of innocent Iraqis and Syrians. Beheadings, crucifixions, burials alive have all been carried out against people guilty of no crime, largely for the purpose of feeding the IS propaganda machine.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...to_the_Isl.jpg


David Davis said the young men are going to Iraq and Syria to participate in widespread murder and blackmail


These young men are going to Syria to take part in large-scale murder for an organisation with a $2 billion income from extortion, blackmail and theft.
So if it is not illegal already – hard to believe – let us make it so. Going abroad to fight and kill for a cause hostile to Britain and its NATO allies should be against British law and should carry a very heavy sentence. But I would go further than that.

Since these young men are in effect swearing allegiance to a hostile state, they should all forfeit their British citizenship – not just those who are dual nationals. Since this is an incredibly serious penalty, it should be done only after a proper public trial carrying all the public seriousness and opprobrium of a murder trial, because in many cases that is what it would be.
As the Home Secretary reiterated yesterday, lawyers would say you cannot render someone stateless. Perhaps not. Whitehall lawyers have been wrong before. Democracies have a right to defend themselves.

IS is claiming to be a state. They can issue these young men with Islamic State passports if they so wish. It is not our problem that they would have trouble getting into any civilised country with them. Neither will it be our problem any more if ISIL ceases to exist.
We must face head-on the paradox that these men can burn their British passports on TV and deny their legal allegiance to Britain, yet our nation cannot say to them, in effect: ‘OK, never come back.’

The result would be that these young men would suddenly find their trip to Syria is no longer a short violent holiday but a life sentence to the lifestyle they claim to espouse, complete with Sharia law and a desert climate. We are at a moment of decision. We can change or clarify British law to make the evil actions of these young men illegal and to make the penalty fit the crime: expulsion from the society they claim to reject.
We can do this in British courts and in doing so proclaim to the world that we are a tolerant society, but that we will not tolerate sadism and murder in the name of religion.

Or we can fail to grasp the nettle, let some of these murderers back and try to deal with the subsequent problems. This will allow some of these men to put their new ‘skills’ to further ill use, with potentially terrible consequences for our countrymen, resulting in ethnic suspicion and the social poison that will flow from that.


Continued...

SAS High-Tech Hunt for the ISIS Killers: 'Significant Force' of UK Elite Troops on Ground in Syria and Iraq

.

Ladybbird 24-08-14 12:44

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
Vile Boast of Jihadi John... I've made My Fortune:
Bragging British Executioners are Sadists, say Ex Hostages... They Tortured us with Tasers


- Britains MI5 & SAS Go After Terrorists


  • British Jihadis have boasted about making large fortunes from kidnapping
  • Some of the terrorists are planning to 'retire' to either Kuwait or Qatar
  • Jihad John even told terrified prisoners about the amount of cash he makes
  • It comes as CCTV emerged of separate extremists strolling through Gatwick
  • Group reportedly flew to Turkey in October last year before crossing border
  • One returned to UK and is now in jail - the other was killed while fighting
Daily Mail UK, 25 August 2014


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...95_964x365.jpg
British jihadis involved in the brutal beheading of American reporter James Foley
-callously boasted of making personal fortunes from ransoms paid for other released hostages.


British jihadis involved in the brutal beheading of American reporter James Foley callously boasted of making personal fortunes from ransoms paid for other released hostages.
The gang openly talked of making so much money they could ‘retire to Kuwait or Qatar’, according to testimonies by former hostages obtained by The Mail on Sunday.

The revelation comes as CCTV footage emerged reportedly showing the moment five separate British jihadis strolled through the departure lounge of Gatwick Airport on their way to Syria.
One of the extremists pictured at Gatwick is now in jail, while at least one more has been killed while fighting.

All the men were among more than 500 Britons who have enlisted with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, prompting warnings from the Home Secretary that new powers will be introduced to bring British extremists under control.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...zzed_ringe.JPG


Chilling: CCTV footage has emerged which reportedly shows five British jihadis walking through Gatwick Airport
-on their way to Syria. Second left is Mashadur Choudhury, far right is Muhammad Hamidur Rahman


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._British_e.JPG

Is this Jihadi John? UK police have photographs of several suspects they believe are now working for ISIS.
Pictured is rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary, 23, from London



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._British_e.JPG

Junaid Hussain, who has a Birmingham accent, is another UK suspect featured on a Jihadi website,
-believed to be linked to the ISIS terrorist organisation. He posts on Twitter under the name Abu Hussain al-Britani



The four Islamic State militants – nicknamed The Beatles by their Western captives – were reported to be ‘interested in money’ from the start of the kidnap ordeal, even bragging to prisoners about how much they were making.

A security source revealed last night that £24 (US$36) million was paid by at least four European countries for the release of 11 hostages last year.



British and US hostages were seen as being in a ‘different category,’ he said – so demands for an £80 ($55) million ransom on Foley were set deliberately high as a provocation.


It has also emerged that:
• Security services believe they are close to identifying the British militants who executed Foley.

• The East Londoners formed a specialist kidnap gang, operating in Syria for up to two years.

• They are thought to have possibly been involved in the seizure of several Westerners, including Foley.

• Their leader was not ‘John’, the left-handed man wielding the knife in the horrific video of Foley’s death, but ‘George’, who goes under the nom-de-guerre of Abu Muhareb (‘Fighter’).

• One former hostage described them as ‘sadistic psychopaths’, regularly handing out brutal ‘punishments’ that included the use of Tasers on hands and bodies.

• They were so vicious that at one stage they were stopped from guarding hostages by IS.

• IS claims it has ‘sleepers’ already in position in the UK and US, ready to strike at any time.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...64_636x358.jpg


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._British_e.JPG

This man is believed to have travelled to Syria from Portsmouth and has similar eyes to Jihadi John


The sickening beheading of Foley, shown off in a slick and distressing propaganda video, highlighted the shameful role being played by British members of Islamic State.

Security services in Britain and the US have drawn up a shortlist of suspects. They believe there may have been more than one killer, since two different knives feature in the footage, but have not yet definitively identified those behind the murder.

The Mail on Sunday has pieced together an unprecedented picture of the British gang’s brutal operation and its savage treatment of seized captives through extensive interviews with hostages, family and security sources.

The detailed investigation also uncovered disturbing details of how the world’s wealthiest terror group is being funded by ransom payments, with £8 million paid for the release of four French hostages alone.

Two years ago, the United States said such payments had become ‘the most significant source of terrorist funding’. Britain and the US refuse to pay ransoms. The disclosure that British militants talked among themselves and with their captives about ‘retiring’ with the money they were making demolishes any idea they are motivated purely by religious fervour.

Our investigation revealed the existence of four Beatles – not three as has been widely reported – nicknamed John, Paul, George and Ringo by their Western captives.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...Abdel_Bary.jpg


Hunted: Rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, from west London, is one of those who is being investigated by Britain's MI5


The gang’s ringleader was ‘George’, who spent much of his time regurgitating chunks from the Koran and promoting IS’s extremist brand of Islam at public events.
The hostages concluded he was not very smart – unlike ‘John’, who used the nom-de-guerre ‘Abu Saleh’ (‘Pious’) and was seen wielding the knife in the video of Foley’s murder.
‘Ringo’ was also frequently seen, unlike ‘Paul’ who appeared in their cells the least. ‘He seems to have been just a guard, not there all the time,’ said one key figure.

They were also guarded by French-speaking jihadis – at least one of whom was Belgian.


According to these accounts, the British gang spoke among themselves in English, struggling with Arabic when asked to translate statements for victims to read on video.
This led captives to conclude their tormentors were second-generations Britons; they debated whether the extremists were from Pakistani or Somali backgrounds.

One of the jihadis, who posts on Twitter under the name Abu Hussain al-Britani, has been widely reported for several months as being 20-year-old computer hacker Junaid Hussain.
He was just 18 when he was jailed for six months in 2012 for posting sensitive details online about former Prime Minister Tony Blair.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...e_graph_1_.jpg


Targets: Some of the militants believed to be with IS who are being hunted by British security services, MI5


Some, but not all, of the Westerners were tortured – with the thuggish British fanatics feared more than other militants for their viciousness. ‘They did the worst stuff in the world,’ said one family source. This violence included beatings and the use of Tasers to give electric shocks.
Hostages said the British militants were removed at one stage for excessive brutality against them.

They said the gang seemed to flit between carrying out kidnap operations on Westerners, fighting on the front line and guarding hostages.
One well-placed source revealed their cars were identified from number plates as being used in ‘multiple’ kidnaps.

‘This appears to be a professional kidnap team,’ he said. ‘There is a good likelihood that some were involved in the kidnapping of many of the Westerners, including Foley.’

The American freelance journalist was seized in November 2012, when kidnappings were starting to take off in Syria.
In the early days of the uprising, journalists were valued for giving voice to rebels seeking democracy.
Reporters and aid workers began being grabbed from the streets by criminal gangs. Most ended in the hands of rebel militia, especially the increasingly-influential jihadist groups who saw them as valuable financial and propaganda tools.

There are at least seven Western hostages – three of them American – currently controlled by IS in North-Eastern Syria. Others are being held by a motley variety of rebel militia and criminal gangs, sometimes claiming to be IS to ramp up ransom payments.

Seized Westerners said they were frequently moved, often every few weeks, and held together in gloomy basements and cellars. The French hostages confirmed to security sources after their release that they had shared cells.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ed_file_st.jpg


Respected: Foley (pictured) was a freelance contributor to GlobalPost and was kidnapped while in Syria


The hostages were divided over whether The Beatles themselves carried out ransom negotiations, fixed the prices on their heads or wrote chilling emails sent to their families.
Foley, however, was treated differently from the start. He was barred from contact with his family and there was no ransom demand for the first year of his captivity – then when one was sent, it was set preposterously high at £80 million.


American hostages – especially Foley, whose brother was discovered to be serving in the US Air Force – were picked out for the most brutal beatings.

‘From the beginning, they were interested in hitting America,’ one hostage told a friend. ‘The more they can do to point the arrow into America, they more they will do. They think America is evil.’

Nicholas Henin, a French journalist, has described how his fellow captive Foley ‘became the jailers’ punch bag’ yet remained impassive, despite terrible abuse.
Western hostages endure mock executions, are routinely accused of being spies, and are forced to suffer terrifying interrogations.
One European photographer was told he must be a spy since his country had friendly relations with the US government.

The hostages, who could hear air strikes nearby and in at least one prison, were ordered to pray five times a day and were blindfolded even when moved between cells by the British gang.

‘Those guards really want everything to stay secret,’ one hostage told a friend. ‘They used lots of tricks to make sure we didn’t know who they were or where we were.
‘For example, when they entered the room, you faced the wall even if they were masked.’

Western captives were seen as valuable commodities, sometimes being fed better than local inmates.

‘They might keep Americans for special occasions,’ said a Syrian bounty hunter hired to track down hostages.

One local journalist kidnapped by IS and held in their stronghold of Raqqa said they were crammed 20 to 40 in a stinking cell under a municipal building.
He described watching the torture of a fellow prisoner by guards using electric shocks and sticks, while two fellow inmates were publicly executed in a nearby square.


Syrians have been executed by IS for ‘crimes’ such as homosexuality and witchcraft.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._from_ISIS.jpg


The British security services, MI5. have drawn up a shortlist of suspects behind the murder of James Foley


IS kidnaps and buys hostages from other groups, while also raking off a fortune from oil sales. It has become extremely wealthy and well equipped; even captured soldiers in Iraq are held to ransom, with $1 million raised from just 20 troops in one recent case.

A security source with intimate knowledge of Syrian kidnap cases said hostage families were contacted by email with threatening demands for money. ‘In some cases, the negotiators added on fees when families stalled or weren’t able to produce the money,’ he said.

It is understood £8 million was paid to secure the freedom of four French hostages, including war reporter Didier Francois, with another £16 million handed over for the lives of seven other European journalists and aid workers.

‘They usually demand insane ransoms for people, then it gets lowered to a few million,’ said a Syrian source. All governments deny making payments, but an official Italian source privately admitted paying ransoms last week. Most of the cash comes from governments, although families and employers have also contributed.

One hostage said £3 million was paid to free an Italian journalist held with him. Italian diplomats are currently in the region trying to negotiate freedom for two female aid workers.
ISIS is copying tactics honed by rival terror groups.

The New York Times last month revealed Al Qaeda and its affiliates took £75 million from kidnappings over the past six years, with £40 million handed over last year alone.

Yesterday, the United Nations called for concerted action to save thousands of people trapped by the fanatics in the town of Amerli, about 100 miles north of Baghdad.
Most of the town’s 18,000 residents are Turkman Shia, descendants of Ottoman Turks seen as apostates by IS forces that have besieged them for two months. They are in a desperate state, with no electricity or drinking water and are running out of food and medicines.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ahe_294193.jpg


ISIS has specialised in kidnapping journalists and aid workers to ransom, torture and even murder


Yet IS remains defiant, despite global outrage. A spokesman told The Mail on Sunday that the message from the Foley murder was that they would fight the US ‘by all means necessary – and not just by killing a journalist’ – following US air strikes.
Abu Obiada, a religious official with IS currently fighting on the frontline against Kurds in Iraq, said Foley was killed despite his innocence for the crimes of his country.
Alarmingly, he claimed the bloodstained group already had ‘sleepers’ ready to strike in this country.
‘Our message is to know that we have some people already in the UK and US who are ready to fight them there.’
‘We will attack anyone who stands in the way of an expansion of the Islamic State,’ he said. ‘There is no border we will stop at.’

Last night it was revealed that a British militant fighting for IS has been killed during a daring raid at a military air base in Syria.
Abu Saif Al Britani was among 70 Islamic State terrorists killed as the group attacked the Al-Tabqa airbase in Eastern Syria on Wednesday.
The IS attack on Al-Tabqa was expected for months, as it is the last Syrian army base left in the province of Raqqa.

On Friday, a photograph of Abu Saif’s dead body appeared on the micro-blogging site Twitter, posted by fellow IS terrorists. A tweet in Arabic described Abu Saif as a British Bangladeshi who was in Saudi Arabia teaching English.



Asbos for Terrorists? No, Let's Tell Them Never to Come Back


By DAVID DAVIS

British governments have historically taken an approach to the so-called ‘war on terror’ that has been distinctly un-British – crude, heavy-handed, careless of innocent people’s liberties, and as a result often counterproductive.
Yet our response to the flood of British Muslims that has left these shores to fight in Syria and subsequently Iraq for an Islamic caliphate has been tentative, uncertain, almost limp.

The brutal, ritualised public murder of James Foley has crystallised the psychopathic nature of what these young Britons have signed up to and in some cases actively promoted.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...Westminste.JPG


Conservative MP David Davis, pictured, believes that Jihad John and his friends should never return to the UK


The British intelligence agencies presumably knew what was going on. Yet the Home Secretary’s response as recently as yesterday seemed lacking in both focus and urgency. Asbos for terrorists? It is hard to imagine IS killers quaking in their boots over that.

So why have we done so little so far? We should target the young men who have rushed to take up arms on behalf of IS, an organisation that purports to be a state – and a hostile one at that. It is astonishing to me that this action alone is viewed as legal, let alone what they do once there.
Imagine that in my youth during the Cold War, I had gone off to join the Soviet Army with the intent of taking action against NATO, or that my father had gone to join the Nazis in the Second World War. Those actions would quite properly have been viewed as treason.

What these young men have done is worse.

Remember that in this day and age even conventional ‘legal’ wars are essentially industrialised murder.
Civil wars, and the sort of sectarian conflict we are seeing in Iraq and Syria, are even worse, littered with the self-righteous sadism that we saw in the death of James Foley. They are wars without rules.

And be clear. The barbarism we saw in the murder of Foley has been replicated time and again against thousands of innocent Iraqis and Syrians. Beheadings, crucifixions, burials alive have all been carried out against people guilty of no crime, largely for the purpose of feeding the IS propaganda machine.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...to_the_Isl.jpg


David Davis said the young men are going to Iraq and Syria to participate in widespread murder and blackmail


These young men are going to Syria to take part in large-scale murder for an organisation with a $2 billion income from extortion, blackmail and theft.
So if it is not illegal already – hard to believe – let us make it so. Going abroad to fight and kill for a cause hostile to Britain and its NATO allies should be against British law and should carry a very heavy sentence. But I would go further than that.

Since these young men are in effect swearing allegiance to a hostile state, they should all forfeit their British citizenship – not just those who are dual nationals. Since this is an incredibly serious penalty, it should be done only after a proper public trial carrying all the public seriousness and opprobrium of a murder trial, because in many cases that is what it would be.
As the Home Secretary reiterated yesterday, lawyers would say you cannot render someone stateless. Perhaps not. Whitehall lawyers have been wrong before. Democracies have a right to defend themselves.

IS is claiming to be a state. They can issue these young men with Islamic State passports if they so wish. It is not our problem that they would have trouble getting into any civilised country with them. Neither will it be our problem any more if ISIL ceases to exist.
We must face head-on the paradox that these men can burn their British passports on TV and deny their legal allegiance to Britain, yet our nation cannot say to them, in effect: ‘OK, never come back.’

The result would be that these young men would suddenly find their trip to Syria is no longer a short violent holiday but a life sentence to the lifestyle they claim to espouse, complete with Sharia law and a desert climate. We are at a moment of decision. We can change or clarify British law to make the evil actions of these young men illegal and to make the penalty fit the crime: expulsion from the society they claim to reject.
We can do this in British courts and in doing so proclaim to the world that we are a tolerant society, but that we will not tolerate sadism and murder in the name of religion.

Or we can fail to grasp the nettle, let some of these murderers back and try to deal with the subsequent problems. This will allow some of these men to put their new ‘skills’ to further ill use, with potentially terrible consequences for our countrymen, resulting in ethnic suspicion and the social poison that will flow from that.



Continued...

SAS High-Tech Hunt for the ISIS Killers: 'Significant Force' of UK Elite Troops on Ground in Syria and Iraq

.

Ladybbird 24-08-14 13:47

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
SAS in High-Tech Hunt for Jihadi John:
-'Significant Force' of Elite UK Troops on the Ground as MI5 Identify James Foley's Sickening Killer

  • The SAS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment have been deployed to Iraq and Syria
  • The elite soldiers have been tasked to hunt down Isis terrorist 'Jihad John'
  • A range of high-tech surveillance tools are being used to narrow the search
Daily Mail UK, 25 August 2014


British Special Forces hunting the killer of James Foley are using an array of sophisticated equipment to track him down – and possibly free other hostages being held.


The Mail on Sunday has been given a detailed account of how elite troops from the SAS and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) are conducting high-tech operations inside Syria and Iraq, which could lead to the capture of the extremists within days.
It emerged as reports suggested that British intelligence services had identified the true identity of the terrorist who beheaded Mr Foley – as seen in a video which shocked the world - known as 'Jihadi John'.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...avo_Compan.jpg

The SAS team tasked with hunting down the ISIS terrorists will use hand-launched surveillance drones


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ERN_SOLDIE.jpg

Elite force: The SAS are experts in desert warfare having conducted operations in the Middle East for decades.
Pictured are a heavily armed British Special Forces patrol in Afghanistan in 2001


The Mail on Sunday has been told that in the past 48 hours a ‘significant force’ of SAS soldiers and signallers have deployed to Syria and northern Iraq, joining Iraqi and Kurdish units fighting IS.

They have separated into four-man teams and are accompanying local troops in an attempt to capture British jihadis, identify them and establish links to Jihadi John.
A key suspect is 23-year-old Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who until a year ago lived with his family in their £1m home in the affluent London area of Maida Vale, but recently appeared on social media grasping a severed head, an anonymous government source told The Sunday Times.

Once a British jihadi is in custody, samples will be taken of the suspect’s blood and DNA – vital in the case of UK extremists because the information can be matched to medical records. For identification purposes, a photograph is also taken of the iris – the visible coloured ring around the pupil – which is unique.


One SAS source said: ‘It is possible to identify British jihadis on the battlefield by intercepting their radio messages. When they’re captured by the Iraqis or Kurds we’ll take a close interest in their questioning.
‘Gathering information such as their blood group and DNA, as well as voice recordings in either Arabic or English, will help us zero in on Jihadi John because it can be compared with existing data.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...video_of_J.JPG


Public Enemy Number 1: The SAS have been ordered to find out the British born terrorist 'Jihad John'


From the battleground this information is sent via a portable satellite manned by a soldier from 264 (SAS) Signal Squadron, who beams it to a spy plane, such as the ‘Rivet Joint’ aircraft, circling overhead.
Inside Rivet Joint, a 17-man team processes the information and sends it back to GCHQ, the Government’s secret communications headquarters at Cheltenham. Here it is analysed and matched against records of British jihadis believed to be fighting in Syria and Iraq, before ‘feedback information’ is sent to SAS teams.

GCHQ’s library is believed to include recordings of thousands of voices taken from phone and radio intercepts. Meanwhile, on the Turkish-Syrian border, SRR soldiers fly drones into IS strongholds and give live details of their movements.

Such a detailed study of their bases is intended to prevent a repeat of the US Special Forces mission last month which failed to find any hostages.
American Delta Force troops raided an IS base at Uqayrishah in northern Syria, but were forced to retreat after a gun battle with terrorists.



The SRR’s drones can fly for up to 24 hours, climbing to an altitude of more than 18,000ft. From here they are able to survey hundreds of miles of territory occupied by IS fighters, including the city of Raqqa, where it is believed several Western hostages have been held.
Intelligence gathered will be used in the planning stages ahead of any incursion by SRR troops into Syria.

A source added: ‘The SRR is using strategic drones, which provide an overview of the ground, and tactical drones which can look over the walls of buildings and provide sharp pictures of suspects’ faces.
‘The ground inside Syria and Iraq is well known to British Special Forces after the previous Gulf wars. In 2008, the SAS destroyed the Al Qaeda-Iraq leadership and we’re confident we can do the same to IS.’

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on Special Forces operations.’



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...SI_GRAPHIC.jpg


The SAS are using a range of high tech surveillance techniques on the hunt for 'Jihad John' and his friends


James's last letter... I'll be home for sister's wedding

By Caroline Graham

James Foley’s last loving message to his family was memorised by a fellow hostage, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye Ottosen, 25, spent 13 months imprisoned alongside Foley and painstakingly committed to memory a lengthy final letter in which the American spoke hopefully about being freed in time to celebrate his sister’s wedding next year.
When Ottosen was released in June, his first call was to Foley’s mum Diane, when he dictated the lengthy letter to her.
His act of love and courage was revealed by the Foley family’s priest of 30 years, Father Marc Montminy, who said: ‘Jim was never allowed to send a letter like the other hostages because he was an American. Jim related the letter to the Danish hostage and he memorised it.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...s_of_execu.jpg


James Foley, pictured, vowed to a fellow hostage that he would make it home to his sister's wedding

‘Jim mentioned every family member and how much he loved them. He mentioned his mother, his father and his grandmother, who he was very close to.
‘He mentioned his brothers and his sisters and his nieces and nephews.
‘He said he loved them all and he knew they loved him and were praying for him and fighting for his release. He ended on a hopeful note by saying he’d be there for [Foley’s sister] Katie’s wedding.
‘She had just got engaged when he left for Syria so he must always have had hope he would come home.’
James’s mother Diane flew to Copenhagen the week before her son was executed to meet with Ottosen, according to the boss of the Boston-based online news organisation Foley was working for when he was snatched in November 2012.

Phil Balboni, CEO of GlobalPost, told how Diane developed a ‘close bond’ with the families of other hostages still in captivity and met up with released hostages from France and Spain who had been held by the same group of British jihadis dubbed The Beatles.

‘She went to Copenhagen to meet with the Danish journalist who memorised the letter. He provided new details of his time with Jim. All of the released hostages spoke of Jim’s courage. He was subjected to the most abuse and torture because he was American but they never broke his spirit.
‘Diane has become extremely close to the families of other Western hostages who are still in captivity. They share a special and very close bond.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...video_of_J.jpg

James Foley, pictured, was murdered by a masked ISIS terrorist with a British accent called 'Jihad John'


Balboni described Diane as ‘a woman on a mission’ to save her son from the moment the first email arrived from his captors on November 26, 2013.

‘The email was sent to me and to Jim’s brother Michael. It was brief. It said “We’re holding James. We’re prepared to negotiate for his release. We need money – FAST.”
‘They had all of Jim’s cellphone contacts which is how they got our email addresses.
‘There were more emails, five or six in all. They gave us the opportunity to ask proof-of-life questions, obscure family references impossible for anyone but Jim to answer. That was in early December, 2013. We felt great hope.’

In one email, the terrorists made their sole demand – for £80 million and the release of Muslim prisoners held by the US.
Balboni said the family had raised almost £3 million in ransom money. But then the terrorists stopped communicating.

After months of silence, the Foleys received a final email, dated August 12 – a hate-filled rant full of rudimentary spelling errors in which the jihadis vowed to execute Foley saying

‘You (America) and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings!
‘The first of which being the blood of the American citizen James Foley! He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!’
The email may have been written by ‘John’, the British jihadi who beheaded Foley, reports claim.

A memorial service for James Foley will take place today at the family’s church, Holy Rosary, near their home in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Continued - INFORMANTS REPORTS ON JAMES FOLEY'S KILLERS:

.

Ladybbird 24-08-14 13:47

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
SAS in High-Tech Hunt for Jihadi John:
-'Significant Force' of Elite UK Troops on the Ground as MI5 Identify James Foley's Sickening Killer

  • The SAS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment have been deployed to Iraq and Syria
  • The elite soldiers have been tasked to hunt down Isis terrorist 'Jihad John'
  • A range of high-tech surveillance tools are being used to narrow the search
Daily Mail UK, 25 August 2014


British Special Forces hunting the killer of James Foley are using an array of sophisticated equipment to track him down – and possibly free other hostages being held.


The Mail on Sunday has been given a detailed account of how elite troops from the SAS and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) are conducting high-tech operations inside Syria and Iraq, which could lead to the capture of the extremists within days.
It emerged as reports suggested that British intelligence services had identified the true identity of the terrorist who beheaded Mr Foley – as seen in a video which shocked the world - known as 'Jihadi John'.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...avo_Compan.jpg

The SAS team tasked with hunting down the ISIS terrorists will use hand-launched surveillance drones


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...ERN_SOLDIE.jpg

Elite force: The SAS are experts in desert warfare having conducted operations in the Middle East for decades.
Pictured are a heavily armed British Special Forces patrol in Afghanistan in 2001


The Mail on Sunday has been told that in the past 48 hours a ‘significant force’ of SAS soldiers and signallers have deployed to Syria and northern Iraq, joining Iraqi and Kurdish units fighting IS.

They have separated into four-man teams and are accompanying local troops in an attempt to capture British jihadis, identify them and establish links to Jihadi John.
A key suspect is 23-year-old Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who until a year ago lived with his family in their £1m home in the affluent London area of Maida Vale, but recently appeared on social media grasping a severed head, an anonymous government source told The Sunday Times.

Once a British jihadi is in custody, samples will be taken of the suspect’s blood and DNA – vital in the case of UK extremists because the information can be matched to medical records. For identification purposes, a photograph is also taken of the iris – the visible coloured ring around the pupil – which is unique.


One SAS source said: ‘It is possible to identify British jihadis on the battlefield by intercepting their radio messages. When they’re captured by the Iraqis or Kurds we’ll take a close interest in their questioning.
‘Gathering information such as their blood group and DNA, as well as voice recordings in either Arabic or English, will help us zero in on Jihadi John because it can be compared with existing data.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...video_of_J.JPG


Public Enemy Number 1: The SAS have been ordered to find out the British born terrorist 'Jihad John'


From the battleground this information is sent via a portable satellite manned by a soldier from 264 (SAS) Signal Squadron, who beams it to a spy plane, such as the ‘Rivet Joint’ aircraft, circling overhead.
Inside Rivet Joint, a 17-man team processes the information and sends it back to GCHQ, the Government’s secret communications headquarters at Cheltenham. Here it is analysed and matched against records of British jihadis believed to be fighting in Syria and Iraq, before ‘feedback information’ is sent to SAS teams.

GCHQ’s library is believed to include recordings of thousands of voices taken from phone and radio intercepts. Meanwhile, on the Turkish-Syrian border, SRR soldiers fly drones into IS strongholds and give live details of their movements.

Such a detailed study of their bases is intended to prevent a repeat of the US Special Forces mission last month which failed to find any hostages.
American Delta Force troops raided an IS base at Uqayrishah in northern Syria, but were forced to retreat after a gun battle with terrorists.



The SRR’s drones can fly for up to 24 hours, climbing to an altitude of more than 18,000ft. From here they are able to survey hundreds of miles of territory occupied by IS fighters, including the city of Raqqa, where it is believed several Western hostages have been held.
Intelligence gathered will be used in the planning stages ahead of any incursion by SRR troops into Syria.

A source added: ‘The SRR is using strategic drones, which provide an overview of the ground, and tactical drones which can look over the walls of buildings and provide sharp pictures of suspects’ faces.
‘The ground inside Syria and Iraq is well known to British Special Forces after the previous Gulf wars. In 2008, the SAS destroyed the Al Qaeda-Iraq leadership and we’re confident we can do the same to IS.’

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on Special Forces operations.’



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...SI_GRAPHIC.jpg


The SAS are using a range of high tech surveillance techniques on the hunt for 'Jihad John' and his friends


James's last letter... I'll be home for sister's wedding

By Caroline Graham

James Foley’s last loving message to his family was memorised by a fellow hostage, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye Ottosen, 25, spent 13 months imprisoned alongside Foley and painstakingly committed to memory a lengthy final letter in which the American spoke hopefully about being freed in time to celebrate his sister’s wedding next year.
When Ottosen was released in June, his first call was to Foley’s mum Diane, when he dictated the lengthy letter to her.
His act of love and courage was revealed by the Foley family’s priest of 30 years, Father Marc Montminy, who said: ‘Jim was never allowed to send a letter like the other hostages because he was an American. Jim related the letter to the Danish hostage and he memorised it.


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...s_of_execu.jpg


James Foley, pictured, vowed to a fellow hostage that he would make it home to his sister's wedding

‘Jim mentioned every family member and how much he loved them. He mentioned his mother, his father and his grandmother, who he was very close to.
‘He mentioned his brothers and his sisters and his nieces and nephews.
‘He said he loved them all and he knew they loved him and were praying for him and fighting for his release. He ended on a hopeful note by saying he’d be there for [Foley’s sister] Katie’s wedding.
‘She had just got engaged when he left for Syria so he must always have had hope he would come home.’
James’s mother Diane flew to Copenhagen the week before her son was executed to meet with Ottosen, according to the boss of the Boston-based online news organisation Foley was working for when he was snatched in November 2012.

Phil Balboni, CEO of GlobalPost, told how Diane developed a ‘close bond’ with the families of other hostages still in captivity and met up with released hostages from France and Spain who had been held by the same group of British jihadis dubbed The Beatles.

‘She went to Copenhagen to meet with the Danish journalist who memorised the letter. He provided new details of his time with Jim. All of the released hostages spoke of Jim’s courage. He was subjected to the most abuse and torture because he was American but they never broke his spirit.
‘Diane has become extremely close to the families of other Western hostages who are still in captivity. They share a special and very close bond.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...video_of_J.jpg

James Foley, pictured, was murdered by a masked ISIS terrorist with a British accent called 'Jihad John'


Balboni described Diane as ‘a woman on a mission’ to save her son from the moment the first email arrived from his captors on November 26, 2013.

‘The email was sent to me and to Jim’s brother Michael. It was brief. It said “We’re holding James. We’re prepared to negotiate for his release. We need money – FAST.”
‘They had all of Jim’s cellphone contacts which is how they got our email addresses.
‘There were more emails, five or six in all. They gave us the opportunity to ask proof-of-life questions, obscure family references impossible for anyone but Jim to answer. That was in early December, 2013. We felt great hope.’

In one email, the terrorists made their sole demand – for £80 million and the release of Muslim prisoners held by the US.
Balboni said the family had raised almost £3 million in ransom money. But then the terrorists stopped communicating.

After months of silence, the Foleys received a final email, dated August 12 – a hate-filled rant full of rudimentary spelling errors in which the jihadis vowed to execute Foley saying

‘You (America) and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings!
‘The first of which being the blood of the American citizen James Foley! He will be executed as a DIRECT result of your transgressions towards us!’
The email may have been written by ‘John’, the British jihadi who beheaded Foley, reports claim.

A memorial service for James Foley will take place today at the family’s church, Holy Rosary, near their home in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Continued - INFORMANTS REPORTS ON JAMES FOLEY'S KILLERS:

.

Ladybbird 24-08-14 15:06

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
INFORMANTS REPORTS ON JAMES FOLEY'S KILLERS:

'I Know ISIS Butcher known as John the Jailer': French Former Hostage says he has a 'Rough' Idea Who Masked British Jihadi is

  • Jihadist 'John' filmed murdering James Foley in Islamic State video
  • Security services are close to establishing extremist Londoner's identity
  • Former MI6 chief said he will be identified and grabbed by special forces
  • Didier Francois - former ISIS hostage - says he can see who killer is in film
  • Also witnessed mock execution where Foley was 'crucified against wall'
  • James Foley was regularly beaten because his brother was in U.S. Force
  • U.S. and Britain accused of putting citizens at risk by refusing ransoms
Daily Mail UK, 25 August 2014


A Frenchman who was held captive with murdered American journalist James Foley for months said today he has a ‘rough’ idea who his executioner is.
Didier Francois said a video of the suspected British jihadist stirred painful memories of being chained up in the dark with Mr Foley and other ISIS hostages in Syria.

It came as a former MI6 chief said the British jihadist will be identified and the SAS has been sent to Syria to 'bring him to justice'.
The suspect accused of murdering the reporter has been named as 'John' - one of a gang of British jihadis known as ‘The Beatles’ who are guarding western hostages for ISIS.
Mr Francois, a 53-year-old reporter with radio station Europe 1, said: ‘Recognised is a very big word, but I see roughly who it is.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...video_of_J.jpg


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._former_Fr.jpg

Manhunt: The face of the masked British killer from the IS video, who Didier Francois,
-a Frenchman held captive by him and pictured on his release in April, says has a 'rough' idea of who he is



For two-and-a-half months, Mr Francois was chained to fellow French hostages, Nicolas Henin, Edouard Elias, and Pierre Torres. They were released in April after France paid a ransom.

Mr Henin said today that Mr Foley was beaten more than any other hostage because he was an American and ISIS knew his brother was in the U.S. Air Force, and in one incident he was 'crucified against a wall', it has emerged.

The killer spoke in a distinctive English accent and his eyes and build are clearly visible in a propaganda video in which he cuts Mr Foley’s head off.
Mr Francois spent eight months with Mr Foley as a captive in Syria, enduring most of that time in underground cells with no natural light.

Mr Francois said he had never spoken publicly about James Foley or the remaining American hostage, Steven Sotloff, before because of threats of reprisals.
Mr Francois said he was told by his captors: ‘If you make public the fact they are being held or that you were together, reprisals will follow against them. Their exact words were: “They’ll be punished”’.

Mr Foley had been singled out for beatings, said Mr Francois, after his captors found pictures on his computer of his brother, who works for the US Air Force.
He said that Mr Foley was subjected to mock executions, including one in which he was ‘crucified against a wall’.
Paying tribute to the American, Mr Francois said: ‘He was an extraordinary guy – a companion in imprisonment who was very agreeable, very solid.’


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...te_IS_has_.jpg

The man identified as James Foley speaks, giving a message to his family
-and linking his imminent death to the US government's bombing campaign of IS targets in Iraq



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...te_IS_has_.jpg

Obscene: A video uploaded on Tuesday showed the IS fighter - called 'John' - murdering Mr Foley with a knife


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...12_636x358.jpg

Mr Henin became tearful said the murdered journalist shared his food and blanket.


'JAMES WAS BEATEN MORE BECAUSE HE WAS AMERICAN', SAYS PRISONER CHAINED TO JOURNALIST

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._former_Fr.jpg

Nicolas Henin spent seven months in captivity and was released in April


James Foley was beaten more than any other hostage because he was an American and ISIS knew his brother was in the U.S. Air Force, a fellow prisoner said today.
French journalist Nicolas Henin spent seven months in captivity with the murdered journalist in Syria, including a week handcuffed together.
Mr Henin, who was released in April this year, believes Foley was always seen as 'some kind of scapegoat' by his captors, who were led by his British killer ‘John’ – ringleader of a gang of British jihadis known as ‘The Beatles’ guarding western hostages for ISIS.

'Being an American he was probably more targeted by the kidnappers. Well, he would be beaten a bit more probably, he was some kind of scapegoat. And The kidnappers knew that his brother was in the U.S. Air Force’.
He added: ‘He became the whipping-boy of the jailers but remained unperturbed’.
Speaking about the conditions they were kept in together he said: ‘'The conditions were often quite basic and were sometimes quite difficult.
‘We were in extremely narrow rooms and were taken to the bathroom two to three times a day. For emergencies were had a few bottles and a bucket in the corner’.

Mr Henin paid tribute to his former colleague and friend, saying he had been generous with other captives if they were cold or hungry.
He said he was horrified by Mr Foley's killing, but added that he will focus on positive memories from their time together.
'I will try to just remember few, very few opportunities we had to laugh loud together - and it did happen actually a couple of times,' he said.
When asked why he was released but Mr Foley was not he said: ‘Some countries like America but also like the UK do not negotiate and, well, they put their people at risk.’

He said: 'We spent seven months in a very extreme situation together, including for one week we were handcuffed one to the other day and night.
'In circumstances where you are held captive you develop some kind of survival instincts, meaning that, for instance, you try to grab everything that you can find.
'James was the total opposite. He was so truly generous. Basically everything he could share, he would share it. If we were cold, and we were missing blankets, he would share his blanket.
'If we were starving and missing food, he would share his ration.'

Richard Barrett, who was head of counter-terrorism for the security services at the time of 9/11, said he is convinced the murderer - now considered the world's most wanted man - will be arrested and taken back to Britain for trial 'sooner or later'.
Mr Barratt told the Today Programme: 'They will be able to identify him, although there are four or five hundred people who have gone from all over the United Kingdom many of them have made their presence there known.
'I think the community will be able recognise this person and I am sure many in the community will be keen to do so.
'I mean the intelligence community certainly but also the community from which this man comes, he will have had many acquaintances and friends in the United Kingdom and those people will wish to see him brought to justice.'

He agreed that once he is identified the course of action would likely be to send special forces to grab him.
He added: 'This is probably a relatively young man and he has a relatively long life ahead of him, perhaps, if he doesn’t get killed quickly in Iraq or Syria and therefore sooner or later he is going to be vulnerable to arrest or some sort interdiction and brought before the courts'
'I don’t think anyone is prepared to forget this sort of crime and therefore the long arm of justice will eventually catch him.'

A massive manhunt has been launched after a former hostage said he believed the masked Islamic State maniac was a Londoner he had known as ‘John’.

The security services are also close to establishing the identity of the killer who cut James Foley’s throat in a horrific propaganda video.
Said to be a senior Islamic State operative, he was trusted earlier this year to negotiate a hostage exchange.

Yesterday, further evidence emerged of the prominent role British jihadis are playing in Iraq.
Some celebrated and joked about Mr Foley’s murder, with one woman fighter volunteering to be the next to kill a UK or US captive.

Experts warned Britons are among the most vicious of the Islamic State’s fanatics and one may have been chosen to carry out the killing because of the global impact it would have. In other developments:
  • The Foreign Secretary again warned British jihadis could return to kill here;
  • Military chiefs warned of more killings and called for Government action;
  • Barack Obama said ‘no just God would stand for what the Islamic State did’;
  • Muslim leaders were accused of failing to sufficiently condemn the terror group;
  • Mr Cameron admitted it was increasingly likely Mr Foley was killed by a Briton.
The security services are using advanced voice recognition techniques to try to identify the murderer seen in the five-minute IS video, which has been viewed by thousands of people online.
The Briton, who uses his left hand and wears Timberland boots, speaks with what appears to be an East London accent as he makes a series of threats to President Obama and the West.

Yesterday, a man who was held in the Syrian city of Raqqa claimed the fanatic is intelligent, educated and a follower of radical Islamic teachings.
He said international hostages called ‘John’ and his fellow Britons The Beatles because they were from the UK.
Anti-terror investigators are now seeking to establish that the voice in the video is that of the man brandishing the knife before Mr Foley, rather than a voiceover.

US says we do not pay ransoms




Quote:

HOW ONE IN FOUR FOREIGNERS WHO HAVE SIGNED UP FOR ISIS ARE BRITISH - AND HALF OF THEM ARE ALREADY BACK IN THE UK

At least one in four of the estimated 2,000 foreigners fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq is British - and half of those are already back in the UK, it has emerged today.
Serious questions have been raised as to whether enough is being done to stem the flow of fighters after the Government revealed it has only seized 23 passports this year to prevent them travelling to the war zone.
The Government says there are around 500 British among the fighters while a further 250 are thought to have already returned to the UK where the police and security services are attempting to watch them.
That means there are now almost three times as many British Muslims fighting for Islamic State than there are serving in the UK military, an MP has claimed.
But Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, told Channel 4 News the lack of border controls meant the Government’s estimates of jihadi numbers were too low. ‘I think it’s about 2,000 people,’ he added.
According to the Ministry of Defence, there are around 600 British Muslims currently serving in the Armed Forces - just 0.4 per cent of total personnel. This is far below the 4.3 per cent of the British population as a whole who are Muslim.
Irish police also believe that 30 jihadists are using the country as a base while travelling to and from Syria and Iraq.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._2ndL_form.jpg

French journalists Didier Francois (2nd left), Edouard Elias (left), Nicolas Henin (2nd right), and Pierre Torres (right )
-who were freed after their government agreed to a ransom



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...E_An_undat.jpg

James Foley: Tributes were paid yesterday to the 'courageous, fearless' warzone journalist



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...36_636x358.jpg



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/..._former_MI.jpg

Security boss: Former MI6 chief Richard Barrett says the 'Black Beatle' will be identified and caught if he is not killed in battle



It will also raise questions as to whether enough is being done to stem the flow of UK fighters to Syria and Iraq.
The Government puts the figure at around 500 while a further 250 are thought to have already returned to the UK where the police and security services are attempting to watch them.
David Cameron this morning returned to his family holiday in Cornwall – less than 24 hours after flying back to London for emergency talks over the brutal killing.
The Prime Minister insisted he would continue to monitor the developing crisis in Iraq, but his decision to leave Downing Street will spark controversy. Mr Cameron’s Cornish break is his third holiday this year – and his fifteenth since moving into Downing Street in May 2010.

Mr Cameron is already under mounting pressure to recall Parliament over Britain’s growing involvement in the Iraqi government’s fight against Islamic State terrorists bringing mayhem to the region.

It came as President Obama's conduct attracted growing criticism after he played golf immediately after he gave a speech condemning the murder of Mr Foley.
Four minutes after leaving the podium Obama teed-off and was seen laughing with friends and fist-bumping them during a five-hour round at Farm Neck Golf Course on Martha's Vineyard - his seventh 18-holes in ten days.


Shiraz Maher, of King’s College London’s international centre for the study of radicalisation, told the BBC that British recruits were ‘among some of the most vicious and vociferous fighters who are out there’ and ‘that is unfortunately just a part of their radicalisation’.

Messages written on Twitter by British jihadis before the release of the video appeared to suggest some had prior knowledge of the killing.
Reyaad Khan, 20, a former college student from Cardiff who has been in Syria for several months, tweeted in advance a picture of Mr Foley’s severed head.
Nasser Muthana, 20, who travelled to Syria with Khan and his younger brother Aseel, 17, also revelled in the murder, mocking Americans for failing to protect their own.


Quote:

CAMERON URGED TO CONFRONT FRANCE OVER CLAIMS IT IS FUNDING ISIS TERROR WITH UNDERHAND RANSOM PAYMENTS

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David Cameron has been urged to confront French President Francois Hollande
-over claims the country is funding ISIS terrorists by paying ransoms to free hostages



Britain and the United States refuse to negotiate with terrorists in an effort not to encourage further hostage taking. But this policy is being undermined by European countries negotiating secret deals to free their citizens.
Four French and three Spanish hostages were released this year after money was delivered through an intermediary, the New York Times reported today.
Kidnapping Europeans has become the main source of revenue for Al Qaeda and its spin off – the Islamic State, an investigation by the newspaper has found.
Together they have allegedly earned at least $125 million – or £75 million – in ransom payments in the past five years alone.
Fears have been raised that European countries’ policy of secretly negotiating with terrorists is undermining the West’s response to the growing threat from ISIS.
Tory MP Andrew Rosindall, who sits on the respected Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘If they are paying ransoms hey are harming the interests of the free world and by playing the game of terrorism by paying ransom money they are funding and furthering the cause of ISIS and Al Qaeda.
‘The French and the Spanish should really look at themselves in the mirror and ask whether this is the right thing to do.’
‘I think Parliament will be angry – and the British people will be angry. Once again it’s left to Britain and America to stand firm while other countries wobble.

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French President Francois Hollande and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Four French and three Spanish hostages were released
-this year after money was delivered through an intermediary, the New York Times reported today


‘The Prime Minister should be raising this with President Hollande. The French are undermining all of us by doing this.’
A Foreign Office source admitted it was a concern for the Government. ‘It is definitely an issue,’ the source said.
‘All you can do is emphasise what we do and why we think it is right. A lot of countries won’t talk about it. Some countries will say one thing and another thing happens.’
But a former senior Cabinet minister told MailOnline that there was no point ‘tweaking the French tail’ because the UK would not get anywhere.
He added: ‘They don’t admit it. It comes out through what other people say. When you see a French President on the tarmac greeting a freed hostage you can be fairly sure they paid.’
His father, retired electrical engineer Ahmed Muthana, 57, of Cardiff, spoke of his disgust at the killing, saying: ‘Any right-thinking human being would condemn this. It is brutal and like something from the Dark Ages.
‘The video should be taken down from the internet where it will drive other Muslims to think of this like some sort of game.’
Academics yesterday voiced major concerns over the continuing circulation of the slickly edited video.
They said the footage could help radicalise British Muslims and ‘motivate’ them to support the terrorists’ cause.
And they warned the video and the use of social media to spread news of the beheading had succeeded in promoting IS’s cause to a global audience.
Rafaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at defence think-tank RUSI, said: ‘When we watch these videos, we are horrified by these sorts of acts and wonder how anyone can look at this with anything other than sheer disgust. But actually it has a motivating effect for others.
‘Some will look at this video and see the heinous act and see that they are a really serious group carrying out acts which are having a huge impact and causing world superpowers to look at them and their cause.
‘It could motivate people because they see they are a strong group making a powerful statement.’


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'Entire world was appalled': Barack Obama said that 'no just God' would stand for Mr Foley's murder


Mr Pantucci said IS was ‘very good at harnessing social media to get their message out there and attract more attention.
‘They have demonstrated their ability to manipulate social media to its maximum effect,’ he added.
‘Unfortunately the British participation in the conflicts now raging in both Syria and Iraq has been one of full participation, one that has seen them at the front lines, taking part in the conflict in every way.
'So we have seen British fighters out there operating as suicide bombers, we have seen them operating as executioners.’

President Obama said the US would not back down: ‘Today, the entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley.
‘No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day. ISIL speaks for no religion.
'Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.’

Since the video U.S. forces have carried out 14 new strikes on IS targets near the Mosul dam despite the threat that another American hostage would be murdered.

US Special forces attempted to rescue Americans - including James Foley - held hostage by ISIS in Syria earlier this summer but failed, it was revealed today.


The mission to save the journalist and others was carried out in early July but was unsuccessful because the hostages - being held by a group of British jihadists known as 'The Beatles' - could not be found.

'This operation involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL [also known as ISIS and IS],' the White House said in a statement last night.
'Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location.'

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: ‘We have been saying for a very long time there are significant numbers of British nationals in Syria, increasingly in Iraq.
‘One of the reasons why what is going on in Syria and Iraq is a direct threat to our own national security is the presence of a significant number of our nationals who may, at some stage, seek to come back to the UK with the skills the trade craft that they have learned working with these terrorist organisations and potentially posing a threat to our domestic security here in the UK.
'If the Islamic State, so called, becomes established in an area of Syria and Iraq, it will undoubtedly use it as a base for launching attacks on the West, it will undoubtedly send its fighters out to attack western targets.
‘Equally, if it gets pushed back, some of these people will return to their countries of origin not just the UK. We will see these people going back and carrying on their fight in our own homelands.’

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, told Channel 4 News the lack of border controls meant the Government’s estimates of jihadi numbers were too low.
‘I think it’s about 2,000 people,’ he added. ‘I said a couple of months ago about 1,500. I know there are people still going across. There are no effective controls by the UK Border Agency both on exit and return.
‘No one knows what is going on. There is a real threat to the UK. The Border Agency is not fit for purpose.’ Mr Mahmood said two jihadis had travelled to Syria from his own constituency last year but returned and were detained by the authorities.

Among those who appeared to have been inspired by the appalling murder committed by IS was London-born recruit Khadijah Dare, who vowed to become the first woman to kill a UK or US prisoner.
Miss Dare, from Lewisham, was recently pictured with her toddler son holding an AK47 in northern Syria and is married to a Swedish Islamist fighter called Abu Bakr.
She tweeted yesterday: ‘I wna b da 1st UK woman 2 kill a UK or US terorrist!’.



Quote:

JIHADIS FLOOD TWITTER WITH THEIR VILE JOKES

By Larisa Brown
As details of the horrific beheading swept across the internet, members of the Islamic State posted a flood of sickening messages on Twitter.
The fanatics, who had travelled from Britain and across the world to fight in Iraq and Syria, mercilessly joked about the murder of the innocent American journalist.
If they were not laughing, they were telling of their own desires to commit atrocities of the same barbaric nature.

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Taunts: Khadijah Dare with her Swedish husband, IS fighter Abu Bakr


A British jihadist, Nasser Muthana, writing under the name Abul Muthanna, tweeted: ‘So America wants to protect Yazidis from genocide but can’t even protect their own citizens from getting decapitated.’

Fighting in Syria, a London-born woman, Khadijah Dare, used the name Muhajirah fi Sham to write: ‘UK must b shaking up haha. I wna b da 1st UK woman 2 kill a UK or US terrorist!’

A British woman in Syria, using the alias al-Britaniyya, wrote: ‘So the US want to bombard us with airstrikes in Iraq and not give a damn who’s killed but want to cry when a dusty journalist is killed.
‘By Allah we won’t forget our Muslim brothers and sisters who were killed by United States... the blood of a Muslim is not cheap.’

British jihadist Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff, writing under the name Abu Dujana, said: ‘A message from IS to Obama. Withdraw or chaos will “be-heading” your way.’

A Canadian jihadist, using the name Abu Turaab al-Kanadi, said: ‘Can’t wait for the day IS beheads the first American soldier....SoccerAnyone?’
Following the circulation of the murder footage, he added: ‘I guess it’s time to play soccer boys – a sick reference to the beheading of Mr Foley.

This was followed by: ‘Seeing these so called “Muslims” send condolences to James Foley’s family is disgusting. No dignity whatsoever...’

Abu Farris, another IS fighter, wrote: ‘The message the state sent to Obama is simple; don’t get involved in our war and we really are not joking. We’re ready like never before..’

Abu Muhammad wrote: ‘Obama statement in short: no negotiation,’ followed by ‘Ha, Obama just wrote the death sentence of the second guy.’

Extremists in the UK also exhibited a shocking lack of humanity.

Anjem Choudary wrote: ‘The presence of US forces in Muslim countries is a cause of instability there & a cause of insecurity back in the US. Hands off Muslim land!’

By David Williams, Chief Reporter

Special Forces experts are using voice-recognition techniques to hunt down the British killer of James Foley.
The specialists are urgently trying to identify the man – who speaks with what appears to be a London accent – who beheaded Mr Foley in yesterday’s shocking video.
In the video, the masked killer gives a statement directly to the camera blaming President Barack Obama for the death of the American, who is seen dressed in a Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuit as he kneels in the sand. The man then carries out the beheading, before warning that another American hostage could be next.

Investigators are studying the video to try to establish whether the voice of the Briton delivering the IS statement is definitely that of the man shown in black who carries out the murder.
Security officials said the words may have been edited on to the video and that the man in black said nothing that was heard. Specialists believe the killer may already be on their radar after more than two years of investigations into Britons travelling to Syria and now Iraq.

The voice and tell-tale speech patterns of terror suspects and radicalised Britons – recorded and monitored in Britain and overseas – are stored and held by investigators at the Government’s Communication Centre in Cheltenham UK.

One clue to the killer’s identity is that he appears to be left-handed, holding the knife in that hand and wearing his rifle on his left shoulder. It is believed the murder took place in Syria where Mr Foley has been held since 2012. The photograph is being studied for possible clues as to the location.

Four French journalists and two Spaniards held for months and freed in April will also be asked if they recognise the voice. One was kept for some of his captivity in the same base as Mr Foley.
Does This NHS Doctor Hold the Key to Identifying 'Jihadi John'? East London Medic
-Once Accused of Kidnapping Journalists in Syria Probed with his Brother as Hunt for World's Most Wanted Man Intensifies

  • Dr Shajul Islam was alleged to have helped abduct two men in Syria in 2012
  • His brother Razal, 21, is believed to have left Britain and fighting with ISIS
  • Shajul Islam denied any part in kidnap plot and his trial collapsed last year
  • Security sources say he and brother, both Londoners, could know 'John'
  • Manhunt for James Foley's killer continues with SAS on standby to strike
  • 12 U.S. counter-terrorism experts flying to Britain 'within days' to help Yard
  • MI5, MI6 and police comparing features of British ISIS fighter with 'John'
  • His sadistic treatment of hostages has been laid bare by others held in Syria

An NHS doctor previously accused of kidnapping journalists in Syria could help identify the British jihadi who murdered James Foley, MI5 and MI6 sources revealed today.



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NHS doctor Shajul Islam, pictured leaving Belmarsh prison after his trial collapsed in 2013,
-could, along with his brother, Razul, know who 'Jihadi John' is


Shajul Islam was alleged to have been a ‘key figure’ in a militant group that abducted foreign nationals, but the case collapsed.
The pair were held at gunpoint, shackled and blindfolded, and told to prepare to ‘meet their maker’ after straying into a terror camp while covering the civil war in Syria in 2012.
But a year later Islam and his alleged accomplice, fellow British resident Jubayer Chowdhury, walked free after prosecutors said the victims were unable to give evidence.
Shajul Islam's younger brother Razul, 21, is also believed to have gone to Syria last year, and may be fighting for the Islamic State, known as IS, ISIL or ISIS.
The authorities are keen to speak to the brothers in case they know Londoner 'John' - who decapitated journalist James Foley.
They may also be able to identify his fellow British jihadi ‘Beatles’, Paul and Ringo, who are all believed to based in Syria close to the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
Rajul Islam's voice and physical features will also be compared with the film showing Mr Foley's killer, according to the Daily Telegraph.

'John' is considered the world's most wanted man and a former MI6 chief said the British jihadist will be identified and the SAS are in Syria to 'bring him to justice'.


It has also emerged that a dozen counter-terrorism experts from the United States will be flown to Britain 'within days' to help UK's Scotland Yard specifically trace 'John'.

Shajul Islam has always denied involvement in the kidnapping of journalists and said he travelled to Syria on a humanitarian mission soon after completing his training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.

He was given an interim suspension by the General Medical Council after being charged in 2012 and this remains in place. MailOnline has approached him for comment.
Yesterday it was revealed that at least one in four of the estimated 2,000 foreigners fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq is British - and half of those are already back in the UK.

Serious questions have been raised as to whether enough is being done to stem the flow of fighters after the Government revealed it has only seized 23 passports this year to prevent them travelling to the war zone.

The Government says there are around 500 British among the fighters while a further 250 are thought to have already returned to the UK where the police and security services are attempting to watch them.

That means there are now almost three times as many British Muslims fighting for Islamic State than there are serving in the UK military, an MP has claimed.

According to the Ministry of Defence, there are around 600 British Muslims currently serving in the Armed Forces - just 0.4 per cent of total personnel. This is far below the 4.3 per cent of the British population as a whole who are Muslim.

The Muslim Council of Britain said Britons from across the country's communities had to stop young men being seduced by radical ideologies and must identify 'John' and ithers if they know who they are.

Police have also run a high-profile campaign to encourages wives and parents of extremists to tell them if their loved-ones go to Syria or Iraq.

Ladybbird 30-08-14 00:10

ISIS Target Britain-Threat Level Raised/More Armed Police
 
Terror Target Britain: More Armed Police to Patrol Streets
-Threat Level is Raised to its Highest for Years and Prime Minister Warns That We are in the Fanatics' Sights


  • The 'terrorist state' is more dangerous than al Qaeda, Mr Cameron said
  • PM announced new laws will be introduced to remove extremists' passports
  • Threat level raised amid fears over UK jihadis returning from Iraq and Syria
  • But Theresa May says no evidence to suggest that an attack is imminent
  • White House says it is unlikely that the US terror threat will be increased
  • Up to 600 British extremists have travelled to the Middle East to join ISIS
  • Around 300 UK-linked terrorists are thought to have returned to Britain

Daily Mail UK, 29 August 2014


More armed police will patrol Britain’s streets to counter the threat posed by fanatics returning from Iraq and Syria, David Cameron announced yesterday.

He warned that the return of hundreds of murderous extremists posed a greater threat to our security than Al Qaeda or the IRA ever did.

His comments came as Theresa May announced the official terror threat level had been raised to ‘severe’ – the second-highest state – for the first time in three years.


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David Cameron today warned that Islamist terrorists cannot be 'appeased' and need to be faced down

Mr Cameron said ISIS was more dangerous than the Taliban and al Qaeda because it was trying to set up its own 'terrorist state'


Cameron warns tighter security as terror threat level rises

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Mr Cameron said the public could expect to see an increase in high-profile police patrols, including the greater use of armed officers, particularly at airports and major railway stations.


He called for the public to be vigilant but added they should not panic, saying Britain had shown ‘resolve’ in the face of terror before.

He also pledged to introduce ‘uncompromising’ new laws to plug ‘gaps in our armoury’ in dealing with the threat posed by Islamic State extremists, including enhanced powers to remove the passports of radicalised Muslims seeking to join the fighting in the Middle East.

Proposals to remove the passports of extremists who have already gone abroad are also being examined.


The Home Secretary said the intelligence services now believe a terror attack in Britain is ‘highly likely’, although she stressed there was no information about any specific plot.

‘The increase in the threat level is related to developments in Syria and Iraq where terrorist groups are planning attacks against the West,’ Mrs May said. ‘Some of those plots are likely to involve foreign fighters who have travelled there from the UK and Europe to take part in those conflicts.’

British intelligence officers believe at least 500 British citizens have travelled to Syria and Iraq to wage jihad, of which about half have returned to this country. Some experts believe the true figure may be far higher.

Mr Cameron gave few details of the planned crackdown to combat this threat, which will be revealed to MPs on Monday.


Quote:

PRESSURE GROWS ON NICK CLEGG TO BACK TERROR LAWS

Nick Clegg was under intense pressure last night to cease his opposition to new terror laws.

Liberal Democrat sources insisted Mr Clegg had not ruled out beefing up powers to keep the public safe.

But they warned he would not allow ‘civil liberties’ to be trampled on.

A source said: ‘Nick takes the terror threat very seriously. He welcomes the Prime Minister’s rejection of a knee-jerk response and will look calmly at any new proposals.’

The two men are said to have discussed the outline of the proposals and will try to thrash out the details this weekend, before unveiling them when parliament returns on Monday.

There was speculation at Westminster that Mr Cameron’s dramatic statement yesterday was designed partly to bounce Mr Clegg into dropping his opposition.

Mr Clegg has repeatedly acted as a roadblock to the introduction of tough new measures designed to keep the public safe.

He has argued that many of the measures supported by the security services are illiberal and disproportionate.

The Lib Dem leader has boasted of blocking the so-called ‘Snoopers’ Charter’, which would allow the security services to gather details of every email and phone call. That is despite warnings from the police and intelligence services that it is needed to keep track of suspects.



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Mr Cameron's statement today came after the Home Secretary Theresa May said an attack on the UK was 'highly likely'



Home Secretary Theresa May confirms UK threat level raised

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Quote:

FIVE TERROR THREAT LEVELS

Critical - an attack is expected imminently
Severe - an attack is highly likely
Substantial - an attack is a strong possibility
Moderate - an attack is possible but not likely
Low - an attack is unlikely

He insisted he would not introduce ‘knee-jerk’ measures in response to the threat. But he said existing powers to strip radicalised Muslims of their passports will be beefed up, to prevent more travelling to the region to fight. Rules introduced last year have so far resulted in the removal of just 23 passports.

The Prime Minister said he also wanted to see more action to prevent extremists returning from the region. However, he gave few details, saying only that police needed powers to deal ‘decisively’ with those who have returned.

Experts speculated that this will mean strengthening Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims), designed to make it easier for police to keep tabs on terror suspects. Critics say the measures, introduced after draconian control orders were thrown out by the courts, are too weak to be effective.

Mr Cameron is considering whether to add a requirement for suspects to remain at a known address. Tpim subjects could even be ordered to attend de-radicalisation sessions.

Ministers are also examining whether to revive plans for the so-called Snoopers’ Charter, which would allow the intelligence services to log details of every phone call and email, despite opposition from civil liberties campaigners and Nick Clegg.



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Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan Howe earlier this week claimed the 'drum beat' of terror had increased



In addition, Mr Cameron is pushing for new EU laws to require countries to share air passenger data, to make it easier to track and intercept suspected extremists heading for Syria.

The Prime Minister told a press conference in Downing Street that Britain is facing a ‘generational battle’ against ‘poisonous’ Islamist extremists which is likely to last for decades.
He said IS was unlike any previous terrorist threat because it had effectively established a state from which it could eventually mount attacks on the West.


‘In Afghanistan the Taliban were prepared to play host to Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation. With [IS] we are facing a terrorist organisation not being hosted in a country but seeking to establish and then violently expand its own terrorist state.

‘With designs on expanding up to the Turkish border, we could be facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a Nato member.’

Despite this warning, he played down the prospect of joining the US in direct military action.



Quote:

TERROR THREAT WAS LAST RAISED TO CRITICAL ON JANUARY 22, 2010

The British Government brought in a new warning system to alert the public to the threat posed by al Qaida and other terror groups in the wake of the July 7 terror atrocity.

When it was first published on August 1, 2006, the threat stood at severe - the second highest level. But just over a week later, on August 10, the threat was raised to critical after police exposed a plot to manufacture and smuggle parts of explosives on to passenger jets flying between the UK and the US, and detonate them on board.

Counter terrorism police smashed the terror ring, arresting its members in a raid codenamed Operation Overt, and on August 13 the threat level was lowered to severe, where it stayed for around a year.

Britain was plunged into a fresh state of heightened alert and the terror threat was raised to critical on June 30, 2007, after a blazing car loaded with propane canisters was driven into a crowded Glasgow Airport.
The attack came just one day after two bombs were discovered in cars in London's Park Lane and Piccadilly - among the capital's busiest tourist spots.

Police quickly arrested Muslim extremist Bilal Abdullah, a man behind the two attempted attacks. And on July 4 2007 the threat level was lowered to severe, where it stood for two years before being lowered again on July 20 2009 to substantial.

But the perils of terrorism came to the forefront again when on Christmas Day 2009 the now-notorious underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a jumbo jet as it flew to Detroit in the US.
Tragedy was only averted when brave passengers overpowered the Nigerian, and terror chiefs decided to raise the British threat level on January 22, 2010, to severe.
It stood at severe for 18 months before being lowered on July 11 2011 to substantial, where it stood for three years.

Today Home Secretary Teresa May announced the terror threat is again being raised to severe in the wake of warnings of the deadly threat posed by British jihadists radicalised fighting for Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq.
The level is set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and the Security Service, which operates out of MI5.

Ladybbird 30-08-14 00:45

ISIS in Mexico -Planning Bomb Attacks on US???
 
ISIS in Mexico? Feds DENY Watchdog Group's Claim that the Terror Group is Operating in Juarez and Plans 'Imminent' Car-Bomb Attacks on US Targets

  • Three online reports warned Friday of ISIS involvement south of the border, including one from Judicial Watch that cited 'imminent' car-bomb attacks
  • The Department of Homeland Security and the White House quickly denied that they have any information about ISIS gathering an attack force in Mexico
  • DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said America is 'unaware of any specific, credible threat to the US homeland' from the terror network
  • Other reports cited social media warnings from ISIS militants and an online video showing a conservative filmmaker in a bin Laden mask sneaking into the US from Mexico
Daily Mail UK, 29 August 2014


The Department of Homeland Security quickly denied claims on Friday from a watchdog group that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has militants stationed in Juarez, Mexico who plan an 'imminent' attack against the United States.


A DHS spokesman was bewildered, telling MailOnline that 'we are aware of absolutely nothing credible to substantiate this claim' made by Judicial Watch, a center-right group.
'In Mexico?' the official said on the phone. 'I haven't seen that at all.'
An hour before Judicial Watch's report surfaced, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said publicly that his agency and the FBI 'are unaware of any specific, credible threat to the U.S. homeland' from the terror network.

And during a late-morning media briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said flatly that 'the most detailed intelligence assessment that I can offer from here is that there is no evidence or indication right now that [ISIS] is actively plotting to attack the United States homeland. That’s true right now.'


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Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, shown this week in an unrelated TV interview,
-said his organization had credible information suggesting that the terror group ISIS is planning car-bomb attacks in the US




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'Unaware of any specific, credible threat': Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday that the US doesn't have any intelligence supporting an ISIS-threat theory,
-but Fitton insisted 'you could drive a truck bomb through' loopholes in his denial




But Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in an interview that his sources were 'golden' and called the government's insistence 'so dishonest.'
'It's a non-denial denial,' he told MailOnline.
Citing Johnson's use of words like 'credible' and 'specific,' Fitton said, 'You could drive a truck bomb through that loophole. DHS has not denied our story.'

Based on sources that it would not identify to MailOnline out of concern for their safety, that ISIS terrorists are 'planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born [sic] improvised explosive devices.'
The group said a 'warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack' had been issued to 'agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies,'instructing them 'to aggressively work all possible leads and sources' to prevent it.
It also claimed the commander of Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base near the Juarez border crossing, has been briefed on the threat.

'This is dire,' Fitton said. 'Look, this needs to be – It's impossible for me to overstate the seriousness of the threat.'
'The president calls ISIS a Jayvee terror organization, and now we have a report they're in Juarez, planning attacks with al-Qaeda.'
Fitton predicted that the federal government may be playing a stalling game, with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks approaching in less than two weeks.

'This may be a case of them saying two weeks from now that they took care of the threat the Judicial Watch was saying [was there],' he said.
Later in the afternoon the Fox News Channel and Breitbart.com both published stories about a situation report distributed to law enforcement agencies by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Fox didn't respond to questions about whether the documents were the same, but a Breitbart reporter said they were.

Fitton said Judicial Watch did not base its reporting on the same bulletin they cited.


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Map: The Department of Homeland Security quickly denied claims on Friday from a watchdog group that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has militants stationed in Juarez, Mexico


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...e_Islamic_.jpg


ISIS, a fearsome and deadly terror group that dominates much of Iraq and Syria, now includes some militants with passports from the US and other Western nations,
-a fact that worries American intelligence agencies


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Nope: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said US intelligence services have 'no evidence or indication right now that [ISIS] is actively plotting to attack the United States homeland'




White House: No specific threat to US homeland from ISIS


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'The Texas bulletin is not inconsistent with our information,' he said, but 'our story highlights more specific and imminent warnings.'
'It would not surprise us if it turns out the Texas bulletin is a watered-down-for-public-consumption-version of what our sources report.' Fox described a 'three-page bulletin, entitled "ISIS Interest on the US Southwest Border".'
'Social media account holders believed to be ISIS militants and propagandists have called for unspecified border operations,' the bulletin read, according to Fox, 'or they have sought to raise awareness that illegal entry through Mexico is a viable option.'

Another had published its own report two hours earlier, reproducing a portion of one page.
That page showed a recent video stunt in which conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe demonstrated the ease with which a terrorist could cross the Rio Grande River by donning an Osama bin Laden mask and wading from Mexico into Texas.
Neither news outlet claimed the law enforcement bulletin articulated any warnings about an imminent terror attack.


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Cuidad Juarez: The crime-ridden Mexican border town opposite El Paso, Texas has become a staging ground for illegal immigrants – including drug cartel members and narcotics smugglers – to enter the US illegally

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...liss_Texas.jpg


Judicial Watch claimed the commander of Fort Bliss, an Army base in Texas, has been briefed


But Fitton stuck to his guns, insisting that the threat of an ISIS incursion into Texas – Juarez abuts El Paso with just the Rio Grande in between – is real.
'We take it seriously,' he said. 'We didn't put it out there lightly.'
In a nod to his organization's frequent alarms about border security in America's southwest, he suggested that if the Obama administration was waving reporters away from the story, it was in order to draw attention away from illegal immigration concerns.
'I can't say who in Washington knows about this,' Fitton said. 'But to be sure, this is exactly the type of information that this administration would have an interest in minimizing, downplaying and withholding, to distract from the disaster on the border and the national security threat there.'

Earnest, President Barack Obama's chief spokesman, told reporters on Friday that America's border crisis is over 'for now.'...... :crap:



RELATED:

Ladybbird 06-09-14 13:43

re: VIDEO-Secret UK Team in IRAQ Investigates ISIS
 
Secret UK Team in Iraq Investigates Islamic State
- Al-Baghdadi

Video includes Other News from BBC World Service:



Ladybbird 08-09-14 17:37

Terrorists Target Britain-Bomb Explodes
 
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Luton Airport Bomb Scare:
Disposal Experts Carry out Controlled Explosion



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Thousands of passengers evacuated and all incoming flights suspended
-after suspect package is found in security area



The Guardian/Daily Mail UK 8 September 2014


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A Luton airport spokeswoman said passengers were advised to contact their airlines to establish the status of their flights
Photograph: @jimblakey/Twitter


"The decision has been taken with the police to ensure the safety and security of passengers and staff. Further updates regarding the security and operations at the airport will be provided as soon as possible."
Luton said later that all incoming flights had been suspended and the approach road to the airport had been closed.
An airport spokeswoman added: "Passengers are advised to contact their airlines to establish the status of their flights."


Bomb-Disposal Experts have Carried out a Controlled Explosion at a Major London Airport
-after a Suspect Package was Found.



The controlled explosion at Luton airport was carried out at about 5.20pm on Monday after thousands of passengers were evacuated and all incoming flights cancelled.
A Bedfordshire police spokesman said the suspect package was discovered in the security search area of the departure terminal shortly after 1.30pm.

Four hours later, police announced over the airport's PA system that there was to be a controlled explosion carried out by its explosive ordnance disposal experts.
Several evacuated passengers used Twitter to describe the "chaos" as it unfolded.
"Chaos at Luton Airport – being told to remain where we are on speakers, while at the same time being told to evacuate," wrote Luke Miller.

Paul Green, who was due to fly to Edinburgh, said the mood was "pretty calm" once passengers were evacuated but complained that they had been given no information by airport staff.
"Once everyone was out and it became apparent that there was no fire – because the first alarm said it was a fire alarm – everyone was fairly calm," he said.
"There's been no update from anyone. If it wasn't for Twitter we wouldn't know anything."

Green had passed through security when the evacuation was announced. He said he suspected something was not right as he was approaching the x-ray scanners.
He said: "I was going through security and the queue suddenly disappeared behind me – this was about 20 minutes before the alarm sounded. It took about 10 minutes to evacuate everyone.
"There was a woman running around telling the x-ray operators something and I asked them what was happening but they didn't know."

A spokeswoman for London Luton airport said: "We understand passengers will be frustrated by the delays they are experiencing.
"We are working closely with the police to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced unnecessarily but we must ensure that the safety and security of all our passengers and staff remains our top priority."



UPDATE:

London's Luton Airport Reopens After Alert


LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of passengers were evacuated and flights were suspended for hours Monday from Luton Airport near London after a suspicious package was found in a security-screening area.
Passengers were stranded outside the terminal as emergency services examined the suspicious item. The approach road to the airport was closed, triggering long delays for motorists.

An army bomb-disposal squad blew up the item in a controlled explosion and police said it was not dangerous. The airport reopened around 6 p.m.
Budget airline EasyJet said six flights landing at Luton had been diverted to other airports and 12 flights had been canceled as a result of the security scare.
Luton, northwest of London, caters mostly to short-haul flights by budget airlines.

Ladybbird 13-09-14 15:12

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
France May Invite Iran to Monday’s Fight Against Terrorists Conference

France is all in to Help, But Would like to Invite Iran —Against the Wishes of the U.S.

Hollande says Tehran’s Nuclear Programme is a Separate Issue
  • AP & Reuters 13 September 2014

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  • Image Credit: AP
  • French President Francois Hollande, right, and Iraq's President Fouad Massoum, left, review the honor guards during a welcoming ceremony at Salam Palace in Baghdad Iraq, Friday, Sept. 12, 2014.


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Assembling a coalition to fight the militants from the Islamic State group is proving to be a complicated affair.

The U.S. is pressing Turkey, which has resisted publicly endorsing the global strategy against the extremists, who are holding 49 Turkish hostages.

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In this photo released by the Turkish Presidency Press Office, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speak before a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Sept. 12, 2014.

Kerry is in the region to speak with leaders about strategies to address the threat from the Islamic State, a militant extremist group. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that the US would provide an additional $500 million in humanitarian aid to victims of the war in Syria, bringing total American assistance to $2.9 billion since the start of the conflict in 2011. (AP Photo/Turkish Presidency)


Many world leaders want to act quickly, before the Islamic State group gains more territory. But it's crucial to reach agreement on what the coalition is doing and why
-Particularly after bitter diplomatic divisions created by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a decade ago.



Paris/Baghdad: France is prepared to invite Iran to an international conference on Monday aimed at coordinating actions to knock out the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) — even though that runs counter to the US refusal to deal with Tehran.
The position reflects a recent shift in France’s policy toward Iran, a neighbour of Iraq that joins regional states and the West in adamantly opposing the advance of the radicals. Tehran’s long-time influence in Iraq, including at times a military presence, makes it a logical partner in France’s eyes.

French President Francois Hollande landed in Baghdad on Friday and held closed door talks with Iraqi leaders on humanitarian aid and military support for Iraq’s fight against Isil insurgents, ahead of a Paris meeting on Monday of opponents of the militant group.

Hollande said France and the UK were the first European countries to provide military aid to Iraq and were in the process of delivering more fourth shipments. He did not specify details.


Asked if Iran might attend Monday’s conference, the French president said both the French and Iraqi foreign ministries were still working to finalise the list of participating countries.
“The goal is to coordinate aid, support and action for the unity of Iraq and against this terrorist group,” Hollande told journalists at the start of his one-day visit to Iraq.

In Paris, a French official helping plan the conference says the only hitch is agreeing with partners, but added “we are not far from a consensus.” The official, who was not authorised to be publicly named, didn’t elaborate.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, after meeting Hollande, said the French president “has promised me... France will participate in this effort striking the positions of terrorists in Iraq.”
Abadi added: “The American side has lately begun doing that. We need this air cover. We do not need partners on the ground and they don’t intend to send forces.”
Hollande did not address how France would contribute to the air strikes targeting Isil positions in Iraq, now being conducted by the US airforce and Iraqi military.

Instead, he said that Monday’s conference in Paris was intended to coordinate military aid to Baghdad from Iraq’s allies. “We are going to work with our allies. We know the seriousness of the threat,” Hollande told reporters.

US Secretary of State John Kerry made the American position on Iran clear on Wednesday in Baghdad.

“The United States does not cooperate, militarily or otherwise, nor does it have any intention in this process of doing so, with Iran,” he said.

Iran is embroiled in a nuclear dispute with the international community, which fears Tehran’s nuclear capabilities will be used to make weapons. But French President Francois Hollande says that is a separate issue.

France has staked a tough stance in the nuclear dispute, but is viewing Iranian help in the region with pragmatism, stressing the overlapping concerns of Iraq, Iran and the West about the dangers posed by Isil. Paris believes Tehran should not be excluded from the effort to crush the radicals who now control a wide swath of Iraq.

France began arming Kurdish fighters against Isil last month.

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Danaee, said on Friday that Iran would be happy to participate in the Paris conference since it has a great interest in the stabilisation of Iraq. He added that Iran is prepared to offer any support to its neighbour and hopes the conference will yield successful results.


After US President Barack Obama unveiled plans this week for an expanded campaign against Isil militants, France wants to show that support for Iraq is not limited to military action, one of Hollande’s aides said.

At the Paris conference, the French government aims to tackle Isil’s financing and recruiting as well as improving border controls and training of the Iraqi army.

Ladybbird 15-09-14 14:05

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
'Happy 47th Birthday to my Little Bro - Can't Wait to Have a Party on Your Return':
British Hostage Alan Henning's Sister Posts Moving Message to Him Just Weeks Before he Appeared in Chilling Isis Video

Manhunt to find British hostage and father-of-two Alan Henning, 47
  • He was seized while working at aid camp and paraded in terror video
  • His family had planned party for the taxi driver upon his return
  • He was making final trip to region after wife begged him not to go
  • Unmanned drones sent to target militants as RAF Tornados on standby
  • PM condemned 'monsters' who beheaded fellow aid worker David Haines
  • Chilling video showed the 44-year-old forced to recite rant against Britain

Daily Mail UK 15 September 2014


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The sister of Alan Henning - the British aid worker being held hostage by ISIS militants - had planned a big celebration for the taxi driver when he returned from his latest mercy mission to Syria. She told of the party in a touching Twitter post last month, which included a photo of the siblings together as children (left). A manhunt is under way to find the British hostage (main picture, circled), who was seized while working at a Syrian aid camp and paraded in ISIS' latest terror video.

The sister of the British aid worker being held hostage by ISIS executioner 'Jihadi John' sent a message to her brother promising a party on his return.
Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Manchester, was making one last trip to Syria to help those caught up in the conflict when he was seized by Islamist militants and paraded in front of cameras in their latest beheading video.
His sister, Gillian Kenyon, posted a touching message on Twitter last month telling how the family would celebrate his 47th birthday when he came home.

Scroll down for video


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A touching photo posted on Twitter shows hostage Alan Henning with his sister, Gill, when they were children



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Ms Kenyon posted the picture on ISIS captive Mr Henning's birthday last month alongside this message


In a message posted a month ago today, Ms Kenyon wrote: 'Happy 47th Birthday to my little bro Gadget/Alan Henning. can't wait to have a party on your return. Love you bro xx"
She also posted a touching photo of the siblings together as youngsters.
Father-of-two Mr Henning, known as 'gadget' to friends - was seized by fighters in January and has since been held hostage.
Friends said his wife had begged him not to go back to the region because of fears the aid missions were becoming too dangerous.
Mr Henning - who had made several visits to the region to help those affected by the conflict - had told friends he would not return to the Middle East after the latest trip, which set off last December.

But his final voyage was hit when gun-toting jihadists targeted his convoy soon after he arrived at a charity warehouse earlier this year.
A fellow aid worker told the Times: '[The militants] were speaking English because no one on the convoy spoke Arabic.
'They were a mixture of Libyans and Algerians and they gave Alan a hard time because he was not a Muslim.'

It is believed many other members of his convoy were allowed to return across the border with Turkey and have since returned to Britain.

British Special forces and intelligence officers have been ordered to urgently locate Mr Henning, 47, ahead of a potential bid to free him and any others that may be being held.


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Father of two Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Manchester (pictured at a Syrian aid camp) was paraded at the end of a horrific new video showing the beheading of British hostage David Haines – implying he will be next


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Mr Henning (left) had taken part in several mercy missions to the war-torn region to help innocent victims



Amid mounting pressure on the Prime Minister to act, specialists are drawing up plans for potential ‘high risk’ rescue operations to get him out of danger.
They are using advanced voice box recognition to locate Briton Jihadi John, believing any remaining hostages – including Mr Henning – will be nearby.
In a rapid escalation of the UK’s military involvement last night, unmanned drones were set to be sent to target militants in Islamic State target militant strongholds. Other developments include:
  • A dozen RAF Tornado GR4s have been placed on 12-hour notice to move to Cyprus in preparation for possible air strikes.
  • UK Special Forces were deployed on the ground in Iraq pinpointing Islamic State commanders and targets.
  • Military chiefs demanded the ‘destruction’ of Jihadi John.
  • The Prime Minister vowed to ‘hunt down’ the killers, saying they ‘are not Muslims, they are monsters’.
  • Barack Obama said the US stood ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the UK.
Mr Henning is believed to be held in the network of tunnels underneath the IS stronghold of Raqqa, northern Syria, by Jihadi John.
Furious military chiefs have demanded the ‘destruction’ of his fanatical captor, now thought to be responsible for the death of British aid worker David Haines as well as two American hostages.
In a significant escalation of the UK’s military involvement, unmanned drones armed with missiles designed to destroy individual targets were sent to Iraq last night in the hours after the video emerged.
A grim-faced Mr Cameron vowed to ‘hunt down’ the killers of Mr Haines, 44, whom he called a ‘British hero.’ And he revealed for the first time that IS has specifically planned attacks in Britain and across Europe – and is planning more.


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Mr Henning is believed to be held in the network of tunnels underneath the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria


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Mr Henning (right) was filmed before the convoy set off helping pack supplies for the aid mission


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After the latest video (pictured,) emerged last weekend, the Prime Minister vowed to ‘hunt down’ the killers, saying they ‘are not Muslims, they are monsters’


Kneeling in the sand and wearing an orange jumpsuit, Mr Henning was shown at the end of the video of Mr Haines’s death with Jihadi John pointing a knife at his head.
The grotesque images sparked immediate demands from MPs and former military commanders for the UK to quickly join international air strikes in Iraq and Syria and not to rule out sending in ground troops.

The pressure for involvement increased further after Australian leader Tony Abbott yesterday approved the deployment of eight F A 18 Super Hornet jets, surveillance aircraft, refuelling tankers and transport planes together with 600 troops to the region. Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox said Britain should use lethal force against extremists and be prepared to launch air strikes ‘sooner rather than later’ in both Iraq and Syria.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said it was ‘time for retribution’ and to ‘kill their barbaric fighters.’ Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, urged Mr Cameron to join international strikes against Islamic State ‘in the strongest possible way’.
Speaking after a meeting of the UK emergency committee Cobra, Mr Cameron remained cautious as he said of IS ‘they are not Muslims, they are monsters’. He added: ‘We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.’

On the video released on Saturday night, Jihadi John launched a personal tirade against the Prime Minister. Holding a knife in his left hand and with his right on the shoulder of Mr Haines, he declared: ‘This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) against Islamic State.’


Cameron says ISIS killers are not Muslims but 'Monsters'

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Jihadi John's New Horror in Desert: British Hostage Beheaded by Terrorists in Another Sickening Video

By IAN DRURY, DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT


The chilling video of the beheading of David Haines was almost identical to the films showing the murders of US hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
All three victims wore Guantanamo Bay-style orange boiler suits, were forced to kneel with their hands cuffed behind their backs and were decapitated in the desert by the knife-wielding, left-handed masked killer.
The horrific but slickly-produced film of 44-year-old Mr Haines’s terrifying last moments at the hands of the hooded Islamic State fanatic – dubbed Jihadi John – was uploaded to the internet late on Saturday.


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Horrific: The chilling video of the beheading of David Haines was almost identical to the films showing the murders of US hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff. All three wore bright orange boiler suits...
NB; David Haines previously bombed Iraq years ago, when he was in the RAF...




THE VIDEO BEGINS
Lasting two minutes and 27 seconds, the video begins with a burst of static – imitating a movie scene where an important announcement is made on television.
There follows a clip of David Cameron speaking in an interview in Downing Street on August 20 – the day after Mr Foley was murdered.
The Prime Minister announces British weapons and ammunition will be delivered to the Kurdish Peshmerga to fight Islamic State.

CHILLING WORDS FROM THE VICTIM AND HIS KILLER

Clad in orange overalls, David Haines says: ‘My name is David Cawthorne Haines. I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution.
‘You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor Tony Blair did, following a trend amongst our British prime ministers who can’t find the courage to say no to the Americans. Unfortunately it is we, the British public, that in the end will pay the price for our Parliament’s selfish decisions.’

Pointing with a knife, Jihadi John says: ‘This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the [Kurdish] Peshmerga against the Islamic State.

‘Ironically, he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms.

Your evil alliance with America ... will only accelerate your destruction, and playing the role of the obedient lapdog, Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.’

The man then takes his knife to Mr Haines’s throat, before the aid worker’s dead body is shown.
The video ends with the warning: ‘If you, Cameron, persist in fighting the Islamic State then you, like your master Obama, will have the blood of your people on your hands.’

He insists the West will stop the ‘brutal extremist militants’ savaging Iraq and Syria.
Both the Sotloff and Foley videos began with footage of Obama vowing to crush IS.


LOCATION
All three executions were filmed in an arid, deserted, hilly area with a blustery wind blowing.
However, Mr Haines’s video has a bleak background, with far fewer geographical features – just a ridge behind the captive and killer – to identify where it was shot.
It suggests that IS has learnt from the beheading video of Mr Foley, 40, which revealed a green plain in the distance below the hills and a dusty track.
This information was enough to allow computer experts to pinpoint the exact location of the murder in the uplands south of IS’s stronghold of Raqqa in north-western Syria.

TIMING
So far, the videos have been released approximately two weeks apart – Mr Foley’s on August 19 and 31-year-old Mr Sotloff’s on September 2. It is not clear precisely when Mr Haines’s film was recorded.
His hair looked as if it had grown since he appeared at the end of the Sotloff beheading film, when the killer indicated the former RAF airman would be next unless the UK stopped supporting military action against IS.
In the voiceover, the killer also refers to the US campaign of air strikes in Iraq, specifically the bombing of the Haditha dam in Anbar province.
The US carried out at least nine air strikes in the first weekend of September. This indicates the three beheading videos were made at different times. It also contradicts some Western intelligence officials who claimed the men may have been murdered on the same day and the propaganda videos spaced out to generate more publicity.

THE MESSAGES
Like Mr Sotloff and Mr Foley before him, Mr Haines is shown kneeling upright with hands cuffed behind his back and dressed in an outfit designed to mirror those worn by detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Standing to his left and slightly behind the hostage, the extremist is dressed in black hood and robes, a leather holster over both shoulders – rather than just one shoulder as in previous videos – with a pistol hanging under his left armpit.


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Slickly-produced: The brutal video, posted at the end of this post, carries the caption A Message to the Allies of America



Composed but clearly under duress, the kidnapped aid worker looks into the camera and says: ‘I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution.’ Again, this structure is identical to the last moments of the US journalists.


THE KILLING
The footage cuts to the supposed murder shot. Mr Haines blinks quickly as if anticipating his fate. Brandishing the knife, the killer approaches his victim from behind and touches him on the right shoulder.
The captive blinks, gulps, and imperceptibly shakes his head, as the jihadist snakes his right arm around and snatches Mr Haines by the chin. The hostage closes his eyes and appears to brace himself, as the killer saws at his neck with his left hand.

THE AFTERMATH
Next comes the grisly climax. The film returns to show the sickening sight of Mr Haines’s corpse lying in the dust on its front, hands manacled.
His severed head is resting on his back. Again, this follows exactly the same pattern as the Foley and Sotloff murder videos.


The Monster Hiding Behind a Black Mask

By IAN DRURY, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT


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British killer: Security experts believe the man ranting on the video has a distinct English accent



Mystery continues to surround the exact identity of the British jihadist believed to be responsible for beheading three innocent hostages, including British aid worker David Haines.
Security experts believe the black-robed killer ranting on the video has a distinct English accent, rather than another British person dubbing over the footage.
The jihadist wears a black mask, concealing all but his eyes, making it difficult to be sure the voice belonged to him. But audio experts have claimed they are ‘99 per cent’ certain the words were spoken by the man seen on camera.

Intelligence sources are understood to have identified the fanatic whose voice is heard on videos of the murders of Mr Haines, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and are trying to track him down in Syria with state-of-the-art military technology.
Jihadi John is thought to be one of 500 British Muslims fighting with IS to impose a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

Because of the devastating impact of air strikes on IS positions in northern Iraq, jihadist leaders are increasingly suspicious of Western fighters, amid fears they could be spies pinpointing enemy locations. But Jihadi John’s role in the latest murder suggests he remains a crucial member of the terror network and its propaganda war.
Hostages freed earlier this year said the killer was one of three UK-born militants who held captives in Raqqa, Syria – who they nicknamed John, Paul and Ringo after members of The Beatles.

Jihadi John is said to be the most intelligent of the trio. He has taken responsibility for communicating with the outside world via negotiations with the prisoners’ families and beheading videos.
He also seems to have been in charge of security, reportedly ordering captives to be moved at least ten times to foil attempts to rescue them.
Paul and Ringo are thought to have been more junior, but together with Jihadi John they carried out the most sadistic beatings.

There were also French-speaking extremists among the guards, including at least one Belgian. But the British jihadists were the most feared because of their gruesome ‘taste for the macabre’, according to a freed French hostage.

The violence included beatings, use of Taser guns, and waterboarding – a form of torture where water is poured over a cloth blocking the nose and mouth.
They forced some of the Western prisoners to take part in mock killings – US journalist Mr Foley was forced to stand in a crucifix pose. The captives were also mostly kept underground in the dark, often shackled to one another.


The first beheading video sent shockwaves across Britain as the killer spoke with a distinctive London twang and English appears to be his first language.


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Technology can eavesdrop on the jihadis' conversations in places such as their Raqqa stronghold (pictured)



Linguistic experts believe the way he pronounced certain words, such as Iraqi place names, suggest he has a foreign language background – indicating his parents or grandparents may have come from the Middle East. He appears to have a skin tone consistent with African, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent.

Academics claim Jihadi John has a multicultural East London accent, a kind of ‘new ****ney’. The voice patterns will have been studied in painstaking detail by security chiefs desperate to glean his identity and match it with snippets of conversation picked up in Syria.

Aircraft fitted with sophisticated equipment, which can ‘eavesdrop’ on conversations taking place tens of thousands of feet below, are listening to see if they can pick up a voice match – potentially leading them to the location of the terrorist.


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Experts believe the killer is behind the final e-mail sent to the family of James Foley (pictured)



However, his voice in the latest beheading video appears to be distorted, suggesting IS are trying to disguise it.
Experts believe the killer is aged under 30. He is tall and slender, and appears to be left-handed.
In the third beheading video his feet are not visible – different from footage of him murdering the two Americans when he wears modern desert boots.

Ex-captives have described Jihadi John as intelligent, educated and a devout believer in radical Islamic teachings.
He is thought to be behind a final email sent to James Foley’s family, dated August 12 – seven days before the journalist was beheaded.
In a hate-filled message, the jihadis vowed to kill Mr Foley saying: ‘You [America] and your citizens will pay the price of your bombings! The first of which being the blood of the American citizen James Foley! He will be executed as a direct result of your transgressions towards us!’

Experts said the language, use of capital letters, poor grammar and spelling mistakes supported the belief that the email was written by a working-class militant from Britain.
The fanatic has raged against Western foreign policy – in particular US air strikes on IS targets – in rants directed at Barack Obama and David Cameron in his beheading videos.
He has referred to recent US attacks, such as the targeting of the Mosul Dam and Haditha Dam in Iraq, to make it clear that the films were shot shortly before their release.

Jihadi John also appears to be motivated by a desire to fill IS’s coffers with ransom money, demanding £80million from Mr Foley’s family.

European governments are believed to have paid millions of euros to free at least nine hostages held with Mr Haines and the Americans.


The militant is said to have called for the release of female Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui, currently held in a US prison, as part of a deal to free Mr Foley.


"This can't be America's fight alone" - Obama


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Quote:

SO, WHAT ARE THE MILITARY OPTIONS?

David Cameron has insisted Britain will use ‘military prowess’ to defeat the brutal Islamic State extremists. But how exactly could the UK deploy its armed forces?

AIR STRIKES
If air strikes in Iraq and Syria are sanctioned then the RAF Typhoons used in Libya three years ago are likely to be used again.
SPECIAL FORCES
Dozens of SAS and SBS men are on the ground in Iraq, Kurdistan and Jordan. They could be involved in a complex joint rescue operation with US and Australian forces.
DRONES
The safest way of eliminating IS leaders is by drone. President Obama will reportedly approve a strike on Jihadi John if drone operators find him. Britain’s Reapers can hit a postage stamp from 50,000 feet.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND
The most unlikely – and unpopular – option with a massive risk of sustaining casualties or having soldiers taken hostage. The most likely scenario would see troops deployed as trainers in Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq or in Baghdad.



FULL NEWS REPORT + VIDEO:



Ladybbird 16-09-14 13:10

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
UK's MI5 Intelligent Agency Know who 'Jihadi John' is
-But are Waiting to Gather Even More Intelligence Before they Make a Move


  • Jihadi John was known to MI5 before he went to Syria to join Islamic State
  • His name and background are being kept a secret to protect hostages
  • They have put off any move on UK network while hostages remain captive
  • Drones are meanwhile being flown over Syria to locate his hideout
  • US authorities will order strike as soon as his location is confirmed
AP, 16 September 2014

Jihadi John was known to MI5 before he travelled to Syria to join the barbaric Islamic State.
Security officials have now identified the Briton who played a key role in the murder videos of UK aid worker David Haines and two American journalists.
But his name and background are being kept secret to avoid jeopardising any hostage rescue missions.



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Intelligence agencies are said to have identified 'Jihadi John' but have postponed raids on his associates over fears such actions could hamper any attempt to rescue his hostages


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It is believed the hostages are being held in tunnels beneath Raqqa (pictured, above), which has become an IS stronghold



Police and security agents also want to gather more information before raiding the homes of the fanatic’s family and friends.
They believe covert operations are the best way to find out where in Syria the militant is based.
Crucially, he is believed to be close to where the IS group is holding some of its international hostages, including 47-year-old taxi driver Alan Henning, from Manchester.
John threatened the father-of-two with beheading at the end of the video in which Mr Haines, 44, was seen before and after his murder

Despite the huge numbers that have watched the gruesome propaganda videos, John has yet to be named publicly.
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary – a London rapper initially identified as a suspect – has been ruled out after analysis of his voice as well as his height and mannerisms.
The 23-year-old, whose father is awaiting trial in the US on terror charges linked to embassy bombings in East Africa, came to prominence earlier this year after he posted a photograph of himself on Twitter holding up a severed head.

‘Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him,’ he wrote on his Twitter account, which has since been deactivated.


Holder Announces Programs to Prevent Youth From Joining IS


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Other Britons from Portsmouth, Birmingham and Cardiff have been linked to John, who is said to have overseen the torture of hostages and to have led negotiations for French and Italian captives freed in return for ransoms.
It is claimed he was making street collections for genuine Arab charities based in London at the time he came to MI5’s attention.
Anti-terror investigators looking at the support networks of fighters in Syria have often focused on charities. Officials have repeatedly stressed that having somebody on their radar is not the same as placing them under surveillance.

In the case of Jihadi John, he is understood to have become radicalised almost overnight and left Britain more than a year ago, where he quickly became a hardened fighter.
There is no suggestion that MI5 or the police had any basis to stop him from travelling abroad.

British and US signals specialists in Baghdad and the Kurdish city of Irbil have been working with UK's GCHQ to pinpoint where he is now. Aircraft fitted with sophisticated equipment, which can eavesdrop on conversations taking place tens of thousands of feet below, are listening to see if they can pick up a voice match.
All three murder videos have been broken down piece by piece and studied to provide clues on where they were filmed.

Security experts believe the black-robed killer ranting on the video is British, rather than that a British voice has been dubbed over the footage.
The jihadist wears a black mask, concealing all but his eyes, making it difficult to be sure the voice belonged to him. But audio experts say they are ‘99 per cent’ certain the words were spoken by the man seen on camera.
Linguistic experts believe the way he pronounced certain words, such as Iraqi place names, suggest he has a foreign language background – indicating his parents or grandparents may have come from the Middle East.


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UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called a emergency Cobra meeting soon after the latest video emerged so defence and security chiefs could plan their response


Britain to Play 'Leading Role' in Efforts Against IS
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He appears to have a skin tone consistent with someone of African, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent.
It is not believed that John or the hostages are far from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa where IS has established its headquarters.
The city has a warren of underground tunnels where hostages are believed to have been held.
Spy planes revealed that US hostage James Foley was executed near the Ittihad University in the city.

Jihadi John is among some 500 Britons who have travelled to Syria – and now Iraq – with around 250 returning, 200 of them to the London area.

In a speech to the JFK School of Government at Harvard University last night, Theresa May said the Government was seeking new powers to remove the passports from extremists.
She described the murder of David Haines as ‘an absolutely barbaric act’, adding:

‘Our message has to be clear. The United Kingdom, like the United States, will not allow these grotesque acts to stop us from keeping our homelands secure and stopping the march of this brutal ideology.’

Ladybbird 18-09-14 14:33

PhOtOs-Australia HUGE Terror Raids=800 Cops
 
At Least 800 Officers from AFP and NSW Police Were Involved in Anti-Terror Raids on Thursday...
-
Was This the Lethal Sword Terror Cell Planned to Use to Behead an Innocent Victim on a Sydney Street?


  • 25 search warrants and 15 arrests were carried out in Sydney
  • Omarjan Azari, 22, has been charged with a serious terrorism related offence
  • Azari was denied bail and will reappear in court on November 13
  • Another man, 24, has been charged with weapons offences
  • Two females were issued Future Court Attendance Notices
  • Homes were searched in Sydney's northwest suburbs
  • Raids also took place in three Brisbane suburbs related to last week's raids in a Logan Islamic bookstore
  • Police sources say they had to act now
Daily Mail, Australia


A 22-year-old Sydney man arrested in the nation's largest counter-terrorism operation allegedly conspired with Australia's most senior Islamist militant to launch a deadly attack on a random passerby, court documents show.

Early on Thursday morning hundreds of police swooped on a number of properties in Sydney and Brisbane conducting raids as part of and anti-terror operation.
Around 12 homes were searched in Sydney’s northwest suburbs by NSW Police and Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Police executed search warrants in Beecroft, Bellavista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park.


The AFP also carried out three search warrants in Brisbane in the suburbs of Mount Gravatt East, Logan and Underwood.
The Queensland raids were not directly related to the operations in Sydney.
Bundles of cash and a curved sword inscribed with black foreign lettering were some of the incriminating pieces of evidence removed from a Sydney home during Thursday's terror raids.


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Omarjan Azari appeared in Sydney's Central Local Court charged with conspiracy to prepare a terrorist attack on Australian soil



According to court documents, police intercepted a phone call two days ago between Omarjan Azari, who was arrested on Thursday morning, and Mohammad Ali Baryalei - who is alleged to have recruited half of the 60 Australians fighting in the Middle East.
The account said Baryalei ordered him to carry out an attack which Sydney Central Local Court heard was 'clearly designed to shock, horror and terrify the community'.


Before it emerged this month that Baryalei had become a senior Islamic State militant, he worked as a bouncer in Sydney’s Kings Cross nightclub district and had also played a bit part in the TV series Underbelly.
Azari today appeared in court charged with a conspiracy to prepare a terrorist attack on Australian soil. He is the only man charged so far after police arrested 15 people in raids earlier today.


A second man, a 24-year-old from Merrylands in Sydney's west, was charged with possessing ammunition without license and unauthorised possession of a prohibited weapon.
He has been bailed to appear in Fairfield Local Court on September 24th.
Nine people were detained on Thursday, and two females were issued Future Court Attendance Notices.

Police Prosecutor Michael Allnutt told Central Local Court that Azari had made a threat during a phone call a few days ago which involved a 'random selection of persons to execute'.

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A large sword was seized as part of the evidence found at a home in the suburb of Marsfield, in Sydney


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The accused terrorist was taken from court in a high risk security orange prison jumpsuit by heavily armed NSW Corrective Services officer


Australian Federal Police conduct terror raids across Sydney:

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Azari, who has dark hair, a beard and moustache, had displayed 'an unusual level of fanaticism' in the call, which was intercepted by police.
Azari's lawyer Steve Boland did not apply for bail but asked Magistrate Richard Bailey if Azari could go back down to the dock during the hearing.Magistrate Bailey agreed and Azari, who had sat in the dock stroking his beard and smiled briefly while talking to Mr Boland, left the courtroom.
The hearing adjourned shortly afterward, and Mr Azari is due reappear in court via video link from prison on November 13.

The accused terrorist was taken from court in a high risk security orange prison jumpsuit by heavily armed NSW Corrective Services officers.
Officers with shotguns drove Azari - who put his head down between his handcuffs in the back seat of an armoured vehicle - from Central Local Court where the Sydney man made a brief appearance.

As a person accused of conspiracy to prepare for a terrorist act, Azari will be taken to a maximum security prison, most likely the High Risk Management Correctional Centre - also known as Supermax - inside Goulburn prison.


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Police intercepted a phone call between the arrested Omarjan Azari and Mohammad Ali Baryalei (pictured) who worked as a bouncer at a Kings Cross nightclub and played a bit part in an episode of Underbelly


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Mohammad Ali Baryalei (pictured) played a bit part in the popular Underbelly TV program



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An armed police officer escorted Azari from court into a waiting prison van


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Heavily armed police have made a number of arrests in a series of dawn raids in northwest Sydney


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A car was searched across the road from the house that Omarjan Azari was arrested at


across Sydney's northwest, as well as a series of raids in three suburbs in Brisbane. Officers said of the raids that: 'Police believe that this group that we have executed this operation on today had the intention, and had started to carry out planning, to commit violent acts here in Australia,' AFP Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin told reporters in Sydney.

'Those violent acts particularly related to random acts against members of the public.'

Police sources revealed more details to Daily Mail Australia, that the plot involved abducting a member of the public in Sydney and beheading them. ABC reported that the abducted member of the public would be draped in an Islamic State flag and beheaded on camera.
Reports say that the random beheading would have been carried out in the streets of Martin Place in Sydney's CBD.


Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed that he was briefed on the anti-terror operation on Wednesday night.
He said a senior Australian ISIL member has asked supporters in Australia to carry out 'demonstration killings'.

'That's the intelligence we've received. That exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of supporters in Australia to direct demonstration killings in Australia. This is not just suspicion this is in intent,' Mr Abbott said.

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Police executed search warrants in what is thought to be Australia's largest ever counter-terror operation

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Mr Abbott said the information he has received shows Australia is at a 'serious risk' from a terrorist attack.

'There are networks of people here in Australia who will do us harm and it's very important that we are one step ahead of them and I think this morning we were,' he added.

A similar attack occurred on British Army soldier, Lee Rigby, in May 2013. Quoting Canberra sources, the Nine Network reported an attack was imminent.


AFP Commissioner Colvin said: 'It is the largest operation of its type undertaken in Australia's history.'


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AFP Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin and NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione appeared in a joint press conference on Thursday

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One Sydney man (TOP) involved in the raids was reportedly taken to hospital with injuries he claims he received from police.

On 22 May, a British Army soldier, Fusilier Drummer Lee Rigby (above), was nearly beheaded by exteremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in Woolwich, southeast London



Police Commissioner: This operation reflects the reality we face


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Police revealed officers had to use force to detain three people. One Sydney man involved in the raids was reportedly taken to hospital with injuries he claims he received from police.
A photo of the man, obtained by the ABC, shows bruising around his eye.
Some members of Sydney's Muslim community staged a protest on Thursday night in response to the dawn-raids.

A Facebook event group called 'STOP TERRORISING MUSLIMS!' claims that brutality was used by the police during the raids.


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Front and back yards were dug up at a Guildford home after it was raided



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Forensic teams appeared to leave no stone unturned at the Guildford home

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A policeman was seen shovelling mud outside of the house on Thursday afternoon


The arrests in Sydney follow months of surveillance of people linked to the terrorist group Islamic State, which has been cutting a barbaric path through Iraq and Syria.

AFP Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin said: 'The operation commenced earlier this year and the police believe that they had the intention and had started to carry out planning the attack here in Australia particularly related to random acts to members of the public.'
It's believed those arrested in Sydney could have links to a Brisbane man now facing terrorism related charges.

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In Queensland police were seen searching a house in Mount Gravatt, Brisbane


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The raids at the Brisbane homes on Thursday are said to be linked to a series of raids that were carried out last week in the city


Father denies son is a terrorist after their house was raided
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The search warrants carried out in Queensland are a follow up to the previous terror investigation in Queensland last week.
'We are investigating links between the two investigations in Sydney today and Queensland last week, it's too early to speculate about what those linkages are,' Mr Colvin said.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione told reporters Sydney residents will see large numbers of police in public places in the coming days.
'There will be 220 police very visible dealing with any troublemakers,' Mr Scipione said, in what is known as Operation Hammerhead.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart confirmed that the raids in three properties in Brisbane today were linked to the arrests last week of two men charged with preparing for incursions into Syria with the intention of engaging in hostile activities.
However, he said no arrests were made on Thursday in his state.
Quote:


OPERATION APPLEBY: THE FACTS

On Thursday 18 September a series of pre-dawn raids were carried out in what has been declared as Australia's largest ever counter-terrorism operation.
In Sydney:
  • 25 search warrants were executed
  • 10 warrants were undertaken in relation to vehicles
  • 800 NSW police and AFP officers were involved
  • 15 people were arrested
  • One man has been charged so far with serious terrorism related offences
  • Homes were searched in at least 12 suburbs in the city's north-west including Beecroft, Bella Vista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park
In Brisbane:
  • A series of raids related to last week's raids in Brisbane were carried out
  • Police are investigating links to the Sydney terror suspects
  • 60 officers were involved in the raids
  • No arrests were made
  • Last week two men were arrested in Brisbane and appeared in court charged with terrorism-related offences
  • Homes in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt East, Logan and Underwood were raided as part of the coordinated operation on Thursday

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More than 15 locations in Australia were the subject of terror raids


Commissioner Stewart said: 'Since that time we have come across disturbing information about another person.'
Omar Succarieh, 31, who is the brother of Australia's first suicide bomber to die in Syria, was arrested along with a 21-year-old man after a raid on iQraa Islamic Centre in Logan.
Seven homes and a gym in the area near Underwood were also raided last week.
Queensland's Premier Campbell Newman said that it is alleged 'at least one individual was contemplating onshore terrorist action'.
The Queensland police deployed 60 officers to Thursday's raids and their investigation is ongoing.
Commissioner Stewart said there were direct links between the raids in Queensland and the raids in Sydney.

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Around 12 homes were searched in Sydney’s northwest suburbs


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Authorities raided a string of homes and made several arrests


'It is of serious concern that in the heart of our community there have been plans to conduct a random attack. We know there were plans on foot and we have been able to disrupt that.
'Our police will continue to work tirelessly to prevent any such attacks but I stress this is a time for calm.

'We want people to continue to enjoy the freedoms that make our country such a wonderful and harmonious country,' Commissioner Scipione said
Earlier in the day, Commissioner Scipione told the Today Show: 'This has been a big operation and it reflects what we are dealing with right now. We've committed a lot of staff to the work today and I'm incredibly proud of what we've done already.'

Scott Morrison, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, said the scale of the operation 'demonstrates the very real threat' of an attack.

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A woman arrives back at a house in Mt Gravatt where police had carried out a search


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NSW Police and Australian Federal Police officers raid a house in Bursill Street, Guildford


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Scott Morrison, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, said the scale of the operation 'demonstrates the very real threat' of an attack


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Police interviewed suspects inside their homes and also took photos


Federal police raid house in Sydney suburb of Guildford
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Mr Morrison told ABC's AM program on Thursday morning: 'I think the scale of what we're seeing in this ongoing operation this morning, over 600 police officers involved, I think demonstrates the very real threat that's there.
'And the incredibly good work which is being done by our agencies, and I think again supports why the Government has been so strong in its response to this threat.'

Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull told ABC radio: 'There is no cause for being complacent about security.
'There are people, regrettably some of them in our midst, that don’t have the nation’s best interest at heart.'

A witness named Chris, from Bass Hill, told Triple M's Grill Team breakfast show that the scene outside his home was ‘surreal’.

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A man was taken away in handcuffs from a property in Marsfield

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Police swooped on the houses before sunrise in Sydney and Brisbane


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Police sources say they had to act now and the operation is ongoing


'I was woken up about 4 o'clock by a helicopter going over head. And at 5am the dog started barking.And I had a look outside and there would have been 30 or 40 coppers.
'I went out, and without being a stickybeak (as you do), I was told quite probably 'GO, go back inside, do not come out'.
'It was only six doors down.'

Guildford resident Mark Anderson said he had just got up for work at 4.30am at his home on Bursill Street when the raids took place.
He saw a helicopter circling the area, a bright light and police yelling on a loudspeaker for someone to come outside.


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Officers from AFP, NSW Police, and ASIO were heavily armed when they swooped on the houses


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The raids come amid growing concerns that some Australians have been sending money overseas to support terrorist organisations



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Police sniffer dogs were used inside the homes of the terror suspects

Callers describe the terror raids on Sydney radio station Triple...


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'I heard them calling out to him to 'Come out!' for about 10 to 15 minutes. I don't know if he was too agreeable. I didn't really understand a name. It was pretty intense,' Mr Anderson said.

Dr Jamal Rifi, one of the Australian Islamic community’s most vocal critics of extremists fighting in the Middle East, tweeted his support for the raids.
‘Safety and security of ALL AUSTRALIAN is (everyone’s) responsibility,’ he said.

The raid comes after Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised Australia's terror threat alert from medium to high last week.
It's the highest alert level in more than a decade and means the chances of a terror strike is now considered 'much more likely', according to Mr Abbott.


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NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said some of the people who were arrested had previously had their passports revoked


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NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said now is a time for 'calm' as he spoke alongside AFP Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin


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NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione spoke at Sydney Police headquarters in Surry Hills, Sydney


The high alert means there will be more security at airports, ports, military bases, government buildings, public landmarks and major sporting events.
'Normal life in Australia can and must go on but there are people who wish to do us harm,' Mr Abbott said.
‘What we do have is intelligence is that there are people with the intent and the capability to mount attacks, here in Australia.

Quote:

THE LARGEST TERROR RAID IN AUSTRALIA'S HISTORY

Australia’s previous largest counterterrorism operation was Operation Pendennis, in which Victoria Police, the AFP and ASIO officers launched a series of raids in Melbourne in November 2005 and March 2006 and arrested 13 alleged members of an Islamic extremist cell that was planning a terrorist attack.
At trial, prosecutors alleged the group was committed to violent ‘jihad’ against those they perceived to be the enemies of Islam, and were planning a terrorist attack at the AFL Grand or at Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
Twelve of the 13 men arrested, including the organisation’s alleged ringleader Abdul Nacer Benbrika, were convicted in 2008 of terrorism-related charges, including being members of a terrorist organization and providing funding to a terrorist organisation.
'We do know of people coming back from the Middle East, brutalised and accustomed to kill and do pose a direct threat to our community.'
ASIO Director-General of Security, David Irvine, advised the Federal Government to raise the terror threat to high.
'For some considerable years, indeed since the Bali attacks, Australia and Australian institutions and people have been regarded by al-Qaeda and its offshoots as, they would say, legitimate targets for attack,' Mr Irvine said.
'Here in Australia a number of plots have been thwarted. The threat, therefore has always been with us.
'What has happened in recent months, has been that the events in the Middle East have increased the level of activity among people who support some pretty distorted views, extremist violent views.'

The raids on Thursday come a day after a Sydney-based money transfer business owned by the sister and brother-in-law of convicted Sydney terrorist Khaled Sharrouf was shut down amid concerns it was being used to funnel funds to the Middle East to finance terrorism.

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Police involved in the counter-terrorism raid on a unit block in Wentworthville, Sydney


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Residents were shocked to find a huge police presence on their street when they woke up


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The operation is bigger than Operation Pendennis in 2005

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Police have revealed aerial footage of the moment they caught the terror suspects


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Fifteen warrants have been undertaken at Sydney premises, with a further 10 warrants undertaken in relation to vehicles


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The 12 locations where raids took place across Sydney's northwest



The Lakemba remittance provider, Bisotel Rieh Pty Ltd, owned by Damour Sharrouf and her husband Ahmed Alwash, was suspended after they could not account for millions of dollars transferred to Turkey and Lebanon.
While about 60 Australians are fighting in Iraq and Syria with groups such as Islamic State, another 100 are believed to be providing support from Australia.

The size of Thursday’s raid is reportedly larger than those carried out in 2005 when hundreds of AFP, ASIO and NSW police arrested 13 men who had been planning bomb attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.


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A Sydney-based money transfer business owned by the sister and brother-in-law of convicted Sydney terrorist Khaled Sharrouf was shut down on Thursday


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About 60 Australians, including Khaled Sharrouf (pictured), are fighting in Iraq and Syria with groups such as Islamic State


Father denies son is a terrorist after their house was raided:



Federal police raid house in Sydney suburb of Guildford:





Ladybbird 18-09-14 14:34

PhOtOs-Australia HUGE Terror Raid=800 Cops
 
RELATED:

'Australians Authorities are the Real Terrorists... They Want to Destroy Islam':

-Islamist Firebrands Link Raids to New Anti-Terror Laws in Inflammatory Posts -Muslim Leader Calls for Calm

  • Perth preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne said Australian authorities are 'the real terrorists'
  • Uthman Badar, from extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir slams terror raids as stunt to 'justify' new terror laws
  • Moderate Muslim leader calls for calm as snap protest called demonstrating over brutality against Muslims
  • One person has been charged and is due to face court this morning
  • Fifteen people were detained in New South Wales
  • The raids were part of the largest counter-terrorism operation in the nation's history
By Daily Mail UK, 18 September 2014

An Islamic radical has branded Australian authorities 'the real terrorists', accusing them of plotting to destroy the religion, while an outspoken Islamist firebrand declared today's anti-terror raids were a 'bogus' stunt to justify new terror laws.
Off the back of the largest terror raids in the nation's history, controversial Perth preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne wrote on Facebook:

'THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ALONG WITH ITS AUTHORITIES ARE CLEARLY ATTACKING ISLAM AND MUSLIMS!! (sic)'.

He said the Australian government wants to 'destroy Islam by any means...closing down Islamic centres, raiding Muslim houses, arresting active Muslim youth and preachers, intimidating Muslims cancelling their passports... and creating a vibe of fear within the Australian community to make them afraid of Muslims'.

At the same time, in remarks labelled 'inflammatory' by one moderate Muslim leader, Uthman Badar, the spokesman for the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, said the mass police raids in Brisbane and Sydney were 'just in time to justify the bogus terror threat level rise'.
As members of the Islamic community organised a protest in Sydney tonight claiming brutality against Muslims, community leader Dr Jamal Rifi issued a call for calm, asking members of the community, politicians and the media 'not to inflame the situation by throwing oil in the fire'.

Scroll down for video

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Remarks: Perth preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne (top) and Uthman Badar, the spokesman for the Hizb ut-Tahrir political group, both made the fiery statements this morning.



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Remarks: Mr Badar made his statement after news of the terror raids this morning.


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NSW Police released these images of arrests that were made in Sydney this morning. Fifteen people were detained in NSW.


Terror raids take place across Sydney's North West

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Come with us: This arrest, from today's raid, was made in Logan, south of Brisbane.


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Mr Badar (pictured) made the remarks on his Facebook page this morning.


Dr Rifi, who hosted a succesful 'Muslims for Australia' barbeque, at the weekend, said: 'We all have to invest together fighting anyone who is going to affect the safety and security of all Australians.'

Both Thorne and Badar today linked the raids to the Abbott government's proposed terror laws.
Thorne said the government would use 'the excuse of "terrorism" to launch a crazy indiscriminating assault against harmless youth who have done nothing wrong'.
Badar said:

'Last week the PM and ASIO head were telling us that there was no intelligence of any plans for attacks in Australia'.
'Few days later we wake up to yet more dawn "terror" raids with hundreds of police raiding Muslim homes in Sydney and Brisbane.'
'Just in time to justify the bogus terror threat level rise and the 'anti-terror' laws which will be tabled to Parliament next week.'


Quote:

EXCERPTS OF MOHAMED JUNAID THORNE'S REMARKS

'Once again, we wake up to the sad news of our innocent Muslim brothers being arrested by the Australian authorities, their families being terrorized, their houses being raided, their freedoms being confiscated, their rights abused... This is becoming more than what a sane person can bare.'
'The Australian government want to destroy Islam by any means, and they know that they can't do so by attacking it directly, so they resort to closing down Islamic centres, raiding Muslim houses, arresting active Muslim youth and preachers, intimidating Muslims, cancelling their passports, restricting their freedom, enforcing policies that aim to dividing the Muslim community, and creating a vibe of fear within the Australian community to make them afraid of Muslims, and therefore, they will face no opposition when it comes to passing these new terror laws or arresting innocent Muslims...
'The Australian government is practising institutional terrorism. Its authorities are the real terrorists.
'We ask Allah to destroy those who plot against us, and to keep their harm away from us. Ya Allah look after your obedient servants and protect them from the harm of this government. Ya Allah this government and its authorities have felt safe from your punishment and therefore unleashed their wrath against the innocent harmless Muslims, O Allah so please deal with them according to your justice, and substitute them with others who are less harmful to your religion and its followers.'
He continued by saying it was the 'same thing (former Prime Minister) John Howard did' in 2005 when terror raids also took place.
Nine men were arrested as part of Operation Pendennis in 2005, which found Australian jihadist cells were amassing equipment to use in a terrorist attack on Australia.

Muslim leader Dr Jamal Rifi told Daily Mail Australia those remarks were 'inflammatory' and 'totally premature' given those arrested have not faced court.
Dr Rifi said:

'Anti terror raids are really serious matters, and I believe in the professionalism of our security agencies.
'Such a raid shouldn't be taken lightly and I have no doubt that if there isn't enough sufficient evidence, arrest warrants would not be given for such raids.'
He said those arrested were entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair hearing in a court of law.
'Any arrest will be tested in the court of law and we have full confidence in the judiciary systems.'
'We are lucky to be living in the country where the judicial arm will not be influenced by the executive arm of the government - and we (should) just have to wait before making such inflammatory remarks.'

Badar said in his post that it would be a 'tough week' for the Muslim community but agreed that the presumption of innocence needed to be upheld.
'It's the government that needs to be interrogated here to prove its claims, not those being made examples of,' he said.
He issued a follow up statement this morning labelling the timing of the raids as 'suspect'.

Quote:

'The timing of these raids is suspect indeed. With the "anti-terror" laws, which hit a wall in the community, to be tabled to Parliament next week and with "military intervention" imminent in Iraq, these raids are very timely for the government and its propaganda campaign for the same.'
Today's raids, which occurred at dawn in suburbs in Sydney and Brisbane, involved 800 police in New South Wales alone.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and outgoing ASIO chief David Irvine announced Australia's terror alert level would be raised to 'high' - meaning an attack is likely - last Friday.

Terror raids take place across Sydney's North West:



Ladybbird 19-09-14 11:45

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
France Launches Airstrikes on ISIS: Attack on Depot Kills Dozens of Militants in Iraq Amid Claims New Hostage Video Shows Group Fears a U.S. Assault

  • Video of British hostage John Cantlie is more measured than previous ones
  • He calls on Western powers to negotiate with rather than attack terror cell
  • Change of tone has convinced experts that ISIS fears it is becoming isolated
  • Professor: They were so brutal. Now they're saying 'we're reasonable'
  • Compared to the way Al Qaeda softened its portrayal of Osama bin Laden
  • French confirm they targeted logistics depot in Iraq with air strikes
Daily Mail UK, 19 September 2014

Four French airstrikes have killed dozens of fighters from the Islamic State after targeting a logistics depot in northern Iraq.


President Francois Hollande said fighter jets 'entirely destroyed' the complex in what were France's first airstrikes in Iraq after he agreed to bolster Baghdad's offensive against the insurgency.
An Iraq military spokesman said four French airstrikes hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of extremist fighters.
Zumar and surrounding towns have remained heavily contested by Islamic State fighters, even though Iraqi and Kurdish security forces have managed to make headway in nearby regions with the support of US airstrikes.

The announcement came as experts said a dramatic change of tone in the latest hostage video released by the Islamic State shows the jihadist group is worried about becoming isolated and provoking a U.S. assault.


In the footage released yesterday, British photojournalist John Cantlie sits behind a desk and in a measured tone makes the case for Western powers to negotiate with his captors.

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Measured: The dramatic change of tone in the latest video released by the Islamic State of British journalist John Cantlie (above) shows the terror group is fearful of becoming isolated, according to experts


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Change of tack: In a calm tone, Mr Cantlie makes the case for Western powers to negotiate with his captors


Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London, said the militants were now trying to distance themselves from the image that they were 'crazy'.
'They were so brutal and made it so easy for Western governments to portray their enemy as completely barbaric people that need to be destroyed,' he told AFP.
'And now they are doing the exact opposite. Now they are saying: "We are reasonable people, if Western governments would just talk to us, then everything could be resolved quite easily".'

In the latest video, Mr Cantlie speaks calmly from what appears to be an autocue and promised series of documentaries that he says will paint the militant organisation in a better light.

He admits he is speaking as a prisoner and that he may yet follow his former cellmates to the grave.
But he urges viewers to tune in to a series of films that will reveal another side of the Islamic State group, which has rampaged across large areas of Iraq and Syria.
The video shares the polished production values of its predecessors but none of the blood-soaked savagery, a telling detail for analysts.
Neumann doubts the change in tactics will damage Western resolve, with U.S. President Barack Obama vowing to crush the jihadists.


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Softening its stance: The slickly-made video marks a significant change of tactics by IS, who have previously released barbaric footage of hostages, including David Haines (above), being executed in a desert



Quote:

FREE BRIT HOSTAGES, BEGS FAMILY OF JAILED SCIENTIST USED BY ISIS TO JUSTIFY ACTS OF BARBARISM

The sister of a jailed Pakistan neuroscientist whose release from a U.S. prison is being demanded by the Islamic State has begged the terror group to spare the lives of its British hostages.
Aafia Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence in Texas after being convicted of attempting to kill a group of FBI agents and U.S. soldiers who were about to interrogate her for alleged links to Al Qaeda in 2008.
Her cause has recently become a rallying cry for the Islamic State who proposed swapping her for American journalist James Foley.
However, Mr Foley was executed after their demands, which also included an end to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, were not met.
The Islamic State has since paraded British hostages Alan Henning and John Cantlie in front of the cameras, raising fears they could be killed next.
Dr Fowzia Siddiqui today said her sister would be horrified to know that ISIS was using her case to justify acts of barbarism.
She said: 'She would be distraught if she knew that there are people bragging about murder and mayhem and using her name to justify it.
'She would also be praying for the victims and their families. Aafia is one of too many people around the world who understands the toll that injustice demands from all of us.'
She called on the ISIS kidnappers to follow the example set by the Prophet Mohammad, who said mercy was an act of courage.
Previous hostage videos and the jihadists' brutal behaviour in the area of Iraq and Syria they control have cemented their image.
But Neumann said the change in tone appeared to be a calculated attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of those in the West and the Muslim world who opposed previous U.S.-led interventions in the Middle East.

'There's not as much opposition against striking ISIS as there was, for example, against the Iraq war in 2003, and that's because we look at ISIS and think they are crazy,' he said, using an alternate acronym for the IS group.
'I see perhaps how this video perhaps appeals to some people on the anti-war left, people who are suspicious of war and military intervention,' he added.
'They will be saying: "Look! They are not completely crazy. We can give talking, negotiation a chance before going in bombing." And I think that's exactly what they want to achieve.'

Cantlie says the upcoming films will show how the decision of European governments to negotiate with the IS group led to their nationals being released.
British and American hostages have not been released and three have been murdered.
A fourth, British taxi driver Alan Henning, was threatened with death in the last execution video.
London and Washington have a policy of not paying ransoms to those they regard as terrorists - and the latest video appears to be aimed at driving a wedge between Western capitals.
Henning was a driver for an aid convoy to Syria supported by Islamist groups, and many Muslims have appealed to his captors to release him, including some that might otherwise back the group.

Neumann said the convoy included a 'lot of guys who basically support Al-Qaeda' and that IS may be concerned that its reckless brutality has cost it support even in such quarters.

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Brutal threats: British taxi driver Alan Henning was threatened with death in the last execution video


But if the Cantlie video is one sign of IS perhaps adopting a new tone to avoid isolation, the key will be Henning's fate.

'All these executions have happened on a 10- to 14-day rhythm. If there's no execution of Alan Henning in a week's time, I think we can be almost certain it has caused them to think,' Neumann said.
'He's kind of like the least likely imperialist that you could possibly think of. If they execute him, then I think that's the sign that they really don't care, and all this is a big charade,' he said.

Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group - which monitors extremist activity online - said the video showed that the IS group is terrified of US intervention.

She said the change in tone in the latest IS video recalled a similar transition in Al Qaeda's portrayal of its late leader Osama bin Laden.
Before 2007, bin Laden often appeared dressed in combat fatigues and toting a gun, threatening the West with violent revenge.
Later, as U.S. forces and allies targeted Al Qaeda safe havens, he appeared unarmed, speaking gently in civilian garb 'like a head of state.'

'There's no doubt in my mind that ISIS is very afraid of a US-led military operation against it,' Katz said.
'First they tried to terrorise with beheadings, now they want to create the perception in the international community at large, both Western countries and Muslims, that they are not incapable of civilized behavior.'

Katz also dismisses claims from some commentators that the videos are an attempt to goad Washington to attack, and argues that they are instead a crude attempt to deter strikes.

'From the first days after they captured Mosul (in Iraq), as the calls and threats of intervention were heard in Washington, IS issued videos straight away threatening Obama,' she said.
'When that did not work, they moved on to the execution videos. Only a US-led coalition can stop them, and that is something that they want to stop in any shape or form.'

Ladybbird 24-09-14 16:05

re: VIDEOS-ISIS -New Beheading >> US Aid Worker
 
THE BATTLE AGAINST ISIS


'There Can be no Reasoning – no Negotiation – with This Brand of Evil':
Obama Calls on UN Nations to Help America Speak 'the Language of Force' Against ISIS 'Network of Death'

  • 'The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force,' Obama announced
  • 'The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death'
  • The US and an alliance of five Arab nations have now carried out 20 airstrikes against ISIS in Syria
  • Nobel Peace Prize-winning Obama has led airstrikes in seven Muslim countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Syria
  • Sweeping UN General Assembly speech explained rationale for destroying ISIS terror army
  • Other attacks hit a lesser-known terror network called the Khorasan Group, which is linked to al-Qaeda and was reportedly planning attacks on the US or Europe using airliners and explosives
Daily Mail UK, 24 September 2014


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President Obama explained to the global community on Wednesday morning that his decision to launch military strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria was guided by a belief that 'the only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,' he told the United Nations General Assembly. 'There can be no reasoning - no negotiation - with this brand of evil,' Obama said, calling on nations everywhere to reject 'the cancer of violent extremism that has ravaged so many parts of the Muslim world.'


'There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil,' Obama said, calling on nations everywhere to reject 'the cancer of violent extremism that has ravaged so many parts of the Muslim world.'

U.S. Central Command said Wednesday morning that American and allied forces executed five new airstrike missions overnight against ISIS, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

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There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil,' Obama told the UN General Assembly


That terror network has killed tens of thousands, and raped or captured thousands more, during its march across more than one-third of Syria and Iraq.

ISIS proclaimed in June that it is a 'caliphate' – a nation-state led by an Islamic religious leader – and demanded recognition as a country.
The Obama administration's latest bombing runs against the terror army, estimated to be 31000-strong, included two airstrikes west of Baghdad last night that destroyed armed vehicles and a weapons cache; two southeast of Irbil that obliterated ISIS fighting positions; and a fifth that damaged eight ISIS vehicles in Syria, northwest of Al Qa'im.

The total of airstrikes in Obama's Iraq-Syria campaign has reached 198 in Iraq and 20 in Syria.


Obama offered a largely upbeat, hopeful tone on Wednesday, saying that while there is 'pervasive unease' in the world, 'all of us – big nations and small – must meet our responsibility to observe and enforce international norms.'

'We come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope,' Obama said, acknowledging 2014 as a moment when the world senses 'that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers, and made it difficult for any single nation to insulate itself from global forces.'

He blamed the result on 'the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world' and insisted that the United States is not at war with the Muslim religion.

'Islam teaches peace,' he said. 'Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice.'
'And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.

But ultimately, Obama said, 'it is no exaggeration to say that humanity’s future depends on us uniting against those who would divide us along fault lines of tribe or sect; race or religion.'
ISIS, he insisted, 'must be degraded, and ultimately destroyed. This group has terrorized all who they come across in Iraq and Syria. Mothers, sisters and daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down. Bodies have been dumped in mass graves. Religious minorities have been starved to death.'


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The president urged the global community to support his effort to wipe away the terrorist ISIS army, which he said has committed 'the most horrific crimes imaginable'


'In the most horrific crimes imaginable,' Obama said, recalling the recorded grisly deaths of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines, 'innocent human beings have been beheaded, with videos of the atrocity distributed to shock the conscience of the world.'
'The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force,' he announced. 'So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.'

Obama's piecemeal pursuit of terror networks has led to bombing campaigns over the skies of seven different Muslim countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen – and now Syria.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after serving less than a year in the White House.

Great Britain's parliament is expected to be recalled on Friday for a special session to consider whether it will join in anti-ISIS airstrikes. At present, only the U.S. and France are known to have flown sorties.

The BBC reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will officially ask the UK for its support. He, along with British Prime Minister David Cameron, is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Cameron told NBC News on Tuesday that he believes the UK 'cannot opt out of' the ISIS fight.

'It has oil, it has money, it has territory, it has weapons, and there's no doubt in my mind it has already undertaken and is planning further plots in Europe and elsewhere,' he said.



Quote:

ISIS 'Must be Degraded, and Ultimately Destroyed': OBAMA'S UN ADDRESS

‘Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen: we come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope.


‘Around the globe, there are signposts of progress. The shadow of World War that existed at the founding of this institution has been lifted; the prospect of war between major powers reduced. The ranks of member states has more than tripled, and more people live under governments they elected. Hundreds of millions of human beings have been freed from the prison of poverty, with the proportion of those living in extreme poverty cut in half. And the world economy continues to strengthen after the worst financial crisis of our lives.

‘Today, whether you live in downtown New York or in my grandmother’s village more than two hundred miles from Nairobi, you can hold in your hand more information than the world’s greatest libraries. Together, we have learned how to cure disease, and harness the power of the wind and sun. The very existence of this institution is a unique achievement – the people of the world committing to resolve their differences peacefully, and solve their problems together. I often tell young people in the United States that this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams.

‘And yet there is a pervasive unease in our world – a sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers, and made it difficult for any single nation to insulate itself from global forces. As we gather here, an outbreak of Ebola overwhelms public health systems in West Africa, and threatens to move rapidly across borders. Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition. The brutality of terrorists in Syria and Iraq forces us to look into the heart of darkness.
‘Each of these problems demands urgent attention. But they are also symptoms of a broader problem – the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world. We have not invested adequately in the public health capacity of developing countries. Too often, we have failed to enforce international norms when it’s inconvenient to do so. And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance, sectarianism, and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe.

‘Fellow delegates, we come together as United Nations with a choice to make. We can renew the international system that has enabled so much progress, or allow ourselves to be pulled back by an undertow of instability. We can reaffirm our collective responsibility to confront global problems, or be swamped by more and more outbreaks of instability. For America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear. We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort. We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs; we choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.

‘There is much that must be done to meet the tests of this moment. But today I’d like to focus on two defining questions at the root of many of our challenges– whether the nations here today will be able to renew the purpose of the UN’s founding; and whether we will come together to reject the cancer of violent extremism.

‘First, all of us – big nations and small – must meet our responsibility to observe and enforce international norms.
‘We are here because others realized that we gain more from cooperation than conquest. One hundred years ago, a World War claimed the lives of many millions, proving that with the terrible power of modern weaponry, the cause of empire leads to the graveyard. It would take another World War to roll back the forces of fascism and racial supremacy, and form this United Nations to ensure that no nation can subjugate its neighbors and claim their territory.

‘Russia’s actions in Ukraine challenge this post-war order. Here are the facts. After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their corrupt President fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into Eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.

‘This is a vision of the world in which might makes right – a world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed. America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.

‘These are simple truths, but they must be defended. America and our allies will support the people of Ukraine as they develop their democracy and economy. We will reinforce our NATO allies, and uphold our commitment to collective defense. We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.

‘Moreover, a different path is available – the path of diplomacy and peace and the ideals this institution is designed to uphold. The recent cease-fire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve that objective. If Russia takes that path – a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people – then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia’s role in addressing common challenges.

That’s what the United States and Russia have been able to do in past years – from reducing our nuclear stockpiles to meet our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to cooperating to remove and destroy Syria’s declared chemical weapons. And that’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again—if Russia changes course.

‘This speaks to a central question of our global age: whether we will solve our problems together, in a spirit of mutual interests and mutual respect, or whether we descend into destructive rivalries of the past. When nations find common ground, not simply based on power, but on principle, then we can make enormous progress. And I stand before you today committed to investing American strength in working with nations to address the problems we face in the 21st century.

‘As we speak, America is deploying our doctors and scientists – supported by our military – to help contain the outbreak of Ebola and pursue new treatments. But we need a broader effort to stop a disease that could kill hundreds of thousands, inflict horrific suffering, destabilize economies, and move rapidly across borders. It’s easy to see this as a distant problem – until it isn’t. That is why we will continue mobilizing other countries to join us in making concrete commitments to fight this outbreak, and enhance global health security for the long-term.

‘America is pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue, as part of our commitment to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace and security of a world without them. This can only happen if Iran takes this historic opportunity. My message to Iran’s leaders and people is simple: do not let this opportunity pass. We can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.

‘America is and will continue to be a Pacific power, promoting peace, stability, and the free flow of commerce among nations. But we will insist that all nations abide by the rules of the road, and resolve their territorial disputes peacefully, consistent with international law. That’s how the Asia-Pacific has grown. And that’s the only way to protect this progress going forward.

‘America is committed to a development agenda that eradicates extreme poverty by 2030. We will do our part – to help people feed themselves; power their economies; and care for their sick. If the world acts together, we can make sure that all of our children can enjoy lives of opportunity and dignity

‘America is pursuing ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions, and we have increased our investments in clean energy. We will do our part, and help developing nations to do theirs. But we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every major power. That’s how we can protect this planet for our children and grandchildren.

‘On issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule-book written for a different century. If we lift our eyes beyond our borders – if we think globally and act cooperatively – we can shape the course of this century as our predecessors shaped the post-World War II age. But as we look to the future, one issue risks a cycle of conflict that could derail such progress: and that is the cancer of violent extremism that has ravaged so many parts of the Muslim world.

‘Of course, terrorism is not new. Speaking before this Assembly, President Kennedy put it well: “Terror is not a new weapon,” he said. “Throughout history it has been used by those who could not prevail, either by persuasion or example.” In the 20th century, terror was used by all manner of groups who failed to come to power through public support. But in this century, we have faced a more lethal and ideological brand of terrorists who have perverted one of the world’s great religions. With access to technology that allows small groups to do great harm, they have embraced a nightmarish vision that would divide the world into adherents and infidels – killing as many innocent civilians as possible; and employing the most brutal methods to intimidate people within their communities.

‘I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism. Rather, we have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces – taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country.

‘So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations. Belief in permanent religious war is the misguided refuge of extremists who cannot build or create anything, and therefore peddle only fanaticism and hate. And it is no exaggeration to say that humanity’s future depends on us uniting against those who would divide us along fault lines of tribe or sect; race or religion.

‘This is not simply a matter of words. Collectively, we must take concrete steps to address the danger posed by religiously motivated fanatics, and the trends that fuel their recruitment. Moreover, this campaign against extremism goes beyond a narrow security challenge. For while we have methodically degraded core al Qaeda and supported a transition to a sovereign Afghan government, extremist ideology has shifted to other places – particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, where a quarter of young people have no job; food and water could grow scarce; corruption is rampant; and sectarian conflicts have become increasingly hard to contain.

‘As an international community, we must meet this challenge with a focus on four areas. First, the terrorist group known as ISIL must be degraded, and ultimately destroyed.

‘This group has terrorized all who they come across in Iraq and Syria. Mothers, sisters and daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down. Bodies have been dumped in mass graves. Religious minorities have been starved to death. In the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been beheaded, with videos of the atrocity distributed to shock the conscience of the world.

‘No God condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.

‘In this effort, we do not act alone. Nor do we intend to send U.S. troops to occupy foreign lands. Instead, we will support Iraqis and Syrians fighting to reclaim their communities. We will use our military might in a campaign of air strikes to roll back ISIL. We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground. We will work to cut off their financing, and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region. Already, over 40 nations have offered to join this coalition.

Today, I ask the world to join in this effort. Those who have joined ISIL should leave the battlefield while they can. Those who continue to fight for a hateful cause will find they are increasingly alone. For we will not succumb to threats; and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build – not those who destroy.

‘Second, it is time for the world – especially Muslim communities – to explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.

‘It is the task of all great religions to accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world. No children – anywhere – should be educated to hate other people. There should be no more tolerance of so-called clerics who call upon people to harm innocents because they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim. It is time for a new compact among the civilized peoples of this world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source: the corruption of young minds by violent ideology.

‘That means cutting off the funding that fuels this hate. It’s time to end the hypocrisy of those who accumulate wealth through the global economy, and then siphon funds to those who teach children to tear it down.

‘That means contesting the space that terrorists occupy – including the Internet and social media. Their propaganda has coerced young people to travel abroad to fight their wars, and turned students into suicide bombers. We must offer an alternative vision.

‘That means bringing people of different faiths together. All religions have been attacked by extremists from within at some point, and all people of faith have a responsibility to lift up the value at the heart of all religion: do unto thy neighbor as you would have done unto you.

‘The ideology of ISIL or al Qaeda or Boko Haram will wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted, and refuted in the light of day. Look at the new Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies – Sheikh bin Bayyah described its purpose: “We must declare war on war, so the outcome will be peace upon peace.” Look at the young British Muslims, who responded to terrorist propaganda by starting the “notinmyname” campaign, declaring – “ISIS is hiding behind a false Islam.” Look at the Christian and Muslim leaders who came together in the Central African Republic to reject violence – listen to the Imam who said, “Politics try to divide the religious in our country, but religion shouldn’t be a cause of hate, war, or strife.”

‘Later today, the Security Council will adopt a resolution that underscores the responsibility of states to counter violent extremism. But resolutions must be followed by tangible commitments, so we’re accountable when we fall short. Next year, we should all be prepared to announce the concrete steps that we have taken to counter extremist ideologies – by getting intolerance out of schools, stopping radicalization before it spreads, and promoting institutions and programs that build new bridges of understanding.

‘Third, we must address the cycle of conflict – especially sectarian conflict – that creates the conditions that terrorists prey upon.

‘There is nothing new about wars within religions. Christianity endured centuries of vicious sectarian conflict. Today, it is violence within Muslim communities that has become the source of so much human misery. It is time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle East. And it is time that political, civic and religious leaders reject sectarian strife. Let’s be clear: this is a fight that no one is winning. A brutal civil war in Syria has already killed nearly 200,000 people and displaced millions. Iraq has come perilously close to plunging back into the abyss. The conflict has created a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists who inevitably export this violence.
‘Yet, we also see signs that this tide could be reversed – a new, inclusive government in Baghdad; a new Iraqi Prime Minister welcomed by his neighbors; Lebanese factions rejecting those who try to provoke war.

These steps must be followed by a broader truce. Nowhere is this more necessary than Syria. Together with our partners, America is training and equipping the Syrian opposition to be a counterweight to the terrorists of ISIL and the brutality of the Assad regime. But the only lasting solution to Syria’s civil war is political – an inclusive political transition that responds to the legitimate aspirations of all Syrian citizens, regardless of ethnicity or creed.


‘Cynics may argue that such an outcome can never come to pass. But there is no other way for this madness to end – whether one year from now or ten. Indeed, it’s time for a broader negotiation in which major powers address their differences directly, honestly, and peacefully across the table from one another, rather than through gun-wielding proxies. I can promise you America will remain engaged in the region, and we are prepared to engage in that effort.

‘My fourth and final point is a simple one: the countries of the Arab and Muslim world must focus on the extraordinary potential of their people – especially the youth.
‘Here I’d like to speak directly to young people across the Muslim world. You come from a great tradition that stands for education, not ignorance; innovation, not destruction; the dignity of life, not murder. Those who call you away from this path are betraying this tradition, not defending it.
‘You have demonstrated that when young people have the tools to succeed –good schools; education in math and science; an economy that nurtures creativity and entrepreneurship – then societies will flourish. So America will partner with those who promote that vision.

‘Where women are full participants in a country’s politics or economy, societies are more likely to succeed. That’s why we support the participation of women in parliaments and in peace processes; in schools and the economy.
‘If young people live in places where the only option is between the dictates of a state, or the lure of an extremist underground – no counter-terrorism strategy can succeed. But where a genuine civil society is allowed to flourish – where people can express their views, and organize peacefully for a better life – then you dramatically expand the alternatives to terror.

‘Such positive change need not come at the expense of tradition and faith. We see this in Iraq, where a young man started a library for his peers. “We link Iraq’s heritage to their hearts,” he said, and “give them a reason to stay.” We see it in Tunisia, where secular and Islamist parties worked together through a political process to produce a new constitution. We see it in Senegal, where civil society thrives alongside a strong, democratic government. We see it in Malaysia, where vibrant entrepreneurship is propelling a former colony into the ranks of advanced economies. And we see it in Indonesia, where what began as a violent transition has evolved into a genuine democracy.

‘Ultimately, the task of rejecting sectarianism and extremism is a generational task – a task for the people of the Middle East themselves. No external power can bring about a transformation of hearts and minds. But America will be a respectful and constructive partner. We will neither tolerate terrorist safe-havens, nor act as an occupying power. Instead, we will take action against threats to our security – and our allies – while building an architecture of counter-terrorism cooperation. We will increase efforts to lift up those who counter extremist ideology, and seek to resolve sectarian conflict. And we will expand our programs to support entrepreneurship, civil society, education and youth – because, ultimately, these investments are the best antidote to violence.

‘Leadership will also be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. As bleak as the landscape appears, America will never give up the pursuit of peace. The situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that this conflict is the main source of problems in the region; for far too long, it has been used in part as a way to distract people from problems at home. And the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace. But let’s be clear: the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable. We cannot afford to turn away from this effort – not when rockets are fired at innocent Israelis, or the lives of so many Palestinian children are taken from us in Gaza. So long as I am President, we will stand up for the principle that Israelis, Palestinians, the region, and the world will be more just with two states living side by side, in peace and security.

‘This is what America is prepared to do – taking action against immediate threats, while pursuing a world in which the need for such action is diminished. The United States will never shy away from defending our interests, but nor will we shrink from the promise of this institution and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the notion that peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of a better life.

‘I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders. This is true. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.

‘But we welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect. America is not the same as it was 100 years ago, 50 years ago, or even a decade ago. Because we fight for our ideals, and are willing to criticize ourselves when we fall short. Because we hold our leaders accountable, and insist on a free press and independent judiciary. Because we address our differences in the open space of democracy – with respect for the rule of law; with a place for people of every race and religion; and with an unyielding belief in the ability of individual men and women to change their communities and countries for the better.

‘After nearly six years as President, I believe that this promise can help light the world. Because I’ve seen a longing for positive change – for peace and freedom and opportunity – in the eyes of young people I’ve met around the globe. They remind me that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what God you pray to, or who you love, there is something fundamental that we all share.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a champion of the UN and America’s role in it, once asked, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places,” she said, “close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works.”


‘The people of the world look to us, here, to be as decent, as dignified, and as courageous as they are in their daily lives. And at this crossroads, I can promise you that the United States of America will not be distracted or deterred from what must be done. We are heirs to a proud legacy of freedom, and we are prepared to do what is necessary to secure that legacy for generations to come. Join us in this common mission, for today’s children and tomorrow’s.’


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