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ralph0

Isis 'war minister' targeted in Syria had been in Georgian army | World news | The Guar... - 0 views

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    This article talks about a senior figure of ISIS by the name of Tarkhan Batirashvili. It turns out, one of the big figures at the head of ISIS is far from Syrian, as he is a Chechen that served in the US-trained Georgian army.
jherna2a

US Increases Efforts to Intercept Iran Weapons Heading for Yemen - 0 views

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    The United States is sending warships to intercept Iranian ships suspected of carrying weapons to Houthis.
diamond03

Egypt women: Rights on paper, not yet on ground - Yahoo News - 0 views

  • worrying whether those rights will be implemented or will turn out to be merely ink on paper.
  • Men hold an overwhelming near-lock on decision-making in politics, and activists say they are doing little to bring about equality.
  • saying the student was "dressed like a belly dancer." She was wearing black pants, a long-sleeved pink shirt and a head-scarf.
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  • women should wear "appropriate" clothing when they go out.
  • There have been multiple mass sexual assaults on women during protests the past three years.
  • security forces dragged a female protester to the ground, pulled up her top to reveal her blue bra and stomped on her chest.
  • female protesters at the time were forced to undergo humiliating "virginity tests" when detained by the military.
  • Violence is a "very intimidating weapon" against women participating in public life
  • "If there is no democratic climate, how would you benefit from these beautiful laws?" said Abdel-Hameed. "It will be the same as under Mubarak: you have a beautiful law but it's not implemented."
  • The document explicitly enshrines equality between the sexes and women's rights to education, work and high political office.
  • "It's not just more progressive than the 2012 constitution, it's more progressive than the 1971 constitution . from the gender perspective,
  • Women have only been allowed to be judges since 2007
  • guarantees their right to hold high positions in the judiciary
  • 2010 court decision barred women judges from the State Council, a powerful judicial body that regulates disputes between individuals and the state and reviews legislation.
  • January she wrote to the State Council demanding it take on women judges in light of the constitution.
  • The Council replied b
  • two percent of the seats in the last parliament,
  • sought criminal action against the National Council for Women.
  • "the mentality of the decision-makers
  • is the main obstacle to the carrying out the promises of the constitution.
  • low representation of women in government.
  • lowest in the Arab world
  • violated appropriateness and manners"
  • We're tired of the government and officials .
  • creation of a Commission on Discrimination with real judicial power
  • more women judges; a
  • he presence of women in parliament and local council
  • and the nullification of the draconian protest law,
  • gender issues should be mainstreamed across all government bodies.
  • activate a unit specialized in fighting violence against women and "the health sector should take into account reproductive rights.
  • h clinics should provide contraception and treatment for STDs
  • women's issues are never a priority for anyone
  • parts of the constitution may make enforcing the women's rights provisions harder.
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    Women are Egypt have been treated different than men since anyone can remember. The women are taking action and protesting that the constitution be revised to change rights. Seats in parliament is one of the goals they hope to achieve. Equality between sexes is their main goal.
micklethwait

ISIS Barber "Pardon me, chief… has my head rolled... - Oum Cartoon أم كرتون - 3 views

    • micklethwait
       
      Testing to see if Katharina can see this comment.
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    A blog post from Oum Cartoon questioning an Egyptian cartoon on ISIS executions. Briefly questions the importance of the cartoon and its symbolism.
csosa14

Unmasking ratchets up hunt for ISIS executioner Jihadi John | Fox News - 0 views

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    There is a huge hunt for ISIS executioner Jihadi John
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    There is a huge hunt for ISIS executioner Jihadi John
sheldonmer

Egyptians visit Washington to defend their 'revolution' - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the ... - 0 views

  • during an anti-Morsi and anti-Muslim Brotherhood protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo, June 28, 2013. (photo by REUTERSAsmaa Waguih)
  • group of influential Egyptians sought to convince a dozen Americans that the removal of elected president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and his replacement by Field Marshal Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was a plus for Egypt’s political evolution and US interests.
  • Morsi had violated the constitution by claiming dictatorial powers in November 2012 and acquiesced in the brutal beating of demonstrators in front of the presidential palace. Crime rose during Morsi’s tenure and Egyptians were afraid to walk the streets or send their kids to school, she told Al-Monitor.
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  • The Americans, in turn, criticized Egypt for criminalizing the Muslim Brotherhood, killing more than a thousand people and detaining thousands more, including journalists and secular liberals, in the aftermath of Morsi’s ouster.
  • Coptic and other Christian leaders and a representative of the Ministry of Endowments. T
  • told Al-Monitor that the Egyptians conveyed their support for Sisi, who, after ruling as head of a military council that replaced Morsi, was elected president in May with a large percentage of votes, although a smaller turnout than in the previous presidential election.
  • Zaki said the delegation also expressed their view that while “we know we are moving toward a strong state, a strong state needs civil society and political opposition.” The third message, he said, was that Egypt wants US support in the fight against terrorism.
  • Washington has praised Cairo for mediating last summer’s Gaza war between Israel and Hamas and expressed sympathy for those fighting Islamic extremists, such as the Egyptian soldiers killed in the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 24.
  • l some restrictions on US aid to Egypt and many analysts in Washington assert that Egypt cannot return to stability while repressing major components of its society. They also criticize an impending edict for civil society groups to register with the government, which has led many respected foreign-funded nonprofit organizations
  • encouraged the Egyptians to embrace political and religious pluralism. “The Egyptians should understand that no government can deliver peace, prosperity and law and order that does not involve all sections of society,” he said.
  • Another plea was for Americans to stop acting as though they knew better what was in the interests of a country with a recorded history going back 7,000 years.
  • “Don’t deal with us like a teacher with a pupil,” said Nashwa el-Houfi, a columnist for the daily newspaper Al Watan. “No one has the whole truth. You have part and I have part.”
    • sheldonmer
       
      This article talks about how some Americans feel like Egypt did itself a disservice by getting rid of Morsi's rule. This article describes the conversation had by some members of the Egyptian delegation that were invited to Washington by Hands Along the Nile Development Services. This articles goes on to talk about different issues regarding U.S., Egyptian relations and basically was the U.S. condones and what it doesn't, as if it mattered.
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    The article mentions the views of Americans and the views of Egyptians regarding the state of Egypt with concerns surrounding the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptians were able to carry a message to Americans. Egyptians voiced their want for U.S assistance with terrorism. 
jreyesc

This Is How ISIS Smuggles Oil - 0 views

  • Turkish-Syrian border
  • The militants can make more than $1 million a day selling oil from fields captured in eastern Syria.
  • In recent months, the government has vowed to crack down on illicit oil, and police have targeted smuggling routes, seizing oil drums and digging up pipelines.
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  • helped make ISIS the world’s richest extremists.
  • Rebel groups targeted oil resources from the regime in battles often overshadowed by higher-profile fronts in the war — namely in the provinces of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, where there were refineries and oil fields.
  • Strapped for cash, the rebels smuggled some of the oil to buyers in Turkey, whose government was one of the Syrian opposition’s main backers, having already opened its borders to activists, fighters, and refugees.
  • Omar would receive a call from a commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the U.S.-backed rebel coalition, telling him to head to the Syrian side of the border.
  • If he took in $1,500 in a night, he would give $500 to the FSA commander and another $500 to the Turkish border guards. “You can’t really say that we are smuggling oil, because we take permission from the Turkish side and the Syrian side,” Omar said. “But since it’s under the table, we call it smuggling.”
  • it controlled Raqqa, and soon after it was battling for control of the rebel-held parts of Deir Ezzor.
  • As ISIS gained new oil fields, Omar kept smuggling. He may have worked along an FSA-run border, but he knew he was buying the oil from middlemen who had taken it from ISIS’s hands.
  • For ISIS, the profits were startup funds as it built up its self-styled caliphate, buying weapons and paying salaries.
  • U.S. airstrikes now targeting its oil infrastructure, ISIS can make over $1 million a day from the trade
  • ISIS controls 60% of the oil-producing resources in eastern Syria, he said, plus a handful of marginal oil fields in Iraq.
  • The group sells most of it within its own territory in Iraq and in Syria — which covers more than 12,000 miles, a size comparable to Belgium, and includes some 8 million people, a population approaching Switzerland’s. Desperate residents need the fuel to run their cars, generators, and bakeries.
  • It was the worst example of a wartime pillage that has stripped Syria of everything of value, from scrap metal to precious artifacts. “I just want to show the world what they are doing to my country,” he said.
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    ISIS has become very rich extremist group because of the oil smuggling business they are involved in.
nicolet1189

No LOL Matter: FBI Trolls Social Media for Would-Be Jihadis - NBC News.com - 1 views

  • conversation via Skype, a “trusted brother” who was actually an undercover FBI employee, “told Basit that he could help get him inside Al-Nusra. …
  • updating techniques it has used since the early days of the Internet to engage the enemy on services such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
  • arrested and charged the next day with supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
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  • Sheikh’s case and several other recent terrorism prosecutions shed light on the growing importance of social media in the battles unfolding in Syria and Iraq -- both as a recruiting tool for Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front, and as a means for the FBI to pre-emptively nab the would-be jihadis.
  • raises questions about the FBI’s conduct in attempting to head off terrorist recruits and whether they incited them to actions they wouldn’t have otherwise taken.
  • using fake social media identities to engage them
  • catfishing” by luring him into a personal relationship with a phony online persona.
  • During the investigation, the FBI published a webpage that purported to recruit individuals to travel to Syria and join Jabhat al-Nusra (
  • posed as a Syrian nurse and "used a Facebook page which promoted the ideology of Islamic extremism" to contact the suspect,
  • been able to expand their reach far beyond the traditional jihadi recruitment pool to a much wider audience -- including English-speaking Western nationals."
  • FBI at times goes too far to reel in American Muslims, most of them young, who are sympathetic to the Islamic extremist cause.
  • her client is “a lonely, mentally ill young man with a tremendous desire to be liked,” which made him susceptible to a paid FBI informant’s online encouragement.
  • Suspects began posting on Facebook or other social media expressing support for or seeking contact with one of the Islamic groups fighting in Iraq and Syria and were then engaged by informants or undercover FBI agents.
  • social media counterterrorism operations,
  • 'Don't go there in any way, don't go there in thought or expression, don't even toy with the idea of becoming foreign fighters.'"
  • eventually agreed to join Al-Nusra, purchased a plane ticket to Beirut and prepared for his journey to jihad
  • informant, however, suggested that Sheikh instead join the Al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate t
  • provided Sheikh with contact information for a supposed Al-Nusra agent.
  • could help get him inside
  • face up to 15 years in prison and fines of $250,000 if they are convicted
  • sending a message to potential terrorist recruits is indeed important.
  • defense attorneys in all four cases may argue that the FBI actions amounted to entrapment -- the act of tricking someone into committing a crime so that they can be arrested
  • making examples of individuals
  • sought to make contact with al Qaeda officials on Facebook and other social media, but instead drew the attention of an undercover FBI agent who presented himself as a recruiter for the terrorist group.
  • "ISIS recruits are more likely to reach out in the online universe seeking advice on how to reach the land of jihad than to consult the guidance of a traditional cleric or local community leader
  • that universe and creating honeypots to draw in and capture potential ISIS recruits, they can help sow doubts in the minds of would-be jihadists in the overall reliability of the Internet as a medium for recruit
  • Justice Department plans to review federal law enforcement practices on creating fake Facebook pages in light of an incident,
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    This article discusses the strategies of the FBI in trying to arrest potential jihad recruits. The article discusses several cases of individuals arrested for attempting to join ISIS and the implications involving each case.
agomez117

Egypt's powerful street art packs a punch - 2 views

  • best examples
  • street art movement that has flourished since the protests against Mubarak began.
  • artists were forged in the fire
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  • 8-day demonstrations against Mubarak in early 2011
  • mural
  • talk about the walls of Egypt being under an ‘art attack’.”
  • mural of a large tank aiming its cannon at a boy on a bicycle
  • painting slogans and murals
  • struggle for freedom.
  • panda bear
  • ongoing mayhem
  • pacifist rebuke to the violence
  • engulfed Egypt since 2011.
  • integrated part
  • esponse to events
  • . I must make people remember this culture, this history – because we can lose it. And we can’t know our future if we forget our past.”
    • mariebenavides
       
      This is a crucial line to this article and to the artists main objective. By saying this, Awad is stating that he thinks the people of Egypt have begun to forget who they are in light of revolution and in change and wants to help them recall who they are.
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    This article from BBC showcases how Egyptian street art is a new voice among Egyptian protestors. In response to events, artists have filled the walls with murals and slogans in response to events such as the Maspero Massacre in 2011. Some of the reoccurring images are of a tank aiming its cannon at a boy on a bicycle carrying bread on his head as well as a melancholy panda. Other artists have integrated some of Egypt's history in their murals showcasing Egyptian pride amongst the rebellion.
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    More than two years after protesters toppled Hosni Mubarak, Cairo is still ablaze with fiery visual reminders of Egypt's revolution. On the edge of Tahrir Square - the nerve centre of dissent - the burned-out tower block that once housed the headquarters of Mubarak's National Democratic Party stands blackened and empty.
malbasr

Interpol investigates the use of cruise ships by jihadist fighters - NBC News - 0 views

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    Outgoing head of Interpol, Ronald Noble suggests that jihadist fighters are traveling to Syria and Iraq on cruise ships.Â
wmulnea

BBC News - Falling oil prices: Who are the winners and losers? - 0 views

  • The reasons for this change are twofold - weak demand in many countries due to insipid economic growth, coupled with surging US production. Added to this is the fact that the oil cartel Opec is determined not to cut production as a way to prop up prices.
  • Russia loses about $2bn in revenues for every dollar fall in the oil price,
  • Russia has confirmed it will not cut production to shore up oil prices.
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  • Venezuela is one of the world's largest oil exporters, but thanks to economic mismanagement it was already finding it difficult to pay its way even before the oil price started falling.
  • Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and Opec's most influential member, could support global oil prices by cutting back its own production, but there is little sign it wants to do this.
  • There could be two reasons - to try to instil some discipline among fellow Opec oil producers, and perhaps to put the US's burgeoning shale oil and gas industry under pressure.
  • Saudi Arabia needs oil prices to be around $85 in the longer term, it has deep pockets with a reserve fund of some $700bn - so can withstand lower prices for some time.
  • were to force some higher cost producers
  • In the 1980s the country did cut production significantly in a bid to boost prices, but it had little effect and it also badly affected the Saudi economy.
  • Saudi Arabia, Gulf producers such as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have also amassed considerable foreign currency reserves, which means that they could run deficits for several years if necessary.
  • Islamic State, capturing oil wells. It is estimated it is making about $3m a day through black market sales - and undercutting market prices by selling at a significant discount - around $30-60 a barrel.
  • "The growth of oil production in North America, particularly in the US, has been staggering," says Columbia University's Jason Bordoff.
  • It has been this growth in US energy production, where gas and oil is extracted from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing or fracking, that has been one of the main drivers of lower oil prices.
  • "Shale has essentially severed the linkage between geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, and oil price and equities," says Seth Kleinman, head of energy strategy at Citi.
  • With Europe's flagging economies characterised by low inflation and weak growth, any benefits of lower prices would be welcomed by beleaguered governments. A 10% fall in oil prices should lead to a 0.1% increase in economic output, say some. In general consumers benefit through lower energy prices, but eventually low oil prices do erode the conditions that brought them about.
cramos8

Documents purport to show ISIS leader's high school grades - 0 views

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    The head of ISIS wasn't the best English student, according to documents posted Wednesday by the German broadcaster ARD. He was better at math and geography. One of the documents appears to be a high school report card for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim.
jordanbrown16

Profile for Iran | NTI - 0 views

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    "The Nuclear Threat Initiative works to strengthen global security by reducing global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons." Here, the NTI gives a brief overview of Iran's advanced nuclear program and the direction it is headed.
diamond03

BBC News - Egypt: Deadly risks, but female genital mutilation persists - 0 views

  • youngster was frighten
  • female genital mutilation (FGM). She did not survive it
  • small farming communit
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  • r lived and died
  • bedrock of faith and tradition
  • Both play a role in perpetuating FGM
  • It has been outlawed since 2008
  • religious duty
  • highest prevalence rates in the world.
  • Over 90%
  • under 50 have experienced it, according to government figures.
  • removal of all or part of the external genitalia
  • promoting chastity.
  • still widely practised in Egyp
  • girls aged between nine and 13
  • young as six,
  • unconfirmed reports of newborns being subjected to it.
  • "It is God's will
  • asked if it was right to subject Suhair to FGM
  • "Yes of course,
  • People here are used to i
  • circumcision, girls are full of lust
  • Hidden death toll
  • "We were four sisters, and we were circumcised in one day
  • Afterwards they gave us food and drinks."
  • Gypsies used to carry out the circumcisions, she told us, placing dust and salt on the wounds
  • 70% of FGM procedures in Egypt.
  • "It's perceived as being safer, but no-one learns how to do this at medical school. We should definitely assume more girls are dying as Suhair did,
  • his is a form of violence against children”
  • private clinic in his home.
  • dozen procedures carried out there every day.
  • enied performing FGM on Suhair and said he had only treated her for genital warts.
  • Dr Halawa on trial, together with Suhair's father, who brought her to his clinic
  • FGM is hard to quash
  • "The case has started a debate among the liberal-minded," said Mohamed Ismail, who works for a local women's rights organisation.
  • A thousand or so girls were circumcised after she died."
  • plans to have the curly-haired infant circumcised, by a doctor, when she reaches her teens
  • "In the past there was ignorance,
  • brought barbers to their homes to circumcise girls.
  • we are more modern
  • Campaigners warn that it will take more than one prosecution to spare other girls. More on This Story
  • they just turn up at the doctor's office with their daughters.
  • This is a form of violence against children,"
  • "It's an irreversible act. There are mental and physical scars that stay with the girl for a lifetime."
  • only one opponent of FGM in Suhair's village
  • "It's a very bad thing for girls," said Amira. "There's no need for it. It's wrong because it's dangerous."
  • he problem is the mentality of the farmers."
  • still easy to arrange.
  • Egypt: Deadly risks, but female genital mutilation persists
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    The article mentions an ogling trial about FGM. A young girl Suhair died during the procedure. Outlawed in 2008, FGM continues to happen.
wmulnea

Three Years After Gadhafi's Death, Libya Slides Into Civil War As Death Toll Rises In B... - 0 views

  • sliding further and further into all-out civil war, with pro-government forces battling Islamist militias for power in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution that ousted Gadhafi started in 2011. 
  • renegade army general Khalifa Hifter, the man who has assembled a militia of former Libyan soldiers and is leading them on a campaign to oust Islamists from the country.
  • He is now at the head of a militia that supports moderate values against radical Islam in a campaign called "Operation Dignity." 
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  • The new Libyan House of Representatives, which was elected in June, has formally announced its alliance with Hifter on Monday
  • But other Arab nations are intervening directly in the conflict.
  • Hifter would now lead Libyan army soldiers as well in the fight against the Islamist militias.
  • Operation Dawn, seized Tripoli in August, parliament and the rest of the government have all decamped to faraway Tobruk, in the eastern end of the country close to Egypt.  
  • Egyptian officials told the Associated Press that Egyptian warplanes, operated by Libyan pilots, were bombing Islamist militias in Libya. Both Libyan and Egyptian officials later denied those reports, and aviation experts said it was highly unlikely that Libyan pilots would have the skills needed.   On Monday, the presidents of Egypt and Sudan said they would support the Libyan military.  
  • Prime Minister Abdullah al Thinni is planning to visit Moscow to seek Russian support for the army.  
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