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Bible Quotation For Today/No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15/09-16: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name."

Bible Quotation For Today/A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes
First Letter to the Corinthians 07/36-40: "If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly towards his fiance’e, if his passions are strong, and so it has to be, let him marry as he wishes; it is no sin. Let them marry. But if someone stands firm in his resolve, being under no necessity but having his own desire under control, and has determined in his own mind to keep her as his fiance’e, he will do well. So then, he who marries his fiance’e does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better. A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my judgement she is more blessed if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God."

LCCC Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 23-24/15
ISIS infiltrates Egyptian special forces, joins with Hamas to occupy N. Sinai, liquidate Sisi/DEBKAfile/July 23/15
Tackling Islamism, Post-Chattanooga/Tarek Fatah/The Toronto Sun/July 23/15
A Syria breakthrough? Don’t hold your breath/Joyce Karam/Al Arabia/July 23/15
Will Iran pull off its nuke deal?/Mohammed Fahad al-Harthi/Al Arabiya/July 23/15
A battle that could define the Yemen war/Manuel Almeida/Al Arabiya/July 23/15
How does one explain the extreme violence of ISIS? Very simply!/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/July 23/15

LCCC Bulletin titles for the Lebanese Related News published on July 23-24/15
'Unprecedented destruction' as battle near Syria-Lebanon border intensifies
Beirut's mounting trash reflects crisis of government
Aoun Calls for Curbing Salam's 'Behavior', Says Army Command behind 'Attack' on Protesters
Salam 'Disgusted' and 'Concerned' over Cabinet Crisis
Report: Drop in Number of Militants in Border Area over Siege
Cabinet Meets but Fails to Reach Decision on Mechanism, Trash Crisis
Report: Woman Arrested in Iqlim al-Kharroub for Terror Recruiting
LF Tells Aoun that Riyadh Backs 'Rapprochement' with FP
Bassil Says No Cabinet Resolutions without Consensus, Lauds PM's 'Responsible Remarks'
FPM Warns Salam on Cabinet's Decision-Making Mechanism
Asbat al-Ansar Member Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Shooting

LCCC Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 23-24/15
Turkey Retaliates after Soldier Killed by Gunfire from IS-held Syria Area
EU's Mogherini to Visit Iran, Saudi Arabia Next Week
Rockets Strike Key Yemen Airport a Day after Reopening
Four Egypt Soldiers Killed in Sinai Bombing
Austria President to Visit Iran
Kerry Stands Up for Iran Nuclear Deal on Capitol Hill
Saudi defense minister orders aid delivery to Yemen
GCC slams Iraq’s Maliki making anti-Saudi remarks
US Congress to begin hearings on Iran nuclear agreement
Obama and Erdogan agree to stop 'foreign fighters' crossing into Syria
After German minister's Iran visit heavily criticized, EU's Mogherini heads to Tehran
Amnesty: Iran falsifying execution numbers, more than 1,000 expected killed by year's end
EU rejects report: No plans to boycott Israeli banks
US Republicans, pro-Israel groups step up campaign against Iran deal

'Unprecedented destruction' as battle near Syria-Lebanon border intensifies
Reuters/Ynetnews/Published: 07.23.15/ Israel News
Widespread death reported as Assad regime and Hezbollah bombard city of Zabadani, including reported use of many barrel bombs; Assad forces claim to destroy 70-meter smuggling tunnel. The United Nations envoy for Syria said government air strikes had caused widespread death and destruction in the city of Zabadani, the focus of an offensive by the army and its Hezbollah allies to retake the area from insurgents. Staffan de Mistura, citing local sources, said the Syrian military had dropped a large number of barrel bombs on Zabadani "causing unprecedented levels of destruction and many deaths among the civilian population". Control of the city, about 45 km (30 miles) northwest of the capital Damascus and about 10 km from the border with Lebanon, is seen as crucial to consolidating President Bashar Assad's control over the border zone between Lebanon and Syria. Fierce clashes continued overnight in the Zabadani area, with heavy aerial bombardments in and around the city and reports of casualties on both sides, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Wednesday. It gave no detailed figures. Syrian state television said the army had destroyed a 70 meter-long (77 yards) tunnel used by the insurgents to transport equipment into Zabadani. The Syrian air force has been bombarding areas in and around the city and Sunni insurgents have retaliated by firing rockets and mortar bombs on two villages near Idlib city in the north, the UN envoy de Mistura said. An alliance of insurgents known as the "Army of Fatah" (Islamic Conquest) had targeted Al Foua and Kefraya, northern villages where a large number of civilians are trapped, he said. "In both cases, civilians are tragically caught in the middle of the fighting," he said. Al Foua and Kefraya are home to Shi'ite populations. Earlier this week the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah advanced deeper into Zabadani, two weeks into a campaign to capture it from insurgents, rebels and the army said. Rebels say although the army had now encircled the insurgents holed up within a five square km radius inside the city center and cut arms and food supplies from nearby towns, they had so far prevented the army and Hezbollah fighters from storming their defense lines in street fighting. "They have advanced a bit but they have not entered inside the center of city as they had expected they would in just a few days," Abu Ado of the Islamist insurgent group Ahrar al Sham said by phone. Taking Zabadani from the insurgents would be a strategic gain for the Syrian army which is battling on several other fronts with a range of different insurgent groups. Hezbollah's military role inside Syria has been growing steadily since the start of the conflict in 2011. The Syrian government has described the group as its main ally in the fight against the insurgents battling to topple Assad.

Beirut's mounting trash reflects crisis of government
REUTERS/07/23/2015 /The stench of uncollected refuse in the streets of Beirut is a stark reminder of the crisis of government afflicting Lebanon, where politicians divided by local and regional conflicts have been unable to agree on where to dump the capital's rubbish.
Mounting piles of garbage festering in the summer heat are triggering health warnings and protests by residents furious their government failed to avoid a crisis ignited by the long-scheduled closure of a major landfill site last week. For lack of state planning, the tip at Naameh south of Beirut had already been kept open well beyond its planned closure date. The date set for its final closure - July 17 - was known, but the authorities had no ready alternative when the day came. "We got to this point - this crisis - because of the political struggle in Lebanon," said Mohamad Al Machnouk, the minister of environment. He blamed procrastination among politicians for the refuse now piling up in the streets. A plan to dump rubbish from Beirut - where more than half the population live - at locations around Lebanon is meeting resistance from the regions. The front page of the French language newspaper L'Orient Le Jour on Thursday declared Lebanon the "Trash can Republic".
The crisis echoes wider problems facing Lebanon.
The weak state has long been criticized for failing to develop the country and its infrastructure: Beirut still suffers daily power cuts some 25 years since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. But government has been particularly poor since the eruption of the war in neighboring Syria. That conflict has exacerbated Lebanon's political divisions, often along sectarian lines that reflect the Syrian conflict. The presidency has been vacant for more than a year, and parliament elected in 2009 has extended its own term and postponed elections until 2017 on the grounds of instability.A government of national unity has maintained a semblance of central authority and helped to contain sectarian tensions.
But it is limping along at best.
PASSING TIME
Many observers believe only a deal brokered by regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, which both wield influence over rival Lebanese factions, can set government back on course. "This government views its role as passing time rather than governing: representing Lebanese legitimacy to get by with a minimal degree of stability, until the regional settlement comes," said Nicola Nassif, a columnist in al-Akhbar newspaper. In the meantime, the costs for Lebanon are high. The political stalemate has obstructed plans to exploit potential offshore gas reserves, for example. "They cancelled our elections, they extended parliament, they stole our votes, and now they want us to live in rubbish," said Marwan Maalouf, a 31-year-old lawyer, during a protest outside the government headquarters in Beirut on Tuesday. The contract of the company that until this week was collecting the refuse expired with the closure of Naameh. "Unfortunately, the streets are filled up with garbage but we can't find an alternative now. The plan should come from the state, and we will then act upon it," said Pascale Nassar, communications manager for the company, Sukleen.

Aoun Calls for Curbing Salam's 'Behavior', Says Army Command behind 'Attack' on Protesters
Naharnet/24 July/15 /Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday called for “reining in” Prime Minister Tammam Salam while accusing the Army Command of being behind the scuffles that erupted with the FPM protesters on July 9. “The premier's behavior must be brought under control,” said Aoun in an interview on LBCI TV, accusing Salam of infringing on the Christian president's powers in the absence of a head of state. “A minister is abusing his jurisdiction, because the decision belongs to the entire cabinet,” Aoun added, referring to Defense Minister Samir Moqbel. “We will continue the battle over the (security) appointments in order to put an end to the legal flaws in governance,” Aoun underlined. The issue of the appointments of senior security and military officials is a key point of contention that has led to a thorny debate over the cabinet's decision-making mechanism in the event of a presidential vacuum. Aoun has been lobbying for the appointment of Commando Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, his son-in-law, as army chief.“The army commander cannot demand the extension of his own term,” Aoun told LBCI, accusing Army chief General Jean Qahwaji of making such a request.
“Christian rights are not limited to the appointments. There is the Christian representation in parliament, and the Taef Accord and the Constitution stipulate equal power-sharing in the parliament. The electoral law must preserve the foundations of coexistence,” Aoun noted.
He stressed that the 24 ministers should take decisions “collectively” in the cabinet. “The entire cabinet must assume the president's powers, not two thirds of the members,” he said. “I'm not seeking to eliminate Qahwaji, the others and Qahwaji are seeking to eliminate me,” said Aoun when asked whether he is opposing an extension of Qahwaji's term with the aim of blocking the latter's possible election as president. “Let us do a referendum and ask people about their favorite candidate for the army chief post or let the cabinet choose after reviewing the CVs of the top 3 candidates,” Aoun suggested.
He noted that “there is something fishy in the insistence on extending the army commander's term, as no one would violate the law without awaiting certain benefits.”Turning to the stalled presidential elections, Aoun noted that the so-called top four Christian leaders had agreed with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that the president “should represent Christians.”“We do not want a president who is not representative,” he added. “I'm not in a battle against anyone and as long as I'm present, I'm a presidential candidate,” said Aoun.
Separately, Aoun accused army troops of starting the confrontations with the FPM protesters on July 9 near the Grand Serail, putting the blame squarely on “the Army Command.” “Our youths were surprised that army troops blocked their way and I will soon disclose the names of the army personnel who attacked us,” he explained. “Who are the army troops whom the Command said were wounded?” Aoun asked, referring to a communique in which the Army Command announced that seven soldiers were injured in the scuffles.
Addressing the regional situations, Aoun noted that “there are indications that a solution is being prepared for the region and it would involve ending the presence of Daesh (Islamic State group) and (Qaida's Syria franchise) al-Nusra Front.”
“It seems that an international decision has been taken to liquidate them, the same as there was a decision to create them to perform certain missions,” said Aoun.

Salam 'Disgusted' and 'Concerned' over Cabinet Crisis
Naharnet/23 July/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed “disgust” and “concern” over the failure to bridge the gap between the bickering sides in the government. Local dailies quoted officials who have visited Salam as saying that the premier is “disgusted” from the situation after extensive consultations between the different parties failed to bring viewpoints closer. He is also “concerned” because the meetings he has held have not yielded any formula that would help the government function in a productive way, they said.
The cabinet crisis grew earlier this month when Free Patriotic Movement Minister Jebran Bassil bickered with Salam during a session after accusing him of infringing on the Christian president's powers in the absence of a head of state. The dispute was accompanied by a protest held near the Grand Serail by FPM supporters. Sources close to Salam did not rule out a resignation by the PM to object the “paralysis” caused by the FPM. However, they told several dailies published on Thursday that Salam would pave the way for discussion on the cabinet's decision-making mechanism which the FPM has conditioned to be at the top of the agenda.
If discussions continue in vain, then he would hold the parties paralyzing the cabinet responsible for the deadlock, said the sources.
Salam will not give up his authorities as prime minister and rejects paralysis, they stressed. “He is ready to accept any mechanism on condition that it does not obstruct the decisions taken by the government.”“From now on, he won't accept the paralysis of the cabinet even if it costs him his resignation,” the sources said.They added that “the situation is getting from bad to worse.”

Report: Drop in Number of Militants in Border Area over Siege
Naharnet/23 July/15/The number of al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and Islamic State group militants has dropped after the terrorists were besieged by the Lebanese army in the eastern Bekaa Valley and by Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters on the other side of the border, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday. Al-Nusra gunmen are located in the area of al-Kassarat in Wadi Hmeid on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, which is a zone blockaded by the Lebanese army from the west and the Syrian military and Hizbullah in the east. As for IS militants, their presence is concentrated on the outskirts of al-Qaa in Ras Baalbek and parts of Arsal's outskirts. But the terrorists have found escape routes to either head to Turkey and Iraq or enter Lebanon by using fake IDs to escape the siege, the newspaper quoted sources as saying. The total number of militants now present on the porous Lebanese-Syrian border is 700 after they were in the thousands, they said. They also said that al-Nusra Front and the IS are still keep Lebanese servicemen hostage to prevent a further deterioration in their strength in the border region. Al-Nusra is holding 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen while the IS has in its custody six servicemen. The troops and police were taken hostage when the two terrorist groups overran Arsal in August last year and engaged in heavy clashes with the army. They have so far executed four of them. While negotiations with al-Nusra Front to release the captives have made progress, the talks with the IS have reached a dead-end over the group's crippling demands. “The leaders of the two organizations are fully aware” that if they release the hostages, then “this would mean the end of their presence in the (border) region,” said the sources. “That's why they are resorting to the procrastination policy in the negotiations” aimed at setting the hostages free, the sources added.

Cabinet Meets but Fails to Reach Decision on Mechanism, Trash Crisis
Naharnet/23 July/15/The government failed on Thursday to reach a decision on its working mechanism and the waste crisis but agreed to continue discussions next week. The session was held at the Grand Serail amid a “disgust” expressed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam over the failure to bridge the gap between the bickering sides in the government. The government did not discuss details on how to dispose of waste because Salam had clinched a deal with Free Patriotic Movement ministers not to tackle any issue before resolving the dispute on the cabinet's decision-making mechanism. He had also hinted that he would resign over his concern that the cabinet crisis would not be resolved. Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said he asked Salam whether he would resign if no agreement was reached between the ministers. “All options are on the table,” Rifi quoted the PM as saying. The cabinet will meet on Tuesday to continue its dicussions, said Information Minister Ramzi Jreij. After the session, Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq reiterated that he was seeking to find landfills in several regions to allow Sukleen to transport the uncollected waste in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The garbage crisis erupted after the Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed over the weekend under a decision taken by the government months ago. Al-Mashnouq thanked some municipal chiefs for cooperating with him and allowing waste to be dumped in locations in their regions. As waste continued to pile up on the streets, the Beirut Fire Department said it had doused more than 140 fires set on dumpsters across Beirut since Monday.It urged citizens not to burn waste.

Report: Woman Arrested in Iqlim al-Kharroub for Terror Recruiting
Naharnet/23 July/15/A woman has been arrested in the Chouf area of Iqlim al-Kharroub for recruiting young men to terrorist organizations, a media report said on Thursday.“Army intelligence agents apprehended Maysam N. after raiding her residence in the Daoud al-Ali area in Iqlim al-Kharroub,” MTV said. She was held on charges of “recruiting young men to join terrorist organizations,” it added.The woman is the sister of the detainee M. N. who was arrested in the morning, MTV said.

LF Tells Aoun that Riyadh Backs 'Rapprochement' with FPM
Naharnet/23 July/15/Lebanese Forces official Melhem Riachi informed Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday that Saudi Arabia encourages the rapprochement between the two parties. Riachi, who is LF chief Samir Geagea's envoy, delivered a message to Aoun during a visit he made to Rabieh that Riyadh “backs and encourages Christian rapprochement,” local media reported. The LF official met with Aoun in the presence of Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan. The meeting was intended to brief the Change and Reform leader on the results of Geagea's meetings in Saudi Arabia. Geagea was in the Saudi capital earlier this week where he met with top Saudi officials and al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri. Last month, Aoun and Geagea announced a declaration of intent, calling for “the election of a strong president who is embraced by his community and capable of reassuring the other components of the country.”The presidential candidates agreed to strengthen state institutions, not to resort to arms or violence and to support the army. They also stressed commitment to dialogue and underlined “their faith in Lebanon, the coexistence formula and the Constitution.”

Bassil Says No Cabinet Resolutions without Consensus, Lauds PM's 'Responsible Remarks'
Naharnet/23 July/15/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday lauded remarks by Prime Minister Tammam Salam on “turning the page” on the stormy July 9 cabinet session, as he stressed that no resolutions would be passed in cabinet without “consensus” among all its components. “We appreciate his stance, especially that there is an intention to open a new chapter,” said Bassil at a press conference, describing Salam's statement as “responsible.”“But we underline that the new chapter is not at the personal level with PM Salam, as the cabinet's functioning must be based on consensus,” Bassil added. “We apologize to all Lebanese over the government's performance,” the FM went on to say, echoing earlier remarks by Salam. The cabinet crisis grew earlier this month when a dispute erupted between Salam and Bassil, who is a Free Patriotic Movement official, over the cabinet's decision-making mechanism. The tension between Salam and Bassil was accompanied by a protest by FPM supporters near the Grand Serail where the session was underway. The FPM, which is led by MP Michel Aoun, accuses the premier of infringing on the Christian president's powers in the absence of a head of state. “We represent the president, although partially. That's why we're entrusted with the president's powers in their absence,” Bassil added. “If we couldn't agree on the appointment of a security official, a minister should not commit legal violations” by extending the terms of the incumbent officials, Bassil said, referring to Defense Minister Samir Moqbel. “I hope we will implement the law and the Constitution, especially in the issue of appointments,” the FM stated. Earlier on Thursday, the government failed to reach a decision on its working mechanism and the waste crisis but agreed to continue discussions next week. The session was held at the Grand Serail amid a “disgust” expressed by Salam over the failure to bridge the gap between the bickering sides in the government. The government did not discuss details on how to dispose of waste because Salam had clinched a deal with Free Patriotic Movement ministers not to tackle any issue before resolving the dispute on the cabinet's decision-making mechanism.

FPM Warns Salam on Cabinet's Decision-Making Mechanism
Naharnet/23 July/15/The Free Patriotic Movement has snapped back at Prime Minister Tammam Salam over his criticism that the party is paralyzing the cabinet, warning him not to hold it accountable. “Our role in today's cabinet session lies in questioning and holding accountable and not being held accountable over paralysis,” Education Minister Elias Bou Saab told al-Joumhouria daily published Thursday. Bou Saab said the FPM ministers will not allow other cabinet members to “jump over” the government's decision-making mechanism by stirring other issues. The FPM clinched a deal during the last session for the cabinet to discuss its working mechanism that was agreed upon after the Baabda Palace was left vacant. The cabinet crisis grew earlier this month when FPM Minister Jebran Bassil argued with Salam after accusing him of infringing on the Christian president's powers in the absence of a head of state. As the dispute took place, FPM supporters protested near the Grand Serail. Bou Saab's comments to al-Joumhouria came as officials close to Salam said that the PM has expressed “disgust” and “concern” over the failure to bridge the gap between the bickering sides in the government. However, they told several dailies published on Thursday that the PM would pave the way for discussion on the cabinet's decision-making mechanism. But Salam will not give up his authorities as prime minister and rejects paralysis, the sources stressed. Like Bou Saab, an FPM official, who was not identified, stressed in remarks to As Safir newspaper that Salam had agreed with the party for the cabinet's mechanism to be at the top of Thursday's agenda. “Any violation of this agreement will have repercussions,” including possible street protests, the official said. “The FPM's supporters are mobilized and ready to move again particularly if they were provoked,” he warned. He stressed that the FPM would be granted more legitimacy to take to the streets if Salam backed off from the agreement, which was reached in the presence of Minister Mohammed Fneish.

Asbat al-Ansar Member Injured in Ain el-Hilweh Shooting
Naharnet/23 July/15/A Palestinian member of the extremist group Asbat al-Ansar was injured on Thursday in a shooting in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the state-run National News Agency reported. NNA said Mohammed Barakat shot Khaled Alaeddine known as Khaled al-Khomeini in the camp's al-Taware neighborhood in the back. Alaeddine was taken to a hospital in Ain el-Hilweh. According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), the man received four shots in the back. It also said that Barakat is a supporter of wanted Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir.

Turkey Retaliates after Soldier Killed by Gunfire from IS-held Syria Area
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/The Turkish military on Thursday pounded positions held by Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria after a Turkish soldier was killed by fire from an area controlled by the jihadists. The clashes -- the most serious yet between the Turkish army and IS -- came after the killing of 32 people in a suicide bombing Monday, blamed on IS, sparked an upsurge in violence. A day after the fatal shooting of two police claimed by Kurdish militants as "revenge" for the suicide bombing in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border, a policeman was shot dead in the majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. The soldier was killed from fire from an area controlled by IS in Syria in the Turkish border region of Kilis, the state Anatolia news agency said. The Dogan news agency said four soldiers had been wounded. Turkish tanks from the fifth armored brigade then responded by opening fire on targets controlled by IS jihadists in Syria, NTV television said, adding that one IS militant had also been killed. Thirty-two people -- mainly young activists, one as young as 18, preparing for an aid mission to Syria -- were killed on Monday in a devastating suicide bombing in Suruc. That attack marked the first time the government had explicitly blamed IS for a strike in the country. It also inflamed tensions with Turkey's Kurdish minority, which is unhappy over the lack of support provided by the government to Kurdish militias fighting IS inside Syria. Turkey has been accused of colluding in the past with IS extremists in the hope they might prove useful in its aim of knocking out Syrian President Bashar Assad. Ankara has always vehemently denied the claims.
Another policeman killed
The military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed the killing of the two police in the border town of Ceylanpinar, accusing the two slain officers of collaborating with IS extremists.Aged 24 and 25, they were given a funeral ceremony with full honors outside police headquarters in the regional center of Sanliurfa, their coffins draped in the Turkish flag. "The martyrs never die, the people will never be divided," dozens of police chanted, using a well known patriotic slogan. The state Anatolia news agency said the three suspects had been arrested in early morning raids and were being questioned, without giving further details. In the latest violence one Turkish policeman was shot dead and another badly wounded in an attack Thursday by armed men during a routine traffic check in Turkey's majority Kurdish-city of Diyarbakir, hospital sources said. Meanwhile the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), seen as a youth wing of the PKK, claimed it had shot dead an alleged former IS fighter in Istanbul late Tuesday. Turkish officials have confirmed a 20-year-old Turkish man linked to IS carried out the suicide bombing in Suruc. Media reports named the bomber as university student Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz from Adiyaman in southeastern Turkey.
'Measures to secure border' The unrest has intensified fears that the battle raging between Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurds inside Syria is now spilling over onto Turkish territory. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said after a cabinet meeting late Tuesday that the government had discussed an "integrated system" to secure the frontier with Syria. Turkish media reported Wednesday that the measures were set to include sending zeppelins into the air several hundred meters high to monitor the border and building a concrete border wall. Turkey also plans to put in place two fences separated by a military patrol road at the border, complete with observation towers at some locations, the Hurriyet daily said. A moat will also be dug at some points. Turkey has long been accused by its Western partners of failing to properly control the 911-kilometer (566-mile) frontier and even of colluding with IS, allegations it fiercely denies. In places, the border has been marked only with a crude wire-mesh fence ridden with holes that has provided easy passage to militants and smugglers. Turkey has so far stopped short of playing a full role in the U.S.-led coalition assisting Kurds fighting IS militants who have taken swathes of Iraq and Syria. However the Hurriyet daily reported on Thursday that Ankara had finally given the green light to U.S. forces for use of the Incirlik air base in the campaign against IS in Syria. It said that the accord was finalized in telephone talks Wednesday between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. The unrest comes at a critical time for Turkey following elections in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Erdogan lost its overall majority in parliament for the first time since coming to power in 2002.

EU's Mogherini to Visit Iran, Saudi Arabia Next Week
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will visit Iran and Saudi Arabia next week following the agreement she helped broker with Tehran on its contested nuclear program, her office said Thursday. The talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday will cover "regional issues, in the aftermath of the agreement reached on 14 July on the Iranian nuclear issue, as well as international issues of common interest," a statement said. In Iran, Mogherini's visit Tuesday "will provide an opportunity for exchanges on the implementation of the agreement, on which the High Representative will continue to play a coordinating role, and on regional and bilateral issues," the statement added. The EU played a leading role in talks between Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, Germany and Iran, holding the ring during years of tortured negotiations which finally produced an accord last week on preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In return, the powers agreed to lift damaging economic sanctions as long as Iran sticks to a deal they hope will eventually normalize ties with Tehran after years of intense distrust over its nuclear program. Mogherini hailed the accord as a "sign of hope for the entire world." "It is a decision that can open the way to a new chapter in international relations and show that diplomacy, coordination, cooperation can overcome decades of tensions and confrontation," she said after the talks concluded in Vienna. Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a dangerous stand-off from Syria to Iraq to Yemen, driving fears in Brussels of regional instability and conflict. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel visited Iran earlier this week to push for improved ties but his talks were marked by sharp differences over Israel, which Iran does not recognize.

Rockets Strike Key Yemen Airport a Day after Reopening
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/Aden's international airport, a vital aid supply artery for war-torn south Yemen, came under rocket fire Thursday, a day after it reopened following nearly four months of fierce fighting. Katyusha rockets were fired at the facility as a Saudi military plane was delivering 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid, officials said. Three rockets hit close to the landing strip as the cargo plane, the second to land at Aden since Wednesday, was still on the tarmac, airport security chief Abdullah Qaed told AFP. Qaed accused Shiite Huthi rebels of attacking the plane, adding that a further volley of seven rockets struck around the airport once the aircraft had taken off again. "These Katyusha rockets were fired by the Huthis and fighters of Ali Abdullah Saleh," Yemen's former leader, he said. Most of the rockets struck ground around the airport, causing minimal damage, and two crashed on a nearby road, officials and residents said. Forces loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, backed by Saudi-led coalition warplanes, pushed the rebels and pro-Saleh troops out of most of Aden last week. Aden airport was among the first areas to be recaptured by the loyalists, who are benefiting from the support of forces trained and equipped by the coalition. A Saudi military plane carrying aid touched down Wednesday in what officials said was the start of an airlift aimed at helping the more than 21.1 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance. Loyalists set up checkpoints on access routes to the airport after the rocket attacks, witnesses and military sources said, while the Arab coalition carried out a string of air raids on rebel positions north of Aden. Taking advantage of the relative calm, a boat chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and loaded with humanitarian aid docked on Thursday. Pro-Hadi fighters east of Aden, meanwhile, drove back rebels to al-Alam region, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the city limits, military sources said, killing at least three insurgents, including a chief, Abu Yahia al-Huthi.

Four Egypt Soldiers Killed in Sinai Bombing
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/ Four Egyptian soldiers where killed by a roadside bomb on Thursday in the Sinai Peninsula, where the army is battling an Islamist insurgency, the military said. One officer and three soldiers died in the attack on their vehicle near the border town of Rafah, a military spokesman said on his Facebook page. The attack came a few days after seven soldiers died in a jihadist attack on a checkpoint. Militants loyal to the Islamic State group have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The military says it has killed more than 1,000 militants in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Austria President to Visit Iran
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/Austrian President Heinz Fischer will in September make the first visit to Iran by a European head of state since 2004, his office said Thursday. The announcement came nine days after a historic agreement on Iran's contested nuclear program was struck in Vienna. "After the success of the Vienna accord on July 14, 2015, concluding several years of nuclear talks, President Heinz Fischer will make a working visit to Iran from September 7 to 9," the presidency said in a statement. Though the communique did not give details of Fischer's program, he will likely hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani. His will be the first visit to Iran by a head of state of a European Union (EU) member since Thomas Klestil, a former Austrian president, traveled there in January 2004. This week, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini's office announced she would visit Iran and Saudi Arabia next week following the deal she helped broker. Fischer will be accompanied by Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner, as well as Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz. The long-awaited nuclear deal has cleared a path to lift sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy, and should re-open channels for foreign investment in oil and gas-rich Iran. Neutral Austria, which has long had good relations with Iran, is hoping for a five-fold increase in exports to the Islamic Republic, according to the Chamber of Commerce, which welcomed Iranian Trade Minister Mohammad Reza Nemarzadeh in Vienna on Thursday.

Kerry Stands Up for Iran Nuclear Deal on Capitol Hill
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/23 July/15/ U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vigorously defended the Iran nuclear deal on Capitol Hill on Thursday, calling it a "good deal for the world" that deserves the approval of a skeptical Congress. Sanctions alone cannot be expected to halt the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons, Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he once chaired. "The truth is that the Vienna plan will provide a stronger, more comprehensive, more lasting means of limiting Iran's nuclear program than any alternative that has been spoken of," he said. If enacted, the agreement will put Iran under "intense scrutiny forever" and keep the world united in ensuring that its nuclear activities "remain wholly peaceful," he added. "We believe this is a good deal for the world, a good deal for America, a good deal for our allies and friends in the region -- and we think it does deserve your support." Kerry was testifying publicly on Capitol Hill for the first time since the U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously endorsed the Iran agreement, which paves the way for a lifting of economic sanctions on Tehran. The deal was reached last week in Vienna after tough negotiations between Iran and the Security Council's five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany. But it faces stiff resistance notably among Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives, which have 60 days to review it. Congress can pass a motion of disapproval, but President Barack Obama can then veto that. An override of the veto requires two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate. Kerry was welcomed to the committee chamber by about a half-dozen anti-nuclear activists sporting bright pink "Peace with Iran" T-shirts. "Awesome job!" one of them shouted.But Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, lashed out at Kerry, saying the deal would give Iran "a perfectly aligned pathway" towards a nuclear arsenal. "I believe you've been fleeced... I believe that you have crossed a new threshold in U.S. foreign policy" by enabling a "state sponsor of terrorism" to become a nuclear power, said Corker, opening the hearing. Every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was present for Thursday's hearing, including two Republican presidential hopefuls -- Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

Saudi defense minister orders aid delivery to Yemen
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Thursday, 23 July 2015/Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - who is also the kingdom's defense minister - ordered the delivery of cargo planes carrying humanitarian goods to Yemen’s government-held southern city of Aden, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Thursday. The deputy crown prince issued the order following directions from King Salman bin Abdulaziz. Meanwhile, a second Saudi military plane loaded with 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrived in the newly-reopened airport of Aden on Thursday, according to Al Arabiya’s correspondent. On Wednesday, a Saudi aircraft landed in Aden becoming the first plane to reach the port city in four months. The delivery planes belong to the Royal Saudi Air Force. They aim at bringing much-needed relief to Yemeni citizens who have been suffering from the violations of the Iranian-backed Houthi militias.Some 12.9 million people in Yemen are either "food insecure" or "severely food insecure," according to World Food Program (WFP) estimates.

GCC slams Iraq’s Maliki making anti-Saudi remarks
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News/Thursday, 23 July 2015/The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has condemned Iraqi Vice President Nuri al-Maliki’s remarks against Saudi Arabia, describing it as “irresponsible, false and heinous accusations that do not help to strengthen the Gulf-Iraqi relations,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Thursday.Maliki accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism during an interview with an Iraqi satellite channel earlier this month. He also called for Saudi Arabia to be placed under the international community’s custody. The GCC’s Secretary General Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani said Maliki’s “provocative and unrealistic” remarks were not surprising. Saudi Arabia has long accused Maliki of sectarianism against Iraq’s Sunni population and criticized his alleged pro-Iranian tendencies. Zayani also accused the Iraqi vice president of “sabotaging” Baghdad’s relations with other “Arab brethren” states. He said Maliki was attempting to “separate” Iraq from “its natural Arab surroundings” to serve “foreign interests.”
Zayani, meanwhile, stressed that Saudi Arabia and other GCC states were at the “forefront” in their fight against terrorism, highlighting Gulf States’ “effective participation” with the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.
He said Riyadh’s backing to the coalition was to strengthen Iraq’s defense capabilities to preserve the country’s unity and security.His statements come after the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday criticized Maliki.
OIC also said called Maliki’s statement as “irresponsible.”

US Congress to begin hearings on Iran nuclear agreement
MICHAEL WILNER/07/23/2015 /The US Congress begins its review of a nuclear agreement reached between world powers and Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on Thursday. Hearings start in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where three principals of the Obama administration tasked with crafting the deal – US Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew – plan to testify. They will also appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee next week. Their review begins amid a multi-million dollar effort, from both opponents and advocates of the agreement, to influence the outcome of the congressional vote. The lawmakers now have the opportunity to vote to approve or disapprove of the deal within 56 days.
For a vote of disapproval to have any practical impact on the JCPOA, more than twothirds of both houses of the US legislature will have to vote against the agreement. That coalition of Democrats and Republicans would be necessary to overcome a veto from President Barack Obama, who has vowed to protect his signature foreign policy achievement. The chairmen of the Senate and House committees – both Republicans – have voiced strong disapproval of the deal. And their Democratic ranking members expressed disappointment as the Obama administration submitted the agreement to the United Nations Security Council for adoption before Congress had begun the review process. Republican lawmakers are universally opposed to the deal in its current form; Democrats have remained largely silent on how they plan to vote. Some have expressed concerns, and fewer have issued endorsements; the majority say they plan on carefully reviewing the agreement over the coming weeks. The White House, alongside the governments of Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, assert that the JCPOA will verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Critics of the deal say it emboldens a violent Islamic Republic; fails to secure a sound inspections regime into Iran’s nuclear work; and legitimizes the Iranian government as a nuclear-threshold state. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, held meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday with Republican lawmakers. Along with the entirety of Israel’s political leadership, Dermer has been vocal in his criticism of the agreement and has publicly declared his intention to kill it using all tools at his disposal. Obama has been engaging his critics by questioning their track records on foreign affairs, their smarts and their motives. Earlier in the week, he said the Iran deal his team brokered was the “smarter” approach to solving the decades-long conflict, and suggested that its critics were the same people whose polices led to the second Iraq War. “I f you had brought [former US vice president] Dick Cheney to the negotiations, everything would be fine ,” Obama quipped on Tuesday night, appearing on The Daily Show with John Stewart for the seventh time. Stewart seemed to question the president’s general approach to Iran in the interview, asking him, “Whose side are we on?” “This is an adversary,” Obama said. “They are anti-American, anti-Semitic, they sponsor terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.”“Sounds like a good partner for peace,” Stewart interjected. The president responded that one did not need to make peace with friends. Also on Wednesday, the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee’s Task Force on Terrorism Financing held a hearing related to the nuclear deal. One expert, Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the agreement is set to cancel certain sanctions on Iran that were intended to target its overall behavior. Sanctions were put on entities such as the Central Bank of Iran for conduct-based activities not limited to nuclear activities but also including money laundering and terrorism, Dubowitz said. “The JCPOA requires the lifting of financial sanctions – including the SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] sanctions – prior to a demonstrable change in Iran’s illicit conduct. “The big winner from the unraveling of European and American sanctions,” Dubowitz continued, “will be the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps].”
Several major American Jewish organizations have called on Congress to reject the deal in a binding manner. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Orthodox Union are campaigning against it, while the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee are calling on Congress to demand answers to several unanswered questions surrounding the watershed agreement.

Obama and Erdogan agree to stop 'foreign fighters' crossing into Syria
J.Post/23.07.15/WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a telephone call on Wednesday to work together to "stem the flow of foreign fighters and secure Turkey's border with Syria," the White House said in a statement. It said the two leaders also discussed deepening their cooperation in the fight against Islamic State, which has grabbed swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory and declared a caliphate. Thousands of foreign fighters have crossed through Turkey, a NATO member, to join Islamic State over the past few years. The Turkish government has rejected accusations from the opposition that it has in the past tacitly supported Islamic State militants operating from Syria and had unwittingly opened the door to a suicide bombing that killed at least 32 people in a Turkish town near the Syrian border this week. The White House said Obama had condemned Monday's bombing in the Turkish town of Suruç."He conveyed condolences on behalf of the American people to the families of the victims, and the two leaders affirmed that the United States and Turkey stand united in the fight against terrorism," the statement said. The phenomenon of Israeli Arabs joining the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq is growing and, according to estimates, numbers in the dozens. The latest report came on Monday when it was revealed that three Israeli Arab youths have been seeking to enter Syria from Turkey in recent days in order to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, according to reports.The three youths hail from Ramle, Umm al-Fahm and Nazareth. According to reports in Israeli Arab media, the family members of the three youths have been trying to track their movements and prevent them from crossing the border into Syria. Yasser Okbi/ Maariv Hashavua contributed to this report.

After German minister's Iran visit heavily criticized, EU's Mogherini heads to Tehran
JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS/07/23/2015/he European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will travel to Tehran on Tuesday following the West's historic nuclear deal with Iran, also going to Saudi Arabia in her first official visit to the two regional powers.
Mogherini's first stop will be Saudi Arabia on Monday, where she will meet officials including the country's new foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, with whom she is expected to discuss regional issues following the July 14 nuclear accord with Iran.
Mogherini will then go on to Iran, where she will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and other senior officials. The European Union formally approved this week the deal it struck with Iran and other world powers, a step towards lifting its economic sanctions against Tehran, which the bloc hopes will send a signal for the US Congress to follow. Mogherini follows on from German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel's visit to Iran at the start of this week, the first senior figure from a large Western government to visit the country since the deal. Gabriel’s three-day business trip to Iran over the weekend sparked a wave of intense criticism from members of his social democratic party and NGOs.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, accused him of putting business interests before morals and called his approach to Tehran naive. "It is somewhat irritating that Germany's vice chancellor and economics minister waited only five days before flying to Tehran with a delegation of German business leaders."Lauder said Gabriel's offer to function as a bridge builder between Iran and Israel was naive given what he described as ongoing agitation from Tehran against Israel and the United States.
"It would have been much better to make new commercial relations with Iran dependent on a change in the regime's stance toward Israel," Lauder said.France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and other European foreign ministers are due to travel there soon.
Iran has completed negotiations with some European companies wanting to invest in projects in the country following the nuclear agreement, an Iranian deputy minister said on Thursday. "We are recently witnessing the return of European investors to the country. Some of these negotiations have concluded, and we have approved and granted them the foreign investment licenses and protections," Mohammad Khazaei told a conference promoting trade between the EU and Iran. "Even in the past couple of weeks we have approved more than $2 billion of projects in Iran by European companies," he said, without naming any of the firms or providing further details on the deals.

Amnesty: Iran falsifying execution numbers, more than 1,000 expected killed by year's end
JPOST.COM STAFF/07/23/2015/A UN investigation found that Iran had executed 753 people in 2014, which is expected to be far exceeded this year if trends continue to hold. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International Thursday released a report claiming that the Islamic Republic had executed over 690 people from January 1 to July 15 2015, far exceeding the 246 executions declared by authorities in Iran. Amnesty said it had compiled "credible reports" on executions carried out by Tehran and arrived at the number of 694 as of mid-July, noting that the number approached the total amount of executions performed in the Shi'ite stronghold in all of 2014. A report published in March by UN special rapporteur on Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, said at least 753 people were executed in 2014, the highest toll recorded in over a decade. But Amnesty International fears that the number will be far surpassed if trends continue to hold. “If Iran’s authorities maintain this horrifying execution rate we are likely to see more than 1,000 state-sanctioned deaths by the year’s end," Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa mission Said Boumedouha said in the report. “The use of the death penalty is always abhorrent, but it raises additional concerns in a country like Iran, where trials are blatantly unfair,” he added. Amnesty also noted that even during the holy month of Ramadan, which usually sees a stoppage in executions performed in the Islamic Republic, four executions had taken place. Amnesty International said that Iranian executions do not meet international legal standards for which the death penalty is appropriate, citing that many of the executions were mostly for drug-related crimes, along with adultery, sodomy and “vaguely worded national security offenses.”According to Amnesty International, Iran executes more people per capita than any other country, which the organization believes has thousands more on death-row.

EU rejects report: No plans to boycott Israeli banks
Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/Published: 7.23.15/ Israel News/Stocks of Israeli financial institutes drop following report by European think tank recommending restrictions on Israeli banks. The European Union is not planning to impose sanctions on Israeli banks, a senior EU official said Wednesday, hours after an EU think tank released a report recommending such a course of action. "We have no intention of imposing restrictions on Israeli banks that do business in the settlements. This entire issue is complete nonsense. This issue has never been considered," the diplomat said. The European Union agreed this week to push ahead with labeling Israeli goods made in settlements in the West Bank, a move that has alarmed the Israeli government. Then, in a paper to be published on Wednesday, the European Council on Foreign Relations, whose proposals frequently inform EU policymaking, argued that the EU is in breach of its own laws and must move much more firmly to distinguish its dealings with Israel from Israel's activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which it has captured in 1967 Six-Day War. The think tank recommended imposing restrictions on Israeli banking, loans and mortgages, qualifications earned in settlement institutions and the tax-exempt status of European charities that deal with Israeli settlements. The release of the report caused panic in the stock market and led to a drop in Israeli banks' stocks. The Foreign Ministry and EU officials rushed to issue calming statements by stressing that the report was merely a recommendation and the chances it would be adopted are very small. "This is an independent research institute that has no connections to the European Union and has no more influence than any other research institute," the European diplomat said. "Anyone can publish reports. It has no basis in reality. There are no plans for further legislation on this issue except for the plans to label settlement products which are moving forward, but have yet to be finalized

US Republicans, pro-Israel groups step up campaign against Iran deal
Reuters/Ynetnews/Published: 07.23.15/ Israel News
Poll shows increase in both Republican and Democratic opposition to Iran deal as thousands take to Times Square to protest it; Obama administration to defend agreement at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Top Republicans vowed Wednesday to do their utmost to scrap President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran as the biggest pro-Israel lobby prepared for an all-out campa ign to pressure wary lawmakers into rejecting the agreement. A bigger push against last week's historic accord in Vienna was being met with a counteroffensive by senior Obama administration officials, who have already spent hours on in-person and telephone briefings with members of Congress.
Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew briefed the entire House of Representatives and Senate in separate closed-door sessions on Wednesday and will defend the deal at a public Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday. As Congress opened a 60-day review of the deal, Republican US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told reporters: "Because a bad deal threatens the security of the American people, we're going to do everything possible to stop it." Obama insists that the Iran deal is the only alternative to more war in the Middle East.
Israel pressed lawmakers on Wednesday to block the deal, with Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer meeting privately with a group of about 40 House conservatives. The most influential pro-Israel group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), will deploy about 300 lobbyists on Capitol Hill next week to try to convince lawmakers, especially undecided Democrats, to vote against the deal, according to officials in the pro-Israel camp. AIPAC's plans are being coordinated with allied groups such as Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran that are sponsoring a national television advertising campaign, the pro-Israel sources said. They are expected to spend upwards of $20 million, one source said.
In Manhattan, thousands of protesters packed into Times Square on Wednesday evening to demand that Congress vote down the proposed deal. As the crowd loomed behind police barricades, chants of "Kill the deal!" could be heard for blocks. The event, billed as the "Stop Iran Rally" consisted mainly of pro-Israel supporters, though organizers said it represents Americans of all faiths and political convictions. At the rally, Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Jewish attorney, said he was "opposing the deal as a liberal Democrat." He said he believed democracy was "ignored" because the Obama administration negotiated the deal without congressional input. "That is not the way democracy should operate," he told the crowd. A Reuters poll taken in the days after the July 14 announcement of the Iran deal, showed 44 percent of respondents who said they were Republicans opposed the agreement, up sharply from about 30 percent in April.
Democratic support for the deal held steady at 50 percent, though opposition among Democrats grew to 16 percent from nearly 10 percent in April, according to the poll. Republican support for a deal fell during that same period from 31 percent to nearly 27 percent. The number of Republicans who responded was 471, compared with 1,117 in April when the major powers and Iran signed a framework agreement. Under a bill reluctantly signed into law by Obama in May, Congress has until September 17 to decide whether to approve or reject the agreement between Iran and world powers to rein in Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Republicans control majorities in both houses of Congress. Many have come out strongly against the pact, which they say will empower Iran and threaten US ally Israel.Some said they wanted to know more. Republican Representative Dennis Ross said he was predisposed against the agreement but, after the briefing, "I am probably inclined now to dig further and verify for myself."
Partisanship
But if Congress passes a resolution disapproving of the deal, dozens of Democrats would have to vote with them to override the Democratic president's threatened veto, which is not likely in the fiercely partisan Congress. "It's a steep climb but not an impossible climb," the pro-Israel group official said of the coming campaign.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has come out strongly in favor of it. Among the senior Democrats whom pro-Israel lobbyists hope to win over is Senator Chuck Schumer, a strong advocate for Israel's security who has yet to state his position. Schumer told reporters as he left the hearing that he was still deciding. "It's a serious issue and I'm studying it carefully, giving it what it deserves," he said. Several Republicans said the Cabinet secretaries had not eased their concerns about several issues, particularly the ability to "snap back" sanctions if Iran violates the deal and the system for inspecting Iranian nuclear facilities.
Senator Ted Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said the agreement would provide Iran with billions of dollars that would be used to murder Americans and their allies. "If this deal goes through, it will transform the Obama administration into the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism," he said.
Deal opponents in the pro-Israel camp believe more lawmakers can be swayed by detailed arguments about what they see as loopholes that Iran could use to skirt the agreement.
Pressure from AIPAC, whose members' support is widely coveted, could also worry lawmakers up for re-election. AIPAC boasts 100,000 members. At the same time, J Street, a smaller liberal pro-Israel group, is urging supporters to lobby Congress to support the Iran deal. Kerry told reporters before the House meeting that the deal "will make the region, our friends and allies, safer. It will make the world safer ... in the absence of any viable alternative."

ISIS infiltrates Egyptian special forces, joins with Hamas to occupy N. Sinai, liquidate Sisi
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 23, 2015
Islamic State affiliates in Sinai and Libya have banded together with the Palestinian Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip for the shared goals of capturing northern Sinai from the Egyptian army and staging an assassination coup against President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report.
They are in the throes of four steps for promoting their objectives:
1. Monday, June 29, a rogue group of Egyptian Special Forces accessed the heavily-guarded upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis to plant a bomb car, which they remotely detonated as the convoy of their target, Egypt’s general prosecutor Hisham Barakat, went by. He was killed on the spot. The assassins were members of the Egyptian elite force which had defected to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Three weeks later, on July 16, notwithstanding reinforced security in Heliopolis, ISIS killers reached inside the neighborhood once again and planted a roadside bomb. It was detonated as an Interior Ministry special forces security patrol moved past.
Because of the tight official blackout on the event, there are no reliable accounts on casualties. The authorities in Cairo reported that one Egyptian soldier was injured, but this is no doubt only part of the picture.
The following day, July 17, a violent clash erupted In the Talibiya neighborhood of Giza near the pyramids between Egyptian Special Forces and Muslim Brotherhood’s underground cells. Five MB adherents were reported killed, but again no word on military losses.
2. On July 1, ISIS forces launched their most ambitious offensive to date against Egyptian military and police facilities in northern Sinai. Still ongoing three weeks later, the losses the Egyptian military have sustained to date are estimated at 120 dead and hundreds injured. Though fighting fiercely, Egyptian troops have not been able to repel the continuous Islamist assault or contain its advance through the northeastern section of the peninsula.
Tuesday, July 21, Hamas terrorists arrived at ISIS positions in northern Sinai for a joint assault on the base of the Multinational Observer Force at El Gorah, not far from the embattled town of Sheik Zuwaid. It was the first major attack on the US-led force that was installed in Sinai to monitor the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace accord – and is still going on..
Here, too, the MFO command and Cairo have combined to impose a blackout on the situation in the camp and the extent of casualties..
3. On July 17, the Islamic state of Sinai sank an Egyptian coast guard vessel with a sophisticated guided Kornet anti-tank missile. The ship was patrolling the Mediterranean shore of Rafah to prevent the smuggling of arms and fighters from Egypt proper and Libya into northern Sinai. This was a landmark incident in that it was the first time ISIS is known to have sunk an adversary’s vessel at sea.
Cairo reported at first that a fire broke out on the ship and there were no casualties.
4. On July 22, an audio message began making the rounds in Cairo and other Egyptian cities claiming to be the voice of Hisham al-Ashmawy, an Egyptian Special Forces officer who defected to ISIS. He said the country had been “overpowered by the new pharaoh” and called on all Egyptians “to come together to confront the enemy.” The message concluded with the words: “Do not fear them, but fear Allah if you are true believers.”
Western and Middle East counter-terror experts have concluded that it was Hisham al-Ashmawy who orchestrated the assassination of the general prosecutor last month. They tag him as the leader of the group of Egyptian officers and men who defected to ISIS. Egypt’s elite military units would appear therefore to be heavily penetrated by the Islamic State.
For Egyptian rulers this is a recurring menace. Thirty-years ago in October 1981, President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by a senior Egyptian intelligence officer who had secretly joined the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad, one of Al Qaeda’s two parent groups, and went AWOL a short time earlier.

Tackling Islamism, Post-Chattanooga
Tarek Fatah/The Toronto Sun/July 23 2015
It has been almost a week since the Chattanooga terrorist Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez issued the equivalent of an Islamic declaration of war on America in a text message before killing four U.S. Marines and a Navy petty officer. Yet there are still some Americans refusing to see the writing on the wall, and wondering about the 24-year-old jihadi terrorist's "real" motives. On July 15, the night before the mass murder, Abdulazeez texted a declaration on behalf of Allah, quoting from Prophet Mohammed's sayings in the Hadith titled "The loyal friends of Allah." It reads: "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I [Allah] will indeed declare war against him." This particular Hadith is from a collection of the 40 most important sayings of Prophet Mohammed.
The text message was not the only clue to Abdulazeez's jihadi frame of mind. In a "manifesto" posted in early July, the mass murderer quoted the Prophet Mohammed as saying for Muslims, life on earth should be seen as a life in a prison, but for non-believers (Christians, Jews, Hindus, pagans and atheists) earth is the paradise. Some Americans are still wondering about the 24-year-old jihadi terrorist's 'real' motives. This is a common call by Islamists when recruiting suicide bombers or jihadi fighters for the Islamic State, al-Qaida, the Taliban and Boko Haram. In essence, they claim earth is merely a transit lounge in a journey that will take Muslims to eternal life in Paradise, surrounded by all things that were forbidden to them in this world. Abdulazeez mocked Muslims (like me) who separate Islam from politics, saying such a separation was contrary to Islamic practice.
He wrote in his manifesto:
So this picture that you have in your mind that the Prophet's companions were people being like priests living in monasteries is not true. All of them [were] leaders of an army at the frontlines ... very involved in establishing Islam in the world ... Every one of them fought Jihad for the sake of Allah. Every one of them had to make sacrifices in their lives. All of this evidence stares us in the face, yet we are now being asked to believe a statement from Abdulazeez's family claiming that their son was a depressed youth on drugs. The family claims they sent him to Jordan, so he could get away from the influence of the bad company he kept. I find that hard to believe given Abdulazeez's own declarations, plus the fact his father was investigated twice by the FBI for sending money to questionable charities in the Middle East (he was eventually cleared) and wanted to marry a second wife in the Palestinian territories, saying this was allowed by Islamic law.
Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes claimed not to be sure if "Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez" is a Muslim name. There is something wrong in America when as senior a person as Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is unwilling to conclude the mass murderer was a Muslim. John Berman of CNN asked Fuentes "Now that we have the name (Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez) the key questions are what?" Fuentes replied, "I know ... what the name sounds like, but we don't know that it's a Muslim name. We know it's an Arabic name." On the opposite side are those like former Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark, who has proposed the internment of U.S. Islamists identified as anti-American. For 15 years now the question of "how to combat Islamism" has been avoided in the West so as not to offend the powerful urban Islamist lobbyists and vote banks.
Here are three suggestions:
Interview and debrief every adult male arriving alone from Arab countries, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia, irrespective of religion, colour and nationality. Tell every mosque in North America to end any and all derogatory references to "kufaar" (Christians, Jews, Hindus and atheists) including in ritual prayers, or lose their charitable status. End cash donations in mosques and overseas donations from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab sources. If we do not take these steps now, there will eventually be a very large appetite for Clark's harsh prescription to prevent Islamist terror on Western soil.

A Syria breakthrough? Don’t hold your breath
Joyce Karam/Al Arabia/Thursday, 23 July 2015
In the last four years, the Barack Obama administration has consistently played up the prospects of a political solution in Syria while the reality on the ground, in the region and vis-a-vis Russia pointed in the direction of a stalemate. The Geneva 1 and Geneva 2 processes along with the envoy-ship of former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the stellar Arab diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi all yielded no results, and the current mission of U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura does not hold more promise.
Today, there is renewed talk from the White House about a political process following the nuclear agreement with Iran and a more “open” Russian position. Hope springs eternal in public diplomacy, though in Syria neither the conditions on the ground nor the positions of the main players are conducive for a political settlement.
Waiting for Russia
In his interview with Tom Friedman of “The New York Times” and later on in his press conference on the Iran deal, President Barack Obama spoke of a change in the Russian position on Syria, and new willingness on Washington’s part to bring Iran to the table.
Obama’s hopeful diplomatic tone aside, there is little or no indication from Syria that a political solution is in the horizon
Obama told Friedman : “I was encouraged by the fact that (Russian President) Mr. Putin called me a couple of weeks ago and initiated the call to talk about Syria.” He referenced a new recognition from the Kremlin that “the Assad regime is losing a grip over greater and greater swathes of territory inside of Syria and that the prospects for a takeover or rout of the Syrian regime is not imminent but becomes a greater threat by the day.” A day later, the U.S. President called for “a process to resolve the civil war in Syria”, noting the importance of including Iran in such "conversation.”
Obama’s hopeful diplomatic tone aside, there is little or no indication from Syria that a political solution is in the horizon. Western diplomatic sources tell me that there is “no substantial shift in Russia’s position” except “for their willingness to have a conversation on Syria prompted by their increased fear of Chechnian recruits and returnees from Jihadist groups (including ISIS).” When it comes to discussing a new power structure in Syria, however, the Russian leadership is not giving up on its deep rooted influence within the Assad regime. “They want everyone to come to their side and fight terrorism without agreeing to a bigger set of changes in the regime in Syria” says one diplomat.
Deep regional split
The conversation with Iran, on the other hand, holds even lower prospects in light of a much deeper divide and higher sense of anxiety between Iran and the regional neighbors. Following the nuclear deal, higher metrics are being drawn regionally by the major players and those apply to Syria. At the Camp David summit last May, key Arab participants told the U.S. President that accepting a Hezbollah and Iran dominated Syria is a redline for the GCC states.
While there was willingness to work with elements in the Assad regime and Russia towards a political settlement, countering Iran’s military role in Syria was communicated at the highest levels by key GCC representatives to Obama. While there were also differences among the GCC countries on what to do next in Syria, the participants agreed on countering Iran’s role in war-ravaged Syria. An Arab diplomat tells me that following the nuclear agreement, “there is even more commitment on our part to push against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria.” While a U.S. conversation with Tehran could help in starting a process and creating diplomatic space, reconciling regional differences is not foreseeable in the near future in Syria.
Gloomy forecast
As the regional split widens and Iran gains more influence inside the Assad regime, the next phase in Syria will be a replay of the one before, with each side trying to change the battle lines. Unless these lines are reshaped dramatically in the major cities, or both sides are exhausted, a political solution remains out of sight.
Even if the U.S. throws its weight behind a diplomatic process, the battle lines inside Syria give Washington little leverage in steering the conflict. It is regional players, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran who have the most influence inside Syria today and the likelihood of them reaching consensus is lower than it ever was in the last four years. The Assad regime for its part feels buoyed by the Iran nuclear deal, which could extend a much needed financial line to his troops and Hezbollah. This will be met by a bigger push from the Arab countries and Turkey to throw more support behind the rebels.
The U.S. and Western partners are privately not betting on a political settlement in Syria anytime soon, and are instead choosing alternatives that would grant them more leverage in the battlefield and focus on fighting ISIS. Hence, the Train and Equip program is designed to gradually deploy U.S. trained rebels in the field to fight ISIS. While the initial number of these fighters deployed is small, it is expected that it would increase quarterly and that these rebels would “blend in” with bigger groups.
For now, the statements on a diplomatic solution in Syria should be taken for what they are worth: a saving face tactic to cover up failure in stopping the bloodshed and the agony of millions in the last four years.

Will Iran pull off its nuke deal?
Mohammed Fahad al-Harthi/Al Arabiya/Thursday, 23 July 2015
With Iran publicly meeting the country it has called “the Great Satan,” and the West aiming to win contracts for Iranian projects, today is very dissimilar to yesterday. The region, known for its never-ending wars and conflicts, is taking a new shape.
The U.S. is pursuing a new and different policy in the region. From being the one lobbying for an Iranian boycott, the U.S. is now trying to convince the world of the wisdom of the nuclear deal — both at the U.N. and ultimately in the U.S. Congress. This is politics.
These developments, however, leave the Arabs facing a new reality. Iran, a country with influence in some Arab countries, has waged proxy wars in the region. Though it struggled under the weight of sanctions, it still managed to carry out its expansionist policies and may now be poised for more of the same.
The region is at a crossroads. The question is not whether the deal will pass but rather what will result from it. Despite the feelings and desires of individual states, the deal ushers in a new political reality in the region.
Iran is an important country with an influential role and it is a mistake to look at our relationship through the prism of a Sunni-Shiite divide or even an Arab-Persian conflict. Analysts, both good and ill-intentioned, try to promote these ideas but the difference between Arab countries and Iran is a mere political dispute.
Changing relations
In different times and under various governments in Iran, Gulf-Iranian relations changed significantly. When hard-liners were in power — specifically the previous government headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — relations showed serious strains and divergences. Iran suffered international political isolation due to its policies which contradicted international law as well as the accepted norms of diplomatic relations.
Is Hassan Rowhani the decision-maker or does political power rest with the so-called supreme leader Ali Khamenei, thus limiting the president’s options?
Once Hassan Rowhani came to power as president, he sent positive signals suggesting a different political orientation. Yet, these signals were not translated into political reality in the region. The nuclear deal is one of the Iranian president’s most important achievements but there remains an overarching and unanswered question: Is Hassan Rowhani the decision-maker or does political power rest with the so-called supreme leader Ali Khamenei, thus limiting the president’s options?
In many situations, Iran opted for what it saw as political realism whenever necessary. Ayatollah Khomeini’s description of accepting the cease-fire with Iraq as “drinking poison” eliminated the arguments made by him and his followers that a cease-fire would never happen. The facts on the ground, however, changed the realities.
Khamenei has always refused international inspections of nuclear reactors, saying that Iran was not subject to international restrictions. Now he himself has congratulated the negotiating team on the agreement and given it his support. Evidently, this is not an issue of ideology but a matter of coping with reality and interests even if it means going against all past statements as well as emotional public discourse.
Iran today has a precious opportunity to set a new policy in the region. Past experience has shown that wars and interventions only led to tragic realities producing terror and chaos in the region. This opportunity requires careful consideration and experimenting with different political possibilities and, above all, it requires courage and taking the initiative by all in the region.
Competitive country
If the region is able to cooperate for development and building, and use its resources for the happiness of its people, its ability to compete in the world will be much different from what it is today. It may seem that this is a modern type of pragmatic political utopianism, but these are the same incentives that made “frenemies” share a room for weeks in order to reach an agreement that was once deemed impossible.
The Gulf has a different political reality and so political work should move to a new level. With the new facts, international calculations have changed and things are not the same anymore. It would therefore be wrong to stick to the same old policies in the face of the new reality.
The Gulf states need to strengthen their political interdependence. The success of the Gulf states in Operation Decisive Storm can be a good foundation for unified political positions and homogeneous political, economic and military actions. Saudi Arabia’s recent choices, linking mutual interests with those of countries such as Russia, illustrate how interests drive politics.
The Gulf states combined have a huge potential, strong political power and a dynamic international impact. It is vital to strengthen their internal structures in order to succeed externally. The new political reality is not necessarily negative though it is different. In light of the changes, there are opportunities that necessitate new vision and quick decisions.

A battle that could define the Yemen war
Manuel Almeida/Al Arabiya/Thursday, 23 July 2015
The alliance between the Houthi militias and the military forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh is not the only surprise that emerged out of Yemen’s ongoing conflict.
The country-wide military offensive by the Houthis and pro-Saleh forces dictated the rise of another alliance, which looked improbable until the conflict reached Yemen’s southern shores: the coalition between southern separatist groups and the military forces fighting for Yemen’s government in exile.
Last week, southern separatist fighters, the militias known as Popular Resistance Committees and the pro-government military forces all backed militarily and logistically by the Saudi-led coalition, retook much of the former southern capital of Aden. This was the biggest strategic blow so far to the Houthi-Saleh camp.
Recent reports talk about the imminent fall of the last few pockets of Houthi resistance in the city while key points such as the international airport and the Mualla port are already under full government control.
Yemeni government officials have been returning to Aden and a team of technicians from the UAE has worked over the last few days to re-open the airport. The largest food aid delivery in months reached the city via the port on Tuesday and more ships carrying urgent aid are expected to follow suit.
Despite the big setback, remaining Houthi snipers continued to indiscriminately target civilians who ventured out in the open.
The brutality of the Houthis in Aden increased considerably once it became evident they would not be able to hold their ground for much longer. On Sunday and Monday in the city’s northern district of Dar Saad alone, over 100 people (the majority of which were civilians) were killed in shelling by the Houthis.
A potential game-changer
Although not unexpected, the Houthi defeat in Aden and the gradual return of Yemeni government officials could prove to be a turning point in the conflict. First of all, it will allow a joint military council to coordinate from within Yemen the efforts of the various groups fighting the Houthis and pro-Saleh forces across the country and plan for a possible counter-offensive that could eventually bring the current crisis to an end.
Although not unexpected, the Houthi defeat in Aden and the gradual return of Yemeni government officials could prove to be a turning point in the conflict
In a place where the political power of an individual or group is often measured by the ability to project force, the government’s absence was not sustainable for much longer. Aden in particular is a key strategic city and the government’s presence will provide a boost to the capabilities and the morale of the anti-Houthi forces.
The turning tide could also place the Yemeni government in a stronger position in the event of any new attempts to reignite the negotiations in the search for a political solution to the conflict. It will probably also force the Houthis and those members of the General People’s Congress who still back Saleh to consider more seriously the negotiations and the conditions set forth by UN Security Council Resolution 2216. Plus, reports that pro-Saleh Republican Guard and Special Forces withdrew from the outskirts of Aden in the end of June is now generating more speculation about the durability of Saleh’s alliance with the Houthis.
Southern separatism on hold?
Following these developments in Aden, another big question looming over the city and some of the southern provinces is how southern separatists will balance their longstanding political ambitions with the new reality they face.
This war and the atrocities committed by the Houthis and pro-Saleh forces in the south have reinforced the will of many southern separatists to break away from Sanaa for good. In fact, it was the concentration of power in Saleh’s hands and his neglect of the south that gave rise to the southern separatist movement.
After the civil war of 1994, there was a pro-unity momentum across the political spectrum. But Saleh’s rule proved unacceptable for most southerners, even though some important figures in his government were originally from the south. Years of unattended political and economic grievances were channeled to the creation of al-Hirak (Southern Mobility Movement) in 2007, which in a few years turned into a massive social protest movement.
However, the southern separatist movement has never been an example of unity, despite the efforts of its leaders since the start of the current war to bring its various factions together. It remains difficult to tell how the current conflict and the need to choose the government’s side has impacted the movement’s internal dynamics, the cleavages within its old guard and between them and the younger activists, as well as their separatist ambitions.
The present focus of the supporters of a southern state in Aden seems to be, as it should, on the ongoing fight against the Houthis and pro-Saleh forces, the reconstruction of the city and the delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance. It is also impossible at this point to grasp what the will of other southern governorates is on the question of independence in the face of a new and constantly changing reality. The timing could not be less appropriate for Aden’s separatists to push forward their ambitions.

How does one explain the extreme violence of ISIS? Very simply!
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/Thursday, 23 July 2015
ISIS brutality is a veritable circus of the macabre. But just when we thought that they might have reached the lowest levels of depravity, we hear that they allegedly blew up a baby in a video to demonstrate how to handle explosives to new recruits. As I have heard some British Muslims say before, it is difficult to conceive how these people are the same species as the rest of us.
But, if one can even countenance the overwhelming obscenity of this kind of behaviour for one second, we must at the very least ask where it might come from. How can human beings behave like this? And not just barbarous savages from distant history, or not so distant history if we think about the Holocaust and more recent genocides, but people who we might have known and lived with in our communities not so long ago. People who for most of their lives seemed, and indeed were, “just like us.”
One theory is that this is intrinsic to the jihadist ideology. And there may be some credence to that hypothesis; Jihadism is an ideology of violence after all. And the historical precursors of today’s jihadism certainly had a habit of committing wholesale massacres and what can only be described as ritualised brutal murder.
But if that were all there was to it, we would know what to expect by now. Yet here we are, week after week, month after month, finding out, courtesy of ISIS, that our imaginations are really rather limited when it comes to the levels of depravity that human beings can sink to. ISIS, it seems, are not going to let decency get in the way of their quest for a caliphate!
New lows
This perverse creativity, however, hasn’t just popped onto the scene as a natural evolution of the jihadism that came before. It is not the sole product of jihadist ideology. After all, it is difficult to imagine that even Osama bin Laden himself, evil though he may have been, would have ever stooped to these levels, or indeed would condone what is now happening in ISIS territories if he were still alive. By comparison to these creatures, bin Laden seems like a decent kind of guy!
it is difficult to imagine that even Osama bin Laden himself, evil though he may have been, would have ever stooped to these levels, or indeed would condone what is now happening in ISIS territories if he were still alive
Yet things like this have happened, even routinely, in the very recent past, and specifically in Iraqi territory. It’s just that we didn’t hear about them in the West. I am talking, of course, about Saddam Hussain’s regime. Quite apart from the well-known and documented cases of ethnic cleansing and even genocide against the Marsh Arabs and the Kurds in the 90s, this regime was maintained by a military and intelligence establishment that were very well acquainted with and very comfortable with terrorising and killing en masse Iraqi and foreign civilians.
Gruesome gang
And guess where all these Baathists from Saddam’s intelligence and military agencies ended up, after the U.S. dismantled Saddam’s state in the wake of the 2003 invasion? Well, initially they all ended up in American prison camps, alongside jihadists and Islamist demagogues like al-Baghdadi himself. And then, many of them went and formed ISIS together.
This accounts for the superior organisation of ISIS on the ground compared with the other fighting groups in Syria and Iraq – these were hardened military men, well-accustomed to effective hierarchical organisation. It also accounts for the way in which ISIS has managed to quickly and seemingly quite effectively put in place the administrative structures typical of a state necessary to manage ministries, tax systems, courts, utilities like energy, water, rubbish collection and so on over an area the size of the UK. When I visited Syria in 2013, ISIS was not even on the map. The Nusra Front dominated the news. But within two years, these people set up the entire ISIS apparatus. And it worked. After all, they had a lot of experience running just these things under Saddam.
Wanton murder
They also had a lot of experience of how to terrorize a civilian population into submission, with wanton brutal murder, ritualized aggression against taboo targets such as children, the works. The Ba’athists under Saddam had no limits when it came to torturing women, children, elderly, whole families at a time. There were no red lines. All was fair game – including the liberal use of banned weapons of mass destruction (like chemical weapons) on whole communities. And now they have simply transferred these “public administration techniques” to ISIS. And added glossy videos to help the international propaganda and recruitment efforts.
A senior military figure I recently met told me that he was convinced that the Ba’athists selected Baghdadi to be the Caliph rather than Baghdadi selecting former Ba’athists to administer his dominion. That would not be altogether surprising if it turns out to be true. Saddam, as it turns out, is causing the West much more of a headache in death than he had ever done in life.

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