Jerusalem News (16 February, 2015, 27 Shevet, 5775)
Contents:
1. 'The Irish are the perfect snipers' says ISIS escapee by Shona Murphy
2. HUCKABEE: AFTER ISRAEL, JIHADISTS WANT TO ANNIHILATE AMERICA by Ari Soffer
3. Fury in Egypt as IS 'beheads 21 Christians' in Libya
4. US helped Israel with H-bomb - 1980s report declassified
5. Copenhagen Terrorist Had 'History of Violent Crime'
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1. 'The Irish are the perfect snipers' says ISIS escapee by Shona Murphy
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/the-irish-are-the-perfect-snipers-says-isis-escapee-30993107.html?
A man who claims he was captured and forced to fight by ISIS tells Shona Murray about life with the extremist terror group
Published 15/02/2015 | 02:30
Extracts:
"It's difficult for anyone to leave," explains Abu Omer - which is not his real name to protect his identity. "People have no money and they have families" to take with them. There are also several checkpoints.
Omer is - for now - in hiding in the city of Urfa, on the Turkish border with Syria, having escaped from Deir Ez-Zor and ISIS. He's a former Group Leader with the 'Al Qadisiya' brigade of the Free Syrian Army; his unit was defeated by ISIS in Deir Ez-Zor, during the militant group's spectacular takeover of large swathes of land in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq last June and July.
Captured Syrian fighters like Omer, who are there involuntarily, are not considered fully supportive of the Caliphate, and are therefore never far up the command structure or trusted with leading military offensives.
Omer, like other Syrians who joined to revolution against the Assad regime in late 2011, wait for their orders at the frontline - they're told when to target the enemy, be it local Jihadist groups with a similar ideology, like Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al Nusra, or the Syrian army of Assad. Nor are they often ordered to mete out the medieval punishments like beheadings or crucifixions, that have become part of daily life for Muslims living under ISIS control.
Omer reckons that up to 70pc of the ISIS fighters in Deir Ez-Zor are foreign - including about 40 Irish. His estimates reinforces information from several sources, including the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre. "All of the countries of the world have fighters inside Syrian fighting with ISIS," he says. "The most European fighters were from France, there were some from the UK, and there were Irish, but the most was French.
"There was Chechen, Libyan, Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, and Saudi Arabian, some also from America.
"ISIS depends on Chechens the most," for their military prowess and dogged violent nature, "If ISIS wants to take over any area, they send the Chechens in.
"The Irish fighters are perfect snipers; they use them sometimes with the Chechens, in any place they need snipers, they move the Irish," he adds.
"They are part of the Al Khalifa army (Caliphate army), and fought in Kobane," before the Kurdish Peshmerga forces with the help of coalition forces, defeated them.
While Abu Omer says there are around 40 Irish fighters in Deir ez Zor, the Department of Justice's official figure is that 30 Irish fighters have left here to fight in Syria and Iraq. Sources in the US State Department, however, say this number is closer to 70 in total.
Of the Irish, Abu Omer came across, one was known as 'Abu Omer al-Irlandi', another, 'Abu Yazid al-Irlandi'. They work alongside British jihadists, "you see them together" says Omer.
Foreign fighters from Europe have the most virulent ideology he also claims. They are the most dogmatic when it comes to ISIS ideology.
"Sometimes the Saudi or other Arabic fighters might forgive you if you are caught smoking or caught breaking the rules," but not the Europeans.
The Europeans are "the devil" inside Syria. "They cut the heads". In one incident, a French jihadist known as 'Abu Ali-al Franci' "cut three heads inside Deir ez-Zor centre," claims Abu Omer. Although he did not provide photographic evidence of this, Abu Omer's character and identity was corroborated by sources from Deir ez-Zor, and within the FSA brigade that he once held a senior position in.
"Another example: in a village in the Deir ez-Zor countryside, the Europeans killed around 3,000 people in the village, using French fighters," he says.
When they (ISIS) decide someone is 'kuffar' - a non-believer, or someone that has rejected Islam- "they use European fighters to cut heads, to kill people".
According to Omer, and other members of the FSA, the foreign fighters operating under the IS banner, believe they "are, the Islamic State", and not fighters in a foreign land, but the beginning and creators of the new Islamic caliphate; the rising Caliphate. The fact that they are not born in, nor have any personal ties with the land that they have so savagely overrun is irrelevant, as is the fact that some are not born in to Muslim families and converted only recently.
Restrictions on women are akin to those in Taliban-controlled areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan...
"I've known of British women who have joined Daash, but never heard of any Irish women," he says when asked whether he knew of Irish female jihadists.
ISIS' success in grabbing the attention of western leaders and public at large is very much due to the publicised murders of several journalists, aid workers and more recently Jordanian pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh. All deaths appear to be carried out by one of ISIS' most barbaric operatives, nicknamed Jihadi John, who's rumoured in a previous life to have once been a rap singer from London.
"That's what I heard about him. His security is very high - like Abu Omar al-Baghdadi" - ISIS' founder from Baghdad, Iraq.
"They use him because he's a British man to kill the Europeans and westerners".
"They can attack Europe any time they want; they have members inside Europe, inside America, inside Britain, they're just awaiting a decision from al-Baghdadi.
"They focus on America, Britain, France and Denmark, because of the cartoons about Mohammad, warns Omer.
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2. HUCKABEE: AFTER ISRAEL, JIHADISTS WANT TO ANNIHILATE AMERICA
by Ari Soffer
http://www.israelnews.net/index.php/sid/230285209
Extracts:
Former Arkansas Governor and probable Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pulled no punches at a Jerusalem press conference Sunday morning, throwing his weight firmly behind the decision to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress and fiercely criticizing the Obama administration's handling of Iran's nuclear program.
Huckabee, who is a regular visitor to and vocal supporter of Israel, began by expressing his admiration for the Jewish state, saying that "no matter how many times I've been here over the last 42 years, I never get tired. This is the land were it all started."
"There is so much history, but not only that; politically, there is no place more interesting, and at times more amusing, than Israel," he quipped, going on to praise Israel's lively democracy and culture of free speech "which makes US politics look comparatively sanguine."
Apart from shared values, Huckabee also underlined what he saw as the shared interests and "existential threats" of Israel and the US.
"Never before has there been such a critical moment, not only in the life of Israel but in the future of the world," he continued.
Specifically, the threat of "jihadism is existential not just to Israel but the rest of the world as well."
He called on Americans to understand "that Israel really is the canary in the coal mine."
"What a lot of Americans don't appreciate is that Israel is not the ultimate target of Islamic jihadists for annihilation. Many Americans think that if Israel would be destroyed it would be a shame, but it wouldn't really impact us - but it would."
Those shared values and interests are what make Israel and the US "not organizationally related" but "organically related."
Regarding the Iranian nuclear plan - and Netanyahu's plans to speak about the threat at the US Congress - Huckabee insisted that he "absolutely" supported the speech, and would encourage the Israeli PM to do so when he met him later in his trip.
...Netanyahu should speak at Congress because "Americans need to know what the dangers are with Iran, and how the Iranian threat is not unique to Israel but... also involves the US and the rest of the world," both directly and via the threat of triggering a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Netanyahu, he said, "is uniquely qualified" to communicate the threat posed by Iran to the free world...
The Ayatollah's objectives are not limited to regional gains or more influence within the UN, but global domination, he insisted, and to "act as if their motives are otherwise" would require "ignoring the entire history of the early twentieth century."
"Iran is a global snake... When you're dealing with snakes you're dealing with an entity with which you cannot reason.
"It doesn't matter why the snake wants to bite you. You don't try to befriend it, or pet it - you kill the snake before it has a chance to bite you."
Although acknowledging that "it's pretty evident I'm moving in the direction" of announcing his candidacy for the US presidential elections, Huckabee refused to say more, only that he would be making a definite announcement in the spring.
But he did warn that those elections will pose a stark choice for Americans.
"The US has to decide whether to be a follower or a leader. It needs to be a nation which doesn't apologize.
Asked about persistent rumors of attempts by the White House or other political actors to influence the Israeli elections and usher in a left-wing government more open to concessions, Huckabee cautioned that there was a difference between simply hiring American PR agents and "political operatives", and actual interference by the US administration - which he said would be "criminal" and "totally unacceptable."
"It is not unusual that US political operatives will be hired throughout the world, because they're good at what they do," he explained.
"But if there was a direct correlation between official (US) government agencies or any other official agency then that would be illegal and unethical, and that's the kind of thing someone should go to jail for."
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3. Fury in Egypt as IS 'beheads 21 Christians' in Libya
http://news.yahoo.com/says-beheaded-egyptian-copts-libya-193850727.html
By Abdelhalim Abdallah, Samer Al-Atrush
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's leader vowed to punish the "murderers" responsible for the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians after the Islamic State group in Libya released a video on Sunday purportedly showing the mass killing.
A visibly angry President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt "reserves the right to respond in a suitable way and time" in a televised speech, and declared seven days of mourning after the video was distributed by jihadists on social media.
The footage shows 21 handcuffed hostages wearing orange jumpsuits being beheaded by their black-suited captors on a beach the group said was in the Libyan province of Tripoli.
In the latest issue of the IS online magazine Dabiq, the group had said the same number of Egyptian hostages were being held in Libya.
The Egyptian leader also called a meeting of a top security body in Cairo that includes his defence and interior ministers along with top military figures.
IS militants have been hammered by US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria after taking over swathes of the two countries, and the group has active affiliates in Egypt and Libya.
The Coptic Church issued a statement saying it was "confident" the Christians' killers would be brought to justice as it confirmed those beheaded were Egyptian Copts.
Al-Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Islamic learning, denounced the "barbaric" killings.
Egyptian state television broadcast some of the footage from the IS video without showing the beheadings but depicting the hostages being marched along by their captors on a beach.
Egypt last year denied reports of having carried out air strikes on Islamists in Libya, but US officials said its ally the United Arab Emirates carried out the strikes using Egyptian bases.
French President Francois Hollande, whose government is poised to sign a deal selling Egypt advanced Rafale fighter jets on Monday, expressed his "concern at the expansion of Daesh in Libya," using another name for the Islamic State group.
Libya's embattled parliament, which is locked in a conflict with Islamist militias, expressed its condolences in a statement and called on the world to "show solidarity with Libya" against militants.
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4. US helped Israel with H-bomb - 1980s report declassified
http://rt.com/usa/232203-us-israel-nuclear-weapon/
Extracts:
Conceding to a federal lawsuit, the US government agreed to release a 1987 Defense Department report detailing US assistance to Israel in its development of a hydrogen bomb, which skirted international standards.
The 386-page report, 'Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,' likens top Israeli nuclear facilities to the Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories that were key in the development of US nuclear weaponry.
Israelis are "developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level," Â said the report, the release of which comes before Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech in front of the US Congress in which he will oppose any deal that allows Iran's legal nuclear program to persist.
"I am struck by the degree of cooperation on specialized war making devices between Israel and the US," Roger Mattson, a formerly of the Atomic Energy Commission's technical staff, said of the report, according to Courthouse News.
The report's release earlier this week was initiated by a Freedom of Information Act request made three years ago by Grant Smith, director of the Washington think tank Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. Smith filed a lawsuit in September in order to compel the Pentagon to substantially address the request.
"It's our basic position that in 1987 the Department of Defense discovered that Israel had a nuclear weapons program, detailed it and then has covered it up for 25 years in violation of the Symington and Glenn amendments, costing taxpayers $86 billion," Smith said during a hearing in late 2014 before Judge Tanya Chutkan in US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Smith described in his federal court complaint how those federal laws were violated by the US in the midst of Israel's budding nuclear program.
"The Symington Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits most U.S. foreign aid to any country found trafficking in nuclear enrichment equipment or technology outside international safeguards," Smith wrote.
"The Glenn Amendment of 1977 calls for an end to U.S. foreign aid to countries that import nuclear reprocessing technology."
In November, Judge Chutkan asked government lawyers resistant to the report's release why it had taken years for the government to prepare the report for public consumption.
The report's authors Edwin Townsley and Clarence Robinson found that Israel to had Category 1 capability regarding its anti-tactical ballistic missile and "Star Wars" weapons programs.
"As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the U.S. [w]as in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960," the report said. "It should be noted that the Israelis are developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs."
In a statement on the report's release, Smith said Thursday, "Informal and Freedom of Information Act release of such information is rare. Under two known gag orders -- punishable by imprisonment -- U.S. security-cleared government agency employees and contractors may not disclose that Israel has a nuclear weapons program."
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5. Copenhagen Terrorist Had 'History of Violent Crime'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191386#.VOG5wZtd4dU
By Ben Ariel
Extracts:
Omar El-Hussein, the suspected gunman behind double shootings in Copenhagen on Saturday, has been identified by Danish media as a 22-year-old with 'a history of violent crime' who had only been freed from jail two weeks ago.
Investigators said the man, who was born and raised in Denmark, had a history of assault and weapons offences and that they were trying to ascertain if he had help from any accomplices.
In a killing spree that bore a striking resemblance to the Paris attacks, the gunman first fired off a volley of bullets on Saturday at a cultural center where a panel discussion about Islam and free speech was taking place.
A 55-year-old man identified by the media was documentary film maker Finn Norgaard was killed at the event, which was also attended by Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist behind a controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, and the French ambassador.
In the second attack, the gunman opened fire outside the city's main synagogue while a bar mitzvah was being celebrated, killing a 37-year-old Jewish man named Dan Uzan who was guarding the building.
Five police officers were also wounded in the attacks that stoked fear in the city of about one million people, one of the world's safest capitals.
Danish police said the gunman was already "on the radar" of the intelligence services and that they were looking into the possibility he had travelled to conflict zones such as Syria and Iraq.
A photo of the suspect issued after the cultural center attack showed him wearing a black puffer jacket and a maroon balaclava and carrying a black bag.