Declaring 'new beginning,' EU, Turkey seal migrant deal

Sun Nov 29, 2015 | 3:16 PM EST Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussel, Belgium, at which the EU will seek Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeastern Europe, November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussel, Belgium, at which the EU will seek Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeaste... Reuters/Yves Herman + Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk attend a news conference after a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk attend a news conference after a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 201... Reuters/Yves Herman + (L to R) Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk to French President Francois Hollande during an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Eric Vidal (L to R) Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk to French President Francois Hollande during... Reuters/Eric Vidal + Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann (L), Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) talk before a group photo at an EU-Turkey summit, in which the EU seeks Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeastern Europe, in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann (L), Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) talk before a group photo at an EU-Turkey summit, ... Reuters/Yves Herman + Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) is welcomed by European Council President Donald Tusk at the start of an EU-Turkey summit, in which the EU seeks Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeastern Europe, in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Thierry Monasse/Pool Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) is welcomed by European Council President Donald Tusk at the start of an EU-Turkey summit, in which the EU seeks Turkish help to s... Reuters/Thierry Monasse/Pool + (L to R) German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and French President Francois Hollande during an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Eric Vidal (L to R) German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and French President Francois Hollande during an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Bel... Reuters/Eric Vidal + German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium, November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Eric Vidal German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium, November 29, 2015. Reuters/Eric Vidal Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussel, Belgium, at which the EU will seek Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeastern Europe, November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman Greek Prime Minister AlexisTsipras arrives at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussel, Belgium, at which the EU will seek Turkish help to slow the influx of migrants into southeaste... Reuters/Yves Herman + Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk attend a news conference after a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and European Council President Donald Tusk attend a news conference after a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, Belgium November 29, 201... Reuters/Yves Herman + › Declaring 'new beginning,' EU, Turkey seal migrant...X By Francesco Guarascio and Robin Emmott BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey will help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU in a deal struck on Sunday that the Turkish prime minister called a "new beginning" for the uneasy neighbors. Leaders of the 28 European Union states met Turkish premier Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels on Sunday evening to give their collective political blessing to an agreement hammered out by diplomats over the past few weeks. A key element is 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in EU aid for the 2.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, intended to raise living standards and so persuade more to stay put rather than attempt often perilous crossings to the Greek islands and the EU. "The EU is committed to provide an initial 3 billion euro of additional resources," the EU and Turkish leaders said in a joint statement. "The need for and nature of this funding will be reviewed in the light of the developing situation." The final wording was a compromise between the EU, which offered 3 billion euros over two years, and Turkey, which had pushed for the same amount annually. Now the money, as French President Francois Hollande said, will paid out bit by bit, giving a possibility of a total more or less than 3 billion. Also on offer to Ankara, which has driven a hard bargain but wants to revive relations with its European neighbors as it faces trouble in the Middle East and from Russia, is a "re-energized" negotiating process on Turkish membership of the EU -- even if few on either side expect it to join soon. And many Turks could also benefit from visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen zone within a year if Turkey meets conditions on tightening its borders in the east to Asian migrants and moves other benchmarks on reducing departures to Europe. "Today is a historic day in our accession process to the EU," Davutoglu told reporters on arrival. "I am grateful to all European leaders for this new beginning." DESPERATION Aware of a sense of desperation in Europe for a solution to a crisis that has called into question its own cohesion and the future of its Schengen passport-free travel zone, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has driven a hard bargain. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Related Coverage Europe, Turkey agree migration deal, leaders say The deal involves Turkish help, including through naval patrols and border checks, in handling the flow of migrants to the EU, expected to reach 1.5 million people this year alone, and the EU offering cash and restarting talks on EU accession. "Results must be achieved in particular in stemming the influx of irregular migrants," the joint statement read. "Both sides will, as agreed and with immediate effect, step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of international protection, preventing travel to Turkey and the EU ... and swiftly returning migrants who are not in need of international protection to their countries of origin." Summit chairman Tusk stressed that the meeting was primarily about migration rather than improving Turkish ties, which have been strained in recent years as Erdogan has used a powerful electoral mandate to consolidate his power. Critics say he has abused the rights of opponents, media and minority Kurds. "Our main goal is to stem the flow of migrants to Europe," Tusk said. The Europeans, none more so than German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are under pressure to manage the biggest influx of people since World War Two, the bulk of them to Germany. The crisis has helped populist opponents and set nations against each other, straining the open borders of the EU. Before the summit itself, Merkel met leaders of some other EU states which have taken in many refugees and said afterwards they had discussed how they might resettle more of them directly from Syria rather than wait for families to reach the EU via dangerous smuggling routes across the Mediterranean. She said they had discussed no figures. German media reports had spoken earlier of up to 400,000 Syrians being resettled. Measures the EU has taken have done little to control migrant movements. While winter weather may lower the numbers for a few months, it is also worsening the plight of tens of thousands stuck by closing borders in the Balkans. Sunday's summit, called just days ago as Brussels tried to clinch a deal offered over a month ago, has been complicated by Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border. Related Coverage Merkel confirms 3 billion euro deal with Turkey on migrants Highlights: Leaders' comments at EU-Turkey summit That has complicated European efforts to re-engage with Moscow, despite a continued frost over Ukraine, in order to try to advance a peace in Syria that could end the flight of refugees and contain Islamic State. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said tension between Ankara and Moscow over the downing of the warplane were of "enormous concern". The EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the incident should not affect the prospect of finding a political deal on Syria. Islamic State's attack on Paris on Nov. 13 has heightened calls in the EU for more controls on people arriving from Syria. Merkel has forced the pace in securing a deal with Turkey that has left critics of Erdogan's human rights policies uneasy. The German leader defended her stance: "If we are strategic partners, we must of course discuss openly with each other those issues on which we have questions, concerns or criticism." (Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, Gabriela Baczynska, Jan Strupczewski, Alastair Macdonald and Ercan Gurses in Brussels; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Hugh Lawson)

Otto von Bismarck: US & its allies are planting the seeds of their own destruction in the end.

Otto von Bismarck From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Bismarck (disambiguation). Otto von Bismarck Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1990-023-06A, Otto von Bismarck.jpg 1st Chancellor of Germany In office 21 March 1871 – 20 March 1890 Monarch Wilhelm I Friedrich III Wilhelm II Deputy Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode Karl Heinrich von Boetticher Preceded by Post created Succeeded by Leo von Caprivi Minister President of Prussia In office 9 November 1873 – 20 March 1890 Monarch Wilhelm I Friedrich III Wilhelm II Preceded by Albrecht von Roon Succeeded by Leo von Caprivi In office 23 September 1862 – 1 January 1873 Monarch Wilhelm I Preceded by Adolf zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen Succeeded by Albrecht von Roon Chancellor of the North German Confederation In office 1 July 1867 – 21 March 1871 President Wilhelm I Preceded by Post created Succeeded by Post abolished Foreign Minister of Prussia In office 23 November 1862 – 20 March 1890 Prime Minister Himself Albrecht von Roon Preceded by Albrecht von Bernstorff Succeeded by Leo von Caprivi Personal details Born 1 April 1815 Schönhausen, Prussia (in modern Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) Died 30 July 1898 (aged 83) Friedrichsruh, Schleswig-Holstein, German Empire Political party Independent Spouse(s) Johanna von Puttkamer (1847–1894; her death) Children Marie Herbert Wilhelm Alma mater University of Göttingen University of Berlin University of Greifswald[1] Profession Lawyer Religion Lutheranism Signature Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890. In the 1860s he engineered a series of wars that unified the German states (excluding Austria) into a powerful German Empire under Prussian leadership. With that accomplished by 1871 he skillfully used balance of power diplomacy to preserve German hegemony in a Europe which, despite many disputes and war scares, remained at peace. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, it was Bismarck who "remained undisputed world champion at the game of multilateral diplomatic chess for almost twenty years after 1871, [and] devoted himself exclusively, and successfully, to maintaining peace between the powers."[2] In 1862, King Wilhelm I appointed Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia, a position he would hold until 1890 (except for a short break in 1873). He provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria and France, aligning the smaller German states behind Prussia in defeating his arch-enemy France. In 1871 he formed the German Empire with himself as Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia. His diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the "Iron Chancellor." German unification and its rapid economic growth was the foundation to his foreign policy. He disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when it was demanded by both elite and mass opinion. Juggling a very complex interlocking series of conferences, negotiations and alliances, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain Germany's position and used the balance of power to keep Europe at peace in the 1870s and 1880s. He was the master of complex politics at home. He created the first welfare state in the modern world, with the goal of gaining working class support that might otherwise go to his Socialist enemies. In the 1870s he allied himself with the Liberals (who were low-tariff and anti-Catholic) and fought the Catholic Church in a culture war. He lost that battle as the Catholics responded by forming a powerful Centre party and using universal male suffrage to gain a bloc of seats. Bismarck then reversed himself, ended the culture war, broke with the Liberals, imposed tariffs, and formed a political alliance with the Centre Party to fight the Socialists. A devout Lutheran, he was loyal to his king, who in turn gave Bismarck his full support, against the advice of his wife and his heir. While Germany's parliament was elected by universal male suffrage, it did not have real control of the government. Bismarck distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power in the hands of a traditional Junker elite that comprised the landed nobility of the east. Under Wilhelm I, Bismarck largely controlled domestic and foreign affairs, until he was removed by young Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. Bismarck, an aristocratic Junker himself, had an extremely aggressive and domineering personality. He displayed a violent temper and kept his power by threatening to resign time and again. He possessed not only a long-term national and international vision but also the short-term ability to juggle many complex developments simultaneously. As the leader of what historians call "revolutionary conservatism,"[3] Bismarck became a hero to German nationalists; they built hundreds of monuments glorifying the iconic symbol of powerful conservative leadership. Historians generally praise him as a statesman of moderation and balance who kept the peace in Europe, and was primarily responsible for the unification of Germany and building its world-renowned bureaucracy and army. =============================================== Secret Stupid Saudi-US Deal on Syria October 27, 2014 eClinik Learning 4 Comments The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, is said to establish a Caliphate which would include Israel as an autonomous region known as Greater Israel. We have seen how the US Air Force planes were deliberately air-dropping critical logistics into ISIL controlled territories. The world should be watching what would happen in Baghdad as the US troops formally turn control of the city over to the ISIL terror group of the CIA in a few days from now. Palestine should be returned to Palestinians. Syria should be allowed to determine which way they want to go. The Secret Stupid Saudi-US Deal on Syria. Oil Gas Pipeline War The Kerry-Abdullah Secret Deal By ​​​​F. William Engdahl Global Research, October 26, 2014 Boiling Frogs Post The details are emerging of a new secret and quite stupid Saudi-US deal on Syria and the so-called IS. It involves oil and gas control of the entire region and the weakening of Russia and Iran by Saudi Arabian flooding the world market with cheap oil. Details were concluded in the September meeting by US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Saudi King. The unintended consequence will be to push Russia even faster to turn east to China and Eurasia. One of the weirdest anomalies of the recent NATO bombing campaign, allegedly against the ISIS or IS or ISIL or Daash, depending on your preference, is the fact that with major war raging in the world’s richest oil region, the price of crude oil has been dropping, dramatically so. Since June when ISIS suddenly captured the oil-rich region of Iraq around Mosul and Kirkuk, the benchmark Brent price of crude oil dropped some 20% from $112 to about $88. World daily demand for oil has not dropped by 20% however. China oil demand has not fallen 20% nor has US domestic shale oil stock risen by 21%. What has happened is that the long-time US ally inside OPEC, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has been flooding the market with deep discounted oil, triggering a price war within OPEC, with Iran following suit and panic selling short in oil futures markets. The Saudis are targeting sales to Asia for the discounts and in particular, its major Asian customer, China where it is reportedly offering its crude for a mere $50 to $60 a barrel rather than the earlier price of around $100. [1] That Saudi financial discounting operation in turn is by all appearance being coordinated with a US Treasury financial warfare operation, via its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in cooperation with a handful of inside players on Wall Street who control oil derivatives trading. The result is a market panic that is gaining momentum daily. China is quite happy to buy the cheap oil, but her close allies, Russia and Iran, are being hit severely. The deal According to Rashid Abanmy, President of the Riyadh-based Saudi Arabia Oil Policies and Strategic Expectations Center, the dramatic price collapse is being deliberately caused by the Saudis, OPEC’s largest producer. The public reason claimed is to gain new markets in a global market of weakening oil demand. The real reason, according to Abanmy, is to put pressure on Iran on her nuclear program, and on Russia to end her support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria.[2] When combined with the financial losses of Russian state natural gas sales to Ukraine and prospects of a US-instigated cutoff of the transit of Russian gas to the huge EU market this winter as EU stockpiles become low, the pressure on oil prices hits Moscow doubly. More than 50% of Russian state revenue comes from its export sales of oil and gas. The US-Saudi oil price manipulation is aimed at destabilizing several strong opponents of US globalist policies. Targets include Iran and Syria, both allies of Russia in opposing a US sole Superpower. The principal target, however, is Putin’s Russia, the single greatest threat today to that Superpower hegemony. The strategy is similar to what the US did with Saudi Arabia in 1986 when they flooded the world with Saudi oil, collapsing the price to below $10 a barrel and destroying the economy of then-Soviet ally, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and, ultimately, of the Soviet economy, paving the way for the fall of the Soviet Union. Today, the hope is that a collapse of Russian oil revenues, combined with select pin-prick sanctions designed by the US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence will dramatically weaken Putin’s enormous domestic support and create conditions for his ultimate overthrow. It is doomed to fail for many reasons, not the least, because Putin’s Russia has taken major strategic steps together with China and other nations to lessen its dependence on the West. In fact the oil weapon is accelerating recent Russian moves to focus its economic power on national interests and lessen dependence on the Dollar system. If the dollar ceases being the currency of world trade, especially oil trade, the US Treasury faces financial catastrophe. For this reason, I call the Kerry-Abdullah oil war a very stupid tactic. The Kerry-Abdullah secret deal On September 11, US Secretary of State Kerry met Saudi King Abdullah at his palace on the Red Sea. The King invited former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Bandar to attend. There a deal was hammered out which saw Saudi support for the Syrian airstrikes against ISIS on condition Washington backed the Saudis in toppling Assad, a firm ally of Russia and de facto of Iran and an obstacle to Saudi and UAE plans to control the emerging EU natural gas market and destroy Russia’s lucrative EU trade. A report in the Wall Street Journal noted there had been “months of behind-the-scenes work by the US and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State, but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh US commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority.” [3] For the Saudis the war is between two competing age-old vectors of Islam. Saudi Arabia, home to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, claims de facto supremacy in the Islamic world of Sunni Islam. The Saudi Sunni form is ultra-conservative Wahhabism, named for an 18th Century Bedouin Islamic fundamentalist or Salafist named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The Taliban derive from Wahhabism with the aid of Saudi-financed religious instruction. The Gulf Emirates and Kuwait also adhere to the Sunni Wahhabism of the Saudis, as does the Emir of Qatar. Iran on the other hand historically is the heart of the smaller branch of Islam, the Shi’ite. Iraq’s population is some 61% majority Shi’ite. Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad is a member of a satellite of the Shi’ite branch known as Alawite. Some 23% of Turkey is also Alawite Muslim. To complicate the picture more, across a bridge from Saudi Arabia sits the tiny island country, Bahrain where as many as 75% of the population is Shi’ite but the ruling Al-Khalifa family is Sunni and firmly tied to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the richest Saudi oil region is dominated by Shi’ite Muslims who work the oil installations of Ras Tanura. An oil and gas pipeline war These historic fault lines inside Islam which lay dormant, were brought into a state of open warfare with the launching of the US State Department and CIA’s Islamic Holy War, otherwise known as the Arab Spring. Washington neo-conservatives embedded inside the Obama Administration in a form of “Deep State” secret network, and their allied media such as the Washington Post, advocated US covert backing of a pet CIA project known as the Muslim Brotherhood. As I detail in my most recent book, Amerikas’ Heiliger Krieg, the CIA had cultivated ties to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood death cult since the early 1950’s. Now if we map the resources of known natural gas reserves in the entire Persian Gulf region, the motives of the Saudi-led Qatar and UAE in financing with billions of dollars the opposition to Assad, including the Sunni ISIS, becomes clearer. Natural gas has become the favored “clean energy” source for the 21st Century and the EU is the world’s largest growth market for gas, a major reason Washington wants to break the Gazprom-EU supply dependency to weaken Russia and keep control over the EU via loyal proxies like Qatar. The world’s largest known natural gas reservoir sits in the middle of the Persian Gulf straddling part in the territorial waters of Qatar and part in Iran. The Iranian part is called North Pars. In 2006 China’s state-owned CNOOC signed an agreement with Iran to develop North Pars and build LNG infrastructure to bring the gas to China.[4] The Qatar side of the Persian Gulf, called North Field, contains the world’s third largest known natural gas reserves behind Russia and Iran. In July 2011, the governments of Syria, Iran and Iraq signed an historic gas pipeline energy agreement which went largely unnoticed in the midst of the NATO-Saudi-Qatari war to remove Assad. The pipeline, envisioned to cost $10 billion and take three years to complete, would run from the Iranian Port Assalouyeh near the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, to Damascus in Syria via Iraq territory. The agreement would make Syria the center of assembly and production in conjunction with the reserves of Lebanon. This is a geopolitically strategic space that geographically opens for the first time, extending from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.[5] As Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar put it, “The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline – if it’s ever built – would solidify a predominantly Shi’ite axis through an economic, steel umbilical cord.”[6] Shortly after signing with Iran and Iraq, on August 16, 2011, Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Ministry of Oil announced the discovery of a gas well in the Area of Qarah in the Central Region of Syria near Homs. Gazprom, with Assad in power, would be a major investor or operator of the new gas fields in Syria. [7] Iran ultimately plans to extend the pipeline from Damascus to Lebanon’s Mediterranean port where it would be delivered to the huge EU market. Syria would buy Iranian gas along with a current Iraqi agreement to buy Iranian gas from Iran’s part of South Pars field.[8] Qatar, today the world’s largest exporter of LNG, largely to Asia, wants the same EU market that Iran and Syria eye. For that, they would build pipelines to the Mediterranean. Here is where getting rid of the pro-Iran Assad is essential. In 2009 Qatar approached Bashar al-Assad to propose construction of a gas pipeline from Qatar’s north Field through Syria on to Turkey and to the EU. Assad refused, citing Syria’s long friendly relations with Russia and Gazprom. That refusal combined with the Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline agreement in 2011 ignited the full-scale Saudi and Qatari assault on Assad’s power, financing al Qaeda terrorists, recruits of Jihadist fanatics willing to kill Alawite and Shi’ite “infidels” for $100 a month and a Kalishnikov. The Washington neo-conservative warhawks in and around the Obama White House, along with their allies in the right-wing Netanyahu government, were cheering from the bleachers as Syria went up in flames after spring 2011. Today the US-backed wars in Ukraine and in Syria are but two fronts in the same strategic war to cripple Russia and China and to rupture any Eurasian counter-pole to a US-controlled New World Order. In each, control of energy pipelines, this time primarily of natural gas pipelines—from Russia to the EU via Ukraine and from Iran and Syria to the EU via Syria—is the strategic goal. The true aim of the US and Israel backed ISIS is to give the pretext for bombing Assad’s vital grain silos and oil refineries to cripple the economy in preparation for a “Ghaddafi-”style elimination of Russia and China and Iran-ally Bashar al-Assad. In a narrow sense, as Washington neo-conservatives see it, who controls Syria could control the Middle East. And from Syria, gateway to Asia, he will hold the key to Russia House, as well as that of China via the Silk Road. Religious wars have historically been the most savage of all wars and this one is no exception, especially when trillions of dollars in oil and gas revenues are at stake. Why is the secret Kerry-Abdullah deal on Syria reached on September 11 stupid? Because the brilliant tacticians in Washington and Riyadh and Doha and to an extent in Ankara are unable to look at the interconnectedness of all the dis-order and destruction they foment, to look beyond their visions of control of the oil and gas flows as the basis of their illegitimate power. They are planting the seeds of their own destruction in the end. William Engdahl is author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics in the New World Order. He is a contributing author at BFP and may be contacted through his website at www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net where this article was originally published. Notes: [1] M. Rochan, Crude Oil Drops Amid Global Demand Concerns, IB Times, October 11, 2014 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/crude-oil-drops-amid-global-demand-concerns-1469524 [2] Nihan Cabbaroglu, Saudi Arabia to pressure Russia Iran with price of oil, 10 October 2014, Turkish Anadolu Agency, http://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/402343–saudi-arabia-to-pressure-russia-iran-with-price-of-oil [3] Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes, Deal With Saudis Paved Way for Syrian Airstrikes: Talks With Saudi Arabia Were Linchpin in U.S. Efforts to Get Arab States Into Fight Against Islamic State, Wall Street Journal, September. 24, 2014, http://online.wsj.com/articles/deal-with-saudis-paved-way-for-syrian-airstrikes-1411605329?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories [4] POGC, North Pars Gas Field, Pars Oil and Gas Company website, http://www.pogc.ir/NorthParsGasField/tabid/155/Default.aspx [5] Imad Fawzi Shueibi , War Over Gas–Struggle over the Middle East: Gas Ranks First, 17 April, 2012. http://www.voltairenet.org/article173718.html [6] Pepe Escobar, Why Qatar Wants to Invade Syria, Asia Times, September 27, 2012, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32576.htm [7] Ibid. [8] F. William Engdahl, Syria Turkey Israel and the Greater Middle East Energy War, Global Research, October 11, 2012, http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-turkey-israel-and-the-greater-middle-east-energy-war/5307902 source » Would you like to like to have your own eClinik at home? You can easily defeat cancer, AIDS and help your body cure all known and unknown illnesses without using drugs, at the comfort of your own home. This is our experience. Find out more about it here. Every download of our eBook, Towards Healthcare Emancipation – Premium Edition, provides additional funding to our next project. If you haven’t done so, please like our FB page to encourage others to learn more about our work. Thank you very much for your valuable support. Mabuhay! ==========================================================

Exclusive: As easy targets thin, Syria air strikes by U.S. allies plunge

Exclusive: As easy targets thin, Syria air strikes by U.S. allies plunge Wed, Dec 17 18:57 PM EST image By Phil Stewart and Yara Bayoumy WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - As U.S. fighter jets pound Islamic State targets in Syria, Washington's coalition allies appear increasingly absent from the air war. Although President Barack Obama's administration announced the Syrian air strikes three months ago as a joint campaign by Washington and its Arab allies, nearly 97 percent of the strikes in December have been carried out by the United States alone, according to U.S. military data provided to Reuters. The data shows that U.S. allies have carried out just two air strikes in Syria in the first half of December, compared with 62 by the United States. That accentuates a shift that began shortly after the start of the campaign in late September, when U.S. allies carried out 38 percent of the strikes. The percentage quickly dropped to around 8 percent in October and 9 percent in November, according to Reuters calculations based on the data. U.S. officials are keen to prevent the coalition from fraying over concerns about the air campaign's direction. Some allies have long worried the air strikes might unintentionally bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by striking a common enemy, sources said. Others in the region are also saying privately that the U.S.-led campaign against Sunni extremists needs to do more to help Sunni Muslims. However, officials in the United States and the region insist that political tensions simmering within the coalition had nothing to do with dwindling coalition strikes. "It's a question of targets. From a military perspective, the cooperation is extensive and deep," said a source familiar with Gulf strategy in the coalition. Two factors are at play: a decline in the overall pace of strikes and fewer easier-to-hit fixed Islamic State targets after nearly three months of bombings, U.S. officials and Gulf sources say. Such fixed targets were initially bombed by Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates while the United States has from the start focused on more difficult ones, using precision-guided munitions to avoid civilian casualties. "There are simply less (fixed) targets," said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "From our point of view, that's a good thing. It means that the strikes are having an impact." Just under half of the 65 non-U.S. coalition air strikes in Syria tallied until 3 a.m. on Dec. 15 took place in the first nine days of the air campaign in late September, according to U.S. military data. U.S. allies carried out 20 air strikes in October and just 14 in November. The only two strikes by Washington's allies this month targeted an electronic warfare garrison near the city of Raqqa on Dec. 7, a U.S. official said. MORE CAPABILITY, FEWER DOUBTS IN IRAQ The drop in air strikes by coalition partners in Syria underscores the contrast with the campaign in Iraq. Across the border, the United States has allies with highly trained and equipped air forces, including Britain, France, Canada and Australia. They see the air campaign in Iraq on far more solid legal ground, since they are there at the invitation of Baghdad. Syria, on the other hand, is considered off-limits by many allies, particularly those in Europe, because of the Syrian government's public opposition to the U.S.-led air strikes. "It's legal issues. It's concerns that our European partners and others have about where Syria is going," one U.S. official said. "So the reality is, even though we say the problem knows no border, by definition there's a distinction." The United States intensified its campaign in Syria in October, carrying out 233 strikes, as the battle over the Kurdish border town of Kobani became a focal point. It carried out another 146 in November. In total, the United States carried out 488 air strikes in Syria through Dec. 15, according to U.S. military data. Making the strikes harder, the Islamic State is operating less out in the open and increasingly establishing itself "in or near civilian-use facilities," one U.S. official said. A diplomat in the Gulf described the allies' role as largely symbolic, given the scale and complexity of U.S. operations. "There are targets and all involved know the U.S. is more efficient at hitting them. Now is not the time for an 'oops' moment," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Lieutenant General James Terry, who leads the coalition effort against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, told reporters that the strikes had hurt the Islamic State. But the view from the ground is mixed. Assad said this month the U.S.-led campaign had made no difference and Islamic State supporters in Syria say the air strikes have helped the group win support among residents and recruit fighters. Even within the U.S.-led coalition in Syria there is concern that the strikes against the Islamic State have helped Assad by allowing his forces to step up air attacks on other rebel groups, some of whom are sympathetic to Washington. (Additional reporting by William Maclean, Angus McDowall and Amena Bakr; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) =============================================== ISIL executes 150 Iraqi women for not marrying militants The file photo shows ISIL Takfiri terrorists before executing a number of Syrian soldiers. Wed Dec 17, 2014 2:25AM GMT Related Interviews: US ‘won’t censure’ Turkey repression ‘Evidence proves US backing ISIL’ Related Viewpoints: Canadians ‘fall for war justification’ The ISIL terrorist group has executed 150 women in the Western Iraqi province of Anbar for refusing to marry Takfiri militants. "At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah… after they refused to accept jihad marriage," read a statement issued by Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights on Tuesday. "Many families were also forced to migrate from the province’s northern town of al-Wafa after hundreds of residents received death threats," the statement added. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, many children lost their lives after their families took refuge in the deserts in an attempt to escape from Takfiri terrorists. The issue of the so-called Jihad al-Nikah (sexual jihad) was first brought up last September when it was revealed that a number of Sunni girls had travelled to Syria to marry Takfiri militants. This is while the real Islam in no way approves of the so-called Jihad al-Nikah. Anbar province, which borders conflict-ravaged Syria, has been a major stronghold of the ISIL Takfiri militants and continues to be largely controlled by the terror group. The ISIL terrorists control large areas across northern and western Iraq as well as eastern Syria. The Takfiri militants have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Crucifixions and Gruesome Beheadings: Fear of Islamic State make Gulf monarchies set aside differences

ISIS daily profits from oil, theft, human trafficking exceed $3mn – report Published time: September 14, 2014 18:24 Get short URL Reuters / Alaa Al-Marjani Reuters / Alaa Al-Marjani Trends ISIS in Iraq Tags Conflict, Iraq, Military, Syria, Terrorism, Violence Islamic State radicals gain more than $3 million per day just from oil sales, while also earning huge sums from human trafficking and extortion, report US intelligence officials and experts. They are wealthier than any other terror group in history. The Islamic State group which seized huge terrorizes in Iraq and Syria, is now controlling eleven oil fields in both countries, US analysts told AP. They added that the militants are selling oil and other products via old established networks under the noses of Kurdish, Turkish and Jordanian authorities. Islamic State claims execution of UK hostage David Haines, releases video The resources of the Islamic State (IS) exceed that “of any other terrorist group in history,” a US intelligence official told the agency on condition of anonymity. According to the analysts, the illegal oil is usually transported in tanker trucks. “There's a lot of money to be made,” said Dr. Denise Natali, who worked in Kurdistan as an American humanitarian official and is now a senior research fellow at National Defense University. “The Kurds say they have made an attempt to close it down, but you pay off a border guard, you pay off somebody else and you get stuff through,” she added. IS reportedly gets for its smuggled oil about $25 to $60 per barrel. Normally the same amount of oil costs about $100. However the total profit of the extremist group exceeds $3 million a day, said Luay al-Khatteeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center in Qatar. A general view of an oil refinery in Al-Jbessa oil field in Al-Shaddadeh town of Al-Hasakah gorvernate. (Reuters / Stringer) The group also exports illegally the antiquities out of Iraq to Turkey and thus gets hundreds of millions of dollars, added al-Khatteeb. Millions more come from human trafficking as the militants are selling women and children as sex slaves. Other sources of income include extortion payments, ransom from kidnapped hostages, and any kind of theft from the areas taken by IS. “It's cash-raising activities resemble those of a mafia-like organization,” another US intelligence official said, again on condition of anonymity. “They are well-organized, systematic and enforced through intimidation and violence.” ISIS ‘making millions’ out of stolen oil revenues in Iraq According to US officials, the militants started imposing taxes on all kinds of economic activity in the city of Mosul, northern Iraq, even before it was seized by them in June. They threatened death penalties to those who were reluctant to pay. From Mosul alone, IS was reaping $8 million a month from extortion, said an analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations. When the group seized the city, it grabbed millions of dollars in cash from banks, though not the hundreds of millions as initially reported, US intelligence officials say. A general view is seen of Mosul Dam in northern Iraq (Reuters/Youssef Boudlal) A general view is seen of Mosul Dam in northern Iraq (Reuters/Youssef Boudlal) The IS fighters managed to take control of the Mosul Dam in early August. However, persistent US strikes forced the militants out of the area, marking the first significant defeat for them since the US re-entered the conflict with airstrikes. Islamic State jihadists seize Iraq's largest dam, 3 towns in offensive vs Kurds The Islamic State group “has managed to successfully translate territorial control in northern Syria and portions of Iraq into a means of revenue generation,” said one more US intelligence official. The border between Iraq and Turkey has long been a haven for smugglers, and that’s why the group has so much illegal activities, claim the analysts, adding that generations have illicitly moved various goods through the region. ‘Neither Islamic, nor state’: UK Muslim leaders object to extremist group’s name In the meantime, the US officials reportedly noticed one positive tendency as the IS violent tactics have subsequently drawn worldwide attention and funding has diminished. === U.S. sees Middle East help fighting IS, Britain cautious after beheading Sun, Sep 14 20:42 PM EDT image 1 of 6 By Will Dunham and Andrew Osborn WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Washington said countries in the Middle East had offered to join air strikes against Islamic State militants and Australia said it would send troops, but Britain held back even after the group beheaded a British hostage and threatened to kill another. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for U.S. efforts to build a coalition to fight the Islamic State militants who have grabbed territory in Syria and Iraq. The United States resumed air strikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, fearful the militants would break the country up and use it as a base for attacks on the West. The addition of Arab fighter jets would greatly strengthen the credibility of what is a risky and complicated campaign. "We have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires," Kerry said. "And we also have a growing number of people who are prepared to do all the other things," he said in remarks broadcast on Sunday on the CBS program "Face the Nation." Offers of Arab air participation have been made both to U.S. Central Command overseeing the American air campaign and to the Iraqi government, a senior State Department official said. The official said the offers were not limited to air strikes on Iraq. "Some have indicated for quite a while a willingness to do them elsewhere," the official said. "We have to sort through all of that because you can’t just go and bomb something." As of Saturday, U.S. fighter jets had conducted 160 air strikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq. The United States will present a legal case before expanding them into Syria, U.S. officials said, justifying them largely on the basis of defending Iraq from militants who have taken shelter in neighboring Syria during its three-year civil war. Australia became the first country to detail troop numbers and aircraft to fight the militants in Iraq. It said it would send a 600-strong force and eight fighter jets to the region but did not intend to operate in Syria. Russia, at odds with the West over Ukraine, has said any air strikes in Syria would be an act of aggression without the consent of President Bashar al-Assad or an international mandate. Britain has often been the first country to join U.S. military action overseas and is under pressure to get much tougher with IS after video footage of the killing of Briton David Haines by the militants was released on Saturday. In footage consistent with the filmed executions of two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month, they also threatened to kill another British hostage. Speaking after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency response committee in London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing of Haines, a 44 year-old Scottish aid worker, callous and brutal and hailed him as a "British hero." "We will hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes," he said, calling IS "the embodiment of evil" and saying his government was prepared "to take whatever steps are necessary" against the militants. SUNNI 'ANVIL' But he did not announce any air strikes, mindful of war-weary public opinion, parliament's rejection last year of air strikes on Syria, and sensitivities surrounding Scotland's independence referendum on Thursday. U.S. allies are skeptical of how far Washington will commit to a conflict in which nearly every country in the region has a stake, set against the backdrop of Islam's 1,300-year-old rift between Sunnis and Shi'ites. Many fear there is not enough emphasis on ensuring the Iraqi government is strong and united enough to overcome sectarian divisions and run the country effectively after any intervention. Britain and the United States have ruled out sending ground troops back into Iraq and Kerry did not say which countries had offered. "We're not looking to put troops on the ground," he said. "There are some who have offered to do so, but we are not looking for that at this moment anyway." On the CNN program "State of the Union," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was asked if the coalition would need ground troops beyond opposition forces in Syria and Kurdish and government forces in Iraq. "Ultimately to destroy ISIL we do need to have a force, an anvil against which they will be pushed - ideally Sunni forces," he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. 'EXTREMELY ENCOURAGED' On Thursday, Kerry won the backing for a "coordinated military campaign" from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar. "This is a strategy coming together as the coalition comes together and the countries declare what they are prepared to do," Kerry said in the interview, taped on Saturday in Egypt. "I've been extremely encouraged to hear from all of the people that I've been meeting with about their readiness and willingness to participate," Kerry added. France has offered to take part in air strikes in Iraq and is expected to give more details this week on what it is willing to do, although its financial resources and forces are already stretched with more than 5,000 soldiers in West Africa. Michael McCaul, a Republican who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, told the same CBS program that Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan told him "he is ready to put his troops into Syria to fight ISIS". Washington could also try to persuade Egypt to put troops in Syria," McCaul said. John Kerry will meet British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond during a conference on Iraq in Paris on Monday. The conference brings Iraqi authorities together with about 30 countries and organizations to coordinate their response to Islamic State. “It will also be the first time to really gauge what Russia thinks and is ready to do,” a French diplomat said. The diplomat said Syria was a different case. “The situation is not the same either legally or militarily. We do not want to strengthen Assad, so we have to be sure that strikes there don’t do that,” the diplomat said. “We are ready to help Iraq’s government, which has asked for our help, but not Assad’s dictatorship." (Additional reporting by Jason Szep and John Irish in Paris, Timothy Gardner in Washington, Morag MacKinnon in Perth, Australia and William Maclean in Dubai; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Anna Willard, Peter Cooney and Mohammad Zargham) ============ INSIGHT-Islamic State's financial independence poses quandary for its foes Thu, Sep 11 01:00 AM EDT * Islamic State relies on mixture of taxation, oil sales * Hardline group turns away from private donor route * Militants control commercial centres to generate funding * Focus on blocking external funds will do little, for now By Raheem Salman and Yara Bayoumy BAGHDAD/DUBAI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Sometimes they came pretending to buy things. Sometimes they texted, sometimes they called, but the message was always the same: "Give us money." Months before they took control of the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, Islamic State militants were already busy collecting money to finance their campaign of setting up a 7th century-style caliphate. The owner of a Mosul grocery store recounted how, when he hesitated to pay, militants exploded a bomb outside his shop as a warning. "If a person still refused, they kidnapped him and asked his family to pay ransom," he said. The shopkeeper, who declined to be identified out of concern for his safety, said he had paid the militants $100 a month six or seven times this year. In return, he was given a receipt that says: "Received from Mr. ...., the amount of ...., as support to the Mujahideen." The shop keeper's tale illustrates how Islamic State has long been systematically collecting funds for a land grab that already includes a stretch of northern Iraq and Syria. Another Mosul worker corroborated the account of IS tactics. "The tax system was well-organised. They took money from small merchants, petrol station owners, generator owners, small factories, big companies, even pharmacists and doctors," said the shop owner who, out of frustration and fear, closed his store and is now trying to make a living as a taxi driver. Learning from their previous incarnation as the Islamic State of Iraq, when they received money from foreign fighters, Islamic State has almost weaned itself off private funds from sympathetic individual donors in the Gulf. Such money flows have come under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Treasury. Instead the group has formalised a system of internal financing that includes an Islamic form of taxation, looting and most significantly, oil sales, to run their 'state' effectively. This suggests it will be harder to cut the group's access to the local funding that is fuelling its control of territory and strengthening its threat to the Middle East and the West. Nevertheless, financing from Gulf donors may prove more critical in months to come, if U.S. President Barack Obama's mission to "degrade and destroy" the group succeeds and the group loses territory and finds itself looking abroad for funds. CONTROLLING COMMERCIAL CENTRES In the eastern Syrian city of Mayadin, an Islamic State supporter who goes by the name of Abu Hamza al-Masri, said the militants had set up checkpoints in the last few months demanding money from passing cars and trucks. The money purportedly goes into a 'zakat' or 'alms' fund, but Abu Hamza admitted some sums go to pay bonuses or salaries of fighters. "Passengers are asked to open their wallets ... in some instances they are threatened at gunpoint if they resist," said another Syrian secular activist in Deir ez-Zor contacted by Reuters via Whatsapp. But extortion is not Islamic State's top money-spinner. Analysts and activists say the majority of the group's money comes from oil sales to local traders from wells under Islamic State control. Luay Al-Khatteeb, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center who has done extensive research into Islamic State's oil smuggling, says the group now has access to five oilfields in Iraq, each of which have between 40 to 70 oil wells. "They deal with a sophisticated network of middle men, some of whom are affiliated with the (Iraqi) oil companies. They have to pay various checkpoints to move around all these oil convoys and specifically to export the oil to Turkey," Khatteeb said. "It is estimated that now, after recent territory losses, they can produce give or take 25,000 bpd, easily getting them about $1.2 million a day, on and off, even if they sell at a discount price of $25-$60 a barrel," Khatteeb said. This volume of oil production would be on par with a small offshore field on the north slope of Alaska. A high-level Iraqi security official put the number of oilfields under the group's control at four, with a fifth in contest between them and Kurdish peshmerga forces. The group appears to have chosen areas of conquest carefully, with an eye to funding. In the Syrian province of Raqqa, a stronghold of the group, the militants made sure they could effectively manage the area before moving on to conquer territory across the border in Iraq. They moved into Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province in early 2014, before reaching Mosul in June, a major urban centre. "It's about controlling financial nodes. It's controlling commercial centres, it's controlling roads for checkpoints and there's no surprise in that, because there's significant value in that control. And the more finance you earn, the more you can develop. It's a reinforcing circuit," said Tom Keatinge, a finance and security analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). "There's no point in controlling acres of desert. You want to control the financial nodes so that you can continue to expand. You don't want to spread yourself too thin financially before you can operate effectively in an expanded area." LESS RELIANCE ON PRIVATE FUNDS Documents from al Qaeda in Iraq captured by U.S. forces near Iraq's Sinjar town in 2007 included reams of finance and expense reports, showing the group, a predecessor of Islamic State, "relied heavily on voluntary donations", says a 2008 report by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. The report, "Bombers, Bank Accounts and Bleedout", said the "financial reports and receipts in the Sinjar documents show that the Islamic State of Iraq relied on three sources of funding: transfers from other leaders in al Qaeda in Iraq, money foreign suicide bombers brought with them and fundraising from local Iraqis." The study said it was unclear from the documents whether the funds from locals were given voluntarily. The bureaucratic obsession with accounting proved ironic - while it helped the group track funds, the documents, once in the hands of the U.S. military, helped Washington understand how the financing worked - from the operatives who moved money, to the ones who donated money, to how the money was spent. One lesson learned, the Sinjar documents show, was the need for more reliable financing, especially with countries trying harder to disrupt the flow of funds, Keatinge said. "If you have a sophisticated understanding of financial management like Islamic State or al Shabaab in Somalia, you know very well that relying on diaspora or private donations or funds that can be disrupted by the international community is a risky way to go," said Keatinge. By its own admission, Washington realises funds from outside donors are not as significant a threat as their self-financing methods, but the United States and its allies have been slow to move to cut those sources off. "(IS) receives some money from outside donors, but that pales in comparison to their self funding through criminal and terrorist activities," a senior State Department official said. Ransoms from kidnappings do not seem to compete with oil sales, and not much is reliably known about the amounts they have received. ABC News reported that one U.S. hostage held by Islamic State is a 26-year-old female aid worker, for whom the group has demanded $6.6 million in ransom. British Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament he had no doubt that tens of millions of pounds of ransom payments were going to Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. Focus, a German magazine said in April that France paid $18 million for the release of four French hostages who had been held by Islamic State, citing NATO sources in Brussels. French officials say the French state does not pay ransoms. Then there is crime. IS raided the central bank in Mosul and reportedly seized substantial sums of money, though the figures are disputed. The group apparently allows Iraqis in Mosul to withdraw 10 percent of their bank deposits and give 5 percent of the withdrawn amount, as zakat, or Islamic alms. WHAT CAN BE DONE Kuwait has been one of the biggest humanitarian donors to Syrian refugees through the United Nations. It has also struggled to control unofficial fund-raising for opposition groups in Syria by private individuals. Ahmed al-Sanee, head of charities in Kuwait's Social Affairs ministry, said recently there was "strict monitoring" of unlicensed donation collecting. Finance minister Anas al-Saleh said on Tuesday Kuwait was "committed to international efforts in fighting this terror". "Whomever has been identified by the United Nations as a terrorist, we will be implementing our law on them," he said. Washington has moved to cut off sources of private donations. Last month it imposed sanctions on three men it said funnelled money from Kuwait to Islamic militant groups in Iraq and Syria. Kuwait briefly detained two of the men, both of whom are prominent clerics. "If I were the Chief Financial Officer of IS or ISIS as it was then, I would be watching that development very closely. Because if I were receiving money from the Gulf states, at that point I for sure knew that it would get harder," said Keatinge. NO SIMPLE SOLUTION In the end, squeezing the group's finances will involve a mixture of intelligence and force. Ending the group's control of a given area using military might would remove its ability to raise local taxes, for example. Tracking smuggling routes or Gulf donors, in contrast, would involve local informants. Khatteeb, who is also the director of the Iraq Energy Institute, says Turkey must clamp down on oil smuggling routes through southern Turkey. This would dent a revenue stream Islamic State has used to fund a significant recruitment drive. "Turkish authorities (need) to really pay attention in closing down these markets, put more work in intelligence and enforce the rule of law." In an op-ed last month published in the New York Times Patrick Johnston and Benjamin Bahney of the RAND Corporation argued that strategies that focused on sanctioning international financial activities were unlikely to be effective. The authors say that "the terrorist group's bookkeepers, its oil business and cash holdings" should be the targets of greater intelligence and scrutiny to help "disrupt ISIS's financing and provide additional intelligence on its inner workings." Johnston told Reuters that even with the rapid expansion of Islamic State and its need to pay a larger number of recruits, the group could still make an estimated $100-$200 million surplus this year, given the amount of money it is making. "They're making more money, they have less opposition militarily ... the question is what are they going to do with it?" (Additional reporting by Ned Parker in Baghdad, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, John Irish in Paris, Mahmoud Harby, David French and Ahmed Hagagy in Kuwait; Writing by Yara Bayoumy, Editing by William Maclean and Janet McBride) =============== Fear of Islamic State make Gulf monarchies set aside differences AFP | September 01, 2014, 13.09 pm IST Share inShare0Printer-friendly version Send by email Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support. (Photo: AP) Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support. (Photo: AP) Dubai: Advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and US calls for a coalition against them have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts say. Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support. "The biggest danger (in the Gulf) comes now from these (emerging) terrorist groups, and not from the Muslim Brotherhood," said Abdulaziz Sager, head of the Gulf Research Centre think-tank. Qatar's relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sank to a new low in March when the three governments withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, accusing it of meddling in their affairs and supporting the Brotherhood designated as "terrorist" by Riyadh. For Sager, the UAE was "the strictest" against Qatar among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. UAE State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter Sunday that his country's interest lies "in a strong Arab Gulf... sheltered from regional differences." Speaking to reporters following a meeting of Gulf Arab foreign ministers, Kuwait's top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah said that the six-months spat with Qatar was on its way to being resolved. He said the ambassadors could return to their posts "at any time", without giving a specific date. The announcement came as Saudi King Abdullah underscored the threat posed by jihadists unless there is "rapid" action. "Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East," Abdullah was quoted as telling ambassadors, including the US envoy, on Friday. "If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month," he warned. Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Islamic sharia law. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who took part in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were from the kingdom. Saudi authorities have long feared blowback from jihadist groups, particularly after a spate of Al-Qaeda attacks in the kingdom from 2003 to 2006. IS beliefs supported in Gulf Kuwaiti political analyst Ayed al-Manaa agrees that "we now have a fear which is much bigger than the differences in foreign policies, with IS taking over one third of Syria and Iraq". "IS as an ideology is not only present in (Iraq and Syria). It is present in our countries and is waiting for the opportunity to appear," said Manaa. "The political disputes (with Qatar) are no longer a priority... We live in danger from northeast Syria and northwest Iraq. This is an alarm bell for GCC nations to end their differences." GCC states on Saturday said they are ready to act "against terrorist threats that face the region and the world". The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE the six GCC states also pledged a readiness to fight "terrorist ideology which is contrary to Islam". However, "we are waiting for more details to understand what is needed" for the coalition proposed by US President Barack Obama, said Sabah. Obama said he was developing a broad plan that would involve military, diplomatic and regional efforts to defeat the IS jihadists who have sown terror through crucifixions and gruesome beheadings. Obama said he would dispatch US Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East to discuss the plan with regional allies, including the Gulf Arab states. Regional expert Frederic Wehrey said that "the GCC does not have the capacity for real expeditionary military operations outside the Gulf. "The question is what military value would they bring beyond the symbolic legitimacy of Arab participation," said Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sagar agrees, pointing out that the participation of GCC leader Saudi Arabia, would be limited to "intelligence" and the kingdom's "ability in influencing public opinion in the Muslim world." Saudi Arabia's top cleric has already branded Al-Qaeda and IS jihadists as "enemy number one" of Islam and warned young Muslims to steer clear of "calls for jihad" issued on "perverted" grounds. ================================ http://www.zemtv.com/2014/08/31/dunya-news-special-transmission-azadi-inqilab-march-10pm-to-11pm-31st-august-2014/ Aaila Ji qadry aur pagal khan amrica ke aur yhoodyuon ke ajent hen jo pakistan ko iraq afghanistan lyebia aur serya bnana chahty hen .aur china se pakistan ke dostana taluqat ko khrab krna in ka mission he.pak army aur 20 kror awam mil kr is aalmy sazsh ko nakam bnayen gye IS wqt aalmy stah pr IMF KE muqabley main china rusia india aur brazil ne mil kr aik nya aalmy bank [brick]bnaya he qadry aur pagal khan amrica ke aur yhoodyuon ke ajent hen jo pakistan ko iraq afghanistan lyebia aur serya bnana chahty hen .aur china se pakistan ke dostana taluqat ko khrab krna in ka mission he.pak army aur 20 kror awam mil kr is aalmy sazsh ko nakam bnayen gye ============ Pakistan protests ease as rival leaders seek negotiated settlement Wed, Sep 03 03:36 AM EDT image 1 of 5 By Maria Golovnina ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Rival Pakistani politicians on Wednesday explored the possibility of a negotiated solution to weeks of protests aimed at the removal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that eased after turning violent at the weekend. Thousands had tried to storm Sharif's house in protests led by former cricket star Imran Khan and firebrand cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, destabilizing the coup-prone nation. But by Wednesday, only a few hundred people were camped out outside parliament in the high-security Red Zone area in the center of the capital Islamabad, with the army protecting key government installations. Sharif has refused to step down, while protest leaders have rejected his calls to come to the negotiating table, creating a dangerous deadlock and prompting fears the military might seize power. But in the latest twist, Khan and Qadri agreed to talk to a committee of opposition politicians seeking to mediate between the government and the protesters and help find a political solution. "The entire nation is disturbed by the ongoing crisis," Siraj-ul-Haq, a conservative Islamist politician leading the mediation effort, said. "(Khan's party) has accepted our request (to hold talks) with an open heart and we are thankful to them." The crisis has taken many turns since protests broke out in mid-August, subsiding at times and erupting in violence again, with most commentators saying it was too early to say whether a negotiated solution was in sight. Violent scenes in the usually quiet capital have alarmed many people in a nation where power has often changed hands though military coups rather than elections, with some officials accusing the military of orchestrating the protests as a way of sidelining or even toppling Sharif - a charge it denies. Few commentators think the army is bent on seizing power again but even if Sharif survives, he would emerge significantly weakened and likely play second-fiddle to the army on key security and foreign policy issues. On Tuesday, parliament threw its weight behind Sharif who has convened a week-long joint session of the chamber where he enjoys a solid majority following last year's landslide election victory. He chaired another session in parliament on Wednesday when more lawmakers were expected to deliver speeches in his support. (Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Nick Macfie) ===================== An Egyptian man lights a flare in Cairo, April 2, 2011. (photo by REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh) Tangled web of alliances emerges as Middle East divides into blocs The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was vital for the restructuring of alliances in the Middle East. That is when the foundations for what were then the two main blocs in the region were laid, leading the way toward a new order that divided the region between pro-US and anti-US countries. Summary⎙ Print The Middle East is divided into three blocs, but all have a common enemy in the Islamic State. Author Ali Hashem Posted September 2, 2014 The fall of Saddam Hussein, the heightened and continuous Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Hezbollah’s rise in Lebanon amid the liberation of south Lebanon and the Syrian-Iranian alliance were all aspects forming the landscape of the resistance and resilience bloc; it raised anti-US mottos and gained grassroots popularity for expressing stances that tickled the dreams of a public that had suffered waves of disappointments during the past half a century. This bloc brought together Islamists, nationalists, leftists and anarchists; it connected Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance factions (for example, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). On the other side of the stage, the moderation bloc addressed the region with what it called realism. This grouping was ready for peace with Israel and had excellent ties with the West, mainly the United States, attracting the liberal elites, ex-leftists, Wahhabi Islamists and businessmen. The bloc presented itself as the only partner the West and the United States could rely on in the region in facing the axis of resistance; it brought under its umbrella Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Palestinian authority, Morocco, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Egypt, along with other minor countries that were on the sidelines of the events. The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005, was a turning point in the relations between the two axes. The moderation bloc, directly and indirectly, accused the Syrian regime of responsibility for the massive truck bomb that ripped apart the Lebanese capital and saw 22 people die along with Hariri. A year and half later, the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel widened the rift. Saudi Arabia accused Hezbollah of launching "uncalculated adventures" that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis. Amid the 2006 war, Qatar entered the resistance axis amid a campaign of support that it led on the diplomatic front, besides the extensive pro-Hezbollah coverage on the new Qatari-owned TV network Al Jazeera. Until March 15, 2011, the map of alliances in the region remained unchanged; however, from the moment people in Syria took to the streets, the resistance bloc started to show cracks. In a few months, Qatar and Turkey both wound up completely on the opposite side of the resistance bloc, though not with the moderation bloc. Before the Syrian revolution, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain and Tunisia also saw people calling for freedom, where people took to the streets in a phenomenon that came to be known as the Arab Spring. In Egypt, Libya and Tunisia the Muslim Brotherhood helped lead the change, with obvious Qatari support. An unannounced Muslim Brotherhood bloc was formed with the patronage of both Qatar and Turkey; the latter had some issues to settle with the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood. Ankara refrained from providing support against then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, despite its decision later to give full support to the revolution in Syria and to post-revolution Egypt. The Palestinian resistance group Hamas was also part of the coalition, yet it showed a bit of uncertainty by keeping one leg in the resistance and resilience bloc. In Libya the Islamists lost the election, while in Tunisia they lost their influence after a comeback by leftists and nationalists, without being removed from power, while in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood was toppled after the June 30, 2013, demonstrations that led to the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood-backed Cabinet. Qatar, Turkey and Hamas once again found themselves alone with greater pressure from the moderation bloc, given the historic rivalry between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. Attempts to recast the resistance bloc were made and pressure was exerted, but many differences blocked confidence building, mainly due to the ongoing bloodshed in Syria. Turkey, Qatar and Hamas built their own bloc, which enjoyed strong influence in the region thanks to its effective media reach and the influence the Muslim Brotherhood still has on the ground in several areas around the region. The revolution turned into a civil war in Syria, reflecting the iron bond that brought together Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Later, with the spillover of the Syrian crisis into Iraq, Baghdad became the fourth pillar of this bloc, maintaining what Jordan's King Abdullah once described as the Shiite crescent. The grouping changed its name from the resistance and resilience bloc to the resistance and confrontation bloc, a clear indication of the strategy the bloc decided to adopt. Tehran, Damascus and Baghdad, along with Hezbollah, reiterated their accusations against the Qatari-Turkish bloc and the moderation bloc of backing the militants in Syria and Iraq; meanwhile, the other blocs continued to accuse the resistance bloc of committing crimes in Syria and Iraq. After the removal of Morsi as president, the moderation bloc regained Egypt, while retaining control over Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. The monarchies showed immunity toward change, except for Bahrain and the eastern parts of Saudi Arabia, yet this wasn’t a game-changing element. Riyadh and Manama accused Iran of fueling the uprising by giving support to the opposition. Iran’s media played a vital role in showing the world what was happening in Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, though there was no solid proof that its support involved anything more than media coverage. With a seeming maximum number of conflicts and crises, a new Middle East order has taken form. The new scenario sees three main blocs fighting each other on several fronts, with each looking to weaken its foes to prevail. The fact is that all three blocs are today facing a tougher enemy that poses a threat to all of them. The Islamic State (IS), which each bloc accuses the other of backing, supporting and financing, seems to be watching the struggle for victory among the warring sides with much content and happiness — for the more they fight and weaken each other, the greater the odds are for IS to prevail. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/region-blocs-new-middle-east-order.html##ixzz3CJExnorG ============================= EXPERT VIEWS: Is Islamic State a flash in the pan? Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Wed, 27 Aug 2014 16:00 GMT Author: Alex Whiting More news from our correspondents hum-war hum-peo hum-aid Enlarge image Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate August 10, 2014. REUTERS/Rodi Said Tweet Recommend Google + LinkedIn Email Print Leave us a comment LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Is Islamic State a flash in the pan, or is it here for the long term? What impact is its expansion in Iraq having on the war in Syria, and the region as a whole? Thomson Reuters Foundation asked three experts for their views: Nigel Inkster is director of transnational threats and political risk at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, chair of the World Economic Forum’s committee on terrorism, and former director for operations and intelligence at MI6; Noah Bonsey is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Syria, based in Lebanon; and Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, and a student at Oxford University. Islamic State (IS) was formerly called ISIS. It took control of key Iraqi cities like Mosul and Fallujah as part of a broad coalition of groups earlier this year, but it went it alone when it expanded into Kurdistan. 1. Is IS a flash in the pan, or is it here for the long term? Nigel Inkster: Obviously we can’t know for certain, but I’m inclined to think it’s going to be around for some while to come. I think that what we’ve got here is one manifestation of what quite a few analysts have been thinking ... since before 9/11, (that) it’s a generational issue that is going to take a generation, maybe more, to work through. It may mutate, it may take different forms ... but it’s really in many ways the latest manifestation of a jihadist ideology that’s been evolving for quite a few years now. Noah Bonsey: It’s not a flash in the pan. This is a group that has been around in one form or another since the U.S. invasion of Iraq (in 2003). The question is, how big and how powerful will they remain? And that will depend largely on choices made by IS opponents within Iraq, within Syria and by the United States, and regional states who oppose it. In Iraq you have rising animosity among many of ISIS’s Sunni opponents, including (those) that initially welcomed ISIS’s advance against the Iraqi government. But it’s not yet at a stage where it would be easy for an external actor such as the United States to exploit, and so that situation will likely develop. You don’t have an American strategy to deal with Iraq and Syria, or even the ISIS problem within Iraq and Syria, and other actors in the region similarly lack a strategy. What’s important to remember when talking about the region as a whole, is you have to keep in mind the level and extent of political division in this region right now. You have multiple fault lines where tensions are very high. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi: I talk about a timescale of years, rather than over the next year or so ... they’ve amassed so much resources, so much territory, so much manpower now. Other insurgent groups (in Iraq) ... are completely unwilling to confront Islamic State ... And the longer they put off confronting IS, the more IS’s power is going to grow and they really face the situation where they could end up like the rebels in Syria in various areas ... where they are confined to marginal resistance. The Naqshbandi Army (a Baathist group in Mosul which is the second most influential group in the Iraqi Sunni insurgency) don’t even want to mention the Islamic State by name in their statements. They go so far as to blame the blowing up of shrines on the “sectarian government”, referring to the central government in Baghdad, and they seem to want to pretend Islamic State doesn’t exist. 2. Will IS be able to hold onto the territory it controls? Nigel Inkster: Possibly not. At the end of the day this was always more about politics in Iraq than anything else. And a lot of the rise of Islamic State was a function of some very dysfunctional politics that were taking place within Baghdad – very, very sectarian and very exclusionary policies have alienated significant constituencies, and it remains to be seen whether, now that (former prime minister) Nuri al-Maliki who was the architect of these policies has stepped aside, something better may take their place. That I think is going to be key to addressing this problem. If we talk about Islamic State ... we’re talking about a hard core of jihadists, but we’re also talking about a pragmatic coalition of disenchanted groups who have attached themselves to Islamic State, more than anything out of despair with the politics of Iraq. And it’s certainly true that Islamic State has taken a lot of territory and commands more real estate and resources than any other Islamist group has yet managed to do, how durable that will prove to be is an interesting question. I suspect actually to some extent it will, because Islamic State achieved a high degree of penetration in cities like Mosul before they actually physically occupied them. There had been a lot of subversion, a lot of extortion taking place within Mosul by Islamic State or the predecessor organisation (ISIS). They’ve tried with some effect to provide some services to the populations they now control, and they’ve not done too badly in some respects, albeit from a pretty low base of expectation. So it’s possible they will be able to maintain some of the territory they’ve occupied. I don’t think all of it. Noah Bonsey: At times it’s easy for us to overstate IS’s power because people look at maps and they see this giant swath (in Syria and Iraq) that’s controlled by IS. Well a lot of that area is sparsely populated, and in general much of IS’s power comes from the weakness in terms of organisation, in terms of arms ... among its opponents. For that reason I think it’s important to take IS seriously but also we don’t want to exaggerate its military capabilities. Even if we assume that that number (of 15,000 to 25,000 IS fighters) is accurate, there is such a dramatic range not just in the level of training and efficiency, but also in the level of commitment to the group and to the cause within those ranks … We’re not talking about a level of manpower that is immovable or irresistible. 3. Given there’s a coalition of rebel groups fighting IS in Syria, and government forces and militias in Iraq, plus Turkish PKK fighters and Western airstrikes, what chance does IS have? Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi: They (IS) are very militarily effective, they have advanced weaponry and equipment, they have co-opted people, they span borders. Each of these actors in themselves prove themselves insufficient on a number of counts. The Syrian rebels have their own problems of divisions within their ranks, the fact that they’re fighting on multiple fronts as well, and that their priority is very much for example on making sure that Aleppo doesn’t fall to (Syrian President Assad’s) regime, they don’t have the manpower to push eastwards and retake substantial bits of IS territory. Militarily the (Iraqi) army is quite incompetent at urban warfare, the Shia militia really aren’t much better either. They have been fighting in areas like the surroundings of Fallujah and Tikrit for months now but they still haven’t dislodged IS from either. So really I think the key issue is the IS would have to break up internally. There could be a number of scenarios that could trigger that – let’s say (IS leader) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi got killed, there’s a very big question of who would succeed him. Other Sunni insurgents in Iraq really do have to turn against IS as soon as possible and have a coordinated effort against them, and there’s no sign of that happening at the moment and the longer they put that off – if they do plan to fight IS – then the worse it will become. Ultimately the IS is ruling a failed state. They might be the world’s richest terrorist group, but they are one of the world’s poorest states. They’re ruling a vast population spanning borders and it’s not like they have the resources to improve quality of life in a substantial way. But also you would really need to have internal breaking up of the IS from within, or someone is going to have to put troops on the ground to deal with this problem – it’s not going to go away through air strikes, and arming those you want to support. 4. Has IS lost wider Sunni support in Iraq as a result of the atrocities it has committed? Nigel Inkster: These (atrocities) in and of themselves may not necessarily alienate populations depending on what else happens (and whether their own needs are being met), which at the moment to some extent they are. I suspect at the end of the day, Islamic State policies will end up alienating substantial sections of the population they’re aspiring to control, but we’ll have to see. I don’t think we should assume that a re-run of the 2007 Anbar awakening (a rebellion of Sunni tribes against al Qaeda in Iraq) is likely to happen, because the conditions that made that possible simply don’t exist any more in the form of a very substantial U.S. military commitment. If it does happen I suspect it is likely to be more piecemeal this time around. It probably will happen at some point, there are signs it already is in some areas. We have to bear in mind that a lot of the effect of Islamic State has been psychological through a very carefully thought out and executed media campaign (to spread fear). Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi: Some of those who might have welcomed them into Mosul, for example, have regrets now when they see IS blow up shrines and things like this. On the other hand, (IS) can intimidate people, but they can also co-opt people with some forms of social outreach ... distribution of gifts during Eid, provisions of meat and other commodities. 5. How has IS’s expansion in Iraq affected the war in Syria? Nigel Inkster: They’ve established a significant presence within the northeast of (Syria). But there they are much more one of a number of contending parties, and it’s not axiomatic that they have or can expect to continue to have the upper hand. And we’ve now seen that an Assad regime that was broadly content to let these jihadist groups run on the basis that they proved the essential Assad argument that this was a fight against jihadist extremists, we’ve now seen the Syrian state starting to attack IS positions in Syria for the first time. I think that the Iranians will simply not let the Assad regime fold ... The Syria we had before 2011 has gone and it’s not coming back, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Assad will be driven out or lose territory to the point where his regime is no longer tenable. Noah Bonsey: Its gains in Iraq have fuelled subsequent gains in Syria to the extent that it was able to defeat a pretty strong alliance of rebel forces throughout the province of Deir al-Zor within the space of a few weeks. IS is now fighting to expand westward, fighting to take back areas north of Aleppo that they had lost. There’s no question that gains in Iraq have strengthened the group overall and helped fuel its expansion in Syria. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi: It’s really reinforced the break-up of the country. The rebels in particular are now by far the weakest force. They are suffering a huge amount of fragmentation. For example, the Islamic Front is pretty much on the verge of collapse. Assad doesn’t have the ability to crush (IS). He doesn’t have sufficient manpower ... He could crush the rebels in the west of Syria and re-take Aleppo, but he couldn’t re-conquer the entirety of Syria. 6. Is there a danger that the conflict will spread to Turkey? Nigel Inkster: In a situation of such instability as we’ve now got, pretty much anything is possible. But I think that Turkey probably has the capacity to keep this within bounds – it certainly has got the technical capability to do it. I think again it’s going to be more about politics. Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi: Not yet. IS know that many of the goods (basic commodities) they end up distributing come in via the Turkish border, and they wouldn’t want to disrupt that ... Although they took Turkish hostages in the Mosul area, there is no evidence that they want to start attacking Turkish territory yet. There are charity organisations that for the sake of humanitarian services go into IS territory to distribute things to locals, and IS doesn’t interfere with that. 7. What impact is IS having on the region as a whole? Nigel Inkster: One of the things that IS has majored on and very, very consciously emphasised in their own propaganda is the end of the Sykes-Picot era, the destruction of that line on a map. And I think the geography of this region looks as if it is going to be rearranged for better or worse. Effectively I think that the Kurdish region has become more autonomous, less attracted to remaining part of Iraq, I think the Shia and the Sunni (in Iraq) are more alienated from one another than before, and the post-World War One borders I don’t think are coming back. What does that mean? Very hard to say. But what I think it means is a very fluid and very messy situation which is going to take quite some time to settle down. ===== In northeast Syria, Islamic State builds a government Thu, Sep 04 01:38 AM EDT image By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT (Reuters) - In the cities and towns across the desert plains of northeast Syria, the ultra-hardline al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State has insinuated itself into nearly every aspect of daily life. The group famous for its beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions provides electricity and water, pays salaries, controls traffic, and runs nearly everything from bakeries and banks to schools, courts and mosques. While its merciless battlefield tactics and its imposition of its austere vision of Islamic law have won the group headlines, residents say much of its power lies in its efficient and often deeply pragmatic ability to govern. Syria's eastern province of Raqqa provides the best illustration of their methods. Members hold up the province as an example of life under the Islamic "caliphate" they hope will one day stretch from China to Europe. In the provincial capital, a dust-blown city that was home to about a quarter of a million people before Syria's three-year-old war began, the group leaves almost no institution or public service outside of its control. "Let us be honest, they are doing massive institutional work. It is impressive," one activist from Raqqa who now lives in a border town in Turkey told Reuters. In interviews conducted remotely, residents, Islamic State fighters and even activists opposed to the group described how it had built up a structure similar to a modern government in less than a year under its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Reuters journalists are unable to visit the area for security reasons. The group's progress has alarmed regional and Western powers - last month U.S. President Barack Obama called it a "cancer" that must be erased from the Middle East as U.S. warplanes bombarded its positions in Iraq. But Islamic State has embedded itself so thoroughly into the fabric of life in places like Raqqa that it will be all but impossible for U.S. aircraft - let alone Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish troops - to uproot them through force alone. BRIDE OF THE REVOLUTION Last year, Raqqa became the first city to fall to the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. They called it the "Bride of the Revolution." A variety of rebel groups ranging from hardline Islamists to religious moderates held sway in the city, although Islamists clearly dominated. Within a year, Islamic State had clawed its way into control, mercilessly eliminating rival insurgents. Activists critical of the group were killed, disappeared, or escaped to Turkey. Alcohol was banned. Shops closed by afternoon and streets were empty by nightfall. Communication with the outside world - including nearby cities and towns - was allowed only through the Islamic State media center. Those rebels and activists who stayed largely "repented", a process through which they pledge loyalty to Baghdadi and are forgiven for their "sins" against the Islamic State, and either kept to their homes or joined the group's ranks. But after the initial crackdown, the group began setting up services and institutions - stating clearly that it intended to stay and use the area as a base in its quest to eradicate national boundaries and establish an Islamic "state". "We are a state," one emir, or commander, in the province told Reuters. "Things are great here because we are ruling based on God's law." Some Sunni Muslims who worked for Assad's government stayed on after they pledged allegiance to the group. "The civilians who do not have any political affiliations have adjusted to the presence of Islamic State, because people got tired and exhausted, and also, to be honest, because they are doing institutional work in Raqqa," one Raqqa resident opposed to Islamic State told Reuters. Since then, the group "has restored and restructured all the institutions that are related to services," including a consumer protection office and the civil judiciary, the resident said. BRUTALITY AND PRAGMATISM In the past month alone, Islamic State fighters have broadcast images of themselves beheading U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as captive Kurdish and Lebanese soldiers, and machine-gunning scores of Syrian prisoners wearing nothing but their underwear. But the group's use of violence has not been entirely indiscriminate. The group has often traded with businessmen loyal to Assad when it has suited its interests, for instance. According to one fighter, a former Assad employee is now in charge of mills and distributing flour to bakeries in Raqqa. Employees at the Raqqa dam, which provides the city with electricity and water, have remained in their posts. Islamic State's willingness to use former Assad employees displays a pragmatism residents and activists say has been vital to its success holding onto territory it has captured. They have been helped by experts who have come from countries including in North Africa and Europe. The man Baghdadi appointed to run and develop Raqqa's telecoms, for instance, is a Tunisian with a PhD in the subject who left Tunisia to join the group and serve "the state". Reflecting Islamic State's assertion that it is a government - rather than simply a militant group that happens to govern - Baghdadi has also separated military operations from civilian administration, assigning fighters only as police and soldiers Instead, Baghdadi has appointed civilian deputies called walis, an Islamic term describing an official similar to a minister, to manage institutions and develop their sectors. Administrative regions are divided into waliyehs, or provinces, which sometimes align with existing divisions but, as with the case of the recently established al-Furat province, can span national boundaries. Fighters and employees receive a salary from a department called the Muslim Financial House, which is something like a finance ministry and a bank that aims to reduce poverty. Fighters receive housing - including in homes confiscated from local non-Sunnis or from government employees who fled the area - as well as about $400 to $600 per month, enough to pay for a basic lifestyle in Syria's poor northeast. One fighter said poor families were given money. A widow may receive $100 for herself and for each child she has, he said. Prices are also kept low. Traders who manipulate prices are punished, warned and shut down if they are caught again. The group has also imposed Islamic taxes on wealthy traders and families. "We are only implementing Islam, zakat is an Islamic tax imposed by God," said a jihadi in Raqqa. Analysts estimate that Islamic State also raises tens of millions of dollars by selling oil from the fields it controls in Syria and Iraq to Turkish and Iraqi businessmen and by collecting ransoms for hostages it has taken. BAGHDADI CALLS THE SHOTS At the heart of the Islamic State system is its leader, Baghdadi, who in June declared himself "caliph", or ruler of all the world's Muslims, after breaking with al Qaeda. Residents, fighters and activists agree Baghdadi is now heavily involved in Raqqa's administration, and has the final word on all decisions made by commanders and officials. Even the prices set for local goods go back to him, local sources say. Residents say Baghdadi also approves beheadings and other executions and punishments for criminals convicted by the group's Islamic courts. On the battlefield, fighters describe him as a fierce and experienced commander. The Syrian fighter said Baghdadi led major battles, such as one to retake a Syrian military base known as Division 17 in July, the first in a series of defeats the group dealt to Syrian government forces in Raqqa province. "He does not leave the brothers. In the battle to retake Division 17 he was also slightly wounded but he is fine now," the fighter said. "He is always moving. He does not stay in one place. He moves between Raqqa, Deir al-Zor and Mosul. He leads the battles." NEXT GENERATION JIHAD Although pragmatism has been a key to the group's success, ideology is also vital to the group's rule. By declaring the caliphate and setting up a "state", Baghdadi aimed to attract foreign jihadis and experts from abroad. Supporters say thousands have responded. At the same time, wealthy Islamists from across the world have sent money to Raqqa to support the caliphate, jihadis say. According to sources in Raqqa, the group maintains three weapons factories mainly designed to develop missiles. Foreign scientists - including Muslims from China, fighters claim - are kept in a private location with bodyguards. "Scientists and men with degrees are joining the State," said one Arab jihadi. The group has also invested heavily in the next generation by inducting children into their ideology. Primary, secondary and university programs now include more about Islam. The group also accepts women who want to fight - they are trained about "the real Islam" and the reasons for fighting. Islamic education groups are held in mosques for newly arrived fighters, who, according to militants in Raqqa, have flocked to Islamic State-controlled territory in even greater numbers since Baghdadi declared the "caliphate". "Every three days we receive at least 1,000 fighters. The guest houses are flooding with mujahideen. We are running out of places to receive them," the Arab jihadi said. (Editing by Alexander Dziadosz and Giles Elgood) === Islamic State kidnaps 40 men in Iraq's Kirkuk region: residents Thu, Sep 04 10:20 AM EDT image BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants kidnapped 40 men from a town in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk on Thursday, dragging the men into cars before driving off, residents said. Residents of the Sunni Muslim town of Hawija said by telephone they did not know why the men had been taken, from a district on the edge of the town. They added that Islamic State, which controls Hawija, had not faced any resistance from its inhabitants. Islamic State has seized hundreds of Iraqi and Syrian soldiers as well as members of other insurgent groups, journalists and civilians. Some have been sold for ransom and others have been killed. The group launched a lightning advance through northern and central Iraq in June, declaring an Islamic caliphate. With the help of U.S. air strikes, Iraq's army and Kurdish forces have been able to push the fighters back from some areas. The Ministry of Defense said on Thursday on state television Iraqi forces had killed three "leaders" of Islamic State in three separate attacks on Mosul and Tel Afar in the north. (Reporting by Raheem Salman and Oliver Holmes; editing by Andrew Roche)