EU New Industry: Billions in Immigrant Smuggling

Posted on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by Denise Simon

EUROPOL: ‘The fasted growing criminal market in Europe’ netted $6.6 billion in 2015

BusinessInsider: People-smuggling gangs netted up to 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) last year, most of it from the traffic of migrants into Europe, the European Union’s police agency Europol said in a report issued on Monday.

Labeling people-smuggling as the “fastest growing criminal market in Europe”, the report said: “This turnover (of 6 billion euros) is set to double or triple if the scale of the current migration crisis persists in the upcoming year.”

Europol and police forces in countries in Europe and beyond have identified more than 12,000 suspects active in gangs involved in smuggling in migrants since 2015.

Gangs, whose members come from countries including Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq and Kosovo, are engaged in a huge range of criminal activities including document forgery and official bribery, the report said.

So-called “hotspots” where gang activities is concentrated include cities along the Balkan route from the Middle East, such as Istanbul, Izmir, Athens and Budapest, as well as major continental hubs like Berlin, Calais, Zeebrugge and Frankfurt.

But Europol said there was little evidence that “terrorist suspects” were making use of migrant smuggling networks to enter the continent on a significant scale.

“Far less than 0.01 percent of terrorist suspects have had migrant links,” said Europol director Rob Wainwright at a news conference.

About one million migrants reached Europe last year, most of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, the agency said in a report issued as it set up a new center to coordinate the Europe-wide fight against the smugglers.

The European Migrant Smuggling Centre, which will be based at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, will help police forces in and outside Europe share intelligence and will help with rapid deployment of emergency police forces as new migrant routes emerge.

Read the full report here. migrant_smuggling__europol_report_2016

Irregular migrants travelling to the EU primarily originate from Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as from Senegal, Somalia, Niger, Morocco and other African countries. In addition to these nationalities, there is also a continuous flow of irregular migrants from Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam, albeit to a lesser extent.

Within the EU, the preferred destination countries of these migrants are Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

A migrant’s journey takes them from their country of origin through a number of transit countries to their eventual country of destination. Migrant smugglers and other criminals offer a wide variety of often highly priced services throughout this journey. These facilitation services include the provision of transportation, accommodation and fraudulent documents. In many cases, irregular migrants are forced to pay for these services by means of illegal labour.

Smuggling hotspots are located along the main migration routes and attract migrant smuggling networks. These hotspots may be favourably located along routes where most migrants travel or may feature easy access to transport infrastructures used for illegal facilitation activities.

In and outside the EU, more than 230 locations where illegal facilitation or migrant smuggling take place have been identified. The main criminal hotspots for migrant smuggling outside the EU are Amman, Algiers, Beirut, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Istanbul, Izmir, Misrata, Oran, and Tripoli.

The main criminal hotspots for intra-EU movements include Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Calais, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hoek van Holland, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Passau, Rome, Stockholm, Tornio, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zeebrugge.

The hotspots channel migratory flows, act as pull factors and have grown exponentially in the last years. Migrants gather in hotspots where they know they will have access to services during their travel to their preferred destination.

During their journeys, migrants often stop over in urban or semi-urban areas to work illegally in order to pay their debts to the migrant smugglers or to save money for the next leg of their journey.

Russia’s 3 new divisions to counter NATO

Posted on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by Denise Simon

Russia to add three new military divisions to counter NATO: agencies

Reuters: Russia will add three new military divisions to counter the growing strength of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russian agencies quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on Wednesday.

The divisions, which will be deployed along Russia’s western and southern borders, will be formed by the end of the year, the Interfax news agency reported.

“The Ministry of Defence has adopted a series of measures to counter the growing capacity of NATO forces in close proximity to the Russian borders,” it cited Shoigu as saying.

Russia Says It Is Creating Three New Divisions to Counter NATO Moves

Western officials have said the alliance will send about 4,000 troops to Poland and the Baltics

WSJ: MOSCOW—Russia is creating three new divisions to counter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s planned expansion along its eastern flank, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday, in a move that comes amid rising tensions in the region.

Moscow has threatened it will respond to NATO plans to boost its troops’ presence along its border with Russia. Western officials said last week the alliance will send four battalions—about 4,000 troops—to Poland and the ex-Soviet Baltic countries.

“The Defense Ministry is taking a series of measures to counter the expansion of NATO forces in direct proximity to the Russian border,” Mr. Shoigu said at a ministry meeting shown on state television.

The Pentagon has said new NATO troop deployments are in response to Russia’s “provocative” military exercises along its borders with alliance members. Russia says its exercises are partly a result of the increased NATO presence.

The announcements of troop increases at the border follow incidents that have raised concerns about a potential crisis in the Baltics. Russian warplanes intercepted a U.S. Navy destroyer and Air Force plane last month.

According to the U.S. account, Russian warplanes and a military helicopter repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook, flying to within 75 feet of the warship as it carried out operations on the Baltic Sea.

Alexander Golts, a Russian military analyst and visiting researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, said such incidents would continue until Russian President Vladimir Putin believed Washington was treating Moscow on an equal basis.

An aircraft believed to be a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 passes over the bow of the USS Donald Cook during a patrol in the Baltic Sea. The U.S. alleges that Russian planes repeatedly buzzed the Donald Cook, passing close by the ship in a deliberate and aggressive manner. Photo: Zuma Press

“The West cannot ignore Russia. If they try to ignore Russia, they will undertake more and more risky missions,” said Mr. Golts, who said Russia and NATO need to figure out a way to communicate to avoid accidents. “What is needed is more mechanisms to make sure such incidents don’t have disastrous consequences.”

In a news conference in Mons, Belgium, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance’s planned troop buildup in the Baltic States wouldn’t have happened if Russia had not used force against Ukraine in 2014. Mr. Stoltenberg said he had seen reports about Russia’s additional military buildup “close to NATO’s borders.”

“This is part of a broader picture and pattern we have seen for many years now,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.

NATO’s planned deployment, he continued, was a reaction to a more assertive Russia that has demonstrated the will to change borders with force.

“What we do is defensive,” he said. “We do that because we need to send a clear signal that we stand together, we have a credible defense and deterrence. And we will continue to respond.”

Mr. Stoltenberg confirmed the alliance was contemplating a battalion-sized presence in several Eastern European countries. He said a final decision on the military presence will be made at the Warsaw summit in July. But he said the troops will be multinational, “sending a clear signal [that] if you attack one country you attack the whole alliance.”

Russia has already spent billions of dollars to reform its military and modernize its arms industry, though an economic crisis brought about by lower oil prices as well as U.S. and EU sanctions has slowed some plans. Mr. Putin has promised to spend more than 21 trillion rubles, or more than $300 billion, to revamp Russia’s fighting forces by the end of the decade.

Three divisions would represent around 30,000 troops, but military analysts said it was unclear whether or not the units would be created from scratch or from existing formations in those regions.

Two divisions in Russia’s western military district are likely intended to directly counter increased NATO troop numbers in the Baltics and Poland, while an additional division in the south will increase troop presence along the border with Ukraine, Mr. Golts said.

Mr. Shoigu said work had already started to build up the units’ new headquarters.

Moscow is planning to increase the number of its armed forces by 10,000 this year as the military pushes to turn the armed forces into a one-million-man fighting force.

Video: ISIS v. Peshmerga, SEAL Killed Others Wounded

Posted on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by Denise Simon

This is what a battlefield looks like when it comes to combat against Islamic State. Note that Islamic State embeds with citizens claiming they are fleeing and need refuge. Further, ISIS buried thousands of IED’s. Additionally, while the Peshmerga does have some military gear, they have very little in rounds and mortar to be offensive. One last item, this too is what it looks like when the rules of engagement don’t measure to defeat of the enemy.

Hat tip and well done to SofRep and Jack Murphy.

Watch: SOFREP Exclusive footage shows the area in northern Iraq close to where Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV was killed

Less than a year ago, Jack Murphy, SOFREP’s editor-in-chief, embedded with the Kurdish Peshmerga and was only about seven kilometers away from where Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV was killed by ISIS this week. The video below will give you a good idea of the area where Navy SEAL Charlie Keating was killed, as well as how the Peshmerga in the area operate.

Additional video.

DefenseDepartment: The Navy SEAL killed in a battle yesterday with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters responded to an early attack on peshmerga units about 2 miles behind the forward line of troops, Army Col. Steven Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, said today.

Defense Department officials today identified the Navy SEAL as Petty Officer 1st Class Charles H. Keating IV, 31, of San Diego.

In a teleconference briefing with Pentagon reporters from Baghdad, Warren said Keating responded to the ISIL attack on the peshmerga forces as part of a U.S. quick-reaction force in the village of Tal Asquf at about 7:30 a.m.

“ISIL forces breached the peshmerga forward lines,” he said. “At [7:50 a.m.], the Americans there became involved in the ensuing firefight and called in a quick-reaction force,” he said.

“It is a group of very well-armed, very well-equipped, very well-trained American service members whose mission is to stand by, stand at the ready, when American forces are operating,” he said.

Keating was struck by direct fire shortly after 9:30 a.m., and though he was evacuated within what Warren called the “all-important golden hour” between being wounded and receiving medical treatment, his wound was not survivable.

“Our deepest heartfelt condolences go out to that American service member and his family,” Warren said. “He is an American hero. This is a reminder of the risk our men and women face every day supporting the fight against ISIL.”

ISIL Attack Was Large-Scale

“We think there were at least 125 enemy fighters involved in this fairly complicated, complex attack. So it was a big fight — one of the largest we’ve seen recently,” the colonel said.

With several peshmerga outposts in the area, the force rapidly generated its series of counterattack forces, which numbered in the hundreds for the counterattack and regained control of Tal Asquf, Warren added.

No other coalition or American forces were injured, he said, but he added that both medical evacuation helicopters were damaged by small-arms fire. The peshmerga casualty numbers are not yet known, Warren said.

“Coalition air responded with 31 strikes taken by 11 manned aircraft and two drones,” he said. “Air power destroyed 20 enemy vehicles, two truck bombs, three mortar systems [and] one bulldozer, [and] 58 ISIL terrorists were killed.”

ISIL Enters Battle in ‘Technicals’

Operation Inherent Resolve officials believe the attack is likely linked to a string of recent ISIL defeats and ongoing pressure, Warren said, adding that such a pattern has been observed.

“When they are back on their heels, they often will try a high-profile, high-visibility attack to gain some attention,” he told reporters.

ISIL moves into battle with vehicles the coalition calls “technicals,” Warren said, an all-encompassing term for homemade gun trucks. “They throw together these … ‘Jed Clampett’ [vehicles], bolt a machine gun onto the hood of a pickup truck, Gremlin or whatever they can find with four wheels and an engine,” he said.

ISIL troop-carrying vehicles have no standardization, he said. “This is a nonstandard military force that we’re facing,” he said, “so it’s a little bit of everything, … [and] we’ve destroyed 20 of them.”

UK: PM Cameron and the Queen’s Plan on Militant Islam

Posted on May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 by Denise Simon

Well, it appears the United Kingdom is about to launch a program and the Queen is announcing the plan. But the details are troublesome, in fact watered down dramatically, but could it be a start?

New anti-extremism powers to be included in Queen’s speech

Legislation expected to include measures to ban groups, close down premises and gag individuals

Guardian: David Cameron is expected to announce plans to crack down on extremism in the Queen’s speech, including powers to ban organisations, close down premises and gag individuals.

The legislation follows publication of the government’s counter-extremism strategy which also promised a full investigation into the application of sharia law in the UK.

The review has already been announced, but the Home Office is expected to appoint a chair shortly.

A Downing Street spokesman said he would not speculate on the contents of the Queen’s speech, to be held at the state opening of parliament on 18 May, but sources said that legislation was required to introduce the measures announced in October as part of the strategy.

It promised to ban radical preachers from posting material online, and bar anyone with extremist views from working with children. It also said that deradicalisation classes should be mandatory.

There are also plans to allow Ofcom to block broadcasts of “unacceptable extremist material”.

However, there appear to be questions still remaining. A Home Office source told the Times: “Getting agreement about the thresholds for what constitutes extremism and what needs to be protected as free speech is not going to be easy or straightforward.”

****** The HM Strategy document is here.

A sampling of the strategy:

Engaging internationally

This strategy focuses on extremism at home but recognises that the flow of people, ideology and money is increasingly international. We will develop a clear plan of international work to reinforce our efforts to defeat extremism at home. We will also campaign to build a more robust international response to counter extremist ideology and propaganda and continue to focus on strengthening international bodies and our partners. This will be a key priority for our network of diplomatic missions, working through international institutions such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the European Union and through government and civil society partners. In particular, this will include steps to:

counter extremist ideology: we will use our international network to better understand the nature and appeal of extremist ideology, learning from and sharing international best practice to improve the effectiveness of our response;

build partnerships with all those opposed to extremism: we will expand our partnerships with governments and multilateral groups overseas to reduce the threat to the UK via concerted international action including tackling extremism online; and

disrupt extremists: we will strengthen data sharing arrangements with our overseas posts to ensure that key decision makers – including visa officials – are fully informed about individuals’ links to extremist groups. This will involve particularly close collaboration with the Extremism Analysis Unit.

We will work with our international partners to support implementation of the United Nations Secretary General’s Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism which is intended to frame what all UN member states and agencies are expected to do to tackle violent extremism. This effort will include building the capacity of international institutions and our partners, to reduce the extremist threats to UK interests emanating from overseas and thereby reinforce delivery of this strategy.44. We will also ensure that our aid programmes address the underlying drivers, enablers and narratives of extremism, particularly through efforts to build stability and security overseas. We will use the joint Conflict, Stability and Security Fund to enable greater work across Government to address transnational threats such as extremism.45. Finally, we will support collective efforts across government to engage and positively influence British communities, explaining the UK’s foreign, security and development work, and raising awareness of the impact it has overseas.

***** The 250,000 EU migrants ‘that weren’t counted’: Explosive report says official figures are underestimating number by 50,000 a year meaning migration from inside Europe is now higher than the rest of the world combined

Its report said: ‘Between 2010 and 2015 the population born in the EU8 and living in the UK increased by an average of 90,000 a year but during the same period estimated net migration from the EU8 averaged only 40,000.

‘This suggests that EU8 net migration has been undercounted by 50,000 a year in the last five years.’

Navy SEAL Killed by ISIS

Posted on May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 by Denise Simon

Enemy Fire Kills U.S. Service Member Helping Peshmerga Forces in Iraq

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2016 — A U.S. service member advising and assisting peshmerga forces in Iraq was killed by enemy fire north of Mosul today.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter — in Germany for this morning’s U.S. European Command change of command and to convene a meeting of his counterparts whose nations are leading the effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant— announced the service member’s death.

The secretary offered his condolences to the fallen service member’s family.

The service member was killed during an ISIL attack on a peshmerga position about 1 to 3 miles behind the forward line of troops, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement, adding that the service member’s name and other information will be released after next-of-kin notification is complete.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the service member’s family,” Cook said. “As Secretary Carter noted today in Germany, this sad news is a reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face every day in the ongoing fight to destroy ISIL and end the threat the group poses to the United States and the rest of the world. Our coalition will honor this sacrifice by dealing ISIL a lasting defeat.”

*****

ISIS used multiple vehicles, suicide car bombs and bulldozers to break through a checkpoint at the front line and drive 3 to 5 kilometers to the Peshmerga base where SEALs are temporarily visiting and were located as advisers, a U.S. defense official told CNN. The gun battle was around the town of Telskof in northern Iraq, the official added. The U.S. responded with F-15s and drones that dropped more than 20 bombs, according to a U.S. official. More from CNN.

*****

Baghdad (AFP) – The Islamic State group broke through Kurdish defences in northern Iraq on Tuesday and killed a US Navy SEAL deployed as part of the US-led coalition against the jihadists.

The attack came as the United Nations said that fighting with IS in northern Iraq could displace another 30,000 people, adding to millions who have already fled their homes.

And in Baghdad, throngs of Shiite pilgrims braved the threat of bombings by IS, which have killed dozens of people in recent days, to take part in a major annual religious commemoration.

The sailor from the special operations force was at least the third coalition member killed by enemy fire in Iraq since IS overran swathes of the country in 2014.

President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but US forces have been drawn back into combat in the country against IS.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the death occurred during an IS attack on one of the Kurdish peshmerga forces’ positions north of Iraq’s jihadist-held second city Mosul.

A US defence official said the US SEAL’s death was the result of “an orchestrated attack”.

A coalition military official said the American was killed at 9:30 am (0630 GMT) by “direct fire” after “enemy forces penetrated” the peshmerga line.

– Firefight with IS –

The SEAL was a member of a “small team” that was present at a peshmerga encampment behind the original front line during the IS attack, which involved explosives-rigged vehicles, bulldozers and infantry, the official said.

“They fought, but they’re a small number and they’re not supposed to be in direct contact,” and they departed by American helicopter after the SEAL was shot, according to the official.

Kurdish forces are deployed in Nineveh province, whose capital Mosul is IS’s main hub in the country.

IS attacked the peshmerga in multiple areas of northern Iraq on Tuesday in an attempt to “thwart the plan to liberate Mosul”, said Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the autonomous Kurdish region’s peshmerga ministry.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said IS overran the Tal Asquf area and that the group employed suicide bombers.

Tal Asquf is a small Christian town whose population fled in 2014. According to the Kurdistan Region Security Council, the town was “completely cleared” of IS fighters later Tuesday.

Romeo Hekari, who heads a Christian unit fighting IS under peshmerga command, also said Tal Asquf was back under full control.

The United States announced last month that it was deploying additional forces to Iraq, bringing the official total to more than 4,000.

– Boots on the ground –

The coalition is carrying out daily air strikes against IS, and while most American forces on the ground in Iraq play advisory and support roles, Washington has also deployed special forces to carry out raids against IS, and US Marines to provide artillery support.

Two US military personnel had already been killed by the jihadists in Iraq: an American Marine by rocket fire in March and a special forces soldier who died of wounds received during a raid last October.

Obama repeatedly pledged that there would be no “boots on the ground” to combat IS, but the administration has since sought to define the term as meaning something other than American forces being on the ground and in combat.

“They are wearing boots, and they are on the ground, but that… doesn’t mean that they are in large-scale ground combat,” State Department spokesman John Kirby recently told journalists.

As Kurdish forces and the jihadists clashed on Tuesday, the United Nations expressed concern that “as many as 30,000 newly displaced individuals” could arrive in Makhmur southeast of Mosul, fleeing fighting in the area.

In Baghdad, tens of thousands of pilgrims converged on a shrine to mourn the death of Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 imams revered in Shiite Islam, who was killed in 799 AD.

A shrine official said that “millions” had taken part in commemorations in recent days, despite IS-claimed bombings targeting the pilgrims that have killed at least 37 people in the past week.