Category Archives: Human Rights Violations United Nations

Towns of Refugees in America/Jordan and the Dollars

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This Syrian conflict was in the hands of several governments to solve before this historic humanitarian crisis. Now, the Obama administration has turned the destiny of a country and millions over to Russia and Iran. There is no relief or end in sight. There is a truce/cease fire underway but no combatant from any side is moving while the humanitarian wake of destruction and refugee crisis is global. Not a single solution has been drafted by all world leaders to stop the death and hostilities.

Related reading: The Refugee Haven South of Seattle

Nearly 40% of Tukwila’s population is foreign-born. Go here for a sample U.S. town photo essay.

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John Kerry and USAID to Syria:

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry announces nearly $439 million in new U.S. Government (USG) humanitarian funding for Syria and neighboring countries.

United Nations (UN) convoys reach all 18 UN-designated besieged areas in Syria with emergency relief assistance.

Syrian Democratic Forces offensive to retake Menbij town in Aleppo Governorate from ISIL displaces an estimated 47,000 people.

Key Developments

On July 12, Secretary Kerry announced nearly $439 million in new humanitarian funding for Syria and neighboring countries, bringing total USG humanitarian assistance to date to nearly $5.6 billion. The announcement included nearly $255.6 million from State/PRM and $77.6 million from USAID/FFP to support humanitarian efforts in Syria and neighboring countries, as well as more than $105.3 million from USAID/OFDA for humanitarian assistance activities inside Syria.

Numbers At A Glance

13.5 million

People in Need of Humanitarian Assistance in Syria

6.5 million

IDPs in Syria

4 million

People Reached per Month by USG Assistance in Syria

4.8 million

Syrian Refugees in Neighboring Countries

2.7 million

Syrian Refugees in Turkey

1 million

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

657,433

Syrian Refugees in Jordan

249,395

Syrian Refugees in Iraq

Humanitarian Funding

To Syria Humanitarian Response
FY 2012 – FY 2015

USAID/OFDA $976,897,915
USAID/FFP $1,860,224,887
State/PRM $2,731,442,290
TOTAL $5,568,565,092

Advocacy from the International Syria Support Group’s (ISSG) Humanitarian Assistance Task Force has helped the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) access a number of areas unreached by humanitarian agencies in years, including the besieged towns of Darayya and Douma in Rif Damascus Governorate.

As of July 5, UN interagency convoys and humanitarian airdrops had delivered emergency assistance, including emergency food rations and monthly food parcels, nutrition supplements, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) items, health and medical supplies, and other relief commodities, to more than 941,800 people in hard-to-reach, besieged, and other priority cross-line locations throughout Syria.

USAID/FFP partner the UN World Food Program (WFP) conducted 65 high-altitude humanitarian airdrops to the besieged city of Dayr az Zawr between April 10 and July 7, delivering more than 1,157 metric tons (MT) of food assistance and nearly 37 MT of nutrition supplements for approximately 110,000 people. On July 8, WFP initiated airlifts from Damascus to the city of Qamishli in Al Hasakah Governorate, marking the first of 25 planned rotations to deliver emergency food commodities to populations in the city.

INSECURITY AND POPULATION DISPLACEMENT

Northern Syria

Persistent armed conflict, compounded by Syrian Arab Republic Government (SARG) and Government of the Russian Federation (GoRF) aerial attacks, continues to negatively affect millions of Syrians, particularly in Aleppo Governorate. Despite the SARG announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire on July 6 for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, SARG forces advanced on the strategically located Mallah Farms in Aleppo on July 7. The SARG also increased airstrikes and shelling on Castello road—the primary supply route into opposition-held eastern Aleppo city—and the adjacent Aleppo towns of Anadan, Haritan, Kafr Hamra and Khan al-Assal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). SARG forces had nearly encircled eastern Aleppo city as of July 8, effectively entrapping more than 300,000 civilians.

Military advances by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and increased aerial bombardment on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held town of Menbij in Aleppo had prompted the displacement of at least 47,000 civilians from the city and surrounding villages as of July 8, according to OCHA. An estimated 65,000 others remain in the town, which was nearly encircled by the SDF as of early July. The majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have fled toward northern towns in Menbij sub-district, Abu Qalqal sub-district to the south of Menbij, the Jarablous border crossing with Turkey, and to opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo. OCHA estimates that an additional 216,000 people could be at risk of displacement in Menbij District if SDF make additional territorial gains. Relief organizations have expressed concern regarding their ability to provide emergency humanitarian services to the affected population due to the limited reach of the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in ISIL-controlled areas in Menbij and other areas of Aleppo.

On May 27, ISIL initiated a rapid offensive in northern Aleppo’s Azaz corridor, capturing the strategic towns of Jibreen and Kafr Kalbein and causing significant displacement of civilian populations. Although armed opposition groups had recaptured Kafr Kalbein and Jibreen from ISIL forces as of June 8, the violence had prompted approximately 16,150 people to flee within and from Azaz sub-district and 6,000 people to flee to Aleppo’s Afrin District as of early June. The UN estimates that 306,000 people reside in the Azaz corridor, including at least 163,000 IDPs.

While the conflict in Azaz forced humanitarian organizations to limit staff movement and temporarily halt some emergency response activities in the area, WFP successfully distributed pre-positioned food rations for more than 30,000 IDPs, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided health services in IDP transit areas.

On June 12, SARG–GoRF airstrikes hit a local market and the only remaining bakery in the city of Idlib, Idlib Governorate, killing at least 20 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Between May 30 and June 9, an escalation of SARG–GoRF airstrikes in and near the city of Idlib displaced more than 15,000 people to neighboring towns and villages, OCHA reported. The increase in airstrikes around the city of approximately 250,000 civilians resulted in the temporary suspension of education activities and the nationwide routine immunization campaign, as well as the closure of local markets in Idlib. Humanitarian organizations operating in the Idlib sub-districts of Bennish, Idlib, and Maar Tamsrin provided new arrivals with ready-to-eat food rations, safe drinking water, and other emergency relief items, according to OCHA.

As of mid-June, SARG military operations in the southern countryside of Ar Raqqa Governorate had displaced an estimated 9,000 people from several villages south of Ath-Thawrah town to Western Salhabyeih and Kderian towns in the eastern countryside of Ar Raqqa, according to the UN.

Southern and Western Syria

On July 3, a barrage of bombs hit the Khan Eshieh Palestinian refugee camp in Rif Damascus, destroying a childfriendly space that provided education, psychosocial support, recreation, and hygiene awareness activities for up to 1,000 children in the camp, according to the UN. The airstrikes also killed three people and wounded five others in the area, according to international media. USG partners UNICEF and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provide humanitarian assistance to the camp’s residents, including 9,000 Palestinian refugees, issued a press statement condemning the escalation of violence and called on the parties to the conflict to protect the lives of Palestinian refugees and all civilians. The ongoing insecurity has severely constrained humanitarian access to Khan Eshieh since 2013.

The UN reports that clashes between the ISIL-affiliated Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade and opposition groups had displaced up to 12,000 people in western Dar’a Governorate between February and early June. Ash Shajara District in Yarmouk Valley is the most-affected district in Dar’a, where relief agencies continue to provide humanitarian assistance despite insecurity and related access challenges.

SARG forces have continued to bombard the besieged town of Darayya in Rif Damascus with aerial attacks and ground assaults since the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the town on June 9. From June 8 to 16, SARG forces dropped an estimated 300 barrel bombs on the town, according to local media.

On May 23, ISIL carried out a series of coordinated attacks in Latakia and Tartus governorates, killing between 80 and 150 people and wounding at least 100 others, according to international media reports. The SARG controls the majority of Latakia and Tartus, which host a large Alawite population, as well as Russian military bases. Nearly 378,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance and approximately 23,700 people live in collective centers in Latakia, according to the UN’s 2016 Syria Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO). In Tartus, the HNO identified more than 258,500 people in need of humanitarian assistance. Relief organizations maintain sufficient resources to respond to these caseloads in both governorates.

HUMANITARIAN ACCESS

The total population living in both UN-designated hard-to-reach and besieged locations in Syria rose to nearly 5.5 million people as of June 23—an increase of approximately 900,000 people since January 2016. The UN added the neighborhood of Al Wa’er in the city of Homs, Homs Governorate, to the list of besieged areas on May 27, increasing the number of people living under siege from 408,200 people to an estimated 592,700 people. In late June, the UN revised the number of people living under siege from 592,700 people in 19 locations to 590,200 people in 18 locations due to a re-evaluation of population estimates in Rif Damascus’ Kafr Batna sub-district and the removal of the Rif Damascus town of Zabadin from the list of besieged areas. The UN also revised the total number of people living in hard-to-reach areas, including besieged locations, from fewer than 4.1 million people to nearly 4.9 million people due to the designation of Aleppo’s Kobane town and new locations in northern Ar Raqqa and northern and central Al Hasakah governorates as hard-to-reach, as well as re-evaluations of population estimates in other locations.

On June 9, the UN and SARC delivered emergency food aid to the besieged town of Darayya for the first time since the town came under SARG siege in 2012. The nine-truck interagency convoy delivered food and wheat flour for approximately 2,400 people, roughly half the estimated population, as well as other emergency relief supplies for 4,000 people, according to the UN.

On June 10, a UN interagency convoy delivered emergency food, wheat flour, and nutrition supplies to approximately 24,000 people in the besieged city of Douma in Rif Damascus’ Eastern Ghouta region for the first time since May 2014. The convoy also delivered health, hygiene, and other emergency relief items for approximately 40,000 people.

On June 23 and 27, the UN completed two convoys to the hard-to-reach town of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, delivering nutrition, health, and hygiene items, as well as other humanitarian supplies, for approximately 22,500 people. In addition, a 30-truck interagency convoy delivered food and nutrition items for 50,000 people in Afrin District on June 16.

With recent interagency convoys to Darayya and Douma, at least one UN interagency convoy had reached all 18 besieged locations between February and June, with some locations reached multiple times. Yarmouk neighborhood in Damascus is the only besieged location that UN interagency convoys have not reached directly; however, UNRWA has assisted 19,000 people in Yarmouk indirectly through 30 convoys carrying emergency relief items to the nearby neighborhoods of Babilla, Beit Sahm, and Yalda since January 2016; however, the last such convoy occurred on May 25.

Persistent advocacy from the ISSG’s Humanitarian Assistance Task Force since February has enabled the UN, in collaboration with the SARC and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to conduct 94 humanitarian assistance convoys and 65 airdrops in Syria, delivering relief assistance to an estimated 941,825 people as of July 5. Accessed populations include 354,150 people in 18 besieged areas, 537,675 people in more than 14 hard-to-reach locations, and 50,000 people in priority cross-line areas. Although insufficient, the number of people reached in hard- to-reach and besieged locations to date in 2016 represents a significant increase as compared to 2015 when the UN delivered humanitarian aid to only 30,000 people in two besieged areas. The improvement can be attributed to increased cross-line deliveries by both UN agencies and NGOs, including USG partners.

The UN and greater international humanitarian community continue to request immediate access to provide life-saving assistance to approximately 62,000 people besieged in Idlib’s Al Fu’ah and Kafrayya towns and the Rif Damascus towns of Madaya and Al Zabadani to prevent a further deterioration of the food security situation in the four towns.

FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

Across Syria, WFP provides food to more than 4 million people every month through road transport, cross-line convoys, high-altitude airdrops, and cross-border food deliveries. Between April 10 and July 7, WFP conducted 65 high-altitude humanitarian airdrops to the besieged city of Dayr az Zawr, delivering more than 1,157 MT of food assistance, including nearly 37 MT of nutrition supplements, for approximately 110,000 people. To date, the assistance delivered via airdrops has provided every registered household with a complete monthly food parcel, sufficient to support a family of five for one month.

Active fighting in eastern Aleppo and Ar Raqqa and the closure of border crossings between Al Hasakah Governorate and Iraq and Turkey between January and mid-June have disrupted internal supply routes to Al Hasakah, contributing to a deteriorated food security and humanitarian situation in the governorate. On July 8, WFP airlifted 40 MT of emergency food commodities, including bulgur, pulses, salt, sugar, and vegetable oil, to the town of Qamishli in Al Hasakah Governorate. The delivery also included Plumpy’doz, a specialized nutrition product used to treat and prevent child malnutrition. WFP is prioritizing more than 75,000 people to receive food assistance, primarily displaced families living in shelters and unfinished buildings, as well as female-headed households. The UN estimates that 275,000 people in Al Hasakah are in need of humanitarian assistance but have been cut off from food and other basic supplies for more than six months.

On June 1, a seven-truck SARC convoy delivered limited food and nutrition supplements for 2,500 people in Al Wa’er, where vulnerable populations are in urgent need of emergency relief assistance, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Needs and Population Monitoring initiative. Al Wa’er had not received large-scale humanitarian assistance from the UN since March 2016 due to SARG denials of UN requests to deliver aid. The population lacks access to outside markets, and a general absence of basic supplies and food commodities has led to a deteriorated food security situation. Local health facilities lack medical supplies, two area hospitals are operating at limited capacity with intermittent access to electricity, and IOM reported a number of cases of malnutrition among children, as well as a high frequency of respiratory infections. SARG forces have severely restricted civilian movement and humanitarian access to Al Wa’er since 2013.

As of June, the national average price of a standard food basket had increased by 9 percent as compared to April, according to a WFP mobile vulnerability analysis and mapping survey, primarily due to the start of Ramadan and intensified conflict throughout the country. In May, intensified clashes and airstrikes severely disrupted supply routes to Aleppo, Al Hasakah, Hamah, and Idlib governorates, resulting in higher prices and a limited availability of many staple foods. The price of standard food baskets in Aleppo, Al Hasakah, and Idlib had increased by 13.8 percent, 32.6 percent, and 36 percent, respectively. Standard food baskets in Dayr az Zawr Governorate continue to register the highest prices at 112,384 Syrian pounds, or approximately $239.

In the besieged Rif Damascus towns of Arbin, Darayya, Madaya, Saqba, and Al Zabadani, as well as Dayr az Zawr, poor households lack adequate access to safe drinking water, and many local bakeries remain non-operational, according to WFP. At the governorate level, households from Aleppo, Hamah, and Rif Damascus exhibited the highest incidence of inadequate food consumption in March. In addition, the survey results indicate that food consumption frequency and dietary diversity is worse among households displaced within the past year.

Through cross-border activities from Turkey, members of the Food Security and Livelihood (FSL) Cluster—the coordinating body for humanitarian food security and livelihood activities, comprising UN agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders—reached more than 1 million people in northern Syria with emergency food assistance and 1 million people with bread and flour deliveries in May. Nearly 57,000 people in northern Syria also benefited from food vouchers, cash-for-work programs, and other livelihoods activities implemented by the FSL Cluster.

HEALTH

As of June 2016, Physicians for Human Rights had documented 365 attacks on nearly 260 health facilities in Syria, as well as the deaths of 738 medical workers since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. Of these attacks, SARG forces were responsible for at least 289, resulting in an estimated 667 medical personnel killed.

Since May 1, the UN and its partners have received increasing reports of attacks on health care facilities, including the destruction of a hospital in Tartus on May 23, as well as attacks on three medical facilities in eastern Aleppo city between June 8 and 14; two of the health facilities in eastern Aleppo collectively provide nearly 5,000 consultations per month. In addition, SARG–GoRF airstrikes on a Médecins Sans Frontières-supported hospital killed 15 people and wounded 20 others on June 13.

Members of the Health Cluster provided more than 5,800 people in Syria with medical referrals and more than 46,400 people with outreach consultations in May, according to OCHA. In addition, Health Cluster members supported nearly 26,900 minor and major surgeries and provided medical training to more than 640 doctors, nurses, and midwives in northern Syria.

With the support of local committees, the Health Cluster initiated repair operations in May for health facilities damaged or rendered inoperable during April, according to OCHA. Relief agencies rehabilitated the first floor of Al Quds hospital, allowing for the resumption of emergency healthcare services for civilians in eastern Aleppo city. Two other damaged health facilities in Aleppo also resumed medical activities.

WASH

With support from UNICEF, an international NGO completed an underground wastewater network in Jordan’s Za’atri refugee camp in mid-June. The completed project, which began in November 2015, provides all 80,000 camp residents with access to private toilets and septic tanks, reducing health hazards and improving WASH conditions in the camp. In addition, the NGO conducted hygiene promotion and community mobilization activities to raise hygiene awareness among community members.

The Bab Al-Nayrab water station in Aleppo, damaged by airstrikes on April 29, resumed water pumping operations in early May. As of May 22, the station was pumping water to an estimated 20,000 households in the western Aleppo city and some neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo city, according to the UN.

REFUGEE ASSISTANCE

Approximately 3.7 million Syrian children have been born since the conflict began in 2011, including more than 151,000 children born as refugees, according to a UNICEF report. The report estimates that the conflict is affecting 8.4 million children—more than 80 percent of all Syrian children—either within the country or as refugees. In addition to severe protection issues, UNICEF cites education as a primary concern for conflict-affected children, noting that more than 2.8 million Syrian children are not attending school.

Up to 250,000 children residing in besieged areas have inadequate access to education, food, health services, or safe drinking water, according to a recent report from Save the Children. The report notes that conditions have worsened in recent months and that children are dying due to a lack of food and medicine—which, in some cases, is stored in warehouses directly outside the besieged area. According to the report, more than 20 percent of aerial bombardments in 2015 occurred in areas now categorized by the UN as besieged and more barrel bombs are dropped in besieged areas than other locations. Save the Children has urged an immediate end to siege tactics by parties to the conflict and called for sustained humanitarian access, free movement of civilians, and medical evacuations. The NGO also called for the de-linking of access negotiations from cessation of hostilities negotiations.

In January and February, WoS Protection Sector members reached nearly 261,000 people, including nearly 90,000 people via cross-border operations from Turkey, with prevention, mitigation, response, and capacity building programs—such as case management services, frontline responder training, and psychosocial support. Gender-based violence interventions have reached 38,600 people, already exceeding the figure targeted in the 2016 HRP. The WoS Protection Sector aims to provide protection support to 7.2 million people within Syria in 2016.

REFUGEE ASSISTANCE

Iraq

In mid-June, Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government authorities reopened the Fishkhabour border crossing between Iraq and Syria’s Al Hasakah Governorate to cross-border humanitarian and commercial traffic and to individuals in need of medical assistance seeking to enter Iraq, according to USG partners.

Jordan

The number of Syrian refugees stranded on the Jordanian side of the Syria–Jordan border, in an area known as the berm, has tripling in recent months to more than 80,000 people, including an estimated 70,000 people at the Rukban border crossing point and at least 10,000 people at the Hadalat border crossing point, as of late June. The population at the berm includes large numbers of extremely vulnerable people—more than half are children.

Moreover, the security situation at the berm has deteriorated considerably. On June 21, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at a Jordanian military outpost near Rukban, resulting in the death of seven Jordanian military personnel. The attack prompted the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to declare the entire Jordan–Syria border a closed military zone and to close the border temporarily, hindering relief activities.

Lebanon

On June 27, suicide bombers attacked the predominantly Christian village of Al Qaa in Lebanon, near the Lebanon– Syria border, killing five people and wounding more than 12 others, according to international media reports. Al Qaa is also located near the Mashareeh Al-Qaa area, which hosts informal Syrian refugee settlements. Although anti-refugee rhetoric has escalated and local authorities have imposed curfews for refugees, USG sources report that relief agencies have not received any reports of violence against Syrian refugees.

OTHER HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

On March 15, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) announced an additional €445 million—nearly $500 million—in humanitarian assistance for individuals affected by conflict in Syria. The funding will support life-saving projects, including emergency food assistance and health care services, implemented by response organizations in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria. Since 2012, ECHO has contributed more than $2 billion toward response activities benefitting individuals affected by the conflict.

CONTEXT

Following the commencement of peaceful demonstrations against the SARG in March 2011, President Bashar alAsad pledged legislative reforms. However, reforms failed to materialize, and SARG forces loyal to President alAsad began responding to demonstrations with violence, leading armed opposition groups to retaliate.

At a November 2012 meeting in Doha, Qatar, Syrian opposition factions formed an umbrella organization—the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, also known as the Syrian Coalition (SC). The USG recognized the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people on December 11, 2012. On March 19, 2013, the SC established the Syrian Interim Government, which opposes the SARG and is based in decentralized locations throughout opposition-held areas of Syria.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted UNSC Resolution (UNSCR) 2139 on February 22, 2014, pressing the SARG and other armed actors to allow unfettered humanitarian access for relief aid workers in Syria. The resolution identified priority areas for emergency relief aid, and the UN is releasing monthly reports tracking progress on implementing the resolution’s objectives and access gains, as well as persistent access impediments.

On July 14, 2014, the UNSC unanimously adopted UNSCR 2165, authorizing UN cross-border and cross-line delivery of humanitarian aid to conflict-affected populations without SARG approval. The resolution permits the UN’s use of four border crossings from Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq—in addition to other crossings already in use by UN agencies—for delivery of humanitarian assistance into Syria. The resolution also establishes a monitoring mechanism under the authority of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and with the consent of the neighboring countries to ensure that deliveries across these border points contain only humanitarian items. In December 2015, the UNSC unanimously adopted UNSCR 2258, which renewed the mandate of UNSCR 2191 and will remain active until January 10, 2017.

UNRWA has registered approximately 560,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, with more than 80 percent living in and around Damascus. Intense fighting in and around Palestinian camps and neighborhoods has significantly affected Palestinian refugees in Syria. UNRWA estimates that approximately 60 percent of Palestinian refugees are displaced within Syria, with a further 110,000 Palestinian refugees are displaced to neighboring countries. Syria also hosts an estimated 24,000 Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers, primarily in the greater Damascus area, as well as more than 3,200 refugee persons of concern from other countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Stop Obama/Kerry from Giving More Money to Iran

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Rubio letter on Iran transaction by Daniel on Scribd

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), among other lawmakers, has petitioned the Obama administration to disclose the names of the U.S. and Iranian officials who played a role in the cash handoff.

“What U.S. official(s) escorted the pallets of cash to Iranian officials and what entity of the Iranian government received the funds and controlled the flight(s) that transported the cash to Iran?” Rubio asked in a Sept. 10 letter to the administration.

“Please provide a list of the Iranian officials present at the exchange of cash and include the Iranian government entities that employed them, including any past or current connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence,” Rubio wrote.

Lawmakers working to unearth further details about the exchange told the Free Beacon that it appears increasingly likely that the IRGC played a role in the cash exchange.

“For the Obama administration to argue that the IRGC was somehow not involved in the U.S. transfer of $1.7 billion—or more—in cash to Iran is totally unconvincing,” Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Free Beacon. “Given the IRGC’s extensive control of the Iranian economy, and its vast influence with Iran’s regime, it was most likely influential in the set-up and execution of the payment. Like other malicious actors, the IRGC is eager to get its hands on cash to fund its terrorist activities.”

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Congressional questions to Treasury begins. Treasury admits to what? Nothing….

treasury-response-to-rep-duffy-september-9-2016

Rubio said his new bill “would stop the Obama administration from making any further payments to Iran from the [Treasury Department’s] Judgment Fund until Iran returns the ransom money it received and pays the American victims of Iranian terrorism what they are owed.”

“President Obama may have attempted to appease our enemy with pallets of cash secretly delivered on an unmarked cargo plane, but Iran continues to cheat on the nuclear deal, harass our military, hold Americans hostage, and fund terrorism around the world,” Rubio added. “Iran should be held accountable, and the Obama administration’s misguided policies must be stopped.”

Rubio’s bill, called the No Ransom Payments Act, is co-sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn (R., Texas), Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.), John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), and Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.).

“Congress is taking a clear stand—demanding Iran return the more than $1 billion the Obama Administration wrongly gave them and putting a stop to any and all future money this administration, or any administration might want to give to state sponsors of terrorism like Iran,” Pompeo, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Free Beacon. “The American people know this is an unacceptable use of their taxpayer dollars and we wholeheartedly agree. It is unprecedented and dangerous for President Obama to be doling out millions to the Islamic Republic of Iran—in the dead of night, under wraps, and in cash. Kansans expect and demand better from their government.” More from FreeBeacon.

The Obama Admin Has Officially Forgiven Iran

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Iran, a known and proven state sponsor of terror has a history of stealing worldwide peace.

Below is the Congressional hearing of the money transfer transaction(s) to Iran, and the testimony reveals there are more coming and others not previously known.

The timeline of that day as noted by those with President GW Bush.

The Falling Man:

After 15 years, why aren’t we asking about Iran’s role in 9/11?

There is an extensive al-Qaeda network feeding global branches based in the Islamic Republic.

Fifteen years on from the 11 September 2001 terror attacks on the US, al-Qaeda is better-positioned than ever before. Its leadership held, and it has rebuilt a presence in Afghanistan. More importantly, al-Qaeda has built powerful regional branches in India, North Africa, Somalia, Yemen and Syria.

Rebranding itself away from the savagery of Iraq, al-Qaeda has sought to embed itself in local populations by gaining popular legitimacy to shield itself from retribution if, or when, it launches terrorist strikes in the West. This is proceeding apace, above all because of a failure to assist the mainstream opposition in Syria, sections of which were forced into interdependency with al-Qaeda to resist the strategy of massacre and expulsion conducted by the Assad regime.

The 9/11 massacre had not come from nowhere. In February 1998, Osama bin Laden, then-leader of al-Qaeda, plus Ayman al-Zawahiri and three others signed a document that said “kill the Americans and their allies – civilians and military – is an individual duty for every Muslim”.

Al-Qaeda attempted to blow up US troops in Yemen in December 1992. Three months later, al-Qaeda attacked New York’s World Trade Center, murdering six people. In November 1995, a car bomb in Riyadh targeted the American training mission for the Saudi National Guard, killing six people. In June 1996, Iran blew up the US military living quarters at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, murdering 19 people.

Al-Qaeda played “some role, as yet unknown” in the attack, according to the 9/11 Commission. The US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were levelled in August 1998, slaughtering 224 people and wounding 5,000, mostly Africans. And in October 2000, a skiff containing two suicide bombers struck an American Naval vessel, the USS Cole, in the port of Aden, killing seventeen sailors.

The conspiracy theories about 9/11 are now a feature of life today. Often proponents will hide behind the façade of “asking questions”. Instead of queries about jet fuel melting steel beams and nano-thermite, however, this inquisitiveness would be much better directed at the actual unanswered questions surrounding 9/11, which centre on the role of Iran.

In 1992, in Sudan, al-Qaeda and Iran came to an agreement to collaborate against the West “even if only training”, the 9/11 Commission records. Al-Qaeda members went to the Bekaa valley to be trained by Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese proxy. Hezbollah’s military leader at that time, Imad Mughniyeh, personally met Bin Laden in Sudan to work out the details of this arrangement.

There is no doubt that training provided by Iran made the 1998 East African Embassy bombings possible, and after the bombing numerous al-Qaeda operatives fled unhindered through Iran to Afghanistan. The 9/11 Commission documented that over-half of the death pilots “travelled into or out of Iran” and many were tracked into Lebanon.

Iran and Hezbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of cooperation with Sunni terrorists associated with al-Qaeda

Senior Hezbollah operatives were certainly tracking some of the hijackers, in at least one case travelling on the same plane. The operational planner of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, lived in Iran for long stretches of the 1990s. To this day there is an extensive al-Qaeda network that feeds the global branches based in Iran, sheltered from US counter-terrorism efforts.

“Iran and Hezbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of cooperation with Sunni terrorists associated with al-Qaeda,” the 9/11 Commission noted. But the connections were there, and “this topic requires further investigation”. Sadly, such investigation has never occurred. Instead, the Islamic Republic has been brought into the fold, with billions of dollars released to it through the nuclear deal and a curious belief that Tehran can, or will, help stabilise the Middle East has taken hold.

Bin Laden had intended to drive the US out of the region with the 9/11 attack. “Hit them and they will run,” he told his followers. This was a theme of his 1996 fatwa first declaring war on America. In this, he miscalculated.

The Taliban regime had sheltered Jihadi-Salafists from all over the Arab world. Some left over from the fight against the Soviet occupation; others on the run from the security services of their native lands or just wanting to live in a land of “pure Islam”. Though the training and planning for global terrorism occurred in Afghanistan, most of al-Qaeda’s resources were directed more locally, toward irregular wars, notably in Algeria, Bosnia, and Chechnya. Al-Qaeda trained up to 20,000 jihadist insurgents before 9/11. This sanctuary was lost in the aftermath of 9/11, something lamented by jihadi strategist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri).

Bin Laden had worked with Ahmad al-Khalayleh (Abu Musab al-Zarqawi), the Jordanian founder of what we now know as the Islamic State (Isis), to carve out a jihadi statelet in northern Iraq in the late 1990s led by a group called Ansar al-Islam.

Mustafa Badreddine funeral
Rice is thrown as Hezbollah members carry the coffin of top their commander Mustafa Badreddine on 13 May 2016Reuters/Aziz Taher

After the Taliban’s fall, al-Khalayleh moved into this area and into Baghdad in early 2002. After making preparations through Syria for the influx of foreign fighters, al-Khalayleh moved to the Ansar-held territory and waited for the US.led Coalition.

IS’s predecessor planned – with al-Qaeda’s blessing – to expel the Coalition forces and set up an Islamic state in Iraq that could then spread across the region, restoring the caliphate. But IS’s methods brought it into frequent conflict with al-Qaeda, and by 2008 IS had been strategically defeated after provoking a backlash among Sunnis in Iraq. The distinctions between IS and al-Qaeda hardened thereafter until their formal split in February 2014.

IS, post-2008, changed some tactical aspects so as to bring the tribes back on-board but remained remarkably consistent in its approach, including the celebration of violence, premised on the idea of building an Islamic state as quickly as possible, which would force the population into collaboration with it and ultimately acceptance over time. In contrast, al-Qaeda placed ever-more emphasis on building popular support that would culminate in a caliphate when it had a critical mass.

The discrediting of IS’s predecessor, operating under al-Qaeda’s banner, damaged al-Qaeda so much that Bin Laden considered changing the organization’s name. Events since then, above all allowing the Syria war to protract, allowed al-Qaeda to rebrand as “pragmatic”, using IS as a foil, and recover.

Al-Qaeda, vanguard-style, took on the local concerns, worked to solve them, and in turn claimed the protection of the local population. Al-Qaeda has tangled itself so deeply into local dynamics, in Yemen and Syria most notably, that it would require a substantial local effort to root them out.

Unfortunately, the Western approach is making the problem worse. A good example came on Thursday night (8 September 2016) when the US launched air strikes against some leaders of al-Qaeda in Syria, now calling itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS), which ostensibly disaffiliated from al-Qaeda in July in order to further this process of entanglement.

JFS claims it has no external ambitions and is working to break the siege of 300,000 people in the rebel-held areas of Aleppo city, yet it is attacked. Meanwhile, the US has done nothing about the thousands of Iranian-controlled Shia jihadists, tied into Iran’s global terrorist network, who are the leading element in imposing the siege, and conducted these strikes likely in furtherance of a deal with Russia, which also helped impose the siege. JFS thus claimed that it is serving the Syrian people, while the US opposes the revolution and supports the pro-regime coalition.

“It is a highly unfortunate reality that many Syrians living in opposition areas of Syria perceive JFS as a more determined and effective protector of their lives and interests than the United States and its Western allies,” wrote Charles Lister. The West has been unwilling to do anything to complicate the ability of the Bashar al-Assad regime to commit mass-murder for fear of antagonizing the Iranians and collapsing a “legacy-setting nuclear accord“. While that remains the case, al-Qaeda will continue to gain power and acceptance as a necessary-evil in Syria, and the ramifications of Syria are generational and global.

It is true that there is far too much optimism in current assessments of IS’s impending doom. The group will outlast the loss of its cities, and the misguided way the Coalition has conducted the war will provide conditions for a potential revival. Still, it is al-Qaeda that has the long-term advantage.

IS claimed sole legitimacy to rule, gained visibility and therefore followers. But as strategists like Setmariam understood, this made them visible to their enemies too, a toll that is beginning to tell, especially abroad. In Syria, formal al-Qaeda branches were never the organisation’s only lever and al-Qaeda was much more interested in shaping the environment than ruling it. In essence, al-Qaeda will give up the name and the public credit for the sake of the thing – whether that’s the popular understanding of the religion or the foundations of an Islamic emirate.

“IS wants the world to believe that it is everywhere, and … al-Qaeda wants the world to believe that it is nowhere.” That quip from Daveed Gartenstein-Ross neatly summarizes the trajectory of the two organisations. What can’t be seen is harder to stop – al-Qaeda’s counting on it.

Kyle W. Orton is associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society and a Middle East analyst and commentator.

15 Kiloton Nuclear Detonation, North Korea

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North Korea Claims Nuke Test Proves It Can Miniaturize Warheads

VOA: North Korea has claimed the past two tests involved hydrogen bombs, which are much more powerful than atomic bombs. Analysts, however, said the January blast was not big enough to be a full thermonuclear explosion or “H-bomb.”

South Korea’s meteorological agency said Friday’s test produced a 10-kiloton blast, nearly twice the power of the country’s nuclear test in January but slightly less than the Hiroshima bombing, which was measured about 15 kilotons.

N.Korea conducts fifth and largest nuclear test, drawing broad condemnation

 

AP/MSN: North Korea conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates, and drew condemnation from the United States as well as China, Pyongyang’s main ally.

Diplomats said the United Nations Security Council would discuss the test at a closed-door meeting on Friday, at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Under 32-year-old dictator Kim Jong Un, North Korea has accelerated the development of its nuclear and missile programmes, despite U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March and have further isolated the impoverished country.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in Laos after a summit of Asian leaders, said Kim was showing “maniacal recklessness” in completely ignoring the world’s call to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama, aboard Air Force One on his way home from Laos, said the test would be met with “serious consequences”, and held talks with Park and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the White House said.

China said it was resolutely opposed to the test and urged Pyongyang to stop taking any actions that would worsen the situation. It said it would lodge a protest with the North Korean embassy in Beijing.

There were further robust condemnations from Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain.

North Korea, which labels the South and the United States as its main enemies, said its “scientists and technicians carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead,” according to its official KCNA news agency.

It said the test proved North Korea was capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a medium-range ballistic missile, which it last tested on Monday when Obama and other world leaders were gathered in China for a G20 summit.

Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.

Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the U.S. presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by whoever wins.

“Sanctions have already been imposed on almost everything possible, so the policy is at an impasse,” said Tadashi Kimiya, a University of Tokyo professor specialising in Korean issues.

“In reality, the means by which the United States, South Korea and Japan can put pressure on North Korea have reached their limits,” he said.

UNPRECEDENTED RATE

North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile is especially worrisome for its neighbours South Korea and Japan.

“The standardisation of the nuclear warhead will enable the DPRK to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power,” KCNA said, referring to the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

It was not clear whether Pyongyang had notified Beijing or Moscow of its planned nuclear test. Senior officials from Pyongyang were in both capitals this week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information to provide when asked if China had advance warning of the test, and would not be drawn on whether China would support tougher sanctions against its neighbour.

Although Beijing has criticised North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, it has repeatedly expressed anger since the United States and South Korea decided in July to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in the South.

China calls THAAD a threat to its own security and will do nothing to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table on its nuclear programme.

Preliminary data collected by the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors nuclear tests around the world, indicates the magnitude – around 5 – of the seismic event detected in North Korea on Friday was greater than a previous one in January.

Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested this was North Korea’s most powerful nuclear test so far.

He said the seismic magnitude and surface level indicated a blast with a 20- to 30-kilotonne yield. Such a yield would make this test larger than the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two.

“That’s the largest DPRK test to date, 20-30kt, at least. Not a happy day,” Lewis told Reuters.

South Korea’s military put the force of the blast at 10 kilotonnes, which would still be the North’s most powerful nuclear blast to date.

“The important thing is, that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience. They aren’t a backwards state any more,” Lewis said.

Executive Orders, Statutes, Rules and Regulations Relating to North Korea

The North Korea sanctions program represents the implementation of multiple legal authorities.  Some of these authorities are in the form of executive orders issued by the President.  Other authorities are public laws (statutes) passed by The Congress.  These authorities are further codified by OFAC in its regulations which are published the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  Modifications to these regulations are posted in the Federal Register.  In addition to all of these authorites, OFAC may also implement United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) with regard to the North Korea.
Proclamations

  • Proclamation 8271 – Termination of the Exercise of Authorities Under the Trading With the Enemy Act With Respect to North Korea (Effective Date – June 27, 2008)

Executive Orders

  • 13722 – Blocking Property of the Government of North Korea and the Workers’ Party of Korea, and Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect to North Korea (Effective date – March 16, 2016)
  • 13687 – Imposing Additional Sanctions with Respect to North Korea (Effective date – January 2, 2015)
  • 13570 – Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect To North Korea (Effective date – April 18, 2011)
  • 13551 – Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to North Korea (Effective date – August 30, 2010)
  • 13466 – Continuing Certain Restrictions With Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals (June 26, 2008)

Determinations

Statutes

Aleppo, #Syria: Rather Die in Dignity in Their Homes

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If you think you understand the civil war in Syria and the plight of the refugees, you don’t. Not even world leaders understand it all either and furthermore Syria does affect America and the West. Is there a solution? No.

Stripes/AP: GENEVA — American officials played down hopes Friday of an imminent cease-fire agreement for Syria as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a fourth set of negotiations with his Russian counterpart in the past two weeks. Officials had suggested Kerry wouldn’t travel to Geneva unless a deal was clearly at hand.

The talks between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov aim to produce a nationwide cease-fire in Syria after more than five years of warfare and as many as 500,000 deaths.

A deal hinges on an unlikely U.S.-Russian military partnership that would come into force if Moscow can pressure its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, to halt offensive operations. Washington would have to persuade the anti-Assad rebels it supports to end any coordination with al-Qaida and other extremist groups.

Neither side has succeeded in doing its part despite months of diplomacy. And the task may be getting even more difficult as fighting rages around the divided city of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous and the new focus of the conflict.

Assad’s government appeared to tighten its siege of the former Syrian commercial hub on Thursday, following several gains over the weekend. Forty days of fighting in Aleppo has killed nearly 700 civilians, including 160 children, according to a Syrian  human rights group. Volunteer first-responders said they pulled the bodies of nine people, including four children, from the rubble following air raids on a rebel-held area, after reports of helicopters dropping crude barrel bombs over the area on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meet in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, to discuss the crisis in Syria. American officials played down hopes Friday of an imminent cease-fire agreement for Syria.
Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photos via AP

The U.S. officials accompanying Kerry to Geneva said they couldn’t guarantee an agreement Friday and more talks may be needed. Aleppo will be a large part of the day’s discussions, they said, along with the technical details of a cease-fire, defining everything from how far back from demilitarized areas combatants would have to stay to the types of weapons they would need to withdraw from front lines. The officials, who briefed reporters traveling on Kerry’s plane, were not authorized to discuss the developments publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kerry and Lavrov held several sessions of talks Friday in Geneva. It was unclear how long the talks would go on. A State Department official said late in the day that the two sides were advancing proposals toward a cease-fire and unimpeded humanitarian access for Syrians most in need.

Since Aug. 26, Kerry and Lavrov have now met twice each in Geneva and in China on the sidelines of a global economic summit. They’ve held a flurry of phone calls in recent days. Both governments had said they were close to a package that would go beyond several previous truces between the Syrian government and armed opposition — all of which failed to hold. For Kerry, securing a sustainable peace in Syria has become his biggest objective as America’s top diplomat since last summer’s Iran nuclear deal.

In addition to those killed, Syria’s conflict has chased millions of people from their homes, contributing to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II. Amid the chaos of fighting between Syria’s government and rebels, the Islamic State group has emerged as a global terror threat.

In part from Rand:

One-third of the population has fled the country or has

been displaced internally. By the end of 2014, more than half

of the population could be living as refugees—a situation conducive

to future terrorism.

Civil wars are devastating. Both sides destroy infrastructure

and wage economic warfare, causing devastation and dislocation.

Beyond the casualties of war, human capital is destroyed

by the lack of health services and education as investment

shifts to weapons. Sectarian conflicts, which Syria’s civil war

has become, further shred the country’s social fabric. They last

a long time.

Syria’s civil war is grinding down the country’s national

institutions while creating the conditions for continuing local

conflict. Brutal government counterinsurgent tactics, the pervasive

lawlessness that comes with the breakdown of authority,

and the imposition of harsh Islamic rule in some rebel zones are

displacing a large portion of the population. It is not yet clear

which side in the contest will be able to offer protection to those

who wish to escape Islamist tyranny but can no longer survive

in sectarian enclaves loyal to the regime. For many Syrians,

flight abroad with slender prospect of return is the only option,

but these same Syrian refugees will add to existing sectarian

tensions in neighboring countries and will become the recruiting

grounds for new cohorts of extremists and the targets of

their enemies, furnishing new generations of fighters and criminals

for employment in Syria and elsewhere. We will be dealing

with the effluent of Syria’s conflict for years to come.